Weird Science Science in Media and Popular Culture

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Weird Science Science in Media and Popular
Culture

• Matt Malkan
• Astronomy UCLA
• www.astro.ucla.edu/malkan

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Weird ScienceHouston (New York, Hollywood),
we have a problem

• And a fantastic opportunity!

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Science (2) and Scientists (1) Incompletely
Understood

• Creative Exploration of new ideas, original
  situations is becoming more feasible (and
  profitable), BUT
• are great F/X, CGI in science fiction a license
  for bad writing?
• Much writing about science and scientists is
• Confusing, Illogical, Unrealistic, to point of
  stupidity
• Misleading, Unfair.
• Why do (some) scientists care? Because
• (4) Popular/Fiction probably influences public
  as much as all our Prose/PR

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Weird ScienceSloan Foundation will see more
Science when it stops being

• Inhuman,
• Incomprehensible,
• Impractical,
• Unreal,
• Uncertain,
• Uncreative
• Guilty as charged!
• Sort of.
• But WHY?

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Scientists /Intellectuals Cannot Relate to People

• (1) Learning science separates exceptional
  students from humanities, communications
• Requires an almost unhealthy obsession with
  the esoteric their way of being special
• If someone had told me I would be Pope one
  day, I would have studied harder.
• Pope
  John Paul I
• You dont LOOK like a professional astronomer!
• Ive been sick.

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Scientists Cannot Relate to People

• Are scientists unbalanced fanatics?
• Many of the best ones are (like film makers,
• And other high achievers)
• (2) Theyd rather work than socialize or
• have fun, since their choice of
• research career
• shows disregard for monetary, leisure benefits
• That post-doc is so gung-ho, his coffee mug at
  work says TGIM.

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Scientists Do Not Relate to People

• (3) This accompanies intellectual arrogance,
  impatience with those who are not dues-paying
  members of the club
• comment about 3rd caveman Hes become just
  insufferable since he invented fire
• Human craving for prestige, authority
• Back off! Were scientists.--Ghostbusters

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When they try relating, Scientists are Naïve,
Value-Free Drones

• Striking analogies with markets, price system
  objective standard
• Its NOT Who you know
• Technology flowing from scientific discoveries
  CAN be exploited by bad, desperate politicians
• and
• it is harder to build up than to tear down

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Guilty as Charged!Sciences Cannot Relate to
People

• Scientific method is a relentless quest for
  UNIVERSALITY, impartiality.
• To protect it from human weaknesses,
• Person who did the science should be irrelevant
• Principles trump personalities (eg, Samurai code)
• This is the core of Western intellectual
  tradition, at least back to Galileo.
• ie, its results should work for anybody
• Whats so great about computer standards is
  that there are so many of them to chose from.
  --- Anon

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Physical Science is Impersonallacks human
references

• Human systems cant be described by simple
  physical laws most important human ideas are
  normative choices. Thus most problems do not have
  purely technical fixes, contrary to what
  academics want to believe.
• The streets are safe in Philadelphia, its only
  the people who make them unsafe.
• --- Frank Rizzo, ex-police chief and mayor of
  Philadelphia
• The laws in this city are clearly racist. All
  laws are racist. The law of gravity is racist.
  --- Marion Barry
• The hardest thing in the world to understand is
  the income tax --- A. Einstein

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Physical Science is Impersonallacks human
references

• (2) All scales of space and time are utterly
  different from daily experience, making it so
  hard to get a sense of perspective
• My friend sent me a postcard with a satellite
  photo of the whole Earth, and wrote Wish you
  were here.
• What makes the universe so hard to comprehend is
  that theres nothing to compare it with.

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Science is Magic

• (1) Huge amount of difficult preparation before
  discussing it, since were building on an
  enormous base of prior knowledge.
• (2) Math, the natural language of the physical
  world, is a huge barrier.
• Half of the world has NO IDEA how the other
  three-quarters lives! --- Bertie Wooster

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Science is Magic

• (3) Just mention fancy-sounding science, and
  ANYTHING GOES! Toss all physical laws and write
  fantasy
• ex psychic powers, impossible
  accelerations, sounds in vacuum (EXCEPT
  Clarke/2001!), (backwards) time-travel
• Writers dont get away with that nonsense in ER
  or LA Law

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Science is Magic

• (4) But actually, simplest is usually best
• science (if not technology) loves Occams
  Razor
• e.g. Copernican Revolution naturally explains
  retrograde motion Eratosthenes, Olbers paradox
• Everything should be made as simple as
  possible, but not simpler.
• -- A.
  Einstein

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Science is Too Unreal

• Vast extension of senses to unfamiliar realms
• intuition often inadequate,
• analogies can be dangerous intuition and
  appearances deceiving
• simple explanations require special talent!
• At party, you both have something in common,
• Dr. X is working on a particle no one has ever
  seen Dr. Y is working on a galaxy no one has
  ever seen.

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Science is Too Unreal

• (2) Much current data and models lack a
  satisfactory fundamental explanation, which is
  why were working on it
• All science is either physics or stamp
  collecting.
• --- E. Rutherford
• When the going gets tough, the tough get
  empirical
• Whenever anyone says, theoretically, they
  mean, not really

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Science is Too Uncertain

• (1) Scientific method is almost obsessed with
  understanding its own limits and uncertainties,
  so that they can be under constant attack if no
  error bars are given, and it isnt falsifiable,
  its lousy science.
• Creative destruction -- we specialize in
  admitting we were wrong
• When a scientific field starts paying a lot of
  attention to its history, you can tell its on
  the way down.
• ---- Wal Sargent
• I asked a scientist her phone number. She gave
  me an estimate.

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Science is Too Uncertain

• (2) Public attention goes to the first
  discoverer, so there is a huge practical
  motivation to risk jumping the gun, which erodes
  public credibility over long run.
• (ex Taubes Nobel Dreams, Cold
  Fusion)
• why dont you scientists just make up your
  minds and then let us know?!

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Science is Too Uncertain

• (3) Most people have little understanding of
  probability and statistics,
• Nevada vacation, Dr. Smith 1 to 5. lets find
  another one, Im sure we can get better odds.
• and regularly overestimate the significance of
  apparent patterns.
• Random events tend to occur in groups
• Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary
  Evidence

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Science Stifles Artistic CreativityIts
Cookbook Formulae

• That is how it is experienced in most
  non-scientists education, and even for many
  scientists at many times and places in their
  work.

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Science Stifles Artistic CreativityIts
Cookbook Formulae

• Revolutionary breakthroughs are as rare as in
  art or other fields, often by newcomers. Many
  occur by accident, when a well-prepared mind
  uses some new tool (from Galileo to
  Penzias/Wilson)
• Striking analogies with evolution, mutation and
  natural selection of theories (survival of
  fittest)

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Science Stifles Artistic CreativityIts
Cookbook Formulae

• Aesthetics are important, but abstract (eg.
  Symmetry), formal
• (ex physicists are musicians, not painters,
  used to clearly defined rules).

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Science is Boring

• Slow, abstract, rarely visually active (compare
  Shakespeare in Love writing sequences limited
  material for a music video) how to show
  problem-solving in a mystery.
• Even most documentaries show little process of
  science
• As Chou En-lai responded to a question about the
  significance of the French Revolution, Its too
  soon to tell.

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Science is Boring

• (2) Theoretical and impractical. AT FIRST, but
  unpredictable technological applications (ex.
  Helium, nuclear reactions in sun, stars).

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Properly understood, science is an exciting human
adventure

• There is always something exciting about
  pursuing a (surprising) discovery that explains
  many things everyone previously considered a deep
  mystery

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But audiences CAN get scientific insights about
science and scientists AND be entertained
simultaneously! Exceptional science
movies 2001 --A Space Odyssey
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Awesome attention to realistic details,
most Intelligent science show in history of TV
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Many great classic biopics
Edison, The Man
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More great Science Movies

• Heavenly Body (William Powell, Pasadena
  astronomer, and his wife Heddy Lamar, who dabbles
  in astrology)
• Madame Curie
• Fat Man and Little Boy
• Story of Alexander Graham Bell
• Colossus
• Contact minus the ending (always toughest part of
  sci-fi)
• Most writings of Greg Benford
• Several screenplays written for Sloan Foundation!