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When science and entertainment mixes together it creates scientainment, a desperate attempt to get an otherwise not interested audience engrossed in whatever project based on conjecture they need funding for at the time. Because public interest causes big money holders such as (companies, government…etc) to give money to that project so that their name would be on that future “scientific breakthrough.” and they get lots of money because of that relation. If any of you readers in cyber-rant land have cable then you may have watched the main source of my terror …the discovery channel. (though don’t get me wrong I love that channel but some of those specials are not based on any fact what so ever and are only guess work and speculation.
In one of these shows (actually not released by the Discovery channel until 2005 but first on the BBC network, in 2003) it was called “The Future is Wild” Filled with flying fish, giant bugs , and squids that replaced humans as the main animal on land; they evolved to some kind of squid-mammal. (I know…) So far all the future based specials are very idiotic more based on a sci-fi novel and some five year olds over active imagination. Ok, yah I know what a lot of people are going to say a lot of breakthroughs had a basis in science fiction and also of course it is mostly guess work; we can’t have any bases on fact if we weren’t there, and we can’t time travel. Now that we got that out of the way lets get back to my pet peeve, I really don’t find the point of filling an hour up to 90 minutes with nothing but “what if” scenarios with about 3 minutes of mathematical equations strewn through out the whole entire show.
But that’s not the only thing that gets my goat, its not only the future series but also the fourth dimension shows, the black whole shows, and even something as simple as the latest discovery. Really all that those shows are lacking are the big explosions, because now all those series’ from health to the future have the dramatic music, the close-ups all matching efforts in one of those cop/CIS shows to make them more dramatic . I do appreciate the effort to make those things more entertaining and approachable, and not turning it into something only someone with a PhD can understand. But I don’t think it helps to turn something that’s supposed to be educational into something that is more entertainment that science either.