Abstract

Given the plethora of examples from literature, film, and television, science fiction has long offered entry points for analyses of childhood ex machina. The study of childhood from the Machines is a critical exercise in understanding not just how the Machines constructs childhood but also how childhood from the Machines constructs worlds, societies, lives, and relationships. Childhood from the Machines churns out truths for worlds—childhoods are world-making truths. This chapter looks at various interpretations of science fiction as a genre, method, and lens through which to consider childhood, asks key questions that frame these analyses, and lays out the structure of the rest of this book.