If pseuodoscience proponents can be criticized for distorting complex science for their own ends, then the same argument could be applied to science fiction writers.
From a piece in the Guardian...
Isn't that what alt.med and pseudo-science do all the time?
They take a vague, science sounding idea, and bolt it onto their product in order to give it some validation. Or they ignore the science altogether. Or they cast science as the bogeyman.
Fiction writers do this all the time.
Think of all the technobabble spouted on Star Trek to help the characters overcome their latest plot hurdle. For every Heisenberg compensator, there's a dozen polarity reversals and a sprinkling of field dampening plasma vents.
At least they make some effort I suppose. Back To The Future has a scientist in a white coat and mad hair say Flux Capacitor and One Point Twenty One Gigawatts whilst falling off a toilet. But it works. In fact, it works much better than the technobabble. And if it works, writers will do it.
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