what is hard science fiction for?

It's been said that science fiction exists as an array of possible futures, a Gumpesque box of chocolates from which we can choose our course. This interpretation assumes some baseline level of real-world credibility, of course -- if you're shopping for a real future, you don't waste time with Unicorn Truffles -- so hard SF is often distinguished from its softer, inferior cousins by virtue of adherence to rigorous -- or at least, plausible -- science. Plausible, is it? Okay, then: Goodbye Niven, goodbye Herbert and Vinge. Begone with your genes that code for luck, your spaceships piloted by psychics, and your galactic Slow Zones. Goodbye Brin: A Ph.D should've known better than to resort to ftl. You're not plausible enough for this sandbox. But of course I'm attacking a straw man here -- because as we all know, it's not the math that counts, it's the attitude. Those guys over there with the elves and the wizards are just a bunch of New Age mystics, glorifying irrationality. They tell ...