I was deeply compelled by Prof. Goodman's discussion with Jill Tarter. In particular, I thought their conversation about the role of science fiction in astrophysics—namely, that science fiction can and has inspired technical innovations in the real world. From this point, I make the immediate connection to unknown unknowns. Often times, significant technological advances come from unknown unknowns—concepts we couldn't even conceive of let alone understand. This raises a dilemma for scientific research: how do we capitalize on the value of discoveries from unknown unknowns? Enter science fiction, or, more generally, creativity and imagination. Science fiction writers, even when they couch their stories in scientific realism, are freed from the constraints of the known. They can push the boundaries in unpredictable ways; in fact, in an appeal to interest and intrigue, they are incentivized to. There is a place for science fiction in science—perhaps a bigger one than we realize.
Hi Andrew. I think that science fiction and creativity are crucial for expanding our ideas of what an extraterrestrial being could look like and for inspiring future inventions. Science fiction has predicted many technological innovations long before humans had the knowledge and resources required to actually do what is seen in the cartoons and books. For example, the book Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy imagined credit cards half a century before they were invented. Using art as inspiration should be another tool that we use to try to understand the unknown and push the boundaries of possibility.
I love the connection here between sci-fi and 'unknown unknowns' - it's not something I thought of before, but maybe the realm of the unknown truly is the way that artists can fit into the pursuit of empirical truth. The question that you raise: 'how do we capitalize on the value of discoveries from unknown unknowns?' becomes thus absolutely crucial. Human's potential for innovation is one of the most expansive resources on the planet - how can we tap into that in every discipline, and in particular, not just allow but facilitate cross-pollination?