Ficta: remixing generalized symbolic media in the new scientific novel

Søren Brier (1)

1 Department of Management

This article analyzes the use of fictionalization in popular science communication as an answer to changing demands for science communication in the mass media. It concludes that a new genre—Ficta—arose especially with the work of Michael Crichton. The Ficta novel is a fiction novel based on a real scientific problem, often one that can have or already does have serious consequences for our culture or civilization. The Ficta novel is a new way for the entertainment society to reflect on scientific theories, their consequences and meaning. is chosen for an in-depth analysis in order to bring out the essential characteristics of Ficta, showing how its reflections on complexity, fractals, self-reference, non-linearity and unpredictability in science transform our view of scientific knowledge as being the tool for deterministic control into a second order reflection on complexity and the limits of control and predictability.

Mots clés: Social Sciences & Humanities

Søren Brier. Ficta: remixing generalized symbolic media in the new scientific novel. Public Understanding of Science, 2006, 15 (2), pp.153-174. ⟨10.1177/0963662506059441⟩. ⟨hal-00571086⟩