science fiction

Murder is in the air. Everywhere I turn, I see images of a robot killing machine. Then I remind myself where I actually am: in a library lecture room on a college campus in East Texas. The air is a little musty with the smell of old books,…

Streaming services are known for having award-worthy series but also plenty of duds. Our guide to the best TV shows on Netflix is updated weekly to help you know which series you should move to the top of your queue. They aren’t all…

Lauren Goode: How many cameras do you have set up at home?Michael Calore: What? You mean like on the show Call Her Daddy? Like pointed at my couch.Lauren Goode: No, I meant cameras for security.Michael Calore: Like what's my safe…

When Palmer Luckey was hacking together virtual reality headsets at his startup Oculus VR in the mid-2010s, he would sometimes imagine a future in which US soldiers used the technology to sharpen their battlefield senses.That vision is now…

Finally, a release date was chosen: May 25, 1979—exactly two years to the day following the release of Star Wars. Ladd had come to believe that the date was a lucky one for the studio.“I remember I was in a horrible office in Times Square,…

So, inevitably, we talk a lot more, and meta-ly, about language, words, meaning—though Sloan doesn’t think it was inevitable that language would be the breakthrough AI technology. Could’ve been vision, he says; could’ve been something else.…

Philosopher Nick Bostrom is surprisingly cheerful for someone who has spent so much time worrying about ways that humanity might destroy itself. In photographs he often looks deadly serious, perhaps appropriately haunted by the existential…

1899, a science fiction series from Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, creators of the hit TV show Dark, premiered on Netflix in November 2022. TV producer Ruairi Carroll enjoyed the show’s mysterious characters and storyline. “Whatever way…

Social robot roommate Jibo initially caused a stir, but sadly didn't live long. Photograph: JiboNot that there haven’t been an array of other attempts. Jibo, a social robot roommate that used AI and endearing gestures to bond with its…

Chest-bursting aliens. Time-traveling DeLoreans. Dystopian futures. Galaxies far, far away. Science fiction is full of characters, set pieces, and scenarios that few other genres could ever get away with. Due to its often speculative…