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Science Is Bad: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends! Well, I say there are some things we don't '''want''' to know! Important things!"''|'''Ned Flanders''', ''[[The Simpsons (Animation)|The Simpsons]]''}}
Writers are not scientists.<ref>Well, [[Isaac Asimov|not usually.]]</ref> 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]], [
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]].
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* ''[[Event Horizon]]''. At one point the inventor of the gravity warp drive (which turns out to be a pretty evil warp drive) proclaims: "Captain, there's no danger... It's contained behind three magnetic fields, it's perfectly safe!" Oh science, what are you like?
* 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
* ''[[9 (Animation)|Nine]]'' averts this. Science is what created the construction robot, but it was the government and military that put it to evil use. The scientist who created the robot then {{spoiler|sacrificed his own soul so that life, in some fashion, could carry on.}}
* 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.
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* A recurring theme in the ''[[Outer Limits]]''. It is the basis for the plot of many (though not all) of its episodes.
** A prominent episode involves a trial in the [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]] United States, which has forsaken technology and banned teaching science under the penalty of death. A 20th century scientist develops [[Time Travel]] and goes to the future only to be arrested for breaking the ban. She goes before the [[Supreme Court]] and argues to repeal the ban, as a plague will wipe out most of humanity in the near future if technological research is not restarted. Another time traveler arrives to argue for the opposite, as humanity's expansion to the stars will eventually cause us to piss off an advanced alien race and lead to our destruction. In the end, they send the second time traveler to the past and agree to repeal the ban, only for the second guy's fusion bomb to activate and wipe out Washington, DC.
* In ''[[
* [[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.
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* It bears repeating that in fictional works, as in real life, science and technology are often treated as interchangeable, though they are not. Often a criticism of a particular application of a technology, or of its social repercussions, but may not be a criticism of the scientific method of study and problem solving - but are grouped under the anti-science label anyway - either by mistake or as an attempt to discredit the criticism. As mentioned above, Luddism was more a social/political movement focusing on the role of industrialization on labor displacement and working-class oppression, than a pure [[Irrational Hatred]] of technology (in modern popular usage, the context is edited out, and "Luddite" basically means primitive and reactionary).
** On the same note, efforts to point out bad science can also get shoved under the anti-science label, for the same reasons.
* Theodore Kaczynski, [
* One of the many things the Khmer Rouge killed people for was being educated. They wanted a technology-free society, and they pretty much got one--complete with rampant disease, starvation, and getting their asses ''stomped'' by neighboring Vietnam.
* [[Nicolas Gomez Davila|Nicolás Gómez Dávila]], the Colombian philosopher, believed [http://don-colacho.blogspot.com/2010/01/technique-technology.html wholeheartedly] in this.
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[[Category:Tropes On Science and Unscience]]
[[Category:Science Is Bad]]
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