[iansales]

There are a number of shared tropes in science fiction and fantasy, most of which obviate the need for info-dumping. Examples include FTL, AI, cyberspace, elves, dragons, dark lords... But there are such to be objects in your invented universe which have no known analogue. So you're going to have give some clues as to what they are. And that means an info-dump. The VanGriff Mk29 Magnum Splurgifier might be the most powerful handgun in the galaxy, but if you want to know how splurgification works it's better to show the gun in action than to drop in a descriptive paragraph.

I think Harrison's point was more that, as a writer, you don't need to decide what splurigification is until the point in your story where your hero splurgifies an alien invader. If you want to write an essay on splurigification as part of your world-building, then there's a temptation to shoehorn all that invented detail into your story.