One scenario from science fiction has our planet in trouble. Hate, violence, greed, and selfishness beset us. Popular wisdom states we can't solve our own problems. So benevolent aliens appear and offer solutions. Another option is that aliens are malevolent and arrive to feed off our difficulties and on us.
A second scenario is the notion that if we could only leave Earth, we could start over leaving our problems behind.
A basic flaw underlies both scenarios: humanity will become utopian if either aliens appear or we leave Earth. Unfortunately, our problems can not be solved simply because they arise from deep within our nature. Solutions to our basic problems will evolve as we mature. We must not fear the strange; we have to be responsible for ourselves and others; we must recognize that the magic we seek is within ourselves.
In 1950 Ray Bradbury put together The Martian Chronicles. He made Mars a second Earth. For Bradbury, Mars was a place like Earth, but colder; sporting thinner atmosphere it was farther from the sun and smaller. Depicted as "ugly humans," his first four expeditions arrived on the planet and wantonly destroyed anything Martian. When Martians appeared, they were "the enemy." The mature, self-confident humanity of the second sci-fi scenario does not arise. Humans are intolerant of the strange, different, or alien. Indeed when given the chance to start over, humans re-created Earth.
In contrast to the failure of Earthlings, Martians are depicted as a mature and wise race that had learned long before to live with nature, in harmony with the planet. Their maturity and wisdom evolved ethics and morality and respect for others. Bradbury's Earthlings, except for one, lack these qualities.
Throughout The Martian Chronicles, we are shown people who have respect for nothing. Humanity ravages Mars, lacks responsible behavior, and eventually returns to its home.
Can we consider humans any more mature at the turn of the millennium than they were half a century ago? We are more technological. Maybe we are less savage; there are less overt, global battlefronts. Individuals are more self-assured but perhaps less altruistic. Affluence is slowly creeping across the globe. Perhaps these world-wide adjustments are the hesitant, first steps humanity must make on its trek to maturity and the stars.
Literature can encourage society to change, but it walks a fine line to keep from being preachy. Science Fiction does not have that problem. It shows our characteristics clearly in futuristic and in alien settings; then galactic, alien, other worldly characters let us view ourselves without the embarrassment of public ridicule. We can critical be of ourselves in those settings without having to bear the personal trauma of blame. Social change encouraging maturity and wisdom might be more easily developed through science fiction than any other type of literature.