The trick to being a good science fiction writer is appropriate use of the words "atavistic" and "gestalt." You must use one or the other at least once every two novels and when you use them you have to use them in such a way that it's impossible to surmise the meaning of the sentence w/o knowing the meaning of the word. What this does is conjure images of of pork-fingered geeks stumbling through a collegiate dictionaries and that is the height of literary might.