Weapons in science fiction
Encyclopedia
Strange and exotic weapon
s are a recurring theme in science fiction
. In some cases, weapons first introduced in science fiction have now been made a reality. Other science fiction weapons remain purely fictional, and are often beyond the realms of physical possibility.
At its most prosaic, science fiction features an endless variety of sidearms, mostly variations on real weapons such as gun
s and sword
s. Among the best-known of these are the phaser used in the Star Trek
television series, films and novels and the lightsaber
featured in the Star Wars
fictional universe.
In addition to entertainment value and purpose, themes of weaponry in science fiction sometimes touch on deeper concerns, often motivated by contemporary concerns of the outside world.
's fulgurator and the "glass arrow" of the Comte de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam
.
A classic science fiction weapon particularly in British and American science fiction novels and films is the ray gun
. A very early example of a ray gun is the Heat-Ray
featured in H. G. Wells
' The War of the Worlds
(1898). The discovery of x-ray
s and radioactivity
in the last years of the 19th century led to an increase in the popularity of this family of weapons, with numerous examples in the early twentieth century, such as the disintegrator rays of George Griffith
's future war novel The Lord of Labour (1911). Early science fiction film often showed raygun beams making bright light and loud noise like lightning
or large electric arc
s. Nikola Tesla
's attempts at developing directed-energy weapons, or "death ray
s", also fueled the imagination of many writers, with death rays featuring in novels like Pierrepoint Noyes' The Pallid Giant (1927).
Wells also prefigured modern armored warfare with his description of tank
s in his 1903 short story "The Land Ironclads
", and aerial warfare in his 1907 novel The War in the Air
.
envisaged particle beam weapon
s in his 1955 novel Earthlight
, in which energy would be delivered by high-velocity beams of matter.
After the invention of the laser
in 1960, it briefly became the death ray of choice for science fiction writers. For instance, characters in the Star Trek
pilot episode
The Cage (1964) and in the Lost in Space
TV series (1965–1968) carried handheld laser weapons.
By the late 1960s and 1970s, as the laser's limits as a weapon became evident, the ray gun began to be replaced by similar weapons with names that better reflected the destructive capabilities of the device. These names ranged from the generic “pulse rifle” to series-specific weapons, such as the blasters
from Star Wars
, or the phasers from Star Trek
.
, the Halo
franchise, and Babylon 5
.
s are a staple element in science fiction novels. The phrase "atomic bomb" predates their existence, and dates back to H. G. Wells
' The World Set Free
(1914) when scientists had discovered that radioactive decay implied potentially limitless energy locked inside of atomic particles (Wells' atomic bombs were only as powerful as conventional explosives, but would continue exploding for days on end). Cleve Cartmill
predicted a chain-reaction-type nuclear bomb in his 1944 science-fiction story "Deadline," which led to the FBI
investigating him, due to concern over a potential breach of security on the Manhattan Project
.
The use of radiological
, biological
and chemical weapon
s is another common theme in science fiction. In the aftermath of World War I
, the use of chemical weapons, particularly poison gas, was a major worry, and was often employed in the science fiction of this period, for example Neil Bell's The Gas War of 1940 (1931). Robert A. Heinlein
's 1940 story "Solution Unsatisfactory
" posits radioactive dust
as a weapon that the US develops in a crash program to end World War II; the dust's existence forces drastic changes in the postwar world.
A sub-genre of science fiction, post-apocalyptic fiction
, uses the aftermath of nuclear or biological warfare as its setting.
has appeared in a wide variety of fiction, beginning with E. E. Smith
's Lensman series in 1937. One of the most famous early versions was Robert A. Heinlein
's 1959 novel Starship Troopers
, which can be seen as spawning the entire sub-genre concept of military "powered armor," which would be further developed in Joe Haldeman
's The Forever War
. The Marvel
character Iron Man
is another noteworthy example. Other examples include the power armor used by the Space Marines
and other characters from Games Workshop
's Warhammer 40k
franchise, and the power armor used by the Brotherhood of Steel in the Fallout franchise, and the iconic MJOLNIR Armor worn by protagonist Master Chief in the Halo series of video games.
Powered armor suits appear numerous times in the later Command and Conquer games.
John Brunner
's 1975 novel The Shockwave Rider
is notable for coining the word "worm
" to describe a computer program that propagates itself through a computer network
, used as a weapon in the novel. William Gibson
's Neuromancer
coined the phrase cyberspace
, a virtual battleground in which battles are fought using software weapons and counterweapons.
is a hypothetical construction which could destroy all life, either on Earth or beyond, generally as part of a policy of mutual assured destruction
.
In Fred Saberhagen
's 1967 Berserker
stories, the Berserkers of the title are giant computerized self-replicating spacecraft, once used as a doomsday device in an interstellar war aeons ago, and, having destroyed both their enemies and their makers, still attempting to fulfil their mission of destroying all life in the universe. The 1967 Star Trek
episode "The Doomsday Machine" written by Norman Spinrad
, explores a similar theme.
Alien doomsday machines are common in science fiction as "Big Dumb Object
s", McGuffin
s around which the plot can be constructed. An example is the Halo megastructure
s in the video game franchise Halo
, which are world-sized doomsday machines.
s and the use of computer
s in warfare date back to the 1960s, often in a Frankenstein
ian context, notably in Harlan Ellison
's 1967 short story "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
" and films such as The Forbin Project
, originally released in 1970. In Keith Laumer
's Bolo novels, the eponymous protagonists are huge main battle tank
s with self-aware artificial intelligence
.
Another common theme is that of dehumanised
, cyborg
or android soldiers: human, or quasi-human beings who are themselves weapons. Philip K. Dick
's 1953 short story "Second Variety
" features self-replicating robot weapons, this time with the added theme of weapons imitating humans. In his short story "Impostor
", Dick goes one step further, making its protagonist a manlike robot bomb that actually believes itself to be a human being.
The idea of robot killing machines disguised as humans is central to James Cameron's film The Terminator
, and its subsequent media franchise.
In Harlan Ellison's 1957 short story "Soldier From Tomorrow
" the protagonist is a soldier who has been conditioned
from birth by the State solely to fight and kill the enemy. Samuel R. Delany
's 1966 novella Babel-17
features TW-55, a purpose-grown clone
d assassin. Ridley Scott
's 1982 film Blade Runner
, like Philip K. Dick
's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
, on which it is loosely based, uses the story of a hunt for escaped military androids to explore the idea what it means to be human.
The idea of animate weapons is now so much a science fiction cliche that it has spawned a whole genre of science fiction films such as Hardware, Death Machine
and Universal Soldier
.
, conditioning and other mind control
methods as weapons of war feature in much science fiction of the late 1950s and 1960s, parallelling the contemporary panic about communist brainwashing, and the real-world attempts of governments in programs such as MK-ULTRA
to make such things real.
David Langford
's short story BLIT
(1988) posits the existence of images (called basilisks) that are destructive to the human brain, which are used as weapons of terror by posting copies of them in areas where they are likely to be seen by the intended victims. Langford revisited the idea in a fictional FAQ
on the images, published by the science journal Nature
in 1999.
or medieval Europe
, where the carrying of weapons is an unexceptional fact of life. As American society evolved its science fiction would revisit the theme of an armed society from a sociological viewpoint.
gained the popular name "Star Wars" after the 1977 film by George Lucas.
In some cases, the influence of science fiction on weapons programs has been specifically acknowledged. In 2007, the science fiction author Thomas Easton
was invited to address engineers working on a DARPA program to create weaponized cyborg
insects, as envisaged in his novel Sparrowhawk.
Active research on powered exoskeletons for military use has a long history, beginning with the abortive 1960s Hardiman
powered exoskeleton project at General Electric
, and continuing into the 21st century. The borrowing between fiction and reality has worked both ways, with the power loader from the film Aliens
resembling the prototypes of the Hardiman system. As of 2008, practical powered exoskeleton prototypes have been constructed and tested outside of the laboratory.
American military research on high power laser weapons started in the 1960s, and has continued to the present day, with the U.S. Army planning, as of 2008, the deployment of practical battlefield laser weapons. Lower-powered lasers are currently used for military purposes as laser target designator
s and for military rangefinding. Laser weapons intended to blind combatants have also been developed, but are currently banned by the Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons
, although low-power versions designed to dazzle rather than blind have been developed experimentally. Gun-mounted lasers have also been used as psychological weapons, to let opponents know that they have been targeted in order encourage them to hide or flee without having to actually open fire on them.
Cyberwarfare has moved from a theoretical idea to something that is now seriously considered as a threat by modern states. For example, during Russian invasion to Georgia, unknown persons hacked Georgian government websites.
Weapon
A weapon, arm, or armament is a tool or instrument used with the aim of causing damage or harm to living beings or artificial structures or systems...
s are a recurring theme in science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
. In some cases, weapons first introduced in science fiction have now been made a reality. Other science fiction weapons remain purely fictional, and are often beyond the realms of physical possibility.
At its most prosaic, science fiction features an endless variety of sidearms, mostly variations on real weapons such as gun
Gun
A gun is a muzzle or breech-loaded projectile-firing weapon. There are various definitions depending on the nation and branch of service. A "gun" may be distinguished from other firearms in being a crew-served weapon such as a howitzer or mortar, as opposed to a small arm like a rifle or pistol,...
s and sword
Sword
A sword is a bladed weapon used primarily for cutting or thrusting. The precise definition of the term varies with the historical epoch or the geographical region under consideration...
s. Among the best-known of these are the phaser used in the Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
television series, films and novels and the lightsaber
Lightsaber
A lightsaber is a fictional weapon in the Star Wars universe, a "laser sword." It consists of a polished metal hilt which projects a blade of light about 1.33 metres long. The lightsaber is the signature weapon of the Jedi order and their Sith counterparts, both of whom can use them for close...
featured in the Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
fictional universe.
In addition to entertainment value and purpose, themes of weaponry in science fiction sometimes touch on deeper concerns, often motivated by contemporary concerns of the outside world.
Weapons in early science fiction
Weapons of early science fiction novels were usually bigger and better versions of conventional weapons, effectively more advanced methods of delivering explosives to a target. Examples of such weapons include Jules VerneJules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
's fulgurator and the "glass arrow" of the Comte de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam
Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam
Jean-Marie-Mathias-Philippe-Auguste, comte de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam was a French symbolist writer.-Life:Villiers de l'Isle-Adam was born in Saint-Brieuc, Brittany, to a distinguished aristocratic family...
.
A classic science fiction weapon particularly in British and American science fiction novels and films is the ray gun
Raygun
Rayguns are a type of fictional directed-energy weapon. They have various alternate names: ray gun, death ray, beam gun, blaster, laser gun, phaser, etc. They are a well-known feature of science fiction; for such stories they typically have the general function of guns...
. A very early example of a ray gun is the Heat-Ray
Heat-Ray
The Heat-Ray is the primary offensive weapon used by the Martians in H. G. Wells' classic science fiction novel The War of the Worlds and its offshoots.- In the novel :...
featured in H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
' The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds is an 1898 science fiction novel written by H. G. Wells.The War of the Worlds may also refer to:- Radio broadcasts :* The War of the Worlds , the 1938 radio broadcast by Orson Welles...
(1898). The discovery of x-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
s and radioactivity
Radioactive decay
Radioactive decay is the process by which an atomic nucleus of an unstable atom loses energy by emitting ionizing particles . The emission is spontaneous, in that the atom decays without any physical interaction with another particle from outside the atom...
in the last years of the 19th century led to an increase in the popularity of this family of weapons, with numerous examples in the early twentieth century, such as the disintegrator rays of George Griffith
George Griffith
George Griffith , full name George Chetwyn Griffith-Jones, was a prolific British science fiction writer and noted explorer who wrote during the late Victorian and Edwardian age. Many of his visionary tales appeared in magazines such as Pearson's Magazine and Pearson's Weekly before being published...
's future war novel The Lord of Labour (1911). Early science fiction film often showed raygun beams making bright light and loud noise like lightning
Lightning
Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...
or large electric arc
Electric arc
An electric arc is an electrical breakdown of a gas which produces an ongoing plasma discharge, resulting from a current flowing through normally nonconductive media such as air. A synonym is arc discharge. An arc discharge is characterized by a lower voltage than a glow discharge, and relies on...
s. Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer...
's attempts at developing directed-energy weapons, or "death ray
Death ray
The death ray or death beam was a theoretical particle beam or electromagnetic weapon of the 1920s through the 1930s that was claimed to have been invented independently by Nikola Tesla, Edwin R. Scott, Harry Grindell Matthews, and Graichen, as well as others...
s", also fueled the imagination of many writers, with death rays featuring in novels like Pierrepoint Noyes' The Pallid Giant (1927).
Wells also prefigured modern armored warfare with his description of tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
s in his 1903 short story "The Land Ironclads
The Land Ironclads
Written by H. G. Wells, "The Land Ironclads" is a short story that originally appeared in the December 1903 issue of the Strand Magazine and set in a war similar to the First World War...
", and aerial warfare in his 1907 novel The War in the Air
The War in the Air
The War in the Air is a novel by H. G. Wells, written in 1907, serialized and published in 1908 in the Pall Mall Magazine. Like many of Wells’s works, it is notable for its prophetic ideas, images, and concepts, in this case, the use of the aircraft for the purpose of warfare and the coming of...
.
Lasers and particle beams
Arthur C. ClarkeArthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...
envisaged particle beam weapon
Particle beam weapon
A particle beam weapon uses an ultra-high-energy beam of atoms or electrons to damage a material target by hitting it, and thus disrupting its atomic and molecular structure. A particle beam weapon is a type of directed-energy weapon, which directs energy in a particular direction by a means of...
s in his 1955 novel Earthlight
Earthlight
Earthlight is a science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, published in 1955. It is an expansion to novel length of a short story that he had published four years earlier.-Overview:...
, in which energy would be delivered by high-velocity beams of matter.
After the invention of the laser
Laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
in 1960, it briefly became the death ray of choice for science fiction writers. For instance, characters in the Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
pilot episode
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
The Cage (1964) and in the Lost in Space
Lost in Space
Lost in Space is a science fiction TV series created and produced by Irwin Allen, filmed by 20th Century Fox Television, and broadcast on CBS. The show ran for three seasons, with 83 episodes airing between September 15, 1965, and March 6, 1968...
TV series (1965–1968) carried handheld laser weapons.
By the late 1960s and 1970s, as the laser's limits as a weapon became evident, the ray gun began to be replaced by similar weapons with names that better reflected the destructive capabilities of the device. These names ranged from the generic “pulse rifle” to series-specific weapons, such as the blasters
Blaster (Star Wars)
Blasters are ranged weapons in the Star Wars fictional universe. This category of plasma bolt-firing rayguns includes various pistols, rifles, and other powerful weapons.-Production:...
from Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
, or the phasers from Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
.
Plasma weaponry
Weapons using plasma (high-energy ionized gas) have been featured in a number of fictional universes, such as TransformersTransformers
A transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another by magnetic coupling.Transformer may also refer to:* ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, an Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet computer manufacturer by Asus...
, the Halo
Halo (series)
Halo is a multi-million dollar science fiction video game franchise created by Bungie and now managed by 343 Industries and owned by Microsoft Studios. The series centers on an interstellar war between humanity and a theocratic alliance of aliens known as the Covenant...
franchise, and Babylon 5
Babylon 5
Babylon 5 is an American science fiction television series created, produced and largely written by J. Michael Straczynski. The show centers on a space station named Babylon 5: a focal point for politics, diplomacy, and conflict during the years 2257–2262...
.
Weapons of mass destruction
Nuclear weaponNuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
s are a staple element in science fiction novels. The phrase "atomic bomb" predates their existence, and dates back to H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
' The World Set Free
The World Set Free
The World Set Free is a novel published in 1914 by H. G. Wells. The book is considered to foretell nuclear weapons. It had appeared first in serialized form with a different ending as A Prophetic Trilogy, consisting of three books: A Trap to Catch the Sun, The Last War in the World and The World...
(1914) when scientists had discovered that radioactive decay implied potentially limitless energy locked inside of atomic particles (Wells' atomic bombs were only as powerful as conventional explosives, but would continue exploding for days on end). Cleve Cartmill
Cleve Cartmill
Cleve Cartmill was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy short stories. He is best remembered for what is sometimes referred to as "the Cleve Cartmill affair", when his 1944 story "Deadline" attracted the attention of the FBI by reason of its detailed description of a nuclear weapon...
predicted a chain-reaction-type nuclear bomb in his 1944 science-fiction story "Deadline," which led to the FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
investigating him, due to concern over a potential breach of security on the Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
.
The use of radiological
Radiological weapon
A radiological weapon or radiological dispersion device is any weapon that is designed to spread radioactive material with the intent to kill, and cause disruption upon a city or nation....
, biological
Biological warfare
Biological warfare is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi with intent to kill or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war...
and chemical weapon
Chemical warfare
Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. This type of warfare is distinct from Nuclear warfare and Biological warfare, which together make up NBC, the military acronym for Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical...
s is another common theme in science fiction. In the aftermath of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the use of chemical weapons, particularly poison gas, was a major worry, and was often employed in the science fiction of this period, for example Neil Bell's The Gas War of 1940 (1931). Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
's 1940 story "Solution Unsatisfactory
Solution Unsatisfactory
"Solution Unsatisfactory" is a 1940 science fiction short story by Robert A. Heinlein. It describes the US effort to build a nuclear weapon in order to end the ongoing World War II, and its dystopian consequences to the nation and the world....
" posits radioactive dust
Radiological weapon
A radiological weapon or radiological dispersion device is any weapon that is designed to spread radioactive material with the intent to kill, and cause disruption upon a city or nation....
as a weapon that the US develops in a crash program to end World War II; the dust's existence forces drastic changes in the postwar world.
A sub-genre of science fiction, post-apocalyptic fiction
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction
Apocalyptic fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction that is concerned with the end of civilization due to a potentially existential catastrophe such as nuclear warfare, pandemic, extraterrestrial attack, impact event, cybernetic revolt, technological singularity, dysgenics, supernatural...
, uses the aftermath of nuclear or biological warfare as its setting.
Powered armor and fighting suits
The idea of powered armorPowered exoskeleton
A powered exoskeleton, also known as powered armor, or exoframe, is a powered mobile machine consisting primarily of an exoskeleton-like framework worn by a person and a power supply that supplies at least part of the activation-energy for limb movement.Powered exoskeletons are designed to assist...
has appeared in a wide variety of fiction, beginning with E. E. Smith
E. E. Smith
Edward Elmer Smith, Ph.D., also, E. E. Smith, E. E. "Doc" Smith, Doc Smith, "Skylark" Smith, and Ted was a food engineer and early science fiction author who wrote the Lensman series and the Skylark series, among others...
's Lensman series in 1937. One of the most famous early versions was Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
's 1959 novel Starship Troopers
Starship Troopers
Starship Troopers is a military science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, first published as a serial in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and published hardcover in December, 1959.The first-person narrative is about a young soldier from the Philippines named Juan "Johnnie" Rico and his...
, which can be seen as spawning the entire sub-genre concept of military "powered armor," which would be further developed in Joe Haldeman
Joe Haldeman
Joe William Haldeman is an American science fiction author.-Life :Haldeman was born June 9, 1943 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. His family traveled and he lived in Puerto Rico, New Orleans, Washington, D.C., Bethesda, Maryland and Anchorage, Alaska as a child. Haldeman married Mary Gay Potter, known...
's The Forever War
The Forever War
The Forever War is a science fiction novel by American author Joe Haldeman, telling the contemplative story of soldiers fighting an interstellar war between humanity and the enigmatic Tauran species...
. The Marvel
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
character Iron Man
Iron Man
Iron Man is a fictional character, a superhero in the . The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby, first appearing in Tales of Suspense #39 .A billionaire playboy, industrialist and ingenious engineer,...
is another noteworthy example. Other examples include the power armor used by the Space Marines
Space Marines
Space Marines is a science fiction miniatures wargame created by A. Mark Ratner. There were two editions. The first was published by FanTac Games and the second by Fantasy Games Unlimited . Both versions include artwork by David C. Sutherland III.The FanTac version of the game included conversion...
and other characters from Games Workshop
Games Workshop
Games Workshop Group plc is a British game production and retailing company. Games Workshop has published the tabletop wargames Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000...
's Warhammer 40k
Warhammer 40,000
Warhammer 40,000 is a tabletop miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop, set in a dystopian science fantasy universe. Warhammer 40,000 was created by Rick Priestley in 1987 as the futuristic companion to Warhammer Fantasy Battle, sharing many game mechanics...
franchise, and the power armor used by the Brotherhood of Steel in the Fallout franchise, and the iconic MJOLNIR Armor worn by protagonist Master Chief in the Halo series of video games.
Powered armor suits appear numerous times in the later Command and Conquer games.
Cyberwarfare and cyberweapons
The idea of cyberwarfare, in which wars are fought within the structures of communication systems and computers using software and information as weapons, was first explored by science fiction.John Brunner
John Brunner (novelist)
John Kilian Houston Brunner was a prolific British author of science fiction novels and stories. His 1968 novel Stand on Zanzibar, about an overpopulated world, won the 1968 Hugo Award for best science fiction novel. It also won the BSFA award the same year...
's 1975 novel The Shockwave Rider
The Shockwave Rider
The Shockwave Rider is a science fiction novel by John Brunner, originally published in 1975. It is notable for its hero's use of computer hacking skills to escape pursuit in a dystopian future, and for the coining of the word "worm" to describe a program that propagates itself through a computer...
is notable for coining the word "worm
Computer worm
A computer worm is a self-replicating malware computer program, which uses a computer network to send copies of itself to other nodes and it may do so without any user intervention. This is due to security shortcomings on the target computer. Unlike a computer virus, it does not need to attach...
" to describe a computer program that propagates itself through a computer network
Computer network
A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information....
, used as a weapon in the novel. William Gibson
William Gibson
William Gibson is an American-Canadian science fiction author.William Gibson may also refer to:-Association football:*Will Gibson , Scottish footballer...
's Neuromancer
Neuromancer
Neuromancer is a 1984 novel by William Gibson, a seminal work in the cyberpunk genre and the first winner of the science-fiction "triple crown" — the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award. It was Gibson's debut novel and the beginning of the Sprawl trilogy...
coined the phrase cyberspace
Cyberspace
Cyberspace is the electronic medium of computer networks, in which online communication takes place.The term "cyberspace" was first used by the cyberpunk science fiction author William Gibson, though the concept was described somewhat earlier, for example in the Vernor Vinge short story "True...
, a virtual battleground in which battles are fought using software weapons and counterweapons.
Doomsday machines
A Doomsday machineDoomsday device
A doomsday device is a hypothetical construction — usually a weapon, or collection of weapons — which could destroy all life on a planet, particularly the Earth, or destroy the planet itself, bringing "doomsday", a term used for the end of planet Earth...
is a hypothetical construction which could destroy all life, either on Earth or beyond, generally as part of a policy of mutual assured destruction
Mutual assured destruction
Mutual Assured Destruction, or mutually assured destruction , is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of high-yield weapons of mass destruction by two opposing sides would effectively result in the complete, utter and irrevocable annihilation of...
.
In Fred Saberhagen
Fred Saberhagen
Fred Thomas Saberhagen was an American science fiction and fantasy author most famous for his Berserker series of science fiction short stories and S.F...
's 1967 Berserker
Berserker (Saberhagen)
The Berserker series is a series of space opera science fiction short stories and novels by Fred Saberhagen, in which robotic self-replicating machines intend to destroy all life. These Berserkers, named after the human berserker warriors of Norse legend, are doomsday weapons left over from an...
stories, the Berserkers of the title are giant computerized self-replicating spacecraft, once used as a doomsday device in an interstellar war aeons ago, and, having destroyed both their enemies and their makers, still attempting to fulfil their mission of destroying all life in the universe. The 1967 Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
episode "The Doomsday Machine" written by Norman Spinrad
Norman Spinrad
Norman Richard Spinrad is an American science fiction author.Born in New York City, Spinrad is a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science. In 1957 he entered City College of New York and graduated in 1961 with a Bachelor of Science degree as a pre-law major. In 1966 he moved to San Francisco,...
, explores a similar theme.
Alien doomsday machines are common in science fiction as "Big Dumb Object
Big Dumb Object
In discussion of science fiction, a Big Dumb Object is any mysterious object in a story which generates an intense sense of wonder just by being there; to a certain extent, the term deliberately deflates this...
s", McGuffin
MacGuffin
A MacGuffin is "a plot element that catches the viewers' attention or drives the plot of a work of fiction". The defining aspect of a MacGuffin is that the major players in the story are willing to do and sacrifice almost anything to obtain it, regardless of what the MacGuffin actually is...
s around which the plot can be constructed. An example is the Halo megastructure
Halo (megastructure)
Halos are fictional megastructures and superweapons in the Halo video game series. They are referred to as "Installations" by their AI monitors, and are collectively referred to as "the Array" by the installations' creators, the Forerunners...
s in the video game franchise Halo
Halo (series)
Halo is a multi-million dollar science fiction video game franchise created by Bungie and now managed by 343 Industries and owned by Microsoft Studios. The series centers on an interstellar war between humanity and a theocratic alliance of aliens known as the Covenant...
, which are world-sized doomsday machines.
The sentient weapon
The science fiction themes of autonomous weapons systemAutonomous weapon
Autonomous weapons are weapons capable of accomplishing a mission with limited orno human intervention. These systems are capable of self-propulsion, independent processing of theenvironment, and independent response to the environment....
s and the use of computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
s in warfare date back to the 1960s, often in a Frankenstein
Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
ian context, notably in Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
's 1967 short story "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
"I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" is a postapocalyptic science fiction short story by Harlan Ellison. It was first published in the March 1967 issue of IF: Worlds of Science Fiction. It won a Hugo Award in 1968. The name was also used for a short story collection of Ellison's work, featuring...
" and films such as The Forbin Project
Colossus: The Forbin Project
Colossus: The Forbin Project is an American science fiction thriller film. It is based upon the 1966 novel Colossus, by Dennis Feltham Jones, about a massive American defense computer, named Colossus, becoming sentient and deciding to assume control of the world.-Plot:Dr. Charles A...
, originally released in 1970. In Keith Laumer
Keith Laumer
John Keith Laumer was an American science fiction author. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, he was an officer in the United States Air Force and a U.S. diplomat...
's Bolo novels, the eponymous protagonists are huge main battle tank
Main battle tank
A main battle tank , also known as a battle tank or universal tank, is a tank that fills the heavy direct fire role of many modern armies. They were originally conceived to replace the light, medium, heavy and super-heavy tanks. Development was spurred onwards in the Cold War with the development...
s with self-aware artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
.
Another common theme is that of dehumanised
Dehumanization
Dehumanization is to make somebody less human by taking away his or her individuality, the creative and interesting aspects of his or her personality, or his or her compassion and sensitivity towards others. Dehumanization may be directed by an organization or may be the composite of individual...
, cyborg
Cyborg
A cyborg is a being with both biological and artificial parts. The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space. D. S...
or android soldiers: human, or quasi-human beings who are themselves weapons. Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
's 1953 short story "Second Variety
Second Variety
"Second Variety" is an influential short story by Philip K. Dick first published in Space Science Fiction magazine, in May 1953. It is one of Dick's many stories in which nuclear war has rendered the Earth's surface an uninhabitable, gray ash pile, and the only things remaining are killer robots...
" features self-replicating robot weapons, this time with the added theme of weapons imitating humans. In his short story "Impostor
Impostor (short story)
"Impostor" is a science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick. It was first published in Astounding magazine in June, 1953. Impostor, a feature film based on the story, was released in 2002 starring Gary Sinise, Madeleine Stowe and Vincent D'Onofrio...
", Dick goes one step further, making its protagonist a manlike robot bomb that actually believes itself to be a human being.
The idea of robot killing machines disguised as humans is central to James Cameron's film The Terminator
The Terminator
The Terminator is a 1984 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron, co-written by Cameron and William Wisher Jr., and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, and Linda Hamilton. The film was produced by Hemdale Film Corporation and distributed by Orion Pictures, and filmed in Los...
, and its subsequent media franchise.
In Harlan Ellison's 1957 short story "Soldier From Tomorrow
Soldier From Tomorrow
"Soldier From Tomorrow" is a 1957 science fiction short story by Harlan Ellison, originally published in Fantastic Universe in October 1957...
" the protagonist is a soldier who has been conditioned
Classical conditioning
Classical conditioning is a form of conditioning that was first demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov...
from birth by the State solely to fight and kill the enemy. Samuel R. Delany
Samuel R. Delany
Samuel Ray Delany, Jr., also known as "Chip" is an American author, professor and literary critic. His work includes a number of novels, many in the science fiction genre, as well as memoir, criticism, and essays on sexuality and society.His science fiction novels include Babel-17, The Einstein...
's 1966 novella Babel-17
Babel-17
Babel-17 is a 1966 science fiction novel by American writer Samuel R. Delany in which the Sapir–Whorf Hypothesis plays an important part...
features TW-55, a purpose-grown clone
Cloning
Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
d assassin. Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott is an English film director and producer. His most famous films include The Duellists , Alien , Blade Runner , Legend , Thelma & Louise , G. I...
's 1982 film Blade Runner
Blade Runner
Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K...
, like Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick first published in 1968. The main plot follows Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter of androids, while the secondary plot follows John Isidore, a man of sub-normal intelligence who befriends some of the...
, on which it is loosely based, uses the story of a hunt for escaped military androids to explore the idea what it means to be human.
The idea of animate weapons is now so much a science fiction cliche that it has spawned a whole genre of science fiction films such as Hardware, Death Machine
Death Machine
Death Machine is a 1994 science-fiction action horror film written and directed by Stephen Norrington.-Plot:The film opens in a demolished roadside diner, everyone inside has been slaughtered by a malfunctioning secret project codenamed Hardman. It was manufactured by Chaank, a megacorporation that...
and Universal Soldier
Universal Soldier (1992 film)
Universal Soldier is a 1992 American science fiction action film directed by Roland Emmerich and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren as soldiers who kill each other in Vietnam but are reanimated in a secret Army project along with a large group of other previously dead...
.
War on the mind
Themes of brainwashingMind control
Mind control refers to a process in which a group or individual "systematically uses unethically manipulative methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the manipulator, often to the detriment of the person being manipulated"...
, conditioning and other mind control
Mind control
Mind control refers to a process in which a group or individual "systematically uses unethically manipulative methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the manipulator, often to the detriment of the person being manipulated"...
methods as weapons of war feature in much science fiction of the late 1950s and 1960s, parallelling the contemporary panic about communist brainwashing, and the real-world attempts of governments in programs such as MK-ULTRA
Project MKULTRA
Project MKULTRA, or MK-ULTRA, was the code name for a covert, illegal CIA human experimentation program, run by the CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence. This official U.S. government program began in the early 1950s, continued at least through the late 1960s, and used U.S...
to make such things real.
David Langford
David Langford
David Rowland Langford is a British author, editor and critic, largely active within the science fiction field. He publishes the science fiction fanzine and newsletter Ansible.-Personal background:...
's short story BLIT
BLIT (short story)
BLIT is a short science-fiction story written by author David Langford. It features a setting where highly dangerous types of images called "basilisks" have been discovered; these images contain patterns within them that exploit flaws in the structure of the human mind to produce a lethal...
(1988) posits the existence of images (called basilisks) that are destructive to the human brain, which are used as weapons of terror by posting copies of them in areas where they are likely to be seen by the intended victims. Langford revisited the idea in a fictional FAQ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions are listed questions and answers, all supposed to be commonly asked in some context, and pertaining to a particular topic. "FAQ" is usually pronounced as an initialism rather than an acronym, but an acronym form does exist. Since the acronym FAQ originated in textual...
on the images, published by the science journal Nature
Nature (journal)
Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
in 1999.
The carrying of weapons in science fiction
A common theme of American science fiction is the carrying of weapons by an armed populace; much early science fiction depicts the space frontier as analogous with the Wild WestAmerican Old West
The American Old West, or the Wild West, comprises the history, geography, people, lore, and cultural expression of life in the Western United States, most often referring to the latter half of the 19th century, between the American Civil War and the end of the century...
or medieval Europe
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, where the carrying of weapons is an unexceptional fact of life. As American society evolved its science fiction would revisit the theme of an armed society from a sociological viewpoint.
Parallels between science fiction and real-world weapons
New forms of real world weaponry often resemble weapons previously envisaged in science fiction weapons. The Strategic Defense InitiativeStrategic Defense Initiative
The Strategic Defense Initiative was proposed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983 to use ground and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles. The initiative focused on strategic defense rather than the prior strategic...
gained the popular name "Star Wars" after the 1977 film by George Lucas.
In some cases, the influence of science fiction on weapons programs has been specifically acknowledged. In 2007, the science fiction author Thomas Easton
Thomas Easton
Thomas A. Easton is a professor at Thomas College of Maine and a well-known science fiction critic. He wrote the book review column in SF magazine Analog Science Fiction and Fact from 1979 - 2009....
was invited to address engineers working on a DARPA program to create weaponized cyborg
Cyborg
A cyborg is a being with both biological and artificial parts. The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space. D. S...
insects, as envisaged in his novel Sparrowhawk.
Active research on powered exoskeletons for military use has a long history, beginning with the abortive 1960s Hardiman
Hardiman
Hardiman was the first attempt to build a practical powered exoskeleton, by General Electric in 1965. The machine was intended to allow the wearer to lift loads of 1500 pounds with ease....
powered exoskeleton project at General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
, and continuing into the 21st century. The borrowing between fiction and reality has worked both ways, with the power loader from the film Aliens
Aliens (film)
Aliens is a 1986 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron and starring Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, William Hope, and Bill Paxton...
resembling the prototypes of the Hardiman system. As of 2008, practical powered exoskeleton prototypes have been constructed and tested outside of the laboratory.
American military research on high power laser weapons started in the 1960s, and has continued to the present day, with the U.S. Army planning, as of 2008, the deployment of practical battlefield laser weapons. Lower-powered lasers are currently used for military purposes as laser target designator
Laser designator
A laser designator is a laser light source which is used to designate a target. Laser designators provide targeting for laser guided bombs, missiles, or precision artillery munitions, such as the Paveway series of bombs, Lockheed-Martin's Hellfire, or the Copperhead round, respectively.When a...
s and for military rangefinding. Laser weapons intended to blind combatants have also been developed, but are currently banned by the Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons
Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons
The Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons, Protocol IV of the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, was issued by the United Nations on 13 October 1995...
, although low-power versions designed to dazzle rather than blind have been developed experimentally. Gun-mounted lasers have also been used as psychological weapons, to let opponents know that they have been targeted in order encourage them to hide or flee without having to actually open fire on them.
Cyberwarfare has moved from a theoretical idea to something that is now seriously considered as a threat by modern states. For example, during Russian invasion to Georgia, unknown persons hacked Georgian government websites.
See also
- Military science fictionMilitary science fictionMilitary science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction in which the principal characters are members of a military service and an armed conflict is taking place, normally in space, or on a planet other than Earth...
- Post-apocalyptic fictionApocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fictionApocalyptic fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction that is concerned with the end of civilization due to a potentially existential catastrophe such as nuclear warfare, pandemic, extraterrestrial attack, impact event, cybernetic revolt, technological singularity, dysgenics, supernatural...
- Space warfare in fictionSpace warfare in fictionSpace warfare in science fiction has served as a central theme within the genre, tracing its roots back to the "future war" novels of the 19th century. Space warfare in science fiction has served as a central theme within the genre, tracing its roots back to the "future war" novels of the 19th...
- Railguns in science fiction
- Autonomous weaponAutonomous weaponAutonomous weapons are weapons capable of accomplishing a mission with limited orno human intervention. These systems are capable of self-propulsion, independent processing of theenvironment, and independent response to the environment....
- List of military robots in fictional media
Further reading
- David Seed. American Science Fiction and the Cold War: literature and film ISBN 1-85331-227-4
- John Hamilton. Weapons of Science Fiction ISBN 1-59679-997-8