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Science Is Bad: Difference between revisions
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Writers are not scientists.[[hottip:*:Well, [[Isaac Asimov|not usually.]] Whether it is because they perceive science as cold and emotionless, or because they just disliked science and embraced literature [[Writers Cannot Do Math|after failing math in high school]], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite luddism] is an [[Ludd Was Right|awfully common philosophy]] in the arts community. The [[Harmony Versus Discipline|typical theme]] is that some sort of advanced scientific research has [[Gone Horribly Wrong]], [[Turned Against Their Masters|creating a monster]], causing an [[Apocalypse How|impending]] [[Attack of the 50 Foot Whatever|natural]] [[Disaster Movie|disaster]] and/or a [[Government Conspiracy|massive government cover-up]]. The heroes typically discover the [[Psycho Serum|side-effects]] of the research and investigate, discover what's going on, and try to stop it.
The antagonist (almost always either [[Mega Corp|corporate]] or military/government scientists -- and [[Beauty Equals Goodness|not]] [[Hot Scientist|hot]]) [[They Called Me Mad|refuses to believe]] that his work could be so badly [[Scale of Scientific Sins|flawed and/or immoral]], or simply doesn't care about [[Reluctant Mad Scientist|who gets hurt by it]], insisting that the research is ''[[For Science!]]!'' They will generally use their influence with the government to make life difficult for the heroes; this can include trying to have them arrested and/or [[Murder Is the Best Solution|otherwise]] [[The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much|silenced]], often leading to a shoot-out, jail break, or [[Chase Scene]].
In the end, the scientist will be [[Karmic Death|destroyed by his own creation]], the heroes will be proven right, and through their efforts the world will be saved from the horror of science. Sometimes the theme is softened by the presence of [[The Professor]] among the heroes who represents a more reasonable take on the science involved.
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Note that not every work with a [[Mad Scientist]] or a threat borne of science falls under this; it's only the case where [[These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know|Messing With Things You Ought Not To]] is blamed for the problems.
The trope rarely makes a distinction between [[Science
Frequently overlaps with [[Green Aesop]]. May be paired with [[Industrialized Evil]].
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If the writer is sincere in their belief that [[Technology Is Evil]], they may thrust the characters into a situation ([[Closed Circle]], [[After the End]], etc.) where they must survive without [[Scavenger World|(most of) the technology]], and take the good with the bad; compare [[Space Amish]]. The inverse of this is a [[Cozy Catastrophe]], where the heroes are able to get General Motors, police and [[Beauty Is Never Tarnished|hair salons]] up and running again only a few months after [[America Wins the War]], with [[Throwaway Country|similarly unfortunate]] implications on the [[No Endor Holocaust|opposite end]] [[Space Whale Aesop|of the spectrum]], implying that the writer believes in the [[Status Quo Is God|Status Quo]]. [[Zeerust]] can have a similar effect if an otherwise futuristic (or even [[Informed Attribute|"dystopian"]]) technocratic society bears a curious resemblance to [[Write What You Know|when it was written]] and problems the society was experiencing at the time.
Any time this trope shows up, you are very likely to find [[Romanticism Versus Enlightenment]] in its wake (and the work will be taking the Romanticist side). Related tropes include the [[Mad Scientist]], [[Reluctant Mad Scientist]], [[The Evil Army]], [[Government Conspiracy]], [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]], [[The Government|Government As Villain]], [[Mr. Exposition]], [[Technical Pacifist]], and [[Well
See also the [[Scale of Scientific Sins]] as well as [[Ambition Is Evil]]. Not to be confused with [[Do Not Try This At Home]] when Science is Dangerous, cause yeah, [[Straw Man Has a Point|sometimes it is.]]
{{examples
== Anime ==
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** Though the original still features the scientist destroying the machine at the end, rather than seeing that it works fine if people aren't careless like he was.
* Completely turned around by ''[[Darkman]]'', who, admittedly, was hideously deformed in a [[Freak Lab Accident]], but the accident in question was caused by [[The Mafia]]. When things are going bad, he reminds himself, "I'm a scientist!"
* The documentary ''Expelled'' [[
* Inverted by ''[[The Beast From Twenty Thousand Fathoms]]'', where blunt force ''could'' kill the rhedosaurus, but it spread the beast's disease far and wide, and only our heroic scientist can figure out a way to kill the rhedosaurus ''and'' the disease. Luckily, and [[The Evil Army|unusually]], the army guys are extremely cooperative.
* In the [[B
* Averted in the original ''[[Godzilla]]'' in which sane scientist Dr. Serizawa's Oxygen Destroyer ultimately kills Godzilla at the end. Of course, Serizawa is also very careful ''not'' to let his invention fall into the wrong hands by [[Heroic Sacrifice|dying alongside Godzilla]] and [[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup|burning all papers that contain information on the device]].
** He's only concerned about the wrong hands in the American version. In the original Japanese version, Serizawa makes no distinction between right hands and wrong hands, saying that humanity's destructive nature will cause the Oxygen Destroyer to become our very undoing if ''anyone'' gets ahold of the device.
** ''[[Godzilla vs. Destoroyah]]'' retroactively questions the use of the Oxygen Destroyer by revealing it led to flesh-eating microbes that can strip organic matter immersed in water in seconds. These evolve into car-sized monsters spewing beams that disintegrate materials that possess oxygen molecules. And finally, ''these'' combine into, quite naturally, a flying Kaiju monster with a beam weapon that can kick Godzilla's ass.<br /><br />The monster verges on raising the radiation levels of the entire planet beyond what life could survive. It also questions whether the doctor's sacrifice was actually heroic as the Oxygen Destroyer was, compared to other methods, less likely to destroy cities or attempt to exterminate the human race.
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* In ''[[G.I. Joe the Rise of Cobra]]'' nanotechnology is the primary villain, both as gray-goo-inducing nanite warheads and as nanite injections that create superhuman flunkies for [[Big Bad|Cobra]]. There are many scientists involved in Cobra, and apparently, scientists can't be trusted: {{spoiler|Rex [[Face Heel Turn|switches sides]] because they have nanotechnology}}.
* The 2002 film version of ''[[The Time Machine]].'' Near the start of the movie, the protagonist's friend asks him whether humanity's progress will ever go too far; the protagonist replies, "no such thing."<br /><br />He later has to admit that he was wrong -- when, in the future, he sees ''the Moon shattered into little pieces'' [[Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale|by atomic bombs]]. Earlier, when the protagonist returned to the past to try and save his girlfriend, she was killed by a malfunctioning automobile (just as the protagonist stopped being fascinated with it because it was "just a machine," and not worth taking his attention off of his love).<br /><br />In the distant future, the Eloi are peaceful, good people with very primitive technology; the evil, ugly Morlocks have an industrial society [[Beneath the Earth]]. They also have a [[Big Bad]] with a giant brain who is especially good at engineering, and at being evil.<br /><br />And in the climax of the movie, the protagonist destroys the industrial Morlocks -- by blowing up his machine in their lair (commenting on its loss with, again, "it's just a machine"). The only positive portrayal science or technology get in the film is with the generally helpful [[Projected Man|holographic librarian]] (who [[Ragnarok Proofing|somehow survives hundreds of thousands of years]] and is shown reading books to children at the end). But his main function is to keep memories of the past (and, presumably, its follies) alive, not to represent, or aid, progress.
* ''[[
* Dr. Carrington in ''[[The Thing From Another World (Film)|The Thing From Another World]]'' is a complete moron who continues to insist in the face of increasingly overwhelming evidence that the alien the base is dealing with is an intelligent and peaceful being, and repeatedly endangers everyone's lives trying to communicate with it.
* In ''[[Rocky IV]]'' the cold, emotionless Russian boxe Ivan Drago is shown training in a cartoonishly high-tech facility that measures his every exertion while government technicians look on, meanwhile vituous American Rocky trains on a farm by cutting down trees, lifting bales of hay, and running with a yoke on his shoulders. Guess who wins.
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* In ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'', science is usually the cause of evil, and science (in the form of the Doctor) usually saves the day. Whether or not it uses this trope depends on the specific episode.
* [[Joss Whedon]] has said the idea behind the Initiative from ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' was to create a conflict between science and magic, and when that happens, of course, magic eventually kicks science's ass. The Initiative goes on recon to study the habits of vampires and captures them so they can do further tests, all to [[Doing in The Wizard|better understand how they work and how they can best be contained]]. Buffy just stakes 'em. Guess which works better?
* ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'', despite being the best-known [[Speculative Fiction]] series, often dipped its toe into this trope. Worked on a sort of sliding scale, where the level of science the Federation had at that particular point in the episode was the exact right amount and trying to advance beyond that was just asking for the technological equivalent of [[Can't Get Away With Nuthin'|not being able to get away with a damn thing]]. Offscreen advance of science: good. Onscreen advance of science: bad.
** ''[[Star Trek the Original Series (TV)|The Original Series]]'' episode which most directly addresses this is "The Way to Eden" (the infamous "space hippie" one). Dr. Sevrin's followers want to abandon technology and return to a pastoral existence. Between his Vulcan half's admiration for their (ahem, [[Technical Pacifist|technical!)]] pacifism, and his human half's submerged longing for exactly that sort of simple life, [[Rounded Character|Spock]] of all people ends up sympathizing with them. He's deeply disappointed when their leader turns out to be nuts.
** ''[[Star Trek Voyager (TV)|Voyager's]]'' take on the [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens|Q]] is interesting. ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation (TV)|TNG]]'' had previously established that the Q believed humans might one day develop into a civilization comparable to themselves (and were [[Fantastic Racism|not very pleased about it);]] yet, in Voyager, most of the all-but-omnipotent Q are shown to be bored half out of their minds, because life offers no challenges any more.
** Averted in Roddenberry's novelization of the first [[Star Trek:
** In TOS, [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]] Sam Cogley's speech in "[[Star Trek (Franchise)/Recap/S1 E20 Court Martial|Court Martial]]" about liking his book collection better than his computer, even though he admits it can display any of their contents instantly.
** The TOS episode "The Ultimate Computer" is a great example of this trope, combined with a little [[Ludd Was Right]]. The Enterprise is testing a brand-new computer that could automate starships completely, making crews and captains all but obsolete. Of course, [[AI Is a Crapshoot]], things go south fast, and our heroes must pull the plug and save the day, but not before the sorrowful moments where Kirk faces the thought he may become obsolete. The scientist who designed the computer also turns out to be insane at the end, just to drive the point home.
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* While the ''[[Stargate]]'' series mostly avert this, the ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' episode "Trinity," wherein McKay finds an abandoned Ancient experiment to produce limitless energy, it's repeatedly suggested that he is getting in over his head (The Ancients did not complete the program, and it went rather wrong). Despite constant protestations that this is a field they are simply not ready for, McKay continues. In the end he ends up destroying a Stellar System. While the episode plays the aesop straight, a later episode has a solution to the problems from the first time, and the attempt is assisted by an Asgard, the most technologically advanced race who will talk with humanity.
** Well, five sixths of a Solar System. It's not an exact science.
* On an episode of ''[[CSI]]: NY'', this trope is used to demonize the science of Genetics. It starts off with a supposed dead man being stolen from the back of the van that was bringing it to the morgue. Then the body is dumped in the river, fished out and then found to be alive... brain dead, but alive. They find their way to a genetics research lab that's making goats produce silk in their milk and rats grow ears on their backs. The scientist in charge explains the benefits of it (silk in bulk, replacing a lost body part) but the cops just remark about how weird it is and when they leave remark that it's wrong. The main character going so far as to say progress was great, "but should've stopped."<br /><br />Turns out the genetics lab induced human hibernation on the victim, which the victim was involved in voluntarily and by accident the vic took too much of the mixture they created too fast. He ran out choking and collapsed. They stole him from the van thinking he was alive, thought he was dead when they couldn't revive him and dumped him before they got in more trouble for their unethical experiments. When confronted by this news the head scientist can only remark about his delight that it worked and lists off all the benefits like prolonged space travel and how he will be famous.<br /><br />The second suspect tries to tell the cops how putting them away will "shut the door on the future" as [[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup|no one else knows the formula but them]], but to the cops the complicated issue is simple, they committed attempted murder (even though they thought the guy was already dead) and are going to jail. It's not "robot apocalypse" or "mutant monster" worthy, but it still denotes the same thing: science is weird... and bad.
* ''[[Eleventh Hour]]'' generally runs on this trope, as should be expected of a show about a duo that takes down people who apply new technology unethically. However, it does at times depict the potential good that can be done with stem cells, genetic engineering and the like.
* Most of the new ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' avoids this, but the finale takes a great big swerve into [[Writer On Board]] territory. {{spoiler|First, everybody decides to chuck their technology and revert to hunter-gatherer barbarism in the hopes that their descendants will do better. Second, Ron Moore confirms that, after a thoughtful examination of how difficult it is to break the cycle of revenge, he chucked the metaphor and explained that [http://www.nj.com/entertainment/tv/index.ssf/2009/03/battlestar_galactica_ronald_d.html he's scared of our new Japanese robot overlords].}}
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== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Magic the Gathering (Tabletop Game)|Magic the Gathering]]'': Yawgmoth is portrayed as a rational-minded character who relies only on scientific methods, while others [[Black Box|rely on not better defined "magic"]]. And, of course, he's the [[Big Bad]].
** Averted by other characters, however - Tocasia, Jhoira of the Ghitu, Venser of Urborg, Slobad of Mirrodin, and Arcum Dagsson are all extremely talented artificers, and all are unambiguously heroic. Urza was more...[[Anti
* [[White Wolf]]'s ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse (Tabletop Game)|Werewolf: The Apocalypse]]'' and ''[[Mage: The Ascension (Tabletop Game)|Mage: The Ascension]]''.
** In ''Werewolf'', the PCs are basically shapechanging super-powered eco-terrorists.
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* While not exactly played straight in ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]'', the technology actually ''does'' have the unintended side effect {{spoiler|of summoning the Adephagos.}} As it turns out, in-universe, {{spoiler|all technology is actually powered by ''[[Nightmare Fuel|the souls of the Entelexeia, solidified and broken into fragments.]]}}''
* This is Myria's viewpoint in ''[[Breath of Fire]] III''.
* There are good scientists in ''[[City of Heroes]]''. They're just constantly over shadowed by people like [[Mega Corp|Crey]], [[Those Wacky Nazis|the 5th Column, The Council]], and [[Playing With Syringes|Neuron]]. Oh, and Portal Corp, despite being a good organization, [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|has caused way more harm than good]].
** There's also the enemy group called the [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|Luddites]]. They live in the Rogue Isles and can be seen protesting Dr. Aeon's evil technology all over Cap Au Diable. As it turns out, {{spoiler|his tech [[Cassandra Truth|really is evil]], just not quite in the way they suspected.}}
* [[Resident Evil]]: Science and evil are like best pals in the Resident Evil universe. Most, if not all, the troubles in the series are caused by groups of power hungry scientists who think it's a novel idea to use the T and G-Virus to create unstable monstrosities with a likelihood of things going wrong being above 105%. There is not one good scientist in the entire series and major villains like Albert Wesker and Alexia Ashford are the results of genetic engineering to create the ultimate super-being.
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* Technology articles on ''[[Cracked]]'' tend to fit the form, "Seven ways X Scientific Advancement Can Kill You" or "Eight More Animals That Can Horribly Kill You." Since ''Cracked'' is an entertainment site first and a news site fifty-seventh, it makes more sense this way.
* ''[[Ink City]]'' has attracted plenty of scientists, including [[Jimmy Two Shoes|Heloise]], [[El Tigre|Dr. Chipotle Jr.]], [[Megamind]], [[G La DOS]] and [[Portal 2 (Video Game)|Caroline]]. There are also characters who want to use science to analyze and control the unpredictable residents, like [[Aeon Flux|Trevor]].
** [[Pokémon|Mew]] believes that all science is inheritly evil, and that scientists are [[Complete Monster|soulless monsters]]. Due to this, she sees nothing wrong with [[Cold
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== Western Animation ==
* Practically every episode of the first season of ''[[Super Friends]]'' focused not on a villain but on a [[Well
* Dr. Blight from ''[[Captain Planet and The Planeteers]]'' is the show's resident embodiment of the trope.
** Having said that, one Planeteer Alert encourages viewers to learn more about science, since science can be used for good.
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* Averted in the [[Fan Nickname|"SatAM"]] ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (TV)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' animated series. Despite the fact that the world has been conquered by [[Emperor Scientist|Dr. Robotnik]] with an army of [[Mecha Mooks]] and a machine that lets him inflict [[Unwilling Roboticisation]] on the victimized organics, despite the fact he is deliberately running his energy plants and factories inefficiently in order to poison the environment and weaken them, science is not portrayed as evil of itself. All of the blame is instead placed on Robotnik being a power-crazed psychotic megalomaniac who is misusing and abusing scientific tools to enforce his own demented desires.
** The Roboticizer wasn't even ''his.'' Uncle Chuck invented it as a means of keeping people with terminal illnesses alive until a cure could be found, or even as a means of eliminating amputation. Of course, when Robotnik came to power, guess who was the first one to get thrown into the Roboticizer...?
** Sally Acorn, co-protagonist, [[
* Averted with [[Gadgeteer Genius|the Mechanist]] in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''. It's true that he is pretty much destroying all the original architecture of one of the last Air Nomad temples to provide modern conveniences to his fellow refugees who now live in it, and manufacturing weapons for [[The Empire|the Fire Nation]], but he is actually portrayed quite positively (and the whole weapons manufacturing thing was due to Fire Nation forces threatening violence against his people, which they later carried out).
* Played straight in an episode of the computer animated ''[[The Garfield Show|Garfield]]'' series. The first half of the episode features Odie digging up a dinosaur bone, only to have the local museum threaten to get a court order evicting them from their home because "science is more important" the second part of the episode features a cleaning robot gone mad.
* In the ''[[Teachers Pet (Animation)|Teachers Pet]]'' movie, the [[Big Bad]] says, "Nature is dead! Science is king!" Of course, [[Straw Vulcan|science is the study of nature...]]
* While ''[[The Avengers:
* ''[[The Tick]]'' parodies this trope in "Tick vs. The Proto Clown", in which a scientist who loves clowns theorized that a ''bigger'' clown would be even funnier, and his creation is now terrorizing The City.
{{quote| '''Arthur:''' Good gosh, man. Didn't you know it was against the laws of nature? Clowns were never meant to be that big!<br />
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