Thanks.We've argued about this many times...
For me the difference is magic. Fantasy has supernatural magic whereas sci-fi must be explicable through reference to science/technology even if never actually explained. Magic is just magic and doesn't need to be explained.
The question is complicated by shows like Star Wars which have some fantasy in a mainly sci-fi setting.
We do have the broad category of 'Speculative Fiction' to cover this.Following up:
I think it makes sense to think of SF as a sub-category of Fantasy (you could say that about all fiction, but that's so broad as to be unhelpful). I think "Fantasy" should be broad enough to cover any story that does not take place in the real world.
We do have the broad category of 'Speculative Fiction' to cover this.
Steerpike, I’ve more often seen it the other way, with fantasy being listed as a subcategory of sci fi.
To me, sci fi, fantasy, horror and superheroes are different parts of spec fic. Also there’s the modern story with just one piece of magic? i.e., Mary Poppins. Usually they go for the feels. I feel like those deserve their own title too.
But just to throw a monkey wrench into things. To quote Arthur C. Clarke. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
I've never liked this quote. It may be indistinguishable from magic to the mind of a pre-scientific thinker, but not to a scientist. No scientist will see an amazing piece of far future technology and think: "Magic". They'll think: "I wonder how that works?"
I disagree. He uses the word indistinguishable - which can only mean indistinguishable from the perspective of a person. One type of person might think it looks like magic, another type of person (eg, a scientist) will know it can't be magic.
And that's exactly where we disagree. If you know it can't BE magic then magic never comes into the equation. The only thing you would ever think is: I wonder how that works?I may understand there's science behind it, I know that it's not magic, but if I don't understand how it works, it's indistinguishable from magic in my eyes.
And that's exactly where we disagree. If you know it can't BE magic then magic never comes into the equation. The only thing you would ever think is: I wonder how that works?