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An extraterrestrial or alien is a lifeform that did not originate on Earth. The word extraterrestrial means 'outside Earth'. Extraterrestrials are a common theme in modern science-fiction, and also appeared in much earlier works such as the second-century parody True History [1] by Lucian of Samosata.
Terraforming is well represented in contemporary literature, usually in the form of science fiction, as well as in popular culture. [1] [2] While many stories involving interstellar travel feature planets already suited to habitation by humans and supporting their own indigenous life, some authors prefer to address the unlikeliness of such a concept by instead detailing the means by which ...
Terraforming is a common concept in science fiction, ranging from television, movies and novels to video games. [83] A related concept from science fiction is xenoforming – a process in which aliens change the Earth or other planets to suit their own needs, already suggested in the classic The War of the Worlds (1898) of H.G. Wells. [84]
American science fiction author and editor Lester del Rey wrote, "Even the devoted aficionado or fan—has a hard time trying to explain what science fiction is," and the lack of a "full satisfactory definition" is because "there are no easily delineated limits to science fiction." [3] Another definition comes from The Literature Book by DK and ...
The concept of extraterrestrial life, and particularly extraterrestrial intelligence, has had a major cultural impact, especially extraterrestrials in fiction. Science fiction has communicated scientific ideas, imagined a range of possibilities, and influenced public interest in and perspectives on extraterrestrial life. One shared space is the ...
The late 19th century witnessed a new generation of writers, such as J.-H. Rosny aîné, utilizing science and pseudoscience for purely fictional purposes. [15] This marked a significant departure from their predecessors, who employed the conjectural element as a pretext, following in the footsteps of Savinian Cyrano de Bergerac's utopian, Jonathan Swift's satires, and Camille Flammarion's ...
The term itself, however, was coined by Jack Williamson in a science-fiction short story ("Collision Orbit") published in 1942 in Astounding Science Fiction, [6] [7] [4]: 235 [8] although the concept of terraforming in popular culture predates this work; for example, the idea of turning the Moon into a habitable environment with atmosphere was ...
"A science fiction story is a story built around human beings, with a human problem, and a human solution, which would not have happened at all without its scientific content." [13] Basil Davenport. 1955. "Science fiction is fiction based upon some imagined development of science, or upon the extrapolation of a tendency in society." [14] Edmund ...