Techno Babble: Difference between revisions

* The titular ''[[Bastard Operator From Hell]]'' is a master of coming up with what an informed reader can tell is nonsense, but which the boss will consider to be very impressive.

** The BOFH also uses a technobabble overload to force lusers into Dummy Mode, where [[Bavarian Fire Drill|they will do whatever he tells them]] without thinking about it.

* In the classical novel by Alessandro Manzoni "The Betrothed" it is used by don Abbondio, a clergyman. He's just trying to find an excuse to convince the young Renzo to postpone his marriage (he has been threatened by the henchmen of a local noble to do that) and starts sprouting nonsense in Latin to impress him. Renzo, although, doesn't fall for it and just roars "Enough of your Latinorum!".

* Copious amounts can be found in ''Deep Storm'', although half the time it's simplified by Dr. Crane's [[Parrot Exposition|exposition parroting]].

* [[L. Sprague de Camp]]'s [[Historical Fiction]] novel ''The Arrows of Hercules'', set around 399 B.C., has a passage of Techno Babble used to convince a [[Pointy-Haired Boss]] to not interfere with the two inventors. [[The Emperor's New Clothes|He isn't willing to admit that what he heard made no sense to him]], so he says, "I see what you mean. Funny I never thought of that." and lets them get on with their work. Part of the humor is that almost all the "jargon" is words de Camp's modern readers won't consider even remotely technical:

{{Quote|The trouble with the pivoted model is that in the hootnanny position, the gadget interferes with the thingamajig, and that throws the doohickey out of line. The only way to prevent this is to parallax the gimmick, and ''that'' keeps the thingumbob from equalizing. So whichever way we approach the problem, the result is always the same: it doesn't work. You follow me, don't you, sir?}}

 

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