I don’t know if this article actually surprised me. To physicists at the University of Central Florida have published a paper showing how Hollywood’s portrayal of science fiction might be leading to a lot of scientific illiteracy these days.
I guess the same logic could be applied to Hollywood’s portrayal of romance, and what people expect out of modern relationships. The Prince Charming, the Love-at-First-Sight, and the Polar Opposites Who Hate Each Other Come to Find Out They Are ‘The One'”. Yeah, those stereotypes.
So it is with science.
http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2007/07/hollywood-physics-is-it-all-science.html
Obviously a lot of this comes through such science fiction movies, where the laws of physics, and just plain common sense, are routinely broken for the sake of such things as mutants, radioactive spiders and aliens from other planets. Even more science-oriented movies, which are based on the premise of “this could happen,” like The Core, or The Day After Tomorrow can become damaging to viewers (especially younger ones) who come to think that, well, this may not be exactly how the world works, but it must be something close to it. Or maybe, “If I were just strong enough, I could do that stunt.”
The full article is pretty fascinating, fancy equations included. Worth a read. It covers various physical impossibilities and unlikelihoods that occur in films such as Speed, The Chronicles of Riddick, and Aeon. Fun stuff.
So, yes. One more thing that Hollywood is doing its just of spreading confusion and disinformation into the mass mindset. What does this all mean? Is Hollywood going to stop making these kinds of films? Sorry. Rhetorical question. I guess the best thing to do is enjoy the movies, if they are high enough caliber to do so, but try to be discerning when the digital special effects pave the way for scientific ignorance. It can even become a learning experience when you look at what is being presented on the screen, and then go try to figure out if what you saw was actually possible. Maybe I’m a geek for thinking that kind of research is enjoyable, but hey, I don’t have to defend what I do in my free time.
Has a movie ever affected you in this way? Has seeing something so patently impossible either taken away from enjoying the story, or even inspired you to go out and see what can really be done in our world? Or are movies just supposed to be like magic shows, where you entirely suspend your disbelief for the sake of popcorn and bedazzlement?
I see that smile.
I like bedazzlement; I’m completely okay with seeing the physically impossible on-screen.
What annoys me is when a science fiction show gets some point of science dead wrong – they aren’t just bending the rules for the sake of drama; they simply didn’t do their research.
I refused to watch Star Trek Voyager after seeing two separate episodes where this happened. In one, they described a black hole’s event horizon as “a very powerful energy field” (erm, no.) In the other, they claimed a “dark matter” nebula was emitting strong electomagnetic radiation, when the definition of dark matter is that it doesn’t emit any radiation – it’s dark. Like, duh.
You want to know a great science fiction movie? The remake of Solaris, starring George Clooney. It’s primarily this wonderfully romantic love story with some really spooky and disturbing elements, but the movie also quietly gets some high-level science almost exactly right.
It’s really well done and enjoyable; I very much recommend it.
Writing that down on my must-see list. Which is pretty short with the types of movies coming out lately. Anyone checking out The Golden Compass in December?