Science…fact or fiction?
In honor of my sister, who is a scientist and whose birthday is this week, I’ve decided to write about science in film this week.
Years ago, when the first Jurassic Park film came out (Steven Spielberg, 1973) my sister pointed out that they set up the microscope wrong and that it wouldn’t work the way they had it. (Apparently, the film was too cheap to have a science expert on set to ensure it was put together properly. They only had over 60 million dollars, but facts and precision…eh who needs em? LA LA LA)
Anyway…
I think about that often and also about Galaxy Quest. The premise of Galaxy Quest, besides being a spoof of Star Trek, is that aliens come to actors for help because they believe that the television series is really a batch of historical records. Their entire space program and basically their society is based on those “historical records”. And actually, in real life, things like iPads and flip phones are based on technology shown in Star Trek. Art influences life. Fiction can become reality.
Many television shows use science or science hypotheses to create their technology. For example, The Flash basis their storylines about multiverses, timelines and the capabilities of dark matter on science theory.
And, if people are relying more on fiction than fact nowadays (which sadly does seem to be the case, but happily does remind us that as Einstein said, imagination can be more powerful than knowledge), will future generations believe in and therefore invent things based on the “historical records” the industry puts out every day like speed of light travel using dark matter (The Flash) and time travel based on string theory (Quantum Leap)?
Or will scientists just be seen as evil and something to be feared stopping any of these invented technologies from coming to life in the real world?
Films and television shows typically depict scientists as nerds who go too far and lose their way. They cannot just be people, smart people, doing their jobs and having normal lives, like scientists who who spend years developing treatments and vaccines. In film, they are either trying to rule the world with their inventions, losing sight of what is helpful versus what is harmful, or they are total nerds accidentally causing themselves to have super hero capabilities that they can’t control properly because they don’t bother testing things over years…they just go and inject themselves and see what happens. From the many scientists of Vincent Price (He really was a great actor and then found this weird niche in evil science fiction / horror films…check out his performance in Laura – Otto Preminger, 1944) to the Hulk (Ang Lee, 2003…also a TV series, The Incredible Hulk, starring the under appreciated Bill Bixby, 1977-1982) to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (too many versions to mention) there is always a “science is great, but we must keep it in check or these nerds will become too powerful and lose control” mentality.
Is this societal fear of science? Is it a fear of learning too much? Is it that most people don’t know scientists and therefore don’t see them as real people? Or are the nerdy writers of the world simply trying to take the nerdy scientists of the world and make them something to be feared to get back at the people who bullied them for playing dungeons and dragons and reading Lord of the Rings over and over again?
Whatever it is, I just want to say that my sister is a good, kind person and I can’t imagine her ever becoming a villian or out of control super hero…though she would be a pretty magnificent one and I’d be sure to get her a great costume.