Will the faulty science in TV and movies ruin society?
MKR
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http://www.physorg.com/news106397085.html
tl;dr: Two scientists from Florida say bad science is going to screw society up.
With all the pseudoscience and related idiocy I read about on JREF, Bad Science, and Bad Astronomy, it's not too difficult for me to believe. What do you think?
tl;dr: Two scientists from Florida say bad science is going to screw society up.
With all the pseudoscience and related idiocy I read about on JREF, Bad Science, and Bad Astronomy, it's not too difficult for me to believe. What do you think?
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I have a society quality detection unit here that CLEARLY says faulty science is not ruining society.
See? Empiracle.
B.net: Kusanku
MWO: Adamski
Precisely. I couldn't care less about most physics because the mathematical algorythms and yadda yadda yadda are pretty much inapplicable in my daily life. I mean, sometimes I'll find some aspect of a branch of science interesting, but I recognize that advanced scientific knowledge is more or less beyond both my wants and means.
[edit] Issues like global warming are really different from small things like a bus jumping over a gap in the highway. For instance, person #1 beleives in both global warming and the bus, because they've learned about global warming due to it's status as an important issue - but they never learned shit about the physics of a six ton bus trying to leap across a chasm, because it was never relelvant.
Maybe people believe the stuff they see in movies BECAUSE they've never learned that it doesn't really work that way, rather than the reverse.
If TV and movies are impacting the problem at all, it's because they foster an "entertain me" attitude, where students expect to be entertained in order to learn something, rather than put in the work required. All they're doing with this "Physics in Film" course is pandering to that expectation and making the problem worse.
MWO: Adamski
With current breeding rates that might not be the best strategy.
But what if the polarity was reversed?
Society ruining faulty science? I don't think that would make a very compelling plot. Then again... Die Hard...
Nope, looks like society's still there.
I don't think you watch enough science fiction.
I don't agree, largely because sci-fi novels are enough of a niche market compared to TV and movies, and have the capacity to flesh out their ideas more. That's not to say novels don't have bad science, they absolutely do. But at least novelists can spend some time explaining/justifying their ideas, instead of just saying "Set phasers to stun."
IOS Game Center ID: Isotope-X
I also think it would be fair to say that the average person reading a science fiction novel isn't going to rely on the novel for their scientific learning. They're typically (not always, I realize) the type to check things out if they doubt the "reality" of something described.
Based on that article, I think Dr. Costas J. Efthimiou should shut his trap and get back to work.
Like putting too much air into a balloon.
- Exactly!
I absolutely despise CSI and the "science" it teaches people. Shows like that, as opposed to movies, are what is ruining people's concepts of science.
You have to admit, some of the lines are genius, though.
"Who brings a gun to a knife fight?"
"The winner?"
I also blame Mr. Wizard for retiring, then dying.
The "no" first: People who actually "do science" are more likely to know what they are doing, having researched the subjects, and generally know what the real issues are. The average lay person will not affect this for the most part. There have been complaints from prosecutors about the CSI effect, where what is shown on those television shows has given jurors unreasonable expectations about what the prosecution needs to provide to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
But for the "yes," it can bleed into politics and become part of policy. And especially media-savvy politicians could use bad popular science from television to play on people's fears and beliefs to push bills through that are not grounded in real science, or for good old re-election.
It's awesome to teach people enough science so they don't poison their kids, and it's especially awesome to teach them enough about the scientific method that they can apply that kind of thinking ot their decisions. But people have a hard enough time programming VCRs, so I don't think it really matters if they know the mechanics of a black hole at this point.
But man, when I saw the new resident evil trailer and someone in the trailer said "Her power is growing at a geometric rate" I groaned and turned to my friend, "A geometric rate eh? So it's growing like a triangle?"
No.
Why wouldn't they say her power is growing as a geometric progression then?
Looking up the wording geometric on an online dictionary turns up lots of results that say "of or pertaining to geometry or the principles of geometry" but only one says "increasing or decreasing in a geometric progression"
You know they meant exponential rate. Cause a geometric rate could be going up, or down, or swapping positive and negative. And you know they are just trying to say that her strength is increasing upwards very, very rapidly by leaps and bounds :P
What if her power is growing at an exponential rate, but the exponent is negative?
Edit: Actually, that wouldn't be that bad, since we're still talking about rate of growth, not growth itself.
True, but growing at an exponential rate implies getting bigger, if they wanted to say getting smaller, I guess they'd say shrinking at an exponential rate?
Except for that whole dying of plague thing. Which, ironically, could have been stopped by science.