By Zoe Giannolopoulou

Loan Collection Department of the National Library of Greece

Science fiction—that is, the kind of fiction that “reflects”—places homo faber at its core, while at the same time exploring the boundaries of the potential, particularly those of potential space and potential time. It emerged as a distinct literary movement shortly after the first quarter of the 20th century, although its precursors can be traced back to late antiquity (see Lucian’s Icaromenippus,or The Sky-Man).

For symbolic and methodological reasons, the new Viewing Library of the National Library of Greece (NLG), which runs from July 1 through October 5, 2026, takes its starting point from an iconic work of the early 19th century: Frankenstein, Mary Shelley’s modern-day Prometheus.

Recognizing, in fact, that the most enduring forms of science fiction draw not only on quantum mechanics, mathematics, technology, and science in general, but also on philosophy, it seeks to broaden its scope by including authors who are not closely associated with this particular literary genre. At the same time, the bibliography is enriched with works from contemporary philosophical and social thought on Artificial Intelligence, a human tool that is raising growing concerns that it may make decisions without the input of either the human creator or the human user.