We live immersed in technology but are perplexed by deep uncertainties about where technology is taking us - to a dead end or a better place? Technology has helped create utopian visions of good society while plunging societies into dystopic nightmares. Science and technology have been a universal path for all societies to join the modern world, but different cultures think about them differently. The Enlightenment ofthe West conceives scientific modernity as emancipation from religion and superstition and as a power over nature. In contrast, the traditional Chinese worldviews incorporate technology into a sacred cosmos where humans use science and technology to stay in tune with Heaven and Earth. Today, technoscience discourse has become a dominant power and ideology. Technoscientific agendas are generating class disparity,eroding the social fabric, undermining the humanist traditions, and damaging nature and climate. Science fiction thinks about how science and technology transform human society, values, and everyday experiences in ways good or bad. By projecting both utopia and dystopia, sf reveals and critiques technology-induced social malaises and keeps hopes alive by projecting better futures, testifying to the ceaseless human potential for self-renewal in sustaining civilization on Earth. This course asks the two-fold question: How can humans of diverse cultures harness technoscientific innovations while preserving humanist values and maintain a sustainable economy and civilization? How do narratives of utopia and dystopia depict the anthropocentric domination of nature and the exploitation working classes through themisuse and abuse of technology? Two evening film screenings required.
3 units · Letter (ABCD/NP) · GER: College, WAY-A-II
We live immersed in technology but are perplexed by deep uncertainties about where technology is taking us - to a dead end or a better place? Technology has helped create utopian visions of good society while plunging societies into dystopic nightmares. Science and technology have been a universal path for all societies to join the modern world, but different cultures think about them differently. The Enlightenment ofthe West conceives scientific modernity as emancipation from religion and superstition and as a power over nature. In contrast, the traditional Chinese worldviews incorporate technology into a sacred cosmos where humans use science and technology to stay in tune with Heaven and Earth. Today, technoscience discourse has become a dominant power and ideology. Technoscientific agendas are generating class disparity,eroding the social fabric, undermining the humanist traditions, and damaging nature and climate. Science fiction thinks about how science and technology transform human society, values, and everyday experiences in ways good or bad. By projecting both utopia and dystopia, sf reveals and critiques technology-induced social malaises and keeps hopes alive by projecting better futures, testifying to the ceaseless human potential for self-renewal in sustaining civilization on Earth. This course asks the two-fold question: How can humans of diverse cultures harness technoscientific innovations while preserving humanist values and maintain a sustainable economy and civilization? How do narratives of utopia and dystopia depict the anthropocentric domination of nature and the exploitation working classes through themisuse and abuse of technology? Two evening film screenings required.
Offered in Spring 2026 at Stanford University.