: Re: The unknown and unexplained in science fiction 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-

@Karen856

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The question you seem to be dancing around is, will your audience revolt if you do not explain the workings of X? The answer essentially depends on what X is. Some X's naturally lend themselves to one interpretation over another.

For example, let's say you have some futuristic Sci-Fi story. In that story, a number of people are said to be able to communicate telepathically, sending messages, sensory experiences, and so forth. Now, is that magic or is that science? Given no other information, the audience will likely assume that this is magic, because that is usually how telepathy works in stories.

But if your telepathy is done through some kind of brain implant that broadcasts what people want others to hear over the Internet or whatever, there are many ways of communicating that this is technological without talking about brain implants. All you need is something that makes it clear to the reader that technology is involved. Someone saying that they're recording thoughts onto a medium (or the cloud) for someone else to pick up later would be enough to switch the audience from "magic" to "science".

Now, such presentation needs to happen early on, so that you're giving people the right impression from the start. But it need not be a description of brain implants or whatever.

In general, if there is a physical device involved, especially if it requires electricity, then the reader is far more likely to accept it as "science" than as "magic." But this needs to be tempered with the fact that the more magical the effect appears, the more it will trigger "magic-in-science's-clothing" than "science". That was the point of the telepathy example: you need something to let people know that people are producing a magical-seeming effect through technological means.

That having been said, some people are pickier than others. For example, some people will reject even the above telepathic example unless you come out and and directly state at least the basic mechanism behind it. For them, the single phrase "telepathic brain implant" would probably be enough to get them on board.

So basically, your question boils down to how important it is to you whether you keep the pickiest of Sci-Fi readers happy. And that's a question you can only answer yourself.

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