Science Is Bad: Difference between revisions
→Literature
(Rescuing 1 sources and tagging 0 as dead. #IABot (v2.0beta9)) |
|||
Line 92:
** With the surprising exception of the [[Mel Brooks]] parody ''[[Young Frankenstein]]'', in which the eponymous scientist succeeds where his ancestor failed by accepting his creation like a loving father. When a group of his colleagues recoil in horror at the creature, he admonishes them "We are not children! We are scientists!", and the only real flaw in his creation (its permanently child-like, limited mind) is fixed by ''another'' scientific procedure, which Frankenstein risks his life to carry out.
** Stephen Jay Gould wrote one essay as a good-natured correction to people who thought ''Frankenstein'' was based around Science Is Bad, pointing out that while Shelley admits that being too excessive in a pursuit is usually a bad thing, ''all'' her examples were ''political''.
* [[Jonathan Swift]] rams this Trope down the reader's throat in the Laputa chapter of ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]''. The rulers are tyrants [[Politically Incorrect Villain| (and chauvinists)]] who respect only science, but it has made them [[The Caligula| incompetent rulers]]; while they are fond of mathematics, astronomy, music and technology, they fail to make practical use of their knowledge. For instance, buildings in Laputa are poorly built and the clothing doesn't fit because they take measurements with instruments such as quadrants and a compass rather than with tape measures. Their physical conditions [[Evil Makes You Ugly| have degenerated too]], depicted as becoming so lost in thought that they do not move unless struck by a "bladder", many of their heads have become stuck reclined to one side, and they often suffer from strabismus: one eye turns inward and the other looks up "to the zenith". They don't even know that their wives [[Your Cheating Heart| are adulterers]] who are using their husbands' lack of attention to carry on affairs with the more loving servants. Even worse, they've had a negative effect on their subjects. Not only are Lagado and Balnibarbi poverty-stricken, the governor of the former visited Laputa once, and was inspired to build the Academy of Projectors, where completely worthless projects are endlessly worked on. Ironically, the governor of Balnibarbi is likely the most lucid man in the chapter, one of the few characters Gulliver meets with any common sense. Of course, Swift was using this chapter to mock - [[Satire| other things]] - the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Society absurd inventions of the Royal Society.]
* In [[Anne McCaffrey]]'s ''[[Dragonriders of Pern|Pern]]'' novels, some of the natives regard the newly rediscovered supercomputer as evil and try to destroy or discredit it, either through superstition or fear of change. The planet was originally settled by people who only wanted to leave their ''dependance'' on technology behind, not to form a Luddite civilization. In time this meant they lost all but the most basic stuff needed for survival, and because of this they suffered. It was eventually ''returning'' to the technological state which saved them, when they found AI which gave them access to all the tech the colonists planned on having, but lost.
** Given the AI is dropped in as a near-literal [[Deus Ex Machina]], and the new technology is rammed down the throats of the populace by a small group who've already developed a reputation for ruling by fiat because they saved the world and they know best.
Line 118 ⟶ 119:
* The second and third ''[[Dinotopia]]'' books were quite [[Anvillicious]] about this, although it should be noted that they were more anti-technology than anti-science, since the protagonist himself was a scientist (although more of a naturalist, really).
* [[The Tripods]] used this,but as a pretense of the antagonists rather than an actual theme of the work. The Masters gave the appearance that they blamed science and technology for humankind's evilness, thus pushing humanity back to the middle ages with the Caps. (ie sending the Science Is Bad message through the caps.) It was really to stifle creativity and independent thinking and make humans easier to subdue.
== Live Action TV ==
| |||