Overused Silly Sci-Fi Science.

[QuantumIguana]

The characters and the science aren't enemies. You can often make a better story with better science. Not always, but often. That you can make a better story with better characters may be true, but why not do both?

[GlennD]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

Another silly idea: Humanoid robots with outside-accessible off switches (Data, C3PO, etc). Shouldn't they, at least, be difficult to find or activate? Who needs a robot that can be easily turned off, by accident or on purpose, in a tight situation? The whole "this thing is deadly, but if you can hit it just here, that will shut it off" trope is insanely stoopid.

I would consider an accessible off switch to be a requirement for a robot - no one has created non-buggy software yet, and a robot could go crazy at any second. Or at least that's what all the stories tell me. It also depends on purpose - you wouldn't want a security robot being deactivated by an intruder for example, but a more general purpose robot could be easy to shut down without impacting its usefulness.

[QuantumIguana]

Of course, the robot might object... Whether a robot is a "person" at all varies between stories. Sometimes, a robot is just a glorified toaster, there's no one home, no more inner experience than a wind up toy soldier has. Other times, robots are just people made of metal instead of meat. Depictions usually range between these two examples. But the more of a person the robot is, the more problematic it is to treat them like a toaster.

Even if we discount the robot's perspective, I might not want just anyone to have the power to turn my robot off. If I send my robot off on errands, if there is an easily accessible off switch, it's going to get pushed.

[Penforhire]

The "off switch" is a very persistent trope. The Lost in Space robot's powerpack was my favorite. And how about the Star Trek command code for an entire ship? It does seem we'll always want overrides, even on manned operations. Think about today's nuclear missiles. Would you feel comfortable if there was no possible abort code? Not me.

And when will programmers stop adding "back doors" to software? Never. They are too valuable for troubleshooting.

[QuantumIguana]

An off switch and remote access aren't necessarily the same thing. You might want to be able to log into a robot to shut it down, but not want someone to just be able to flip a switch. Besides, if a robot is on a rampage, who is going to want to run up to it and flip a switch. For all we know, the robot might hack itself to prevent it from being shut down...

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

Besides, if a robot is on a rampage, who is going to want to run up to it and flip a switch. For all we know, the robot might hack itself to prevent it from being shut down...

Which is why you hit it with an EMT nuke instead. Problem solved.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

The "off switch" is a very persistent trope.

And almost always badly used.

Originally Posted by Penforhire

The Lost in Space robot's powerpack was my favorite. And how about the Star Trek command code for an entire ship? It does seem we'll always want overrides, even on manned operations. Think about today's nuclear missiles. Would you feel comfortable if there was no possible abort code? Not me.

If I'd been on the Jupiter 2, the last thing I would touch would be a powerpack the size of a cassette tape off a robot that clearly had awareness and feelings, and could fire lightning bolts at an enemy. Forget it, Will... you go pull it out.

The Trek "command code" thing is incredibly stupid; remember Kirk's line? "To prevent an enemy from doing... what we're about to do." Think about it: If an enemy captures one Federation ship, they've got the command codes for the fleet. Brilliant.

It's one thing to have abort codes on simple (and especially deadly) machines. It's another thing to make those abort codes so simple that any idiot can disable them in a clinch (and usually does).

Another silly trope: Enemy ship is impossible to detect with sensors, so someone puts some generic scientific equipment/kid's science project on a projectile's nose/toy robot and it snifs the enemy out first try.

[sabredog]

Later series of Star Trek made a habit of using a bizarre element or radiation wrapped up in loads of technobabble as a plot device.

[Penforhire]

MacGuffins with a half-life?

[Steven Lake]

I think one of the rules of any fiction writing at all, be it sci-fi, fantasy, or any other kind is this: Keep the technobabble to the absolute minimum required to do the job. Someone once taught me that fact ages ago, and I've stuck to it. Sure, as a geek, long, long pages with detailed explanations of how a given object functions is fun and exciting for me to read. For the 99% of other readers, it's not. So I always take that into account when telling about anything these days. If it ain't relevant to the plot, keep it to yourself. :P

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

I think one of the rules of any fiction writing at all, be it sci-fi, fantasy, or any other kind is this: Keep the technobabble to the absolute minimum required to do the job.

I ran into that issue with Verdant Skies, as the "technobabble" was essential to the resolution of the problem, and I had already set up a command hierarchy that demanded a meeting to discuss what had happened.

In that case, I tried to do what anyone in such a meeting would do, that is: Keep the explanation simple enough for any layman in the room to understand; so, no complex quantum physics details and equations, some simplified descriptions of the involved theories and technology, a character whose job it was to simplify physics explanations for non-scientists; and most importantly, a closing outburst from another character to get everybody grounded and breathing again.

I thought it worked well.

I provided further detail in the afterword of the story, and on my webpage, for anyone who was interested in knowing more. In my case, references to articles from which I pulled my science were my afterword, but there's no real reason an afterword can't be as fictional as the rest of the story... in fact, trying to discern whether an afterword is real or fictional can be half the fun of an SF story.

[ScalyFreak]

What I wish more writers would realize is what has already been mentioned in this thread by a couple of other posters: 90% of the population has no idea how the science around them works. My knowledge of my microwave is limited to knowing that liquids heat up and solids don't, and that unless I want it to blow up I shouldn't microwave piece of metal. My car gets gas at the pump, and as long as I remember to feed it, it continues to carry me around town. I don't know nearly enough about how either one works to explain it to someone, and I don't care enough to learn. I don't need to understand how they work to be able to use them.

Computers on the other hand... I know them, because I'm interested in them. I can explain them, but I hardly ever do. The reason I don't is that the people around me either wouldn't understand (parents), are completely uninterested (husband), or they already know (co-workers).

So there hardly ever a good reason for anyone to go into great lengths about the technology around them and how it works, yet somehow that happens over and over, and it makes no sense.

That still doesn't mean that if the way the science works is vital to the plot the author can remain ignorant about it. If you want your character to use a microwave every day, they need to know that putting metal in one is a bad idea.

[VydorScope]

Originally Posted by ScalyFreak

What I wish more writers would realize is what has already been mentioned in this thread by a couple of other posters: 90% of the population has no idea how the science around them works. My knowledge of my microwave is limited to knowing that liquids heat up and solids don't, and that unless I want it to blow up I shouldn't microwave piece of metal. My car gets gas at the pump, and as long as I remember to feed it, it continues to carry me around town. I don't know nearly enough about how either one works to explain it to someone, and I don't care enough to learn. I don't need to understand how they work to be able to use them.

Computers on the other hand... I know them, because I'm interested in them. I can explain them, but I hardly ever do. The reason I don't is that the people around me either wouldn't understand (parents), are completely uninterested (husband), or they already know (co-workers).

So there hardly ever a good reason for anyone to go into great lengths about the technology around them and how it works, yet somehow that happens over and over, and it makes no sense.

That still doesn't mean that if the way the science works is vital to the plot the author can remain ignorant about it. If you want your character to use a microwave every day, they need to know that putting metal in one is a bad idea.

This.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by ScalyFreak

So there hardly ever a good reason for anyone to go into great lengths about the technology around them and how it works, yet somehow that happens over and over, and it makes no sense.

Science fiction is about science. Most people who read SF do so because they have an interest in how science works, and what wonders it can bring us. No they don't need a diagram of a nuclear reactor, but if the running of that reactor directly impacts on the story, they need to know something about how it works.

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

Science fiction is about science. Most people who read SF do so because they have an interest in how science works, and what wonders it can bring us. No they don't need a diagram of a nuclear reactor, but if the running of that reactor directly impacts on the story, they need to know something about how it works.

Of course. The important thing is to know when to stop. The easiest way to bore a reader is to include every single detail.

To go back to how computers work (since that is what I know), if keeping a computer up and running is vital to the plot of a novel, there is still no need to go into excruciating detail about why decorating the case with fridge magnets is bad idea.