By Zoi Giannolopoulou

Circulation Department | National Library of Greece

Science fiction, a form of the fantastic that “thinks through” possibilities, places homo faber at its core and, at the same time, probes the boundaries of the potential, particularly those of space and time. Although the earliest manifestations of the form can be traced back to late antiquity (see Lucian’s Icaromenippus), it was designated as a literary genre shortly after the first quarter of the 20th century.

For both symbolic and methodological reasons, the new Library Display presented by the National Library of Greece and on view from July 1 through October 5, 2026, takes as its point of departure an iconic work of the early 19th century: Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, by Mary Shelley.

Recognizing, in fact, that the most enduring expressions of science fiction are realized not only by way of quantum mechanics, mathematics, technology, and the sciences in general, but also by way of philosophy, it attempts to extend its proposal to include authors who are not strictly associated with the genre. Meanwhile, the selected bibliography is enriched with works from contemporary philosophical and social thought on Artificial Intelligence, a human-created tool raising growing concerns about its potential to make decisions without the input of either its creators or its users.