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Thinking about it a bit more, the late SF writer, editor, and critic Damon Knight talked about first and second order idiot plots.
A First Order idiot plot only worked because the protagonist was an idiot. A Second Order idiot plot only worked because everyone in the book was an idiot.
(A poster elsewhere when I mentioned this asked if there were Third Order idiot plots that required the readers to be idiots.)
In many stories, the plot only works because the protagonist lacks a crucial bit of information. An awful lot of stories fall on their faces because she could have found out by simply talking to someone. If she knows she's missing critical data, and doesn't ask, well, she's an idiot.
Granted, people not talking to each other can be a critical part of the book. How many romance novels depend on the fact that the boy and girl don't simply talk to each other until it's nearly too late? But romances depend in large part on setting, and the reasons why the boy and girl don't simply talk to each other may be critical parts of the story.
So while it's not specific to SF, and can apply to any work of fiction, you have to guard against idiot plots. If the plot hinges on what the protagonist doesn't know, it better require more than simply talking to other characters to repair the lack.
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Dennis
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