The following is a list of recurring themes in science fiction.

Overarching themes[edit]

• Alien contact
• Alterations of the human body and mind
• The artificial
• Artificial intelligence
  • Machine rule/Cybernetic revolt/AI takeover
• Collective consciousness/Culture
• Cosmology
• Creation of the Universe
• Destiny of humanity
• End of the Universe
• Evolution
• Existentialism (individual and collective)
• End of humanity
• The future
  • Futurology
  • Former imaginations of the future
• Global catastrophic risk
  • Apocalypses or worldwide disasters and new societies that develop after the event
• History
  • Alternate history
  • Historical cycles: history repeating itself (either on long or short scales)
  • Scientific prediction of the future (e.g. psychohistory)
  • Secret history
• Human fears
• Human nature & human psychology
• Identity
• Isolation & alienation
• Language
  • Alien languages (e.g. Klingon, Huttese)
  • All humans speaking one language
  • Current human languages evolving/splitting
  • The Sapir–Whorf Hypothesis being strongly true (e.g. Babel 17, The Languages of Pao)
  • Universal translators (e.g. Babel fish)
• Military/conflicts
  • Cyberwarfare
  • Space warfare
  • Weapons in science fiction
• The nature of reality
  • Determinism
  • Omega Point
  • Interpretations of quantum mechanics
  • Parallel worlds or universes
  • Solipsism & Solipsism syndrome
  • Time
• The nature of humanity
• Outer space
• Quantum suicide and immortality
• Philosophies and philosophical ideas
• Political ideas & Governance
• Religious ideas
• Sex and sexuality
  • LGBT themes
  • Gender
  • Reproduction and pregnancy
• Simulated reality & consciousness
• Sociology and sociobiology
• Technological singularity
• Themes of fantasy fiction

Beings[edit]

• Archailect
• Artificial intelligences
  • Androids and Gynoid
  • Artificial life
  • Biological robot
  • Cyborgs
  • Robots and humanoid robots
  • Replicants
  • Simulated consciousness
• Beings of pure mentality
• Noosphere—the "sphere of human thought"
• Characters
  • The Absent-minded professor
  • The Detective
  • The Golem
  • The Ignorant Friend
  • Redshirt
  • The Robot Clone
  • The Robot Servant
  • The Scientist
    • The Mad Scientist
    • The Amoral Scientist
    • The Heroic Scientist
  • The Wedge
• Clones
• Dinosaurs
• Extraterrestrial life
  • Hypothetical types of biochemistry
  • Alien invasion
  • Astrobiology
  • God-like aliens
    • Principles of non-interference (e.g. Prime Directive)
    • Message from space
• Living planets (both sentient and non-sentient)
• Hive minds
• Infomorphs—memories, characters, and consciences of persons being uploaded to a computer or storage media
• Mutants
• Shapeshifters
• Superhumans
• Superorganisms
• Symbionts
• UFOs
• Uplifting—using technology to "raise" non-human animals to human evolutionary levels
  • Ancient astronaut hypothesis
  • Progressor

Body and mind alterations[edit]

• Biohacking/Amateur biotechnicians
• Artificial organs
• Additional or improved senses^{[page needed]}
  • Remote sensing
• Bio-implants
  • Bionics
  • Cybernetics
• Brain transplant
• Cloning
• Exocortex
• Genetic engineering
  • Super race
• Intelligence amplification
• Invisibility
• Life extension, Biological immortality, Universal immortalism and immortality
  • Cryonics
  • Digital immortality
  • Mind uploading
  • Organ transplantation
  • Organlegging
• Prosthetics
• Memory
  • Memory erasure/editing
  • Memory sharing^{[page needed]}
    • Group mind
  • Mind control
  • Mind swap
  • Mind uploading
• Mind interfacing
  • Two or more minds coexisting in a body
    • Human and alien coexisting in a body (see Tales from the Planet Earth)
  • Neural implants to directly interface with machinery
• Psi powers and psychic phenomena
  • Clairvoyance
  • Precognition
  • Retrocognition
  • Telepathy
  • Telekinesis
• Paradise engineering
• Psychedelia
• Resizing (size-changing, miniaturization, magnification, shrinking, and enlargement)
• Shapeshifting
• Teleportation
• Transhumanism & Posthumanism
• X-ray vision

Habitats[edit]

• Artificial worlds
• Alien Zoo—a zoo where humans are kept as exhibits
• Arcologies—enormous habitats (hyperstructures) of extremely high human population density
• Cyberspace—the new, virtual territory of societal interaction
• Domed city
• Endemic
• Floating city
• Future of the Earth
  • Climate change—science fiction dealing with effects of anthropogenic climate change and global warming at the end of the Holocene era
• Megacity
• Seasteading & ocean colonization
  • Pirate utopia
• Reality Television
• Space colonization
  • Colonization of the Moon
  • Pantropy
  • Other planets
    • Desert planet
      • Mars
  • Terraformed planets
• Space stations and habitats
• Underground city
• Walking City

Political themes[edit]

• Adhocracy
• Anarchism
• Anarcho-capitalism
• Apprenticeship
• Assassination
• Capitalism
  • Evil corporation
  • Megacorporation
  • Neo-feudalism
  • Privatisation
• Cognitive liberty
• Communism
• Decentralization
  • P2P system
• Dystopias and utopias
  • Environmental pollution
  • Overpopulation
  • Technological utopianism
  • Totalitarianism
• Ecology
• Environmentalism
• Economics
• Economic inequality
• Eugenics
• Fascism
• Galactic empires
• Legal personality
• Libertarianism
• Limited-franchise republic
• Mass surveillance
• Militarism
• Mind reading and mind control
• National security state
• Nepotism
• Pacifism
• Plutocracy
• Proportional representation
• Post-scarcity economy
• Racism
• Regulation of technology^{[page needed]}
  • Regulation of nanotechnology
• Revolution
• Slavery
• Socialism
  • Nanosocialism
• Technoethics
  • Bioethics
• Technophobia
• Techno-progressivism
• Terrorism
  • Bio-terrorism
  • Eco-terrorism
• Theocracy
• Totalitarianism vs. Libertarianism
• Treason
• Wealth inequality/Class conflict/Class alienation
• World government
• Zero population growth

Technologies[edit]

• Artificial gravity
• Artificial intelligence
• Asteroid mining
• Astronomical engineering
• Brain–computer interface
• Cloaking device
• Emerging technologies
• Holography
• Resurrection
• Robots
• Self-replicating machines
• Simulated reality
• Star lifting & stellar engineering
• Stasis device
• Total conversion as energy source
• Mecha
• Megascale engineering & planetary engineering
  • Megastructures
  • Dyson sphere
• Molecular manufacturing & Nanotechnology
  • Molecular assembler
• Alien technology
• Far advanced technology for the time
• Virtual reality, mixed reality, augmented reality
  • Infosphere
  • Metaverse
• Weapons in science fiction

Travel[edit]

• Colonization of other planets, moons, asteroids, etc.
  • Embryo space colonization
  • Generation ship
  • Interstellar ark
  • Uploaded astronaut
  • Terraforming
• Space exploration
  • Interstellar travel/Starships
    • Faster-than-light travel and communications
      • Hyperspace
      • Hyperdrive
      • Slipstream
      • Warp drives
      • Wormholes
      • Ansibles
    • Close to light speed
      • Bussard ramjets
      • Ursula K. Le Guin's NAFAL ships, and the Twin paradox
    • Much slower than light
      • Generation ship
      • Sleeper ship
  • Space stations
• Teleportation
  • Teletransporter
  • Portals
• Time travel
  • Alternate histories: time travel can be used as a plot device to explore parallel universes. While alternate history has its own category (see above), it often occurs in time travel stories as well.
  • Alternative future
  • Time loop
• Travel to the Earth's center

See also[edit]

• List of science fiction topics
• Outline of science fiction
• Protoscience

References[edit]