It's a spectrum along fiction, often along how possibly something is given our known knowledge of the world and possibly future extrapolations. Science fiction

It's a spectrum along fiction, often along how possibly something is given our known knowledge of the world and possibly future extrapolations. Science fiction can be about something entirely possible today that hasn't been done (and could just focus on the social change or response to it, black mirror sometimes opts for this), but often incorporates at least a few giant leaps to help focus us on the parts the fiction is interested in. For example, faster than light travel to allow us to better explore galactic empires and what it means to not have constrained space for nations again. Science fantasy is the other end of the spectrum, where explaining how something is accomplished or linking it to our current understanding of science is inconsequential. Star Wars is the popular example of this, where generally the explanation of "the force" is so irrelevant that they don't even bother to give it a name beyond the pseudo-descriptive one used. You could replace it's occurrences in the script with "magic" and our understanding and assumptions about it wouldn't change much. In these stories the "science" in science fiction usually signifies it's in space or has aliens, which people associate with the sciences when it involves people out in it.