# Science Fiction

## Purpose

Science fiction is used as cultural memory, experimental philosophy, and story lineage—not as disguised proof. Franchise references remain scholarly and critical; all Oracle art is original. This chapter is an index and a method: it shows how to explore the subject without collapsing documented history, current research, reported experience, fiction, community belief, and Oracle synthesis into one truth claim.

## Reading Method

1. **Locate the Tile.** Read its Primary Class to learn what kind of thing it is, then its Inquiry Domains to learn which questions it can illuminate.
2. **Name the material mode.** A science-fiction, mythology, political-mythology, experiential-report, or established-science label identifies context; it is not a score of spiritual or personal importance.
3. **Read claims layer by layer.** Begin with the literal-and-empirical layer, then the cultural-and-historical layer, and only then the symbolic-and-divinatory layer. An evidence state applies to one bounded claim, not to the Tile as a whole.
4. **Open the sources.** A concept-specific citation can support a history or bounded claim. A class-level contextual citation only locates the Tile in a wider field. Neither one certifies every interpretation.
5. **Follow typed edges.** Compare the exact verb and rationale. “Fictionalizes,” “opposes,” “echoes,” and “investigated-by” are not interchangeable. A resemblance edge is not proof of historical influence.
6. **Integrate through action.** Use Gift, Shadow, Threshold, and the integration practice to identify one grounded choice that remains useful even if a favored ontology is wrong.

## Worked Comparison

1. **Cyborg** is a Beings & Roles Tile centered on Intelligence & Otherness. Its literal layer is **fictional**; its symbolic question is: “How can the gift of Cyborg be practiced while its evidence status remains explicit? Answer by testing how the cyborg motif placed within intelligence & otherness introduces intention, perspective, and the possibility of reciprocal encounter against agency, difference, recognition, and the ethics of meeting a mind unlike one’s own.”
2. **Replicant** is a Beings & Roles Tile centered on Intelligence & Otherness. Its literal layer is **fictional**; its symbolic question is: “Where is the replicant motif placed within intelligence & otherness shaping the situation, and what would make the response more accountable? Answer by testing how the replicant motif placed within intelligence & otherness introduces intention, perspective, and the possibility of reciprocal encounter against agency, difference, recognition, and the ethics of meeting a mind unlike one’s own.”
3. **Borg** is a Beings & Roles Tile centered on Intelligence & Otherness. Its literal layer is **fictional**; its symbolic question is: “Where is collective capability joined to compulsory assimilation placed within intelligence & otherness shaping the situation, and what would make the response more accountable? Answer by testing how collective capability joined to compulsory assimilation placed within intelligence & otherness introduces intention, perspective, and the possibility of reciprocal encounter against agency, difference, recognition, and the ethics of meeting a mind unlike one’s own.”

Compare these examples by asking what changes when the class, evidence state, or edge verb changes. Do not treat the most vivid Tile as the most factual. When a reading crosses into health, identity, conspiracy, or current politics, show the card’s safety flags and preserve an alternate explanation.

## System Links

- [How to Use](HOW-TO-USE.md) for reference, reading, and game workflows.
- [Graph](GRAPH.md) for edge semantics and provenance.
- [Divination](DIVINATION.md) for reflective reading rules.
- [Glossary](GLOSSARY.md) for Classes, Domains, Modes, and Evidence States.
- [Source Registry](../research/SOURCE-REGISTRY.md) for source tiers, scope, and rights.

## Canonical Tiles

- [Cyborg](../cards/beings/sfoc-beings-cyborg.md) — What makes Cyborg consequential is the meeting of the cyborg motif placed within intelligence & otherness with agency, difference, recognition, and the ethics of meeting a mind unlike one’s own. The card preserves that meeting without universalizing it.
- [Replicant](../cards/beings/sfoc-beings-replicant.md) — The working core of Replicant is the replicant motif placed within intelligence & otherness: a pattern that can reorganize attention, relation, and action. narrative truth does not establish literal availability.
- [Borg](../cards/beings/sfoc-beings-borg.md) — Borg offers an instrument for reading collective capability joined to compulsory assimilation placed within intelligence & otherness. It becomes useful when interpretation remains answerable to look for learning, intention, reciprocal response, refusal, and alternatives to human resemblance.
- [Camp Hero](../cards/worlds/sfoc-worlds-camp-hero.md) — Camp Hero frames the camp motif meeting the hero motif as a decision environment rather than a finished answer. Its evidence discipline is work, creator, reception, and symbolic reuse.
- [Arrakis](../cards/worlds/sfoc-worlds-arrakis.md) — Arrakis concentrates the arrakis motif placed within technology & infrastructure into a place, environment, frontier, or constructed reality. Its value lies in examining mechanism, dependency, maintenance, access, failure, and the labor beneath capability without exceeding the evidence layer.
- [Solaris](../cards/worlds/sfoc-worlds-solaris.md) — At the center of Solaris is an unknowable living world confronting human projection placed within civilization & ecology. The card treats that tension as a place, environment, frontier, or constructed reality, bounded by narrative truth does not establish literal availability.
- [Ringworld](../cards/worlds/sfoc-worlds-ringworld.md) — the ringworld motif placed within reality & ontology gives Ringworld its distinctive charge. Read it through world-models, observer limits, and the boundary between appearance and claim, with work, creator, reception, and symbolic reuse kept visible.
- [Dyson Habitat](../cards/worlds/sfoc-worlds-dyson-habitat.md) — Dyson Habitat gathers a field around the dyson motif meeting a maintained envelope for life. Its deeper subject is a capability redistributes power long before its interface appears neutral.
- [Generation Ship](../cards/worlds/sfoc-worlds-generation-ship.md) — The working core of Generation Ship is the generation motif meeting the ship motif: a pattern that can reorganize attention, relation, and action. narrative truth does not establish literal availability.
- [Sleeper Ship](../cards/worlds/sfoc-worlds-sleeper-ship.md) — Sleeper Ship brings the sleeper motif meeting the ship motif into focus. It operates as a place, environment, frontier, or constructed reality and asks how inheritance, transmission, rupture, and the authority claimed by beginnings alter practical choice.
- [Lunar Base](../cards/worlds/sfoc-worlds-lunar-base.md) — Lunar Base offers an instrument for reading the lunar motif meeting the base motif. It becomes useful when interpretation remains answerable to trace inputs, transformation, outputs, energy, operators, error states, ownership, and shutdown.
- [Mars Colony](../cards/worlds/sfoc-worlds-mars-colony.md) — Mars Colony gathers a field around the red frontier meeting settlement under inherited authority. Its deeper subject is a durable world can hide extraction by moving its costs beyond the visible center.
- [Off-World Base](../cards/worlds/sfoc-worlds-off-world-base.md) — Off-World Base brings the off motif, a bounded environment of possibility, and the base motif acting together into focus. It operates as a place, environment, frontier, or constructed reality and asks how world-models, observer limits, and the boundary between appearance and claim alter practical choice.
- [Corporate Colony](../cards/worlds/sfoc-worlds-corporate-colony.md) — Corporate Colony gathers a field around the corporate motif meeting settlement under inherited authority. Its deeper subject is a durable world can hide extraction by moving its costs beyond the visible center.
- [Smart City](../cards/worlds/sfoc-worlds-smart-city.md) — Smart City names a threshold where the smart motif meeting dense shared infrastructure changes what participants can notice or do. The card keeps a traceable fictional or speculative story lineage distinct from symbolic use.
- [Company Town](../cards/worlds/sfoc-worlds-company-town.md) — Within the Oracle, Company Town holds together the company motif meeting the town motif and shared survival, place, stewardship, access, feedback, and unequal exposure to risk. That combination creates both an interpretive tool and a responsibility.
- [Ocean World](../cards/worlds/sfoc-worlds-ocean-world.md) — Within the Oracle, Ocean World holds together the ocean motif meeting a bounded environment of possibility and world-models, observer limits, and the boundary between appearance and claim. That combination creates both an interpretive tool and a responsibility.
- [Desert World](../cards/worlds/sfoc-worlds-desert-world.md) — The Oracle places Desert World where the desert motif meeting a bounded environment of possibility affects agency. It is neither mere decoration nor automatic proof, but a place, environment, frontier, or constructed reality with a declared evidence boundary.
- [Archive World](../cards/worlds/sfoc-worlds-archive-world.md) — Archive World brings the archive motif meeting a bounded environment of possibility into focus. It operates as a place, environment, frontier, or constructed reality and asks how world-models, observer limits, and the boundary between appearance and claim alter practical choice.
- [Simulation Layer](../cards/worlds/sfoc-worlds-simulation-layer.md) — reality mediated by executable rules meeting the layer motif gives Simulation Layer its distinctive charge. Read it through world-models, observer limits, and the boundary between appearance and claim, with work, creator, reception, and symbolic reuse kept visible.
- [Prison World](../cards/worlds/sfoc-worlds-prison-world.md) — The Oracle places Prison World where enclosure maintained by asymmetrical power meeting a bounded environment of possibility affects agency. It is neither mere decoration nor automatic proof, but a place, environment, frontier, or constructed reality with a declared evidence boundary.
- [Garden World](../cards/worlds/sfoc-worlds-garden-world.md) — Garden World concentrates the garden motif meeting a bounded environment of possibility into a place, environment, frontier, or constructed reality. Its value lies in examining world-models, observer limits, and the boundary between appearance and claim without exceeding the evidence layer.
- [Replicator](../cards/technologies/sfoc-technologies-replicator.md) — Replicator gathers a field around the replicator motif placed within technology & infrastructure. Its deeper subject is a capability redistributes power long before its interface appears neutral.
- [Warp Drive](../cards/technologies/sfoc-technologies-warp-drive.md) — At the center of Warp Drive is the warp motif meeting propulsion converting energy into motion. The card treats that tension as a repeatable capability for sensing, transforming, connecting, or constructing, bounded by narrative truth does not establish literal availability.
- [Transporter](../cards/technologies/sfoc-technologies-transporter.md) — Transporter concentrates the transporter motif placed within technology & infrastructure into a repeatable capability for sensing, transforming, connecting, or constructing. Its value lies in examining mechanism, dependency, maintenance, access, failure, and the labor beneath capability without exceeding the evidence layer.
- [Holodeck](../cards/technologies/sfoc-technologies-holodeck.md) — At the center of Holodeck is the holodeck motif placed within body & evolution. The card treats that tension as a repeatable capability for sensing, transforming, connecting, or constructing, bounded by narrative truth does not establish literal availability.
- [Three Laws](../cards/technologies/sfoc-technologies-three-laws.md) — Three Laws gathers a field around the three motif meeting the laws motif. Its deeper subject is a capability redistributes power long before its interface appears neutral.
- [Monolith](../cards/artifacts/sfoc-artifacts-monolith.md) — An impossible object whose presence triggers evolutionary discontinuity.
- [Spice](../cards/artifacts/sfoc-artifacts-spice.md) — A consciousness-expanding resource that enables empire while producing dependency and monopoly.
- [Memory Implant](../cards/artifacts/sfoc-artifacts-memory-implant.md) — What makes Memory Implant consequential is the meeting of continuity through retained traces meeting the implant motif with continuity, forgetting, archives, testimony, and the stories that hold a self together. The card preserves that meeting without universalizing it.
- [Redacted File](../cards/artifacts/sfoc-artifacts-redacted-file.md) — The Oracle places Redacted File where the redacted motif meeting the file motif affects agency. It is neither mere decoration nor automatic proof, but an object-like carrier of evidence, memory, power, or exchange with a declared evidence boundary.
- [Black Box](../cards/artifacts/sfoc-artifacts-black-box.md) — Seen closely, Black Box is about an opaque adaptive substrate meeting the box motif under conditions of mechanism, dependency, maintenance, access, failure, and the labor beneath capability. That frame makes its gift, shadow, and limits readable together.
- [Alien Artifact](../cards/artifacts/sfoc-artifacts-alien-artifact.md) — Alien Artifact brings radical otherness meeting material evidence outlasting its maker into focus. It operates as an object-like carrier of evidence, memory, power, or exchange and asks how agency, difference, recognition, and the ethics of meeting a mind unlike one’s own alter practical choice.
- [Out-of-Place Artifact](../cards/artifacts/sfoc-artifacts-out-of-place-artifact.md) — Seen closely, Out-of-Place Artifact is about the out motif, the place motif, and material evidence outlasting its maker acting together under conditions of continuity, forgetting, archives, testimony, and the stories that hold a self together. That frame makes its gift, shadow, and limits readable together.
- [Pyramid](../cards/artifacts/sfoc-artifacts-pyramid.md) — the pyramid motif placed within origin & lineage is the engine beneath Pyramid. As an object-like carrier of evidence, memory, power, or exchange, it reveals how a local image can carry system-scale consequences.
- [Crop Circle](../cards/artifacts/sfoc-artifacts-crop-circle.md) — the crop motif meeting the circle motif is the engine beneath Crop Circle. As an object-like carrier of evidence, memory, power, or exchange, it reveals how a local image can carry system-scale consequences.
- [Orb](../cards/artifacts/sfoc-artifacts-orb.md) — Orb names a threshold where the orb motif placed within memory & identity changes what participants can notice or do. The card keeps a traceable fictional or speculative story lineage distinct from symbolic use.
- [The Signal](../cards/artifacts/sfoc-artifacts-the-signal.md) — The Signal concentrates information arriving from elsewhere placed within contact & communication into an object-like carrier of evidence, memory, power, or exchange. Its value lies in examining signal, translation, reciprocity, consent, and the repair of misunderstanding without exceeding the evidence layer.
- [Wow! Signal](../cards/artifacts/sfoc-artifacts-wow-signal.md) — Read Wow! Signal as an object-like carrier of evidence, memory, power, or exchange shaped by the wow motif meeting information arriving from elsewhere. The useful inquiry is not belief alone, but what separate transmission from interpretation and require a return signal that could expose error.
- [Beacon](../cards/artifacts/sfoc-artifacts-beacon.md) — a deliberate call across distance placed within memory & identity gives Beacon its distinctive charge. Read it through continuity, forgetting, archives, testimony, and the stories that hold a self together, with work, creator, reception, and symbolic reuse kept visible.
- [Star Map](../cards/artifacts/sfoc-artifacts-star-map.md) — The working core of Star Map is the star motif meeting the map motif: a pattern that can reorganize attention, relation, and action. narrative truth does not establish literal availability.
- [Portal Key](../cards/artifacts/sfoc-artifacts-portal-key.md) — The working core of Portal Key is a threshold joining separated contexts meeting the key motif: a pattern that can reorganize attention, relation, and action. narrative truth does not establish literal availability.
- [Stargate Address](../cards/artifacts/sfoc-artifacts-stargate-address.md) — Stargate Address frames an addressable passage between worlds meeting the address motif as a decision environment rather than a finished answer. Its evidence discipline is work, creator, reception, and symbolic reuse.
- [Neural Implant](../cards/artifacts/sfoc-artifacts-neural-implant.md) — Seen closely, Neural Implant is about signal exchange with nervous systems meeting the implant motif under conditions of continuity, forgetting, archives, testimony, and the stories that hold a self together. That frame makes its gift, shadow, and limits readable together.
- [Clone Vat](../cards/artifacts/sfoc-artifacts-clone-vat.md) — At the center of Clone Vat is the clone motif meeting the vat motif. The card treats that tension as an object-like carrier of evidence, memory, power, or exchange, bounded by narrative truth does not establish literal availability.
- [Reality Map](../cards/artifacts/sfoc-artifacts-reality-map.md) — What makes Reality Map consequential is the meeting of the field treated as actually existing meeting the map motif with world-models, observer limits, and the boundary between appearance and claim. The card preserves that meeting without universalizing it.
- [Easter Egg](../cards/artifacts/sfoc-artifacts-easter-egg.md) — Read Easter Egg as an object-like carrier of evidence, memory, power, or exchange shaped by the easter motif meeting the egg motif. The useful inquiry is not belief alone, but what compare recollection with records, other witnesses, missing intervals, and the cost of revision.
- [ARG Clue](../cards/artifacts/sfoc-artifacts-arg-clue.md) — The working core of ARG Clue is the arg motif meeting the clue motif: a pattern that can reorganize attention, relation, and action. narrative truth does not establish literal availability.
- [Seed Vault](../cards/artifacts/sfoc-artifacts-seed-vault.md) — Seed Vault brings the seed motif meeting the vault motif into focus. It operates as an object-like carrier of evidence, memory, power, or exchange and asks how inheritance, transmission, rupture, and the authority claimed by beginnings alter practical choice.
- [Galactic Empire](../cards/factions/sfoc-factions-galactic-empire.md) — Centralized rule projected across worlds through military, administrative, and symbolic scale.
- [Rebel Alliance](../cards/factions/sfoc-factions-rebel-alliance.md) — the rebel motif meeting cooperation without complete merger gives Rebel Alliance its distinctive charge. Read it through signal, translation, reciprocity, consent, and the repair of misunderstanding, with work, creator, reception, and symbolic reuse kept visible.
- [Bene Gesserit](../cards/factions/sfoc-factions-bene-gesserit.md) — A fictional order shaping politics, religion, memory, and heredity across generations.
- [Spacing Guild](../cards/factions/sfoc-factions-spacing-guild.md) — Spacing Guild names a threshold where the spacing motif meeting the guild motif changes what participants can notice or do. The card keeps a traceable fictional or speculative story lineage distinct from symbolic use.
- [Jedi Order](../cards/factions/sfoc-factions-jedi-order.md) — Jedi Order offers an instrument for reading the jedi motif meeting the order motif. It becomes useful when interpretation remains answerable to follow resources, waste, care, mobility, governance, and nonhuman dependencies across scales.
- [Sith Order](../cards/factions/sfoc-factions-sith-order.md) — Sith Order gathers a field around the sith motif meeting the order motif. Its deeper subject is contact can create relationship, contamination, domination, or a false sense of mutual understanding.
- [Starfleet](../cards/factions/sfoc-factions-starfleet.md) — The working core of Starfleet is the starfleet motif placed within power & control: a pattern that can reorganize attention, relation, and action. narrative truth does not establish literal availability.
- [United Federation of Planets](../cards/factions/sfoc-factions-united-federation-of-planets.md) — United Federation of Planets brings the united motif, unity negotiated across difference, and the planets motif acting together into focus. It operates as a coordinated collective actor with durable membership and aims and asks how signal, translation, reciprocity, consent, and the repair of misunderstanding alter practical choice.
- [Borg Collective](../cards/factions/sfoc-factions-borg-collective.md) — Borg Collective brings collective capability joined to compulsory assimilation meeting agency distributed across many members into focus. It operates as a coordinated collective actor with durable membership and aims and asks how agency, difference, recognition, and the ethics of meeting a mind unlike one’s own alter practical choice.
- [The Matrix](../cards/systems/sfoc-systems-the-matrix.md) — The invisible social, computational, or ideological environment mistaken for reality itself.
- [Cyborg Embodiment](../cards/states/sfoc-states-cyborg-embodiment.md) — Cyborg Embodiment brings the cyborg motif meeting the embodiment motif into focus. It operates as a condition of mind, body, identity, or society that can be inhabited and asks how agency, difference, recognition, and the ethics of meeting a mind unlike one’s own alter practical choice.
- [Mythic Past](../cards/myths/sfoc-myths-mythic-past.md) — A universe organized by ancient orders, bloodlines, relics, recurring empire, and history that never fully ends.
- [Aspirational Future](../cards/myths/sfoc-myths-aspirational-future.md) — Civilization imagined as deliberately growing beyond scarcity, nationalism, and inherited prejudice.
- [Chosen One](../cards/myths/sfoc-myths-chosen-one.md) — The belief that one exceptional figure must resolve a collective crisis.
- [Hidden Heir](../cards/myths/sfoc-myths-hidden-heir.md) — What makes Hidden Heir consequential is the meeting of withheld from ordinary access meeting inheritance awaiting recognition with inheritance, transmission, rupture, and the authority claimed by beginnings. The card preserves that meeting without universalizing it.
- [Prophecy](../cards/myths/sfoc-myths-prophecy.md) — a future claim shaping present behavior placed within memory & identity is the engine beneath Prophecy. As a durable story-pattern through which communities organize possibility and fear, it reveals how a local image can carry system-scale consequences.
- [Self-Fulfilling Prophecy](../cards/myths/sfoc-myths-self-fulfilling-prophecy.md) — The working core of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy is the self motif, the fulfilling motif, and a future claim shaping present behavior acting together: a pattern that can reorganize attention, relation, and action. motif comparison must not erase provenance or living authority.
- [Lost Golden Age](../cards/myths/sfoc-myths-lost-golden-age.md) — At the center of Lost Golden Age is the lost motif, the golden motif, and the age motif acting together. The card treats that tension as a durable story-pattern through which communities organize possibility and fear, bounded by motif comparison must not erase provenance or living authority.
- [Lost Civilization](../cards/myths/sfoc-myths-lost-civilization.md) — Lost Civilization frames the lost motif meeting large-scale continuity of shared life as a decision environment rather than a finished answer. Its evidence discipline is historical context, community meaning, and difference among traditions.
- [Ancient Builders](../cards/myths/sfoc-myths-ancient-builders.md) — Ancient Builders is a way of encountering deep time used to authorize an origin meeting the builders motif. Its Oracle use joins a durable story-pattern through which communities organize possibility and fear to the question of inheritance, transmission, rupture, and the authority claimed by beginnings.
- [Bloodline](../cards/myths/sfoc-myths-bloodline.md) — Bloodline concentrates inheritance used to authorize identity placed within origin & lineage into a durable story-pattern through which communities organize possibility and fear. Its value lies in examining inheritance, transmission, rupture, and the authority claimed by beginnings without exceeding the evidence layer.
- [Dynasty](../cards/myths/sfoc-myths-dynasty.md) — The working core of Dynasty is the dynasty motif placed within origin & lineage: a pattern that can reorganize attention, relation, and action. motif comparison must not erase provenance or living authority.
- [Royal House](../cards/myths/sfoc-myths-royal-house.md) — Royal House names a threshold where the royal motif meeting the house motif changes what participants can notice or do. The card keeps a mythic lineage carried through story and ritual distinct from symbolic use.
- [Founding Family](../cards/myths/sfoc-myths-founding-family.md) — The working core of Founding Family is the founding motif meeting the family motif: a pattern that can reorganize attention, relation, and action. motif comparison must not erase provenance or living authority.
- [Cyberpunk](../cards/myths/sfoc-myths-cyberpunk.md) — The Oracle places Cyberpunk where the cyberpunk motif placed within memory & identity affects agency. It is neither mere decoration nor automatic proof, but a durable story-pattern through which communities organize possibility and fear with a declared evidence boundary.
- [Alien Harvest](../cards/myths/sfoc-myths-alien-harvest.md) — Alien Harvest gathers a field around radical otherness meeting collection at a threshold. Its deeper subject is misrecognition can erase a subject or invent an agent where none has been shown.
- [The Date 2027](../cards/myths/sfoc-myths-the-date-2027.md) — A contemporary Disclosure-lore horizon onto which expectation, countdown, and convergence accumulate.
- [The Great Awakening](../cards/myths/sfoc-myths-the-great-awakening.md) — The Oracle places The Great Awakening where civilizational scale meeting a changed account of what is real affects agency. It is neither mere decoration nor automatic proof, but a durable story-pattern through which communities organize possibility and fear with a declared evidence boundary.
- [False Alien Invasion](../cards/myths/sfoc-myths-false-alien-invasion.md) — At the center of False Alien Invasion is the false motif, radical otherness, and the invasion motif acting together. The card treats that tension as a durable story-pattern through which communities organize possibility and fear, bounded by motif comparison must not erase provenance or living authority.
- [Starseed Mission](../cards/myths/sfoc-myths-starseed-mission.md) — Seen closely, Starseed Mission is about cosmic belonging and mission meeting the mission motif under conditions of inheritance, transmission, rupture, and the authority claimed by beginnings. That frame makes its gift, shadow, and limits readable together.
- [Dune](../cards/myths/sfoc-myths-dune.md) — A science-fiction storyworld in which ecology, prophecy, empire, extraction, and inherited power become one system.
