Man, I love me some good SF. You're right, I enjoyed the books listed in the Bitcoin Astronomy post but they're not necessarily my favorites. I love the classics -- Asimov, Bester, Clarke (to quote Martin Prince). Other favorite authors are Neal Stephenson, Ursula K Le Guin, Vernor Vinge -- almost every book they've put out is great. One problem with SF is that there are authors I love whose books I don't recommend because most people probably wouldn't like them. For example, I adore Greg Egan, but I acknowledge that if you like well-realized characters or good prose then you might be disappointed by Egan because all he can offer you is absolutely mind-blowing ideas :) (I feel similarly about the Three Body Problem series...) Or Peter Watts, whose books are the few which leave me feeling confused, but in a good way.

RE: scientists & researchers -- I haven't seen them applying bitcoin to their work yet, I think first they have to apply their methods to bitcoin. That's happening! Check out Micah Warren's textbook on bitcoin, or the increasing number of papers out there analyzing bitcoin from all sorts of perspectives. Hopefully as this kind of work becomes more normalized, the flow can reverse, and bitcoin-y ideas can infect the academy wholesale :)