Science Fiction: what's the hook?

"To boldly go where no one has gone before"
We all know the quotation and I think it is an almost perfect description of what it is about science fiction that people love.
In science fiction an author and reader alike can explore "strange new worlds" as well as a whole host of aliens and alien civilisations. For me as a "social" sci-fi author, it also allows the opportunity to explore what it is to be human. By that I mean, how do we view ourselves as individuals and how does that view fit in with the broader community and global community. Being fiction, sci-fi allows the opportunity to examine where our human civilisation might find itself in the future, or in an alternate realm or indeed even today.
I believe today more than ever that science fiction is extremely relevant.
Think of your parents and grandparents, most of them did not grow up with computers, the Internet or mobile telephones, some may be old enough to remember some of the first commercial aeroplane flights! What that means for us in an all consuming age of leaping toward the technological future, is that sci-fi is not as far fetched as it was to our immediate predecessors.
Science fiction is more relevant than ever for exploring who we are as a species as well as exploring the ethical and moral implications of the new technology and our use of it, in short our social conduct amongst ourselves and the wider community of the galaxy and beyond.
By exploring these notions in novels, social science fiction authors are often able to make wonderful comparisons and commentaries on issues that our world faces today and hopefully give readers pause for thought about dire situations that make no sense (like people starving in Africa or Japanese whaling for "science") or preventable outcomes (such as nuclear war) and even explore the amazing and uplifting Utopian society that we could evolve to.
Science fiction also offers an incredible canvass for science minded authors to explore ideas that can really shake up the world (think of Star Trek hand held communicators- now look at your cell/mobile phone!)
Ideas that were once considered utter fantasy are now reality. It also offers a reader an opportunity to delve into a new and exciting novel filled with weird aliens and battles for the universe! (may the force be with you)
Science fiction adds to our social and moral conscience and can have some pretty harrowing comments to make about where we are right now as a race of beings.
Ultimately I believe that science fiction is a positive injection into the human psyche, it leads us forward and rarely looks back.

I wonder how much science fiction has actually inspired scientists ?