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Time Travel
This is a staple in the genre, and could in fact be argued to be among the first. Hey, we can travel through space, right? Of course we can. Time is just another dimension, why can't we travel though that? Create a machine that travels though time, and see the dinosaurs, Jesus, kill Hitler and/or your grandfather, etc.
Why I don't like it:
Paradoxes. They... hurt my mind's desire to forge and maintain logic in my entertainment. Think about the most iconic "Robots Kill Humans" franchise in cinematic history: The Terminator. It begins with this damn thing right here:
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Think about this for a moment: A Terminating Schwarzenegger impersonator travels back in time to kill Sarah Connor. Connor barely escapes and crushes the heck out of Robo-Arnie, and the only piece remaining is this arm. Okay, Cyberdyne somehow gets ahold of this technology, and as a result reverse engineers it and ultimately makes Skynet, which goes back in time to kill Sarah Connor. Connor barely escapes and crushes the heck out of Robo-Arnie, and the only piece remaining is this arm. Okay, now Cyberdyne somehow gets ahold.... And so on...
You have this fantastic loop of awesome tech that goes from today to tomorrow and back again. The question is, who/where/WTF did the technology come from? It created itself. What?
As a kid, this shit blew my mind out of the water. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the reason puberty hit me slightly later than normal was because my brain was too busy trying to figure out where in the hell the Terminator tech came from to begin with. It poofed itself out of a paradox and into existence.
Another big reason why I don't like time travel is that it destroys the stakes. Oh no! a character died! What a loss! I was so invested! (Next book/movie comes along) A secondary character goes back in time and saves the character! Wow... Awesome. Then the question is, if they were able to do that the whole time, why not just go back and do it immediately? It's just a dumbass way to build up the tension then destroy it the next time around. It's a way to write yourself out of a corner. Ugh. Infinity War is toeing the line. I'm watching you, Marvel.
When I'm finally published, and you're one of my readers, I'll have you know that I will never do a time travel plot. EVER. The lone exception is time travel forward due to Einstein's special relativity. But if it has a closed timelike curve, forget about it. Hawking's Chronology Protection Conjecture will apply in all speculative universes I create.
And don't get me started on The Cursed Child. Stupid time travel plots have no place in my Potter Head Canon. No. I mention Harry Potter because this is a blog called Magic and Lasers. I got the lasers, now I got the magic in there too. Thank Science this blog isn't called Stupid Ass Time Travel Plots that Ruin Your Childhood. Yeah, edgy, I know. I'm digressing. Moving on:
Clarke's Third Law
For those of you unaware of this (Why are you here? Welcome.) Clarke's Third Law states any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. I often take my sci-fi like Ron Jeremy; Hard. Why? I need explanations for everything. The moment things get too "handwavy", I lose my concentration on what I'm reading. Damnit, I go to the Fantasy shelf if I don't want to think too much. In fact, I define the two genres as such:
Science Fiction: People manipulating nature in understandable, explainable ways.
Fantasy: People manipulating nature in vague, unexplained ways.
And essentially, Clarke's Third Law demarcates all of it, and why the two genres are seen as two sides of the same coin. I'd also consider Sci-Fi as by and large speculative about the future, hence the strong relationship with Futurism. I'm a huge Futurist, and I think that sci-fi serves a greater purpose than mere entertainment. It serves as a way for us to flex our imaginations, and think about the consequences of future science and technology in the world. Fantasy flexes the imagination as well, but (in my very humble opinion) serves as escapism from the world. So, another way to define it (which I'd argue is tangentially related to Clarke's Law):
Science Fiction: Speculation about the future. Entertaining way to think through and confront the future reality of the world.
Fantasy: Escape from the real world. In the words of Adam Savage, "I reject your reality and substitute my own."
Is one better than the other? Yes. But I'm biased. I'm a science fiction writer. However, they both have their benefits. In any case, Clarke's law basically deals not with the nature of reality but with how people percieve the nature of reality. That's why I don't think I like it all that much; Cavemen are gonna think smartphones are magic. Period. It doesn't matter whether or not they are magic. They really are magic. I love my phone.
Fun fact about Cellphones: they contain nearly every stable element on the periodic table in one way or another. I think my point is made, moving on.
No Sense of Scale
Hey, remember that sci-fi novel you read, where the crew was travelling at sub light speeds and got to Alpha Centurai in about 20,000 years? Yeah, took a while to read. It's an undeniable fact; in order to get the plot rolling and keep the story engaging, you gotta fudge the scale of the universe. Because the universe is gigantic. It takes years for conventional spacecraft to get to Jupiter, Saturn, etc. Damn.
This is really only a problem if you're concerned about the realism of the world you create. It's just as easy to circumnavigate by saying you have a FTL Superdrive that leverages the cosmic pixies to increase velocity 20,000 times faster than light. With no time dilation or other nasty relativistic effects. HANDWAVY!
I guess it comes down to the idea that science fiction is speculative, and if it's hard, then it's really good at being speculative. For example, Andy Weir's The Martian is possibly one of my most favorite hard science fiction stories ever. He actually worked with NASA scientists to get the procedures and such correct! It's amazing how he leveraged his own knowledge and connections to weave a great and realistic story about being trapped on Mars. Things take time, you have to think of all the variables, and you don't really know if anything is going to work. I love it, and that's why I have a little bit of a problem with the sense of scale.
It's okay though, I'm not saying I don't enjoy space operas, or technobabble in my stories. I just prefer to have a little bit of reality to make sure that I don't lose my suspension off disbelief.
But yeah, that's the three right there.
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