The Friendly Book Cave 2020 discussion

Which one and why?

I think science is better because I enjoy learning from them and it talks about real life situations.

I think that science fiction has the utilitarian value of inspiring people to pursue new things that lie outside the mainstream science of the day (for example, I have heard numerous times that scientist in the past were inspired by Star Trek to pursue research in things the show brought up).

Also, I think that science fiction has the value of exploring the ethical implications of possible future breakthroughs in science (for example, I think that books like I, Robot help in conceptualize problems that we may face with AI and robotics in the future).

As such, even though I like both science and science fiction books, if I had to say that one was better I would say science fiction is better because it points to future possibilities and problems that can help lead to progress; whereas science books (by their nature of sticking to current understandings of currently known things) are static recollections of the past and present.