well, star trek is full of some that i notice.

but you'd have to be pretty esotericto know it most of the time...

for instance the transporter beam system couldn't work like that, it would have to look
more like "stargate."

or dilithium. A serious prop device, really, a form of matter that spatially hyperdimensional?
it would have to be almost near the density of a singularity.

the warp nacelles. There'd have to be a wormtunnel traveling down the length of the warp engine,
so the engines would have to be hollow tubes.

ps
my new tribe for designing space ships.

tribes.tribe.net/thinkstarship

Similarly, most science fiction TV writers seem to know nothing about time dilation. Often they assume that one would always need cryonic suspension for very long space flights. I recall an SF show where the travelers arrive at a planet 22 light-years from Earth in 22 years time. Though they were traveling very close to the speed of light, they were put into suspended animation anyway. At that speed there should be significant enough time dilation so that the 22 years would seem like a few weeks to the travelers.

Of course those "kind and forgiving" future humans aren't in alll science fiction. On Babylon 5, for example, there are still people who'll never forgive the Minbari Federation for their nearly successful attempt to exterminate the human race. On the other hand, "kind and forgiving" future humans might be a matter of survival. I mean, here in the primitivve 21st century, our violent tendancies could (theoretically) destroy us and all life on Earth due to the current weapons technology. Therefore, the people of the future could have even more advanced weapon technology. And if they maintained violent tendencies while in possession of such advanced weapons, They'd very likely destroy themselves. Once they've destroyed themselves, then you'd have no story (unless you want to focus on alien species from there on).