Sci-fi by numbers

If I described something as "sci-fi by numbers", what would you think of? Alternatively, how many sci-fi cliches and Dead Horse Tropes can you think of?

(It's for research.)

Spoilered to prevent contamination with later answers

A short story by I think Dickens that involved a machine that could write stories according to a number of parameters. Very tropey.

No idea. Paint by numbers?

United Humanity, why does every series have all of Humanity living in a single polity?

Puny Earthling is annoying, why would a creature with super-strength ever evolve a complex brain? Do you know how much energy a thing like that uses?

machine based lifeforms who wish to exterminate humanity/life.

@Tzete:That's actually by Roald Dahl.

Ah, that sounds right, thanks.

Aliens always being portrayed as unsympathizing dickheads wanting to destroy us all for no reason and the brave american SPEHS MEREENS ariving to save the day.

Plug social issue A into Mohs Scale Of Sci Fi Hardness. Blend with tech ideas (a)-(c), Protagonist and kinks i-xii. Garnish lightly with social issues A1 through A4.

^^Or conversely the super amazing, pacifistic, super smart and absolutely flawless aliens punish man, who not too subtlety represents America, for his hubris, violent ways, intolerant ways, anti-environment ways, etc..

Failing to consider the third dimension in space combat. Could be classified as an Undead Horse Trope for Sci-Fi.

Oh oh! Don't forget the robot that goes like "DESTROY , DESTROY, DESTROY" Or the ever classic Apocalyptic Wasteland populated by 90% punks and 10% mutated giant hamsters.

edited 21st Oct '10 9:21:01 PM by heartlessmushroom

And coming in at the number one spot for over-used sci-fi tropes is.....

Giving a thin sciency veneer to magic powers by calling them psychic! (Usually it's telepathy)

IMO it isn't a bad thing at all if the story admits they don't operate by the regular laws of physics and are basically magic people don't like to call magic, since the terminology associated with Psychic Powers is actually something I could see applied by scientists to magic that follows rules they can study, in order to avoid the fantastical connotations.

edited 25th Aug '16 9:09:23 AM by EternaMemoria

If AI is even present, it's eeevil, and transhumanism is not a thing, despite the fact that prosthetics are a thing even today.

Somewhere between Cyberpunk era and spacefaring future, Internet has apparently collapsed; seriously, have you ever seen someone using a future-Wikipedia or Google in a space opera?

People in the future are predominantly white or white-ish, and have Anglophone names; Chinese and Hindi people are practically non-existent in outer space despite comprising roughly one-fourth of current Earth population.

Starfighters and spaceships bank to turn, as if there was air that can interact with their wings.

Oh, and don't forget: the most fashionable thing to wear in the Distant Future is a pocket-less jumpsuit that's probably terrible to get in and out of and has no means of storing anything! Also, it comes in any of primary colours, but there's no such thing as patterns.

To be fair, the lack of an internet in space can be justified to some extent if FTL communications are difficult to access. Having said that, there would still be planetary internet.

I don't mind lack of interstellar Internet, but considering that we're figuring out right now how to access Internet from Mars, lack of any online communication in far future is quite glaring.

Though granted, that's because a ton of sci-fi has been written (or in case of long-runners, started being written) before Internet became as ubiquitous as it is now.

Heh, I've started writing a space opera with STL in which interstellar ships are connected by a file sharing network. They are usually no more than a few light weeks away from their nearest neighbors, so it works, but not like we experience it.