Science Cheerleader

Thanks, Mike Treder, for sharing this. Mike’s the managing director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. I’m a big fan of Mike’s writings, although some may think we are not of the same species. Almost everything about us can be described as polar opposite. He’s even a damn Yankees fan! But we do share our zest for opening doors to public participation, particularly in matters of technology policy.

Mike will be speaking at an upcoming seminar titled Biopolitics of Popular Culture, as will David Brin (author of The Postman) who wrote this piece for SciCheer last year.

If you register TODAY, you can cash in on the early bird discount.

Here’s the program description I copied from IEET’s website:

Popular culture is full of tropes and cliches that shape our debates about emerging technologies. Our most transcendent expectations for technology come from pop culture, and the most common objections to emerging technologies come from science fiction and horror, from Frankenstein and Brave New World to Gattaca and the Terminator.

Why is it that almost every person in fiction who wants to live a longer than normal life is evil or pays some terrible price? [Note from SciCheer: See interview with Ray Kurzweil for nonfiction example of someone who wants to live a much longer than normal life.]  What does it say about attitudes towards posthuman possibilities when mutants in Heroes or the X-Men, or cyborgs in Battlestar Galactica or Iron Man, or vampires in True Blood or Twilight are depicted as capable of responsible citizenship?

Is Hollywood reflecting a transhuman turn in popular culture, helping us imagine a day when magical and muggle can live together in a peaceful Star Trek federation? Will the merging of pop culture, social networking and virtual reality into a heightened augmented reality encourage us all to make our lives a form of participative fiction?

During this day long seminar we will engage with culture critics, artists, writers, and filmmakers to explore the biopolitics that are implicit in depictions of emerging technology in literature, film and television.

The other day I reported here on a reader’s idea to consider science fiction as a serious source of science information. Even posted a challenge:  free Science Cheerleader t-shirt to the first person who reads a science fiction book and reports back here what (if any) “real science” was learned. (Publisher Brian Hades saw that post and wrote to say he’d be “delighted” to add two books to the prize package: JEMMA7729 andTime Machines Repaired While-U-Wait. Thanks, Brian!):

Well folks, David Brin, winner of the prestigious Hugo and Nebula Awards for bestselling science fiction novels, wrote this terrific reaction to the post (thank you, David!). If you are a teacher, student or someone else interested in finding new ways to increase science literacy, I think you will find this very useful:

 

 

(more…)

Kym Murphy, a retired Sr. VP at Disney, recently posted an interesting suggestion in reply to the post: Benefits and Challenges of Engaging the Public:

“Many years ago I read an exciting fictional novel about World War II. It was riveting, heart wrenching, sexy and full of accurate information regarding this important historical chapter that has stuck with me to this day.

Then came, “Pillars of Earth”, Di Vince Code”, etc., etc. All works of fiction but amazingly thought provoking and educational. I refer to reading novels such as these as, “inadvertant learning.” 

I bring this up, because I believe this form of learning (stimulation) is rarely used by our country’s science teachers/professors. I’m sure there are those who would scoff at this approach, but what better way to learn than through enjoyable experiences!”

Thank you, Kym. Hey, no need to concern ourselves with scoffy educators*. The majority of the visitors to this site have completed school (I have absolutely no data to back that up) so we can think aloud here as independent, free-thinking adults. Shake off Sister Mary’s elements chart and say tootles to Mr. Zapparo’s pickled pig-in-a-jar.   We’re starting over. Learning science from scratch. Social Network Science we’ll call it. For now. Until I’m sued for some copyright infringement. 

I say we give your idea of learning science through science fiction stories a shot and raise the stakes a bit by posing a challenge. A free Science Cheerleader t-shirt to the first size-medium person who reads at least one science fiction book and reports back here what (if any) “real science” was learned.

To get you started, here’s a list of top science fiction books, compiled by Business Week.

*Note to NEA attorney: We are fortunate to count among our visitors intelligent, innovative and non-scoffy science educators.

Cheers!