5 ms·
I had heard about this a few years ago and I find it fascinating. Entertainment being used for good! Its interesting how effective this particular show has been
by TheGRS 11y ago
I had heard about this a few years ago and I find it fascinating. Entertainment being used for good! Its interesting how effective this particular show has been, so I have to wonder how effective those heavy-handed episodes of Family Matters or Home Improvement were.
I'm sure there are many examples of a TV show heavily impacting stuff that we encounter in our everyday lives, but I also would recommend reading The Power of Habit, as it has a whole chapter about how TV was used to effectively get people to start brushing their teeth before bedtime.
- wcummings 11y ago>I have to wonder how effective those heavy-handed episodes of Family Matters or Home Improvement were. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bflYjF90t7c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bflYjF90t7c Never doing drugs again.
- hkmurakami 11y agoI once sat in a talk by a NASA Ames director (?) about his belief that even the tremendous cost for a manned mission to Mars would be "worth it" for the inspiration it would provide to the youth of the country to pursue STEM fields. But then I thought -- wait, wouldn't it be much cheaper if we could harness the same kind of inspiration through Hollywood storytelling?
- cryptoz 11y agoNot necessarily. As a society, we spend a lot more on Hollywood storytelling than we do on space exploration. And certainly more than a mission to Mars would cost.
- hkmurakami 11y agoiirc (from the talk) a mission to Mars will cost a few trillion dollars (I forgot the exact figure, but somewhere between $1T and $10T). That's a lot more than Hollywood storytelling.
- meagain20000 11y agoMaybe with current technology. But as technology continues to advance things will continue to get cheaper. What costs a trillion dollars today could cost a couple billion dollars in a not so distant future
- nine_k 11y ago...if you ignore inflation :)
- rbanffy 11y agoTechnology does not advance in a vacuum (pun intended). When you say that you are ignoring that the technology advanced because some of those trillions were spent in research, even though the research has more goals than enabling a manned mission to Mars.
- cryptoz 11y agoReally? I've never heard a figure that high. I think the estimates currently are about $50B, spread out over 10 years or so.
- nkjoep 11y agoYes that would true, except that Hollywood can't produce reality. Real things are real so they inspire a lot more that just invented stories, I suppose.
- mziel 11y agoI think this is happening to a degree. I know of a guy, whose younger brother started reading up on physics after Big Hero 6. Also didn't older tech-related movies on hackers inspire some of us?
- endgame 11y agoGiven the way the "Hackers at 20" article resonated, I'd say the answer is "YES": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10220853 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10220853
- alohahacker 11y agoi remember watching sneakers and feeling inspired at a young age!
- mjevans 11y agoYou're looking at the costs vs benefits in isolation. We'd get far more than just a trip to mars. Many of the technologies and research in to a wide range of medical fields (including long term isolation/social pressures) that are developed as a result of that endeavor would continue to pay dividends for generations after the trip. However I am very much in favor of sending robots up first; build a place to actually go to and live in, then stock it with a lower order ecosystem, and THEN send anything we forgot with the human payload.
- tlrobinson 11y agoIs this an allusion to the faked moon landing conspiracy theories...?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]