Technobabble: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Jargon-sounding nonsense}}

{{redirect-distinguish|Technospeak|technical jargon}}

'''Technobabble''' (a [[portmanteau]] of ''technology'' and ''babble''), also called '''technospeak''',<ref name="OED">{{cite book| title=Oxford Desk Dictionary and Thesaurus| publisher=Spark Publishing| ___location=Oxford|year=2007| edition=2nd |isbn=978-1-4114-0508-0}}</ref> is a form of [[jargon]] that uses [[buzzword]]s, [[wiktionary:esoteric|esoteric]] language, specialized technical terms, or technical slang that is incomprehensible to the listener. Various fields of practice and industry have their own specialized vocabularies, or jargon, that allow those educated within that industry to concisely convey ideas that may be confusing, misleading, or nonsensical to an outside listener.<ref name="CB">{{cite web|url=http://www.criminalbrief.com/?p=10866| title=Buzzwords– bang * splat !| last=Lundin|first=Leigh| date=2009-12-31| publisher=Criminal Brief |work=Don Martin School of Software}}</ref> The difference between technobabble and jargon lies with the intent of the user and the audience: a dishonest person might use overly technical (and often meaningless) language to overwhelm and confuse the audience, masking their dishonesty, while a fiction writer might use it to cover [[plot hole]]s or to invoke [[suspension of disbelief]] of story elements that defy current understandings of science and technology. Use of jargon within technical circles and with no intent to obfuscate is not usually included in the definition of technobabble.<ref name="CB" />

'''Technobabble''' (a [[portmanteau]] of ''technology'' and ''babble''), also called '''technospeak''',<ref name="OED">{{cite book| title=Oxford Desk Dictionary and Thesaurus| publisher=Spark Publishing| ___location=Oxford|year=2007| edition=2nd |isbn=978-1-4114-0508-0}}</ref> is a formtype of [[jargonnonsense]] that usesconsists of [[buzzword]]s, [[wiktionary:esoteric|esoteric]] language, specialized technical terms, or technical slang that is incomprehensible to the listener. Various fields of practice and industry have their own specialized vocabularies, or [[jargon, that allow those educated within that industry to concisely convey ideas that may be confusing, misleading, or nonsensical to an outside listener]].<ref name="CB">{{cite web|url=http://www.criminalbrief.com/?p=10866| title=Buzzwords–Buzzwords – bang * splat !| last=Lundin|first=Leigh| date=2009-12-31| publisher=Criminal Brief |work=Don Martin School of Software}}</ref> TheIt differenceis betweencommon technobabble and jargon lies with the intent of the user and the audience: a dishonest person might use overly technical (and often meaningless) language to overwhelm and confuse the audience, masking their dishonesty, while a fiction writer might use it to coverin [[plotscience holefiction]]s or to invoke [[suspension of disbelief]] of story elements that defy current understandings of science and technology. Use of jargontechnobabble withinin technicalthe circles''[[Star andTrek]]'' withuniverse nois intentreferred to obfuscate is not usually included in the definition of technobabble'''treknobabble'''.<ref name="CB" />

== Common uses ==

Authors and others who wish to convey a feeling of technical sophistication may write or talk in technobabble. They may use jargon without considering what it actually means to give an impression that they know things that their readers or listeners do not. However, if the jargon is decoded, it becomes apparent that the originator does not really understand what has been said or is deliberately being unclear. When used in this way, technobabble is considered pretentious and often unacceptable. If done carelessly, even novice listeners can often detect subtle signs of dishonesty and insincerity.

Technobabble's principal use in most science fiction, in particular more [[hard science fiction]], is to conceal the true (impossible) nature of materials, technologies, or devices mentioned in the story, frequently because of a violation regarding the current understanding of the laws of [[physics]]. As reality and somewhat serious projections about the future are important in hard sci-fi, technobabble can give the impression of new discoveries rendering our current understanding of how the universe works "wrong". For example, despite the implications of the [[Special Theory of Relativity]] on [[faster than light]] travel, it ''can'' be done via [[wormhole]]s—technobabble provides an "enabling device" to provide the impression that this current understanding was "limited" or "flawed" without actually having to explain how or why.

Technobabble also occurs in [[soft science fiction]], although here it is frequently just a throw-away part of the world and not dwelt on. Soft sci-fi generally prefers [[unobtainium]] or [[handwavium]] to technobabble, as it is less taxing on the reader and fits with the setting of telling a story in a sci-fi setting as opposed to telling a story about partially fictional science.

=== Forms ===

There are several forms of technobabble. One form, mostly used in fiction, depends on jargon and story features that are specific to or even exclusive to the story's universe. Stringing together a series of these elements to explain a problem or solution allows the author to easily craft a situation without having to depend on real-world laws to correlate to or confirm it. For example, the time travel device in the 1985 comedy drama film ''[[Back to the Future]]'' was said to be powered by a "flux capacitor", which has no meaning outside the context of the movie. A specialised form of technobabble known as ''treknobabble'' (and listed in scripts simply as '[TECH]') was devised for the various long-running ''[[Star Trek]]'' television programs and movies, which relied upon quasi-scientific [[Deus ex machina|solutions to dramatic problems]]. Other [[science fiction]] movies and literature have their own form of technobabble. This is often because the concepts and items being talked about are fictional, but necessary for the story.

A second form of technobabble comes from the practice of taking an otherwise simple concept and describing it in a scientifically overworked manner to mask its inherent simplicity (see: ''[http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A640207 Sesquipedalian Obscurantism])''. One well-known example is the [[dihydrogen monoxide hoax]], describing the supposedly dangerous characteristics of ordinary [[water]] by labelling the substance with its esoteric chemical name. Another famous example is the sentence "I reversed the polarity of the neutron flow" used by the [[Third Doctor]] twice in his original run in the 1970s and in the 1984 Doctor Who anniversary episode; [[neutron|neutrons]] are chargeless, so to reverse the polarity of a neutron flow is to do nothing at all.

Some forms of technobabble have the goal of intentionally convincing the reader that the science explained is true even though it may not be. One such example is [[Alan Sokal]]'s "[[Sokal Affair|Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity]]" (1996), in which Sokal submitted a seemingly real, but nonsensical, paper to the Journal ''[[Social Text]]'' in order to show that a supposedly serious journal in postmodern theory would accept a meaningless paper if it used sufficiently impenetrable language.

== See also ==

{{Div col|colwidth=20em}}

* [[Academese]]

* [[Bullshit]]

* [[Bogdanov affair]]

* [[Dihydrogen monoxide parody]]

* [[Flux capacitor]]

* [[Fedspeak]]

* [[Neologism]]

* [[Officialese]]

* [[Psychobabble]]

* [[Reverse the polarity]]

* [[Rubber science]]

* [[Sokal affair]]

* [[TurboencabulatorTurbo encabulator]]

* [[Flux capacitorPseudoscience]]

{{Div col end}}

* [[Fedspeak]]

* [[Psychobabble]]

* [[Bullshit]]

==References==

{{Reflist}}

== External links ==

{{Wiktionary}}

* [http://www.newsreview.com/chico/Archive?author=oid%3A43048 Technology Column called Technobabble] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930184927/http://www.newsreview.com/chico/Archive?author=oid:43048 |date=2007-09-30 }}

* [httphttps://technobabble2dot0.wordpresscontinuingmissionsta.com Technology Blog called/2017/09/18/need-some-technobabble-for-your-game/ Technobabble 2.0Generators]

*{{Cite web |last=Tremeer |first=Eleanor |title=Reverse The Polarity! What Is Technobabble And Why Do We Use It? |url=https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/what-is-technobabble |access-date=2023-11-16 |website=Babbel Magazine |language=en}}

*{{Cite magazine |last=Grossman |first=Lisa |title=Ronald D. Moore on Why Galactica Steered Clear of 'Technobabble,' Aliens |language=en-US |magazine=Wired |url=https://www.wired.com/2010/10/galactica-technobabble/ |access-date=2023-11-16 |issn=1059-1028}}

*{{Cite web |last=Wagstaff |first=Keith |date=2018-07-15 |title=The science behind Star Trek technobabble |url=https://mashable.com/article/star-trek-science-technobabble |access-date=2023-11-16 |website=Mashable |language=en}}

[[Category:Jargon]]

[[Category:LanguageScience varietiesfiction and stylesterminology]]

[[Category:Science fictionNonsense]]

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