Science fiction: defined by background

Asimov wrote this essay as an introduction to an anthology of stories, 'The 13 Crimes of Science Fiction'.

Other kinds of story (genres) are defined by their content: sport, the cowboy's West, the dangers of the jungle.

Science fiction is defined by its background: a society very different from ours. Put any story in such a setting, and it stays what it was, and also becomes science fiction.

Examples: a sports story played in zero gravity on a space station; a 'fishboy' herding mackerel with a dolphin, like a cowboy with his horse; a jungle story on another planet; even a deep literary novel set among interplanetary travel.

The editor John W. Campbell said that science fiction covers all conceivable societies, and that ordinary 'mainstream' fiction is only a small part of it. Change the background, keep the story.