Topics

When to tag something as a topic?

• It is foregrounded.
• If writing a review about the work, the discussion of the theme would take a full paragraph.
• Try starting the definition with "Works that reflect upon or question..." and finish with "... is a key topic in the work."
• Note: If not otherwise specified, the tags are not necessarily limited to human society.

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Current taxonomy

Theme	Description
AI	Includes machine learning, deep learning, neural networks, general AI, autonomous AI. Full, general AI is not required.
Animals
Automation	The technology by which a process or procedure is performed with minimal human assistance. Includes industrial robots (e.g. Amazon robots), most contemporary domestic robots (e.g. vacuum cleaner robots) and many automatons.
Autonomous vehicles	Self-piloting vehicle, including drones, self-driving cars, delivery bots etc.
Biographical (REVISIT)	Both autobiographical and biographical. Works narrating the experiences of an actual person, current, past or fictional.
City	Urban environments.
Climate change	If the setting is explicitly climate change-related, e.g. set in a world after the climate has changed, or if climate change is a clear theme.
Companionship	Fellowship or friendship.
Competition
Conflict	Between two or more opposed sides or groups with different interests, often with political or ideological basis. The opposing interests are central here, and the focus on them is what distinguishes this tag from “War”.
Consciousness	The awareness by a mind of itself and the world.
Crime	Illegal activity.
Critical (REVISIT)
Cyborg	A being with both organic and mechanical/machinic body parts.
Dystopian (REVISIT)	Set in or about an imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice, typically one that is totalitarian or post-apocalyptic.
Economy (REVISIT)
Empathy	The ability to understand and share the feelings of another is a key theme, e.g. Bladerunner or Nier:Automata. Does not include the player’s or viewer’s empathy for characters unless this is an explicit theme of the fiction or narrative, as for instance in Echo.
Family	Family relationships and the familial tie itself. Can include nuclear family (parents, children), extended family (grandparents, cousins), and even more distant relatives if kinship is important. Could include DNA used to map families. Is not limited to humans, however, our understanding here builds on the human concepts of family, e.g. a group of non-related individuals who refer to themselves as a family (as in the fan fiction trope "chosen family").
Free will (REVISIT)	The individual’s ability to make choices that aren’t predetermined or pre-programmed.
Gender (REVISIT)	Explicitly addressing gender issues, e.g. gender (in)equality, gender identity or gender presentation. Does not works where gender is simply present without being problematised or presented as an important theme in the work itself. Highly sexualised appearance alone is about the protagonist, and should not be tagged in themes, unless it is clearly also a theme.
Grief	Emotional responses to loss.
Hacking (REVISIT)	Repurposing existing technology for purposes it was not originally intended for. Could also be the gaining of unauthorized access to technological systems and/or data is a key theme. Not necessarily illegal or framed as morally wrong or destructive.
Horror (REVISIT)	Evoke fear, repulsion, disgust, terror and/or works that have elements of the grotesque, eerie, monstrous.
Identity	The relationship between the body and the digital representation of an individual, and/or the defining characteristics of an individual.
Inequality	Structural differences in power, social status or resources. Can include gender inequality, racial inequality.
Labour	The production of value through paid or unpaid work in a capitalist system.
Nature	Organic life and natural phenomena, e.g. volcanos, waterfalls, forests, wildlife, meadows etc. Can include terraforming or extraterrestrial spaces.
Nudity	The visibility of parts of the physical body that are usually covered is important. Can include naked body parts or whole naked bodies.
Physical violence	Physical aggression that causes bodily harm, non-biological bodies included. Consensual BDSM is not in itself violence.
Playful	Can be funny, silly, fun, joyful, whimsical. Not only goal-oriented, e.g. Just Dance or Snapchat.
Race (REVISIT)	Explicitly addresses racial issues, e.g. racial (in)equality, racism, or identity as key themes. Does not necessarily involve skin colour. Art works dealing with physiognomy as racism and basis for discrimination may fit this tag. Also includes prejudice and discrimination against ethnic groups. Can include non-human or fictional groups, e.g. Captain Marvel, which presents racism again the Skrulls, or Binti, where a fictional African group of people are oppressed by other humans and by aliens. Brave New World would not qualify, though it would be tagged with “inequality” (though it doesn’t include machine vision).
Robot/android	A mechanical or bio-mechanical being that has a mobile body that usually bears some relation to human or animal bodies. Sentience is not required for this tag (see “AI”). Does not include automated machines that perform repetitive tasks such as industrial robots used in factories to build cars (see “Automation”). R2D2 in Star Wars would be included. The artwork Jller would be tagged with automaton but not robot, as the “robotic arm” is not independently mobile.
Romantic relationship	Intimate relationships involving desire, love, infatuation, physical and/or emotional attraction.
Science fiction
Sex	Sexual intercourse, including masturbation, penetrative sex and other forms of physical intimacy. Often includes arousal. Includes sex toys, pornography. If non-consensual, also tag with “Violence”.
Social media	Websites and applications which enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.
Speculative (REVISIT)	Emphasis on what could have happened/what could happen, possible scenarios. Can include the improbable or the fairly realistic, and can be imaginative, contrafactual, or fantastic.
Surveillance	Watch, monitoring, guard kept over a person, place, group. Spying or supervision, often for the purpose of direction or control, superintendence. Includes sousveillance, coveillance, self-surveillance.
Utopian (REVISIT)	Set in or about an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its citizens.
War	War or the military is a key theme. Distinguised from the tag “Conflict” by the focus on the mechanics, cruelties, tactics or similar of war rather than on the opposing standpoints or interests as such. Both “War” and “Conflict” may be important in the same work.