Grand Challenges, Innovation, Technofear, and Technosolutionism in the Works of Michael Crichton

Thierry Burger-Helmchen ()
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Thierry Burger-Helmchen: BETA - Bureau d'Économie Théorique et Appliquée - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg - UL - Université de Lorraine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg, UNISTRA FSEG - Faculté des sciences économiques et de gestion [Strasbourg] - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg

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Abstract: This article examines how Michael Crichton's novels can help us understand how organizations and societies make sense of innovation and technological complexity, uncertainty, and conflicting values when confronting grand challenges. It presents technofear and technosolutionism as contrasting but interconnected ways of interpreting technological situations and justifying action. Based on a narrative analysis of The Andromeda Strain, The Terminal Man, Prey, and State of Fear, the study shows that these responses can coexist, alternate, and generate one another. Attempts to restore control can create new dependencies, reduce transparency, and blur responsibility, thereby generating technofear. Conversely, fear rarely leads to the abandonment of technology. Instead, it often encourages reliance on alternative experts and specific forms of knowledge. The article develops a dynamic framework for understanding this recursive relationship and presents fiction as a resource for innovation management, managerial reflection, foresight, and responsible innovation. Fiction is not treated as evidence of managerial behaviour or as validation of scientific claims. Rather, it provides material for examining how narratives construct and challenge claims about technological certainty, responsibility, control, and legitimacy.

Keywords: Sensemaking; Innovation management; Technosolutionism; Technofear; Sociotechnical imaginaries; Science fiction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-08-21
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Published in Journal of Innovation Management, 2026, 1, pp.1-25. ⟨10.3390/joi1010002⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05732065

DOI: 10.3390/joi1010002

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