Soft science fiction

Some readers might consider any deviation from the possible or probable (for example, including faster-than-light travel or paranormal powers) to be a mark of "softness."

Others might see an emphasis on character or the social implications of technological change (however possible or probable) as a departure from the science-engineering-technology issues that in their view ought to be the focus of hard SF.

The earliest known citation for the term is in "1975: The Year in Science Fiction" by Peter Nicholls, in Nebula Award Stories 11 (1976).

[7] In calling out specific examples from this period, McGuirk describes Ursula K. Le Guin's 1969 novel The Left Hand of Darkness as "a soft SF classic".

Karel Čapek's 1920 play R.U.R., which supplied the term robot (nearly replacing earlier terms such as automaton) and features a trope-defining climax in which artificial workers unite to overthrow human society, covers such issues as free will, a post-scarcity economy, robot rebellion, and post-apocalyptic culture.

The play, subtitled "A Fantastic Melodrama", offers only a general description of the process for creating living workers out of artificial tissue, and thus can be compared to social comedy or literary fantasy.

Science fictional linguistics are also the subject of varied works from Ursula K. Le Guin's novel The Dispossessed (1974), to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Darmok" (1991), to Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash (1992), C.J.

Soft science fiction filmmakers tend to extend to outer space certain physics that are associated with life on Earth's surface, primarily to make scenes more spectacular or recognizable to the audience.

Photograph of Ursula K. Le Guin standing and reading aloud in a bookshop
Ursula K. Le Guin , one of the significant writers of soft science fiction
Photograph of Peter Nicholls sitting during a panel discussion
Peter Nicholls , the first person attested to have used the term soft science fiction
Black and white photograph of H. G. Wells standing and wearing a suit
H. G. Wells , an early example of a soft science fiction writer
Photograph of Audrey Niffenegger standing behind a lectern, delivering the inaugural PEN/H.G. Wells lecture at Loncon, Worldcon 2014
Audrey Niffenegger , author of the soft science fiction work The Time Traveler's Wife
Fan art of the Fremen , a fictional group of people from the novel Dune by Frank Herbert