: Re: How to avoid or mitigate heavy science lingo and "technobabble" in a science fiction story? Background I am currently working on a small science fiction story (as referenced in a previous question

@Si5022468

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Technobabble is in the eye of the POV character.
TV shows have a limitation. They mostly can convey what happens by showing it happen. Sometimes they can convey stuff by having characters talk about what happen, but you still have to listen to them talk. Very rarely, mostly in comedy, will the narrator just talk over characters and explain something more briefly.
In books though, the writer has full control. Lines like "Spock went into the technical details of the plan, but by then Kirk had completely blocked him out focusing on the cute alien women" are always available to you. You can easily cut out any part of the conversation you don't think the reader needs, while still indicating that it happen.
So the question then is when do we need techno babble? How much should we keep? We should ask ourselves why do we have it. I am going to go to two quotes here.

An author’s ability to solve conflict with magic in a satisfying way is directly proportional to how well the reader understands said magic - Sanderson's Laws of Magic
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
-Arthur C. Clarke

So this is where technobabble usually comes in. The writer needs to create an almost deus ex machina solution, so they feel like they need to explain it. This is usually just bad writing, no matter how much fake science you introduce. The solution of the problem should come from the characters, not the technology the reader does not understand. If you do want to use tech like this, you need to spend lots of time ahead of the climax explaining to the reader what tech exists in the world. Make sure they know what it can do, explain it in simple terms and then use it later.
The other source of technobabble is character building. We often want to show characters as technophilic or finding it hard to relate to average folk, or the opposite simple minded and spoken. In this case writers use technobabble to alienate characters from each other and sometimes the reader. If you want to do this, you don't need a lot. Just a few sentences of as much nonsense as you want will do.
So in conclusion, use your POV character to filter noise. If he likes technology, show that through some technobabble, but don't focus on it for too long. If he hates other characters for using it, show that. If the reader must know how something works, have them explain it in simple terms.

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