Pacing of information in a fictional world

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I'm kicking this back and forth for a couple of projects at the moment.  Both are set in (different) far future worlds, one about a thousand years from now, the other closer to two thousand.  Both are settings in which a great deal of complicated history has happened in those timespans, and where the protagonists and the basic social assumptions are about as different from ours, as ours are from people in other cultures a thousand years ago.

I'm finding myself caught between a) the story moving at a reasonable pace, b) getting the necessary bits of information in, and c) having it actually be reasonably plausible for the characters to think about or explain any of this.  (How many times, when getting into your car, do you turn to the other person with you and say "As you know, other person in hypothetical example, the internal combustion engine, powered by burning oil extracted from the ground, allows a carriage to move much faster than anything pulled by horses, and over the last century they have become a dominant form of transportation... ")

On the one hand, stopping for five thousand words of people explaining stuff to each other is not really workable for snappy pacing*; on the other, it's not going to help the book to go racing into a supposedly tense and exciting scene where the reader does not know what is going on, or why.  Anyone got any thoughts on what balance there works for you, and examples you like ?

*It could in theory work for Neal Stephenson-type pacing, but much though I like his work I am not Neal Stephenson nor have I any desire to be.

[meh]

Explain the counterintuitive stuff.

Work your pacing magic for the rest.

[sleepdeprived38]

The novel Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan, never really stops to explain anything at all and it forced me to reason out much of what the technology is like from little hints.  That's not to say that there are no explanations at all, but (if i am remembering my reading experience correctly) I was well into the novel before there was any kind of an explicit explanation about the tech, the rest is done through little clues.  It was kind of fun to work it out that way.  So I say use none the first time through, and then when you have someone read it, have them mark points where they are totally lost not knowing why x does y, or how z was made. 

[Aakaakaak]

Something Asimov did in the Foundation series was to start his major break points with excerpts from The Encyclopedia Galactica. Could you use a similar technique by outlining the new technology pieces used maybe?

You could describe the item through the individuals senses. "He heard the familiar whine of the laser cannon charging up as the beam of light increased in speed, moving from dipole to dipole." (probably not the correct way to explain charging a laser gun.)

[svb1972]

Heinlein both /sucked/ and /excelled/ at this issue with varying degrees.

If you want to explain why there are flying hover cars, perhaps the best way to do is a hobbyist conversation.
Like Jim mentions, you want to avoid the talking head problem. (Or, you can have one)

In your future worlds, are there AI Agents?  What's the 'internet' like?  What is the access to information like.
I loved the use of the Encyclopedia Galactica, in the Asimov books.  it depends on what your narrative is like.  If it's doable, having the character muse about how cool his jetcar is, without having him go into detail about why they replaced the horse and carriage.  Let the reader make that leap from the information you gave him.  Why does everyone have cortical implants and a wetware computer in their heads?  Well, just show them interacting with the Agents, show how their daily life is effected by it. 

A Captain of a Starship walks onto his new Command and his implants interface with the Ship's computer.  Said ship already has his brain-signature on file, with command level access.  He gets a list of his entire crew.  As he walks onboard from his point of view everyone has a nametag floating over their head, with the option for him to expand with a thought so he can get some information, perhaps even bring up a full Service File on the individual in question, as well as create notes for himself.  That explains the way the implants work so much better, than a long winded explanation that makes no sense for the character to make to himself, or the person next to him.

Two people watching TV are not going to talk about the history of tvs.

[meh]

Two people watching TV are not going to talk about the history of tvs.

You have yet to watch TV with me, I notice.

[svb1972]

You have yet to watch TV with me, I notice.

Fine, two NORMAL people.
Better?

[Aludra]

Another example of pacing balanced with brand spanking new world is Snow Crash.  You could read the first 15 pages of that for an idea.
Although it doesn't do quite enough explaining in the beginning for people like my dad, but I was ok with it.

You could try putting in a glossary / reference section at the end and keep the pace high. Sort of like an extras section on a movie DVD.

[Aakaakaak]

A Captain of a Starship walks onto his new Command and his implants interface with the Ship's computer.  Said ship already has his brain-signature on file, with command level access.  He gets a list of his entire crew.  As he walks onboard from his point of view everyone has a nametag floating over their head, with the option for him to expand with a thought so he can get some information, perhaps even bring up a full Service File on the individual in question, as well as create notes for himself.  That explains the way the implants work so much better, than a long winded explanation that makes no sense for the character to make to himself, or the person next to him.

This would be insanely awesome IRL. You'd never forget a person ever again.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Explain the counterintuitive stuff. Work your pacing magic for the rest.

Well, yes, ideally.  The problem is that "counterintuitive" is in the eye of the beholder.

[Aludra]

Well, yes, ideally.  The problem is that "counterintuitive" is in the eye of the beholder.

It is in the eye of the beholder to an extent.  It sounds like alpha readers are what you need for this project; you can have a variety of opinions on what clicks easily and what people are still struggling with after 2 or 3 chapters.

I think John Scalzi does a great job with balancing pacing and explaining things.  Have you read Old Man's War? Granted it doesn't have a whole lot of new things, and he doesn't try to explain cold fusion or anything, but there are some points where he has to both inform the audience and keep their interest and does a good job.  Particularly the chapter where he introduces 'brain pals' is a golden example of how to correctly do this.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Something Asimov did in the Foundation series was to start his major break points with excerpts from The Encyclopedia Galactica. Could you use a similar technique by outlining the new technology pieces used maybe?

Not really; it's a pretty tight first-person POV. I am inclining myself more toward leaving the clues in text for the reader to work out, but, well, there are enough arguments about different interpretations of such things in the Dresden Files in the on-topic parts of the board to make it clear that it's hard to make that unambiguous, and the Dresdenverse has a lot more background stuff that readers will be familiar with - being set in Chicago and having cars and dogs and cats and so on - than the setting I am working on here.  Besides, Harry knows that as a wizard he's unusual in the mundane world and spends a fair bit of time explaining things that he has in-text reason to assume non-wizards will need explained to them; that much is not necessarily the case for a character who is much more within the norm of their world.

You could describe the item through the individuals senses. "He heard the familiar whine of the laser cannon charging up as the beam of light increased in speed, moving from dipole to dipole." (probably not the correct way to explain charging a laser gun.)

The thing that one suggests to me is "gosh, we are in a really weird alternate-physics setting if the beam of light is speeding up... "

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Another example of pacing balanced with brand spanking new world is Snow Crash.  You could read the first 15 pages of that for an idea.
Although it doesn't do quite enough explaining in the beginning for people like my dad, but I was ok with it.

I think Snow Crash kind of does assume that one already has some familiarity with the basic furniture of cyberpunky SF, though.

You could try putting in a glossary / reference section at the end and keep the pace high. Sort of like an extras section on a movie DVD.

That... feels like admitting defeat, though.  I have always hated getting those in a novel, it feels like either not bothering or not succeeding at getting enough in the text to work.

[AsaTJ]

You know, there's always the technique of introducing a character that is just as foreign to the world of the story as the readers are.  He can act as the readers' proxy, constantly asking how everything works.  The other characters can either explain it to him or snarkily remark that "It's magic," depending on the tone you're going for.

Don't have to involve time-travel or anything.  Maybe your low-tech character comes from a primitive planet or has liven in a vault all his life.

[Aakaakaak]

The thing that one suggests to me is "gosh, we are in a really weird alternate-physics setting if the beam of light is speeding up... "

I already admitted that probably wasn't the best way to explain the principles of a laser. If you'd like to dwell on nit-picking instead of commenting on the actual advice I can simply stop offering it.