I write in a fundamentally absurd genre. Both sci-fi and fantasy have this problem… they hinge on the impossible. In the space opera I’m writing now, faster-than-light travel “works” following very specific rules, but there are all sorts of silly things that I have to lampshade or hand-wave away to get to that point. Relativity, gravity, acceleration, mass-thrust ratios… I know about all these things, and I could sit down and crunch the numbers (and sometimes I do), but it doesn’t make the story better if I do. In fact, it often detracts from the story… Star Wars isn’t a great space opera because we know how lightsabers work. In fact, in most of the main-canon material it’s barely mentioned, aside from the fact that they aren’t trivial sorts of things to own or make.
Star Trek puts a bit more effort into the explaining of technobabble, but not a lot. It’s still, for the most part, “ships go zoom because of magic”. And that’s fine! By establishing the tech/magic early, and the bounds of it, we (the author and the audience) can focus on the stuff that actually makes the stories cool: the human elements. The relationships and stresses and the examination of society through a future lens that both highlights our present and outlines a possible future.
You know. The “fi” part of sci-fi.
Anyway. I’m wading my way through a mountain of technobabble at the moment, establishing the rules for the universe in a way that my readers can quickly grasp them without having to spell them out. Scalzi spells out the rules sometimes by directed breaking of the 4th wall in his “Collapsing Empire” series, and he does that really well, and I freely admit that I’m borrowing heavily from his work in a few key areas. But I haven’t broken that wall just yet… maybe it would be simpler if I did? I’ll think about it, but for now I’m enjoying breaking several laws of physics.
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!