Serious question regarding the science fiction genre, and changes in genres in general.
With Steven Speilbergs movie coming out soon, all the US government releases on UFOs, USO, UAP, what have you...at what point does writing about aliens become fiction, non-fiction, or any other genre other than sci fi?
I'm not sure something like this has happened in our history, but if everything coming out is true, and disclosure is happening, at what point are aliens no longer considered scifi? Is there some kind of metric? Does it have to do with provable tech?
Let's say hypothetically one species appears, the next day someone writes a book about them in a crime solving novel. It can't be sci fi anymore because they actually appeared, right?
What is the onus here? Looking for a serious answer as the topic is just interesting to me and I'm curious what others would need to determine aliens are no longer science fiction.
Love,
AB