Questing to Understand the Other without "Othering": An Exploration of the Unique Qualities and Properties of Science Fiction as a Means for Exploring and Improving Social Inequity

While many branches of science have sought to understand—and to even cure—human bigotry, and thereby cure the deleterious results thereof, the champion most likely to prevail in this quest is the hybrid child of art and science: the literary and cinematic genre of science fiction. From its mixed literary heritage to its inability to be summarized by a catchall definition to its endlessly elastic point of view, science fiction is uniquely suited to the herculean task of allowing our species to experience, understand, and accept the varied ways in which people express what it means to be human.