April 22, 2011

Let’s All Hate Science

Filed under: Main — admin @ 12:01 am

Why does fiction so hate science?

Just finished playing Portal 2. Great game. Wonderful puzzles. Outstanding story and humor.

Even so, most of the humor centers around malevolent science.

Is science really that evil?

Well, comically so according to the script of Portal 2. The theme is that science is dangerous. It’s promoted by greedy money-men who ignore safety and care little for people. Stir in J.K. Simmons’ brilliant narration and you have some comedy gold, but it’s not appreciated.

Science is not evil. True, bad things can happen. But ever since Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein, the theme of science in literature is generally that it’s bad, causes bad things to happen, and therefore is the main plot device because of its unintended consequences.

Consider any episode of Star Trek where some scientist comes along and develops something new. The new invention is supposed to do something to make life easier for everyone, to improve society. Yet, without exception, the science turns out bad. Things are destroyed. Lives are lost. All because of nasty, nasty science.

The scientist doesn’t even need to be twisted or greedy. It’s the science itself that causes the trouble!

Does mankind have some kind of innate fear of technology?

Heck, we even have a word for it: Luddite.

Ned Lud’s name is forever remembered because he and his fellow workers destroyed machinery they believed threatened their jobs.

Stupid machines. Damned science.

Even though the culture may be against it, you can’t deny what science has brought us. The computer you’re using right now sits there courtesy of a lot of science. Advances in medical science probably saved more than one person you know. Just about everything that touches your life and makes that life better can be attributed to science.

So if there’s all this solid evidence that science is good, why does literature (and video games) portray it as malevolent?

And we wonder why kids don’t take up science in school.

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