Thought experiment

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A thought experiment is a use of the imagination to create a different set of circumstances, to see how things would be different than they are under those other circumstances. SF is regularly described as a literature of thought experiments, although not all SF (or even perhaps most SF) could be described that way.

As "thought experiment", however, SF has much in common with didactic literature.

See Joanna Russ' "Towards an Aesthetic of Science Fiction".