On the other end of the spectrum, there are the dangers of too much science. Science fiction leads to extrapolation, and extrapolation is dangerous, for it opens the door to the possibility that the same science that creates the problems can solve them. There must be a limitation to how much science can do. And, of course, not all the science has to actually go in the book. The partial differentials that make wormholes possible in theory are good in the planning stages of a novel, but a writer who includes them all on the published pages is probably making a grievous mistake of focusing too much on science and too little on story.
What every science fiction writer must also keep in mind is that science is changing. To write good science fiction, 
one must understand the nature of these changes. Science doesn’t really get proven “wrong,” we just discover theories that are “more right.” Newton wasn’t wrong about the theory of gravity and Einstein didn’t invalidate him. Newton was just incomplete, and Einstein "completed" his theories. And, one day, someone may come along to "complete" Einstein. So, the things that we think are possible and impossible today may change as science itself changes. Thus, science in science fiction must be open to possibility and not limited by what we know now – and yet limited enough that it does not delve into the realm of completely ridiculous implausibility.
It was at this point that the question of FTL (faster than light) travel came up. It’s one of those things that Einstein said was impossible, and nobody’s disproved Einstein yet, which hasn’t stopped science fiction from trying. It’s a prime example of science that could be founded on too little research, and yet could also be entirely plausible.
And it was at this point that the physicists in the room started arguing about string theory and and wormholes and the ways in which those would allow FTL travel (though one must point out that string theory and wormholes do not allow one to actually exceed the speed of light, but to travel through different dimensions and/or distances, but I digress…).
Article comments