Bury yourself in a book!

English teachers have long maintained that reading books makes you a better, perhaps even smarter, person. It’s likely no coincidence that their livelihoods depend on it. Now they’ve got proof, thanks to their colleagues in the science department. In fact, the increased emphasis on critical reading and writing skills in schools may partly explain why students score, on average, about 20 points higher on IQ tests than in the early 20th century.

While nobody would ever call reading a “new” method for improving the mind, recent scientific studies have confirmed that reading and intelligence have a relationship that is symbiotic in nature. Reading is good for your brain and, the smarter you are, the more likely you are to read. And, while some claim that so-called literary fiction does the best work for your brain, I’m convinced that reading Science Fiction makes you smarter, and I mean more than just predicting the future.

One Small Step For Each Reader

Here’s how it works:  By forcing you to think, empathize, and assume instead of to merely accept simplistic characters whose actions and personalities that can be squarely understood, reading fiction—any fiction—literally makes you a more caring and emotionally intelligent person. In the case of Science Fiction, you exercise your brains even further to include expansive thinking, speculating, about things—emotional, philosophical, and environmental—in ways you didn’t before.

By encouraging readers to consider the possibilities rather than the limitations, of both technology and humanity, Science Fiction actually prompts readers to think more expansively. Back in the forties, SF was known as the “Fiction of Ideas” and, to this day, the genre continues to live up to its original name.

Science Fiction – Always A Step Ahead

Ultimately, no matter what humans manage to achieve, Science Fiction writers will be, by definition, always a step ahead. In some cases, Science Fiction has served as the engine driving real science to realize certain goals. Sci-Fi helps inspire young readers, who then go and make the stuff of Science Fiction become actual fact. For example, we were writing about nanotechnology well before nanotech existed. Not to mention geo-synchronous orbit, robotics, and more.

As writers, we’ve seen the landscape of science change radically during our lifetimes. “The very idea of orbiting artificial satellites and sending astronauts to the moon was science fiction when I first started my career,” said Ben Bova, author of the award-winning Titan and the upcoming Orion and King Arthur (Tor, July 3). Concepts like colonies on the moon and Mars, space elevators, and quantum computers have all been imagined by writers of Science Fiction.

One Giant Step for a Writer

Writing Science fiction gives your brain a workout, too. I’m currently working on a book that considers colonizing a new planet. The subject matter immediately presents a whole host of interesting issues for my imagination. Some of the first questions I asked myself are what happens to the human brain when confronted with the being on a planet so far from Earth that by the time you arrive, nobody from your past is still alive? What does that do to know that your history has no reference anymore? Does it free you or weigh you down?

What Books Have Made You Smarter?

As far as I’m concerned, reading fiction of any kind is just a good policy. As long as you’re reading, you’re doing yourself and those around you a favor by growing as a thinker and as a person. Do you remember any books that improved your mind for the better? David Brin’s Earth certainly opened my eyes to some near-future issues (at the time of book’s writing) involving the Internet and privacy — issues that became real in the last few years. I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.

The post Reading Science Fiction Makes You Smarter appeared first on Stuart Jaffe.