Specifically, prior to the publication of Newton’s Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687. The assumption there is that you cannot have ‘science fiction’ without ‘science:’ and that it was not until Principia that we had any real awareness of the actual operating code of the observable universe. Thus, anything written prior to that point would be more accurately described as speculative fiction; or, if you want to start a fight in a bar, fanfic*.
Discuss.
Moe Lane
PS: Yeah, it’s all in regard to this Kickstarter, which looks perfectly interesting and honorable. But I hesitate to call anything involving Rosicrucians ‘science fiction,’ because. well, Rosicrucians. Not that I have a problem with Rosicrucians; I just don’t think of what they do as being ‘science.’
*It’d have to be a damned esoteric sort of bar, to be sure. And, yes, there’s nothing wrong with fanfic. Although there’s more than a few writers of fanfic who don’t want to be told that they’re writing fanfic…