Science Fiction and Innovation Design

Science Fiction and Innovation Design assesses the validity of this approach by exploring the impact this imaginary world has on the creativity of engineers and researchers. Companies seek to anticipate and predict the future through approaches such as design fiction: mobilizing representations of science fiction to create prototypes and develop scenarios relevant to organizational strategy. The conquest of Mars or the weapons of the future are examples developed by authors to demonstrate how design innovation involves continuous dialogue between multiple players, from the scientist to the manager, through to the designers and the science fiction writers.

Thomas Michaud holds a PhD in Management Science and an MBA. He is the author of Innovation, Between Science and Science Fiction (ISTE-Wiley, 2017) and studies the impact of the imagination on creativity and foresight.

Introduction ix
Thomas MICHAUD

Chapter 1. Technological Innovations in the Post-Apocalyptic World: Lessons Learned from Science Fiction Movies 1
Nadine BOUDOU

1.1. Introduction 1

1.2. The future machine of humanity 2

1.3. A pending world? 4

1.4. Consuming the world 6

1.5. A finite world 8

1.6. Conclusion 11

1.7. References 12

Chapter 2. Using Science Fiction in Engineering Education: Technological Imagination as an Element of Technical Culture 15
Marianne CHOUTEAU and Céline NGUYEN

2.1. Introduction 15

2.2. What is technical culture? 17

2.2.1. In the name of autonomy 17

2.2.2. For a non-segmented technical culture 19

2.3. Science fiction, technology and narrative: fertile connections 20

2.3.1. Science fiction, a sociotechnical genre 21

2.3.2. Science fiction: a special genre in the service of technical culture 22

2.4. Science fiction and the imaginary world at the heart of training 26

2.4.1. Exploring science fiction representations 27

2.4.2. Science fiction to build an ethical approach 29

2.4.3. Perspectives: harvesting and building on science fiction imaginary worlds in order to innovate 31

2.5. Conclusion 33

2.6. References 34

Chapter 3. Engineers Versus Designers: Transposition of the Technical Imaginary World into the Visual 37
Florin ALEXA-MORCOV

3.1. Introduction 37

3.2. From applied science to applied art 38

3.3. The question of the “object” in contemporary society 41

3.4. The “transparency” of technology 45

3.5. “Transparent” objects 46

3.6. “Deconstructed” objects 46

3.7. “Printed” objects 46

3.8. “Skeleton” objects 47

3.9. “Impossible” objects 47

3.10. Conclusion 47

3.11. References 48

Chapter 4. Imaginary Worlds to Be Projected or to Be Criticized? Methodological Considerations 51
Nicolas MINVIELLE, Remy HEMEZ and Olivier WATHELET

4.1. Introduction 51

4.2. Challenges in the production of a corpus of imagination 52

4.3. Imaginary worlds of various qualities 54

4.4. Representations that are often appropriable and exploratory 55

4.5. New vulnerabilities 57

4.6. Context, a first point of entry for appropriating the imaginary worlds 58

4.7. Uses, another point of entry for appropriating the imaginary worlds 60

4.8. Conclusion 64

4.9. References 67

Chapter 5. Marsism, from Science Fiction to Ideology 69
Thomas MICHAUD

5.1. Introduction 69

5.2. The Mars Society’s martian imaginary world 71

5.3. Elon Musk, a utopian entrepreneurial spirit 74

5.4. The technotype of the extraterrestrial base 77

5.5. Marsism, nasaism, communism and technoscientific microideologies 80

5.6. Conclusion 83

5.7. References 84

Chapter 6. Quo Vadis Engineering? Science Fiction as a Means to Expand the Epistemic Boundaries of Technoscientific Innovation 89
Marie-Luc ARPIN, Corinne GENDRON, Nicolas MERVEILLE and Jean-Pierre REVÉRET

6.1. Introduction 89

6.2. Science fiction at the heart of engineering innovation 90

6.3. Figures of inevitability: the engineer at the confluence of discourses 92

6.3.1. The disruption-less discourses of disruption 93

6.3.2. The “convergence” discourse 93

6.3.3. The engineer character at the confluence of discourses 95

6.4. Instrumentalizing the social 96

6.4.1. “The art of the long view”, or the theory of strategic foresight 98

6.4.2. The Engineer of 2020 or the “instrumentalization” of strategic forecasting theory 99

6.5. Science fiction as emancipation from the “problem-form” 104

6.6. Conclusion 109

6.7. References 110

Chapter 7. Design Fiction, Technotypes and Innovation 113
Thomas MICHAUD

7.1. Introduction 113

7.2. Altshuller, from science fiction to the TRIZ method 116

7.3. John Arnold’s approach 121

7.4. The emergence of design fiction 124

7.5. From the plausibility of design fiction to possible disappointment 128

7.6. The theory of the failure of the imaginary world 129

7.7. Science fiction prototyping and design fiction 131

7.8. The pioneer, Julian Bleecker 132

7.9. Dreaming, a simulator of the dangers to come 134

7.10. Some approaches to design fiction 135

7.11. Science fiction, design fiction and foresight 137

7.12. Toward a new mythology because of storytelling 139

7.13. From utopian technologies to the technotype theory 141

7.14. Four proposals on technotypes 146

7.15. Beliefs and behavioral economics 147

7.16. Realistic, imaginary systems and their cyclicity 148

7.17. Conclusion 149

7.18. References 152

Chapter. 8 Science Fiction, Innovation and Organization: Where Do We Stand? 163
Sonia ADAM-LEDUNOIS, Claire AUPLAT and Sébastien DAMART

8.1. Introduction 163

8.2. Science fiction in its diversity 164

8.3. A focused review of academic literature on science fiction: method 168

8.4. Systematic literature review: findings 172

8.5. How science fiction sees technology and organizations 174

8.6. Dystopian visions of technologies and organizations 175

8.7. Highlighting ideologies behind technology and organizations 177

8.8. Science fiction as the source of new technological and organizational scenarios 180

8.9. Conclusion: three demonstrations and a possible research avenue 181

8.10. References 181

List of Authors 193

Index 195

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