The Scientific Context

Science fiction, especially any by Poul Anderson, is written in the context of modern scientific cosmology. Technology based on theories about atoms and nuclei works whereas magic based on beliefs about supernatural beings does not - although Anderson also wrote fantasy. (In James Blish's fantasy, magic is control of demons and demons are fallen angels but maybe eternal life is permanent negative entropy? If hard sf writers write fantasy, then maybe fantasy can become "hard.")

Technology is assumed to work also in contemporary fiction where, however, it is not a major plot element - although Lizbeth Salander's abilities as a hacker are crucial to Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and would have been sf if hypothesized much earlier in our lifetimes.

(Comprehensiveness: in discussing hard sf, we have also referred to fantasy and to a contemporary thriller.)

However, sf adds that new scientific discoveries will continue to be made the day after tomorrow and into the further future, assuming that there is going to be a further future, although sf narratives also incorporate the opposite assumption. As James Blish argued, sf writers need to remind their readers that new paradigms will be discovered, if not the possibility of faster-than-light (FTL) interstellar travel, then something else as yet unimagined. Every story that does include FTL (as an example) makes that point and therefore serves a purpose. Maybe that is the only purpose of all these FTL stories. To avoid the "hyperspace" cliche, Anderson presented a new scientific rationale for FTL every time that he used the idea.