Which topics are common to sci-fi ? Which ones are shared with other forms of fiction (fairy-tales, mythology, fantasy, speculative fiction) ? Which topics distinguish it from other forms of fiction ?

notion of other worlds (continents, moon, planets, solar systems, flat worlds etc.)

there is often a technology allowing one to "translate" between these worlds (ships, spaceships, wormholes, farcasters, ansible etc.)

zooming / scaling of the world (micro-, macro-)

less or more dimensional spaces

spaces with special topology (e.g. cycles, mobius strips); limits / borders of space

time slow-down / time acceleration

time dilation

time machines and time loops

pre-cognition and post-cognition

reversal of 2nd Law of Thermodynamics / axis of time

mismatch between subjective and objective time

transcendence beyond time

parallel worlds / universes / multiverses

uchronias / alternative history worlds

dreams, hallucinations, psychoses, altered states of consciousness

post-death, pre-birth / previous lifes

virtual reality, simulations

story worlds

"narrative ingression"

Narrative ingression: the process by which a fictional NARRATIVE ENTERS and becomes actual within the reader’s reality, dissolving the boundary between the imagined and the lived.

new sources of energy / new access to known sources of energy (nuclear fusion, rain energy)

new means of storing energy

other forms of energy (e.g. Elan Vitale, Force, Kundalini u.s.w.)

devices whose operation contradicts the Laws of physics (perpetuum mobile)

energy sleeping, energy waking up

too much energy, too little energy, energy disappearing

body extensions: protesis, (trans|im)plants, new body parts, exoskelets, nanotech

biochemical modifications (drugs, genetics)

sex, androgyny, kink

transcendence, immortality, HYBRIS

mind uploading / reincarnation / reactivation

human mutants, telepathy, invisibility & other superpowers

Little wake-up exercise: Create two circles, to each person in inner circle corresponds a person in the outer circle. Within the couple You ask each other "What is Your (super)power ?" *** Once both members in the couple answer the question one of them should raise their hands. When all hands are raised I will snap my fingers and all people in the outer circle move one person to the left and all those in the inner circle move one person to the right. 

*** "I don't have any" does not count as an answer. Everyone has some !

animals, past animals (mammooths, dinos), hybrids (centaurs, pegasus) , aliens

mutants; possible evolutionary developments (e.g. speaking poodles, planet of apes)

symbiosis, parasitism, food chain, predator & prey

nature-inspired environments (forest, ocean, desert, arctis)

epidemics, climate collapse, climate control

reactivated social forms already known from history (tribe-like communities, matriarchy, kingdom, empire, slavery)

extrapolations of existing trends (surveillance paranoia states, tech-equipped theocracies)

crossovers of above-mentioned

new religions or mixes of existing ones: new prophets -> new revelations -> new gods

new rites of passage, new languages, new cultures, new arts, new musical scales (& new musical instruments)

"legal fiction": alternative legal systems

humans create something "to their image"

creation surpasses its creator

something (a glitch, a divine intervention, a spark of empathy) happens

a conflict between humanity (resp. organic life) and machines

either mutual destruction

or mutual cohabitation and symbiosis/merging (e.g. cyborgs)