Aesthetic Crossroads

Pick one:
Psychic powers
Psionics
Psycho magic
Mind magic
Magic

The Strange Sources of Xenopaleontological Knowledge

I chased the space pirate all the way to Heraclius, one of those worlds that's nothing but grains and farm drones. I expected him to have some goons, a hideout, or at least a cache with a few guns there, but when I tracked him down, he was doing nothing but staring at a rock stuck on a couple other rocks.
"I remember," he said without turning around. "They argue whether a member of one species can be reborn as another, but it has to be true because I remember. I was a great magus once (for by that name we called those with the strongest psychic talents) and kings bowed to me even in their own palaces of brown-purple marble. They put before me the rich flesh of the uyilla, the delicate hobtgui roots, and I undid their difficulties. But even my wisdom failed when . . . Oh, I see the towers, how they crumble! The dead fill the streets and the wails of the living form inescapable clouds! Iauvne, where have you gone? Plellol ecsa, plellol monsa!"
"Fine, but I'm still going to arrest you."
"Yeah. Yeah, I suppose I should have waited for a convenient time to come here, but you sort of get these ideas in your head, you know?"
I wasn't interested in conversation with scum, so I didn't answer, but I knew all right.
Finis

Dragon Incentives

It's probably Pern's fault that riding dragons and their dragon riders so often have some kind of magic/psychic/empathic bond, but let's be honest: Both parties probably just liking wrecking stuff and pillaging what's left. The will to evil is sufficient without such contrivances.

Addendum

Does all that mean there should be at least one character clad entirely in power ribbons? Yes.

The Many Powers of Ribbons

Obviously you can have special ribbon handed down through centuries which must be won in a fighting tournament, and obviously there might be orders of fancy warriors marked by ribbons infused with magic which not only confer powers but allow the wearer to be tracked, but don't forget about collections of nanomachines which resemble ribbons which respond to their owner's thoughts, either because of a neural implant, psychic powers, or technology subtler yet such as monitoring muscle contractions.

The Rules of Science Fiction

1. Spaceships are awesome
2. Guns are lame, but future guns are sick
3. Psychic powers rule
4. Aliens are endlessly compelling
5. Suns are the most beautiful right before they destroy the planets orbiting them

The Sadness of Things

Fantasy is an existing word, but science fiction isn't anything. Just as most people say mystery instead of detective fiction and history instead of narrative of past events, science fiction will always lose the terminology wars to fantasy. Therefore, we should accept science fiction's place as a subsidiary of fantasy and henceforth refer to it as gun fantasy, or guntasy. There's more to the difference between science fiction and fantasy than guns, you say? Not really. When you think about it.