Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Part of: Synthesis digital library of engineering and computer science.

Series from website.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 163-165).

Preface -- Foreword -- Epilogue -- Dedication -- Acknowledgments --

1. The future is in your hands -- Wargames as an SF prototype -- The future is in your hands -- Shall we play a game?: what you can expect from this book --

2. Religious robots and runaway were-tigers: a brief overview of the science and the fiction that went into two SF prototypes -- What is a prototype -- Two examples of SF prototypes -- Religious robots: trouble at the Piazzi Mine -- Runaway were-tigers --

3. How to build your own SF prototype in five steps or less -- The outline -- The five steps -- Step 1: pick your science and build your world -- Step 2: the scientific inflection point -- Step 3: ramifications of the science on people -- Step 4: the human inflection point -- Step 5: what did we learn -- Writing the outline in five easy steps: an example of Nebulous mechanisms -- What if --

4. I, robot: from Asimov to Doctorow: exploring short fiction as an SF prototype and a conversation with Cory Doctorow -- The teenager and her monster -- When science came to science fiction -- Beyond the future -- A conversation with Cory Doctorow -- The link between science and science fiction -- Doctorow and the robots -- It is a process, not a prediction -- Turning your outline into short story SF prototype --

5. The men in the moon: exploring movies as an SF prototype and a conversation with Sidney Perkowitz -- A music hall depiction of space -- A computer goes crazy in deep space -- A scientist who writes about Hollywood science -- The men in the moon: the motion picture Moon as an SF prototype -- Movies as SF prototypes -- Turning your outline into short film SF prototype -- Writing the script -- Making the short film --

6. Science in the gutters: exploring comics as an SF prototype and a conversation with Chris Warner -- What is a comic -- How science saved comic books -- A conversation with Chris Warner -- How to tell a comic book story -- Science in the gutters -- Turning your SF prototyping outline into a compelling comics story -- The Superman, analysis of comic as an SF prototype -- Five easy steps, breaking down the Supermen as an SF prototype -- Silly science but a good idea --

7. Making the future: now that you have developed your SF prototype, what's next -- From fact to fiction to fact once again: an SF prototype used in AI development -- Brain machines -- The trouble with free will: the science behind brain machines -- Building Jimmy: "the gin and tonic test" --

8. Einstein's thought experiments and Asimov's second dream -- Appendix A. The SF prototypes -- Notes -- Author biography.

Abstract freely available; full-text restricted to subscribers or individual document purchasers.

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Science fiction is the playground of the imagination. If you are interested in science or fascinated with the future then science fiction is where you explore new ideas and let your dreams and nightmares duke it out on the safety of the page or screen. But what if we could use science fiction to do more than that? What if we could use science fiction based on science fact to not only imagine our future but develop new technologies and products? What if we could use stories, movies and comics as a kind of tool to explore the real world implications and uses of future technologies today?

Also available in print.

Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on May 20, 2011).