Suspension of Disbelief is Great, But There Are Still a Few Sci-Fi Explanations That I Will Never Use

So I recently went to see Captain America: The Winter Soldier again. And it was great--awesome, in fact--but that's not what I'm here to talk about today.

Today I'm here to talk about one of the previews that accompanied the movie.

I won't go into the details, but basically it was appeared to be a dark sci-fi action type of movie. The premise was, more or less, "Humans only use 10% of their brains, so what happens when someone unlocks more of their potential?"

Which is great, and all that, except... "Humans only use 10% of their brains" is a myth.

Humans actually use 100% of their brains, though different parts are active at different times. Actually, using every part of your brain all at once is generally called a seizure.

So that brings me to my topic for today: "Top 5 Sci-Fi Explanations That I Will Never Use In a Book".

5) "Gamma radiation is capable of causing helpful mutations"

Um... no, actually, I'm pretty sure that gamma radiation in high doses just kills you. According to Wikipedia, it can also burn you, cause DNA damage, kill cells (because of said DNA damage), and cause radiation sickness.

And contrary to popular belief, damaged DNA doesn't give you superpowers either. Actually, that brings me to #4...

4) "Helpful genetic mutations exist"

No, actually, they don't. 99% of known mutations are very harmful, sometimes even lethal. And the only helpful mutations documented are those that provide heightened levels of immunity to diseases.

Sorry, X-Men.

3) "The spaceship has a lightspeed drive/can go the speed of light"

Do you have any idea just how fast light goes? In case you were wondering, it's 299,792,458 meters per second. That's 186,000 miles per second (with some rounding), or about 671 million miles per hour. Additionally, we in the early 21st century have no idea how to replicate anything close to that speed. Sorry, but I'm not buying it.

Side note: I will, however, accept the "relativistic speeds" explanation used by Orson Scott Card in Ender's Game. That's based on an actual theory, and it doesn't imply or state that humans are trying to go the speed of light.

2) "This galaxy just happens to have [insert number here] Earth-like planets"

This one sounds good initially, but wait a second. Earth is, quite literally, one-in-a-million. Earth has just the right star, just the right placement, just the right tilt, just the right rotation, just the right moon, just the right orbit speed... I could go on, but you've probably gotten the idea. I can't remember the exact chances of Earth's specific qualities randomly occurring, but they're pretty freaking low. We haven't even found water on any other planet, and most planets are downright hostile to the mere idea of "life".

I'm not saying you can't have Earth-like planets, but I'd just like to point out that the vast majority of planets aren't going to be Earth-like. At. All. And there will probably be a limit of one Earth-like planet per solar system, since there's only one specific distance that a planet can be from the sun to keep from burning up or freezing.

In short, if you have an Earth-like planet, chances are every other planet in the system will be hostile, to some degree. So can we be realistic about it, please? (Star Wars, I'm looking at you.)

1) "The characters are in trouble because the starship ran out of fuel"

So why isn't the ship still moving?

Space is a void. It has no air, no friction, and no gravity (unless you manage to hit the gravitational pull of a planet or other large body). In space, Newton's first law of motion applies quite literally: An object at rest tends to remain at rest; an object in motion tends to remain in motion, unless an outside force acts against it.

Get something moving in space and it won't stop, unless you happen to hit an asteroid or something like that. A spaceship doesn't actually need all that much fuel--it just needs enough to get it moving. The real problems are a) the amount of time it takes to get anywhere worthwhile in space, and b) the amount of food a human crew would need to get anywhere worthwhile in space (hence the "light drive" and "relativistic speeds" explanations).

On the upside, though, this does mean that there's no need for gas stations in space...

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And there you have it. 

Please note: I'm not trying to spoil anyone's fun when it comes to science fiction/superhero stories/whatever. I'm not. Really. I do enjoy The Avengers, even though they have a gamma monster on the team. I haven't had a chance to get into the X-Men yet, but I'd like to, even though they violate Rule #4 (like, a lot). I'm even a fan of Star Wars, even though they've pretty wantonly laid waste to Rules 1-3. So I'm not trying to ruin anything for anyone. I'm just... venting, I guess. Sorry.

But I can promise you that I'm never going to use "genetic mutation" as an origin story. So there.