It would be more ridiculous to think they never got any ideas from science fiction. Or rock music. Or abstract art. Or obscure theatrical productions just off B

It would be more ridiculous to think they never got any ideas from science fiction. Or rock music. Or abstract art. Or obscure theatrical productions just off Broadway. Or stand up comedy. Or ancient religious texts. Physicists are not hermetically sealed away from the rest of culture in some kind of non-euclidian math-cave built of complex numbers.