Innovation, Between Science and Science Fiction E-Book

Thomas Michaud

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 267

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Fantasy and science fiction are both involved in the process of innovation in techno-scientific societies. Long regarded as a hindrance to rationality, and to science, science fiction has become the object of praise in recent decades.  Innovative organizations use science fiction to stimulate the creativity of their teams, and more and more entrepreneurs are using its influence to develop innovation. Scientific practice relies in part on an imaginary dimension. The mapping of the technical imagination of science fiction has become an important strategic issue, as has its patentability.  The conquest of space, the construction of cyberspace and virtual reality, biotechnologies and nanotechnologies are all at the center of futuristic fictions that participate in scientific speeches and discoveries.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Title

Copyright

Foreword

Introduction

1 The Growth of the Imagination in Industrial Societies

1.1. A short history of science fiction

1.2. The imagination, a cognitive barrier useful for innovation

1.3. The organizations’ use of science fiction

1.4. The psychology of organizations and science fiction

1.5. Should we organize a patenting system for utopic technologies?

2 Technological Ideologies and Utopias

2.1. The space industry and technological utopias

2.2. Transhumanism and science fiction

2.3. Science fiction and nanotechnologies

2.4. Accelerationism for a critical use of science fiction

2.5. From technological fiction to innovation

2.6. Imagining futures, at risk of the Cassandra syndrome

3 Science, the Imagination and Innovation

3.1. The serious global dangers tackled by science fiction

3.2. The great steps in the history of technologies since the end of the 19th Century

3.3. Economic cycles and science fiction

3.4. Theories on innovation and theories on the imagination

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

End User License Agreement

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

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Smart Innovation Set

coordinated by

Dimitri Uzunidis

Volume 10

Innovation, Between Science and Science Fiction

Thomas Michaud

First published 2017 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licenses issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned address:

ISTE Ltd27-37 St George’s RoadLondon SW19 4EUUK

www.iste.co.uk

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.111 River StreetHoboken, NJ 07030USA

www.wiley.com

© ISTE Ltd 2017The rights of Thomas Michaud to be identified as the author of this work have been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017937108

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication DataA CIP record for this book is available from the British LibraryISBN 978-1-78630-130-7

Foreword

The significance of such fields as the innovation sector can be gauged, among other things, by the existence of Handbooks (thus, an encyclopedic work) that tackle questions concerning the creation of innovations in relation to organizations and networks, the role of institutions, the variation of the phenomenon over time and according to the lines of business, its place within the process of economic growth, competitiveness on an international level and its impact on employment, the nature and importance of innovation, and strategies and practices used to benefit from its effects from an organizational standpoint. This is done by dealing with the classic problems related to R&D management, intellectual property, creativity as well as design, social networks, social innovation, open innovation, innovation in business models, innovation ecosystems, innovations in the service industry, innovation platforms and the importance of innovation in terms of environmental sustainability.

Nowadays, innovation is a central discourse, with its sentimental “maps”, its “good shapes” (among which the unusable “S-curve” and the naturalism of its declinism), its univocity (in this sense, innovation is identified as success) and therefore its fictional stories (innovation then becomes closer to science fiction and differs from tradition in this respect). It is also common to mention an obligation in today’s world to permanently innovate, which is regarded as a prerequisite for survival … is it a sort of rationalizing implementation of the improvisation inherent to human actions? Is it a program of a better world in the eyes of tradition, which finds meaning in the past?

Innovation belongs to the family of “portmanteaux”, given how diverse its related meanings are. As for the root of the word – new – the issue we must tackle involves finding out the aspects to which innovation is discussed in relation to: figures (the client, the organization, etc.), an existing situation or uses. Innovation differs from technological assimilation, despite the close interface between these two notions, highlighting thus a technology which is regarded as “high” and yet, lest we forget, is not opposed this way to a technology that may be considered “low”.

Innovation also differs from the notion of “creation”, even if we should point out its inherent vitalistic perspective, which is a way of validating innovation as a form of quiet transgression. In its vitalistic sense, innovation is defined by the idea of a contingency aimed at the restrained socialization in place within the organization. It is in this sense that referring to the process of creation led first to the logic of linear innovation models (from the idea to the product…), resulting today in interactionist and diffusion-centered notions of innovation. In both cases, the assimilation is entrepreneurial and involves a sort of confusion (first-degree confusion – passive fusion) of three figures: the creator, the innovator and the entrepreneur. In terms of current ideological discourse, innovation is also a justification of the income of the companies that are ruling the world (see the staggering margins of the “GAFA”).

Innovation also involves the issue of the desire to innovate together with the “entrepreneur” and “risk” tension that refers to the entrepreneur anthropology put forward by J. Schumpeter and to a push-technology theorization of innovation. In this context, innovation will involve an approach that reduces incertitude by converting it into risk. This is the vision that generates innovation. Vision implies “seeing clearly”, which also represents a definition of managerial will in the way it blends judgment in terms of existence (sight is what makes vision possible and the breadth of vision will depend on the focal distance) and value (innovation is the expression of a visionary perspective that includes the idea of temporal projection). This mixture follows, in this regard, the religious inspiration linked to the idea of mission and its associations with guidance, unlike political logic! However, vision is also a resilient guide: it varies in the face of significant changes (or at least it is supposed to do so). Vision is a word that derives from the verb “to see”, but within a temporal context: a vision implies seeing into the future and not only in space. Coupled with a rationalist logic, vision is simultaneously the representation of a desirable as well as possible future, namely a sort of “clairvoyance”. In this sense, vision produces a representation by encouraging us to focus our energy on making this vision become a reality.

As the foundation of a projective logic, innovation happens to structure a discourse. It is in this sense that success stories (iPod, iPhone or, further back in history, the Twingo, the Post it, etc.) proliferate. These “stories” are defined by how they highlight a mixture of structural–organizational constraints (which “stifled” the innovative potential unleashed by the project), intuitions, essentially collaborative relationships and the benevolent attitude of general management. The organizational subset forms a system with the rest and gives the impression (at least, this is what emerges from these stories) of ending up involving everything else in its dynamics. It is also in this respect that innovation happens to found an organizational (rather than financial) version of performance. The other success stories in the field are those that confound innovation and business with such iconic symbols as Zodiac, Tefal, Rossignol, etc. Everything about them is described as “the best”: management, skill, human resources, profitability, market suitability and image. It is in this context that innovation becomes “organizational culture” or even culture in general, ignoring the theme of the possible (or impossible) overflow of jobs from one sector to another, where we once again come across the learning issue, which, however, includes here its social dimension, and the tensions specific to the dynamics of innovation (see the disappearance of “small businesses”).

This work regards innovation as a discourse – the discourse of science fiction. However, it also highlights its performative dimension, namely its natural ability to create those elements of reality that fit into the logic of the discourse. This is the reason why the author regards innovation as a discourse in the sense given by J. L. Austin (How to do Things with Words), which can thus be understood as:

– a propositional (or locutionary) act where the desire to innovate derives from the expression of managerial will;

– an illocutionary act (what is done concurrently with what is said – promise, command, desire) whereby innovation differs from tradition;

– a perlocutionary act (what we produce concurrently with what we say, for example, intimidation), which is to linguistics what self-fulfilling prophecies are to epistemology and organizational sciences. Innovation is then the “creation” of something but also “transgression”.

However, let us recall Austin’s types of failures of performative acts with:

– failure, as the act is intended but empty and therefore unfulfilled, owing to the unsuitable reference to a procedure, an undue demand of forbidden acts, but also a practical failure (a botched execution);

– the abuse of a fact of a fulfilled but insincere act.

Failures are most often hidden in the sagas of innovation. With innovation, links between “discourse” and “action” are established, since innovation may be regarded as an “organizational discourse”.

If innovation has to do with a vitalistic perspective, as it has been underlined at the beginning of this work, we must then highlight its evolutionary and selectionist dimension, namely its inherent transgression, on which its specific superiority is therefore based: it is because we innovate that we contribute to the development of society and it is also because we innovate that we better adapt. In both these cases, we can certainly find the logic of science fiction. Innovation is generally considered the manifestation of an evolution (perceived as “positive” but also “progressive”) and, through another conceptual lens, a form of learning. Innovation, just like science fiction literature, relies on the quest for “selectionist” features.

This is also the case for the “innovation – change” interface. Alter1 represents innovation as a change while also encouraging us to distinguish between “change” and “movement”. According to him, innovation is based on three types of logic: intuition, a notion of good (a “positive” belief) in line with intuition and social recognition, as intuition and imitation play a key role in its adoption.

In terms of organizational change and innovation, the concept of stability is relegated to second place, in favor of the notion of change, and represents a sort of blind spot of the latter concept. The praise of change as the fruit of innovation, which very often becomes a reality, is then structured against stability and permanence, regarded as inertia. Like innovation, change may be represented in the categories of evolution (it is then seen as an incremental process) or revolution (we refer then to “rupture”). However, with rupture, from an organizational standpoint, we refer more to the idea of “cutting” (which then leaves us the possibility of keeping something – at least a trace of coordination) rather than breaking (in this case nothing would remain, as breaking has more to do with the “clean slate” syndrome). We are also dealing with the issue of permanence, another version of stability, in the face of the impermanence that governs change … unless this permanence is the permanence of change. Can change only be interpreted in relation to what remains the same? That which is left unchanged constitutes what remains intact. Thus, this is what raises the issue of knowing in which respects change leads to something different.

In relation to innovation, organizational change is very often coupled with organizational learning and each of the two perspectives relies then on the other, while both strengthen each other. Learning is a requirement for the responsiveness to change. The innovating and learning character of an organization is all the more marked as the organization is able to foster some learning. This approach favors interactions, continual adaptations and reconsiderations that stimulate “double-loop” learning. It allows an organization to develop and change the way it works in order to integrate new processes, compatible with its culture, systems and structures.

The point of this work is to consider innovation at the interface of “science” and “science fiction”. In this sense, this book contributes to the ontology of innovation, a notion that is nowadays very often highlighted. Placing innovation between “science” and “science fiction” means making room for the imagination in relation to two types of logic, a discursive and an ideological one. This is the reason why the role of innovation is justified in relation to the milestones of science fiction literature mentioned by the author. The notions of ideology, utopia, myth and imagination are highlighted, and it is shown how science fiction (especially in its cyberpunk and biopunk versions) can lay the imaginary foundations of innovation.

This demonstration underlines the significance of this underground universe, which is in most cases concealed, as well as the ambiguousness of its actors, leading the reader into this living world of multiple and inspiring references. The ways in which science fiction structures innovation are described. The imaginary narrative built by science fiction contributes to the ontology of innovation. Science fiction, especially its cyberpunk strain, significantly lays the foundations for the diffusion of utopic technological representations for engineers and managers. According to the author, science fiction certainly represents an ideology as well as a mythology.

Therefore, let us hope that this work, which has opened new perspectives in terms of how innovation is usually considered, will not be forgotten.

Yvon PESQUEUXProfessor of “Development of Organizational Systems”CNAM

1

[ALT 03].

Introduction

Innovation starts complex processes that involve the imagination on different levels. Although it is difficult to say which scientist or science-fiction writer is behind an innovation, every new technology or product is part of the imagination that goes hand in hand with its invention, origin and diffusion. Science existed before science fiction, yet the latter is increasingly mentioned by businesses and organizations when they present or justify investments or strategic policies. Although science fiction has spread scientific discoveries for a long time, while also enhancing them through utopic and futuristic technologies, it has become one of the driving forces of the dynamics of capitalism. Science-fiction creativity belongs to an age that uses storytelling to manage and publicize its innovation policies. How can we explain the tendency of the global productive system to make the impossible, namely science fiction, possible?

The belief that science fiction has the gift of prophecy is widespread among certain fans, some of whom try to unlock the secrets of the future by reading these stories. It is challenged by other more rational actors, who think that it may at best accompany the diffusion of prototypes of inventions and consider the uses and practices related to scientific discoveries or promising inventions. The debate about the prophetic function of science fiction will be discussed in greater detail further on. What is, however, the impact of the imagination on the way the economy works, and particularly on the unfolding of the economic cycles brought about by innovations? The imagination, be it Max Weber’s religious imagination or a technical type of imagination, plays a significant role in the creation of individual and collective identities. A society must unite the population around imaginary representations in order to be stable. In societies with a long history, this imagination revives the memory of great events or men. In young societies, like the USA, the social contract pivots on representations of the future, namely of a planned history still to be written. If it is often said that it is the winners who have the right to write history, for the USA this becomes a legitimacy to plan a global future achieved following the country’s involvement in 20th Century conflicts. American hegemony relies in part on the dissemination of futuristic stories that foreshadow the great techno-scientific challenges to come. Science fiction reveals the dreams of nations or organizations. It is significant that it was invented in France [STA 16] and Great Britain during the industrial revolution, when these two powers were ruling the world, thanks, in particular, to their colonial empires. Americans have laid claim to this art of anticipation while creating a hegemonic power. Science fiction celebrates the values of a global order ruled by the USA. It is commonly believed that it has heralded most of the great innovations of the 20th Century. However, some great authors, such as Neal Stephenson, have lamented over the past few years that science fiction is producing a large quantity of dystopic works, as if now it could only describe a nightmarish future – evidence of a present society in jeopardy. What if science fiction, which has existed for around two centuries, could no longer dream of futures that have for the most part become a reality? We will consider how this genre may be plagued by a period of doubt and be in a creative lull, at the end of a cycle dominated for 30 years by the cyberpunk movement, and at the beginning of a new era that is still to be imagined. It is also likely that the success of transhumanism, which represents the ideological apotheosis of science-fiction imagination, raises issues about its role in the process of innovation and the possible dangers related to a neo-technocratic recovery of its futuristic inventions.

If science fiction is the product of industry and science, it has progressively become more autonomous, putting forward the perspectives that are relatively or completely unexplored and useful for processes of innovation that increasingly use the imagination.

The histories of technosciences and science fiction are closely interconnected, so much so that some sectors, like the space industry, IT and ICT openly accept their relationship with a kind of imagination that is, however, morally condemned by the greatest thinkers and philosophers. The industrial revolution also entailed the creation of a system suitable for the development of these types of imagination, especially with the invention of cinema, television and the Internet. Democracies are using it as fuel necessary for the expression of organizations and individuals.

Science fiction is known for its description of future scenarios. Most of its stories depict the future, thus raising the issue of its prophetic function. Imagining the future is also necessary for those organizations and societies whose social contract relies on innovation. Innovating means creating the future. Consequently, is science fiction actually prophetic? Does it really foreshadow the most innovative scientific discoveries and technologies? If so, does it favor the capitalist system, or should we dread the advent of a Promethean science potentially harmful to humankind? Scientists occasionally acknowledge the influence of science fiction on their creativity. The management of innovative projects involves the consideration of technological imagination.

The first part of this book will present, through a short history of science fiction, some famous cases of utopic technologies that have later become innovations, some of which have contributed to the improvement of human standards of living. It will also deal with the psychology of businesses, some of which use creativity techniques that rely on the creation of science fiction stories. The fact that organizations make use of science fiction is becoming more and more familiar to the extent that the issue of the legal value of utopic technologies has arisen. Should we implement a patent system to protect them and ensure that artists who have predicted innovative technological processes are remunerated?

The second part of the book deals with the utopic and ideological dimension of innovation. The space industry will be mentioned as part of the discussion about the conquest and colonization of Mars. The issue concerning the influence of science fiction on the pioneers of this great project will be considered. Subsequently, we will present the nanotechnology sector. Once again, science fiction represents a driving force for innovators. NANORA’s (Nano Regions Alliance) reports on biotechnologies and ESA’s (European Space Agency) reports on the space industry demonstrate the interest of innovative organizations in an artistic genre that has become more and more justifiable and renowned for the quality of its predictions.

Epistemological issues are arising. Should science be influenced by an imagination that may divert it from its quest for reality? The debate on the two cultures condemned the fact that hard science was belittled in relation to the humanities in the British system in the 1950s. Nowadays, hard science is at the center of the production system and contributes to the stimulation of innovation processes, while the humanities are relegated to second place. Science fiction is situated at the intersection of these two elements. Technological and scientific imagination may certainly create a productive dialog between hard and soft science, where the imagination appears as a phenomenon that plays a more important role than it seems in understanding society, as well as the process of invention and techno-scientific innovation. This will lead us to the third part, where the relationships between imagination and innovation will be studied. From a Schumpeterian perspective, we will tackle the issue of the imaginary origin of innovation. Is science the consequence of the progressive uncovering of an imagination or even a subconscious of which science fiction is one of the manifestations?

1The Growth of the Imagination in Industrial Societies

1.1. A short history of science fiction

The history of science fiction illustrates the innovative mentality of industrial societies. Since its origin in the early 19th Century, this art has never stopped questioning the perspectives and boundaries of science and technology. This kind of imagination has developed alongside the industrial revolutions that brought about significant changes first in European societies and then in America and throughout the rest of the world. Although science fiction constitutes first of all a metaphor for the present, it is also part of an approach that describes the future. Most authors do not take on the prophetic dimension of their works. However, the history of science fiction shows some features that often recur in films and novels. According to the time period, criticism of the production system may be endorsed by most. At other times, the prospective dimension of this type of imagination is evident.

1.1.1. From Frankenstein to The Island of Doctor Moreau

Ever since the creation of science fiction, some themes have been regularly revisited. The novel Frankenstein raises the issue of the boundaries of science, which may become evil if scientists do not cultivate ethical values and set limits to their experiments. The fear of creating monsters or entities greater than Man and able to destroy him is frequent. The Frankenstein complex must be on every scientist’s mind when he or she decides to implement experimental protocols. The mad scientist myth is in part the result of this novel, which denounces the consequences of a Promethean type of science.

Box 1.1.Frankenstein, a seminal work

Frankenstein is often considered the seminal novel of science fiction. Written by Mary Shelley and published in 1816, it quickly considered a novel of a high standard. It describes the consequences of scientific experiments that have spiraled out of control. A Swiss scientist, Dr Frankenstein, creates a monster by giving life to a creature assembled from pieces of dead bodies. This novel revisits the myth of Prometheus and lays the foundations for a scientific imagination that metaphorically represents discoveries, particularly those made in the field of life sciences.

Science fiction fuels the collective fears related to the progress of technosciences and, paradoxically, it may play a part in the doubts and skepticism concerning progress, and even its rejection, in the face of terrifying or horrific representations. The critical dimension of imagination is far from trivial. Many works describe future societies that are dystopic or even post-apocalyptic. Classic works such as Orwell’s 1984, Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and Huxley’s Brave New World denounce the totalitarian excesses of some utopias. Even though these stories depict potentially revolutionary and avant-gardist technologies, it is first and foremost the risk of progressing towards an inhuman political system that often grips the reader. These works are taught to adolescents in literature courses in the schools of several countries. They have inspired several films and novels, which often portray futures that are technocratic or lean towards fascism, thus criticizing their production-centered societies.

H. G. Wells is one of the founding fathers of science fiction. After receiving training in biology, during which he was influenced by Darwinism and T. H. Huxley’s teaching, he turned to literature and, among other things, wrote The Island of Doctor Moreau in 1896. This novel is evidence of the debate about vivisection that stirred European societies at the end of the 19th Century. To remind the reader, the events of the novel take place on an island where a scientist uses vivisection to turn some animals into humans. The hero discovers his experiments and the monsters he has thus created. Upon the publication of this novel, the antivivisection movement was gaining momentum and some laws prohibited this practice, especially in England, where the Cruelty to Animals Act was passed in 1876. Vivisection involves performing operations or dissections on living animals. This practice became particularly widespread in the 19th Century. Wells’ ‘scientific romances’ are proof of the debates animating his contemporary scientific community. With this novel, Wells helps fuel the arguments of those who opposed vivisection. The influence of this kind of imagination on the ethical aspect of scientific experiments should be taken into consideration.

1.1.2. Jules Verne, the founding father of science fiction

Jules Verne (1828–1905) is one of the most read authors in France and all over the world. He is considered as one of the inventors of science fiction, even though the term was coined only a few years after his death by Hugo Gernsback. His first novel, Five Weeks in a Balloon, or Journeys and Discoveries in Africa by Three Englishmen, was published in 1863 by Pierre-Jules Hetzel, with whom Verne became close and drew up a 20-year contract. For 40 years, he devoted himself to his work which included 62 novels and 18 short stories. He was regarded as a scientist by his contemporaries and was progressively likened to a prophet as the technologies described in his novels became innovations in the 20th Century [CLA 05]. Jules Verne, however, was no scientist. Yet, he carried out extensive research and consulted the most recent scientific publications. He drew from this information fascinating stories, his Voyages extraordinaires, characterized by monstrous situations, rapid journeys, the influence of electricity or the use of technologies that were a mere utopia for the time, some of which would become actual innovations several decades later. Jules Verne’s reputation as a prophet stems from several predictions he made in his novels, which later on turned out to be accurate. Let us mention some examples. Helicopters were mentioned in Robur the Conqueror in 1886. The first prototypes emerged around 1910. In the same novel, he introduced the notion of plastic, which would be created in the 1930s. In From the Earth to the Moon (1865), he described the uses of aluminum and mentioned the idea of Man in space. This novel was particularly prophetic. We had to wait until 1961 to see Gagarin achieve this feat. This novel also inspired America’s first lunar mission. There are several similarities between the organization and site of the Apollo program and Jules Verne’s novel that should be noted. In Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1869), he described submarines, aqualungs and off-shore farms, which were developed later on. He also mentioned the Earth’s heating in Off on a Comet (1877), while geothermics would emerge around 1970. He also predicted in The Begum’s Fortune (1879) ecological waste incineration, artificial satellites and toxic gases. Finally, telecommunications were often emphasized, since the prototypes of televisions, VCR recorders, camcorders,