SGER: Past Futures and Technoscientific Innovation: Science Fiction in the Lives of Scientists and Engineers

研究过去的未来，或通过科幻作家富有远见的眼睛预见的过去的未来，如何塑造现在，可以帮助我们改善未来。这项初步研究的目的是探索科幻小说在塑造科学家和工程师的智力发展方面的影响，特别是在他们的成长阶段。该项目符合探索性研究小额拨款(SGER)的要求，因为它构成了对未经测试的新想法的初步工作。具体地说，它建议探索这样一种观点，即科幻小说影响科学家和工程师的职业选择和研究轨迹，这一概念可以动员轶事支持，但从未通过实证研究得到证实。这项初步研究将作为一个更大的提议的基础，NSF学者奖将对技术科学和科幻之间的关系进行后续研究。该项目出现在科学与技术研究(STS)和图书情报科学(LIS)的交叉领域，旨在探索科幻小说如何影响科学家和工程师的职业选择和研究轨迹。在这样做的过程中，它融合了STS文献中关于技术科学的社会塑造的理论线索，以及来自LIS领域的读者/听众/观众/访问者/玩家生活中的大众媒体工作。该项目是由PI的混合专业知识实现的，PI的博士是STS，目前的教职是LIS，他之前曾进行过NSF资助的关于解剖模拟和计算模型等信息技术中嵌入的价值的伦理影响的研究项目。该项目将使PI能够在STS和LIS领域的交汇处推进他的研究议程，并进行将对这两个领域做出重大贡献的研究。这项研究的三个主要目标是更有力地理解技术科学与社会、大众媒体和科幻之间的关系。本研究假设科学家和工程师的职业选择和研究决策受到科幻小说以及其他大众媒体和社会因素的整体影响。数据收集包括对科学家和工程师的十次半结构化、开放式采访。访谈数据将使用扎根理论进行分析，以便不断整合研究结果，进一步完善研究设计，从而构建一个能够初步解释社会、大众媒体和科幻小说如何影响科学家和工程师的理论，并可以通过进一步的研究来检验和完善这一理论。结果将通过学术会议和同行评议的杂志传播。智力价值：这项研究将通过探索影响科学家和工程师的职业决策和研究轨迹的社会因素，为STS文献做出贡献。对LIS文献的贡献将是通过深入研究科学家和工程师作为读者/听众/观众/访问者/参与者的生活中的大众媒体，详细探讨技术科学与大众媒体之间的关系。最后，这项研究还将通过探索科幻小说是否以及如何影响科学家和工程师的职业选择和研究轨迹，来为关于技术科学和科幻之间关系的文献做出贡献。更广泛的影响：本研究还旨在产生更广泛的影响，重点关注科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)学生的招聘和留住。首先，通过加深对科幻小说如何影响科学家和工程师职业选择的理解，教育工作者将能够确定何时以及如何利用科幻小说来提高学生对STEM的兴趣，这可能会加强现有的教育项目，并使其合法化。此外，这项研究还可以通过强调女性和非白人作家和人物以及女权主义和多元文化主题，为科幻小说如何促进STEM学生的多样性提供见解。最后，这项研究可能会发现科幻小说可以帮助STEM专业的学生更多地意识到科学技术的社会和文化维度。

Studying how past futures, or futures envisioned in the past through the visionary eyes of science fiction writers, have shaped the present can help us to improve the future. The goal of this pilot study is to explore the influence of science fiction in shaping the intellectual development of scientists and engineers, especially during their formative years. This project meets the requirements for a Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) because it constitutes preliminary work on untested and novel ideas. Specifically, it proposes to explore the idea that science fiction influences the career choices and research trajectories of scientists and engineers, a notion for which anecdotal support can be mobilized yet which has never been substantiated through empirical research. This pilot study will serve as the foundation for a larger proposal for an NSF Scholars Award to conduct follow-up research on the relationship between technoscience and science fiction. This project emerges at the intersection of the fields of science and technology studies (STS) and library and information science (LIS), and seeks to explore how exposure to science fiction influences the career choices and research trajectories of scientists and engineers. In so doing, it merges the theoretical strand of the social shaping of technoscience from the STS literature with work on mass media in the life of the reader/listener/viewer/visitor/player from the field of LIS. The project is made possible by the hybrid expertise of the PI, whose Ph.D. is in STS and whose current faculty position is in LIS, and who has previously conducted NSF-funded research projects on the ethical implications of values embedded in information technologies such as dissection simulations and computational models. This project will allow the PI to further his research agenda at the intersection of the fields of STS and LIS, and to conduct research that will make significant contributions to both fields. The three primary objectives of this study are to develop a more robust understanding of the relationship between technoscience and society, mass media, and science fiction. This study hypothesizes that the career choices and research decisions of scientists and engineers are influenced by science fictionas well as other mass media and social factors as a whole. Data collection includes ten semi-structured, open-ended interviews with scientists and engineers. Interview data will be analyzed using grounded theory such that research findings will be continuously integrated to further refine the research design, leading to the construction of a theory that can provide a preliminary explanation how society, mass media, and science fiction influence scientists and engineers and which can be tested and refined through additional research. Results will be disseminated via academic conferences and peer-reviewed journals.Intellectual Merit: This study will contribute to the STS literature by exploring the social factors that influence the career decisions and research trajectories of scientists and engineers. The contribution to the LIS literature will be detailed exploration of the relationship between technoscience and mass media through an in-depth case study of mass media in the lives of scientists and engineers as readers/listeners/viewers/visitors/players. Finally, this study will also contribute to the literature on the relationship between technoscience and science fiction by exploring if and how science fiction might influence the career choices and research trajectories of scientists and engineers.Broader Impacts: This study also aims to produce broader impacts that focus on the recruitment and retention of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students. First, by improving understanding of how science fiction shapes the career choices of scientists and engineers, educators will be able to determine when and how to use science fiction to promote student interest in STEM, potentially reinforcing and legitimating existing educational programs. In addition, this study may also be able to provide insights into how science fiction can promote diversity among STEM students, through emphasis on female and non-white authors and characters and feminist and multicultural themes. Finally, this study may discover ways that science fiction can help students majoring in STEM to become more conscious of the social and cultural dimensions of science and technology.