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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/44978
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/44978
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Science fiction has been defined as a genre where the "incredible" elements are "recognizable as not-true, but also as not-unlike-true, not-flatly- (and in the current state of knowledge) impossible" (According to Darko Suvin, from Wikipedia [link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction#cite_ref-metamorphoses_7-0)).

This is often compared against fantasy, where magic has no pretense of being scientifically possible.

Yet, sometimes an author doesn't want to get into lengthy explanations for every technology that appears in a novel. This may be for a variety of reasons, brevity being one of them, keeping an air of mystery another.

Let's suppose there is this technology X. X works following some even remotely possible scientific concept. The author knows the concept, but never explains it. X gets a lot of space in the novel: the reader can see the technology in use, understand what it does, and even what it requires to work. Maybe it's a machine needing fuel and electricity. Maybe it's a weapon emitting huge ray bursts.

In short, X's effects are clear, but the details of X's inner working are never laid out.

**How can the author maintain a pretense of "scientific plausibility" without giving a reasonable explanation?** After all, X is never explained out loud; the scientific principles that it operates on are left entirely on speculation.

**Probably related:**

- [The role of inexplicable events in hard science fiction](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/37798/the-role-of-inexplicable-events-in-hard-science-fiction)
- [The role of the supernatural in hard science fiction](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/37828/the-role-of-the-supernatural-in-hard-science-fiction)
- [Spiritual elements in a science-fiction novel](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/6339/spiritual-elements-in-a-science-fiction-novel)

Original score: 26