Taken to extremes in actual science fiction, this tendency yields "wiring diagram fiction [1]." It was more prevalent in older SF. A few contemporary authors pr

Taken to extremes in actual science fiction, this tendency yields "wiring diagram fiction [1]." It was more prevalent in older SF. A few contemporary authors produce it often enough that I prefer reading the Wikipedia entries for their novels over the actual books. I prefer the "immersion" approach where neither characters nor narrator bother to remark on what is considered ordinary from the perspective of their fictional setting. Science fiction also ages more gracefully when the author doesn't base some key element on a now-discredited New Scientist article that he read while the story was being written in 1980. Just describe the effects without being overly specific about the mechanism, and adventure-oriented readers miss nothing while technically-minded ones can fill in the blanks from their own imaginations. [1] From the delightful Turkey City Lexicon: https://www.sfwa.org/2009/06/turkey-city-lexicon-a-primer-for-sf-workshops/ https://www.sfwa.org/2009/06/turkey-city-lexicon-a-primer-fo...