3 ms·

Yup agreed this book has that effect on some people. You can see it happening on Goodreads. I personally think its due to cognitive dissonance. He is a whistle

by rtx 6y ago

Yup agreed this book has that effect on some people. You can see it happening on Goodreads. I personally think its due to cognitive dissonance. He is a whistle blower like Assange.

neaden 6y ago
You get that it's a novel right? Pointing to it as an example like this is like pointing to Jurassic Park as an example of why GMO food is bad.
- rtx 6y ago
  Yes, it was pretty impactful for me at that age. If someone is worried about GMO, they will stop eating it. I don't see that with climate change activist. I don't see any change in most of these peoples lifestyle. Over that when they oppose nuclear it makes me think what's going on. I am a big believer in polluting less and using as much as you need. Live in small houses, use cooling only above 40 degree centigrade and heating below 0 degree. Walk more have less children.
  - triceratops 6y ago
    > I don't see that with climate change activist. I don't see any change most of these people lifestyle. How many have you looked at? Have you done studies to determine that "most of these people" haven't changed their lifestyles? Does it matter if activists change their lifestyles when considering the truth of whether or not climate change is happening? They're independent things, right?
  - jackhack 6y ago
    >If someone is worried about GMO, they will stop eating it. not if the industry prevents you from knowing you are eating it
triceratops 6y ago
Nah, it just made me feel sad that a medical doctor and respected writer began to believe conspiracy theories over peer-reviewed science. Like yeah, media and scientists are actively lying to us while the industries that would most benefit from covering up climate change are beacons of truth. Hmm...maybe he is like Assange..
MikeTheGreat 6y ago
Crichton's later works had that effect on me, too. For me it was the contrast between what I'm looking for in a SciFi book and what Crichton writes. I like SciFi that asks an interesting question and then tries to (speculatively) answer it. What would the world be like if <X> was different? Crichton pretty clearly adopted a pattern of "OMG THIS TOPIC IS A DISASTER!!1!!1!! READ THIS THRILLER TO SEE THE DISASTER!!11!!". I exaggerate, but not by much. At some point each of his novels had a theme, and each theme was some well-written disaster porn. What if genetics goes awry (Jurassic Park)? What if nanotech goes awry? Etc, etc. Which was sad for me - he was a good writer, and I enjoy reading his novels. It's just not what I'm looking for anymore.
- liability 6y ago
  > What if genetics goes awry (Jurassic Park)? That was the movie, not the book. The book was "What if profit-motivated biotech startups go awry." In the book Hammond is an unsympathetic greedy asshole who causes a disaster by cutting corners and evading regulators/oversight, all to get filthy rich. His reward is being devoured alive by petty scavenger dinosaurs at the very end of the book when everybody is is being rescued. The book is more a critique of capitalism than it is science. A critique of the commercialization of science. Predictably, these themes were diminished for the Hollywood adaptation. Hammond becomes a naive manchild who loves dinosaurs and is more a victim than a villain.
dragonwriter 6y ago
> He is a whistle blower like Assange. He is (and was) neither of those things; Assange isn't a whistleblower, he is, at best, a conduit for information some of which might originate with whistleblowers; and Crichton was neither that nor a whistleblower, but a popular author who, as he gained the popularity to be granted relatively free rein by publishers, took increasingly to using his fiction increasingly as a partisan soapbox. Like Tom Clancy, but starting as a better fiction writer and ending up worse, so the fall is much more pronounced.

by rtx 6y ago

Yup agreed this book has that effect on some people. You can see it happening on Goodreads. I personally think its due to cognitive dissonance. He is a whistle blower like Assange.

neaden 6y ago

You get that it's a novel right? Pointing to it as an example like this is like pointing to Jurassic Park as an example of why GMO food is bad.

rtx 6y ago
Yes, it was pretty impactful for me at that age. If someone is worried about GMO, they will stop eating it. I don't see that with climate change activist. I don't see any change in most of these peoples lifestyle. Over that when they oppose nuclear it makes me think what's going on. I am a big believer in polluting less and using as much as you need. Live in small houses, use cooling only above 40 degree centigrade and heating below 0 degree. Walk more have less children.
- triceratops 6y ago
  > I don't see that with climate change activist. I don't see any change most of these people lifestyle. How many have you looked at? Have you done studies to determine that "most of these people" haven't changed their lifestyles? Does it matter if activists change their lifestyles when considering the truth of whether or not climate change is happening? They're independent things, right?
- jackhack 6y ago
  >If someone is worried about GMO, they will stop eating it. not if the industry prevents you from knowing you are eating it

triceratops 6y ago

Nah, it just made me feel sad that a medical doctor and respected writer began to believe conspiracy theories over peer-reviewed science. Like yeah, media and scientists are actively lying to us while the industries that would most benefit from covering up climate change are beacons of truth. Hmm...maybe he is like Assange..

MikeTheGreat 6y ago

Crichton's later works had that effect on me, too. For me it was the contrast between what I'm looking for in a SciFi book and what Crichton writes. I like SciFi that asks an interesting question and then tries to (speculatively) answer it. What would the world be like if <X> was different? Crichton pretty clearly adopted a pattern of "OMG THIS TOPIC IS A DISASTER!!1!!1!! READ THIS THRILLER TO SEE THE DISASTER!!11!!". I exaggerate, but not by much. At some point each of his novels had a theme, and each theme was some well-written disaster porn. What if genetics goes awry (Jurassic Park)? What if nanotech goes awry? Etc, etc. Which was sad for me - he was a good writer, and I enjoy reading his novels. It's just not what I'm looking for anymore.

liability 6y ago
> What if genetics goes awry (Jurassic Park)? That was the movie, not the book. The book was "What if profit-motivated biotech startups go awry." In the book Hammond is an unsympathetic greedy asshole who causes a disaster by cutting corners and evading regulators/oversight, all to get filthy rich. His reward is being devoured alive by petty scavenger dinosaurs at the very end of the book when everybody is is being rescued. The book is more a critique of capitalism than it is science. A critique of the commercialization of science. Predictably, these themes were diminished for the Hollywood adaptation. Hammond becomes a naive manchild who loves dinosaurs and is more a victim than a villain.

dragonwriter 6y ago

> He is a whistle blower like Assange. He is (and was) neither of those things; Assange isn't a whistleblower, he is, at best, a conduit for information some of which might originate with whistleblowers; and Crichton was neither that nor a whistleblower, but a popular author who, as he gained the popularity to be granted relatively free rein by publishers, took increasingly to using his fiction increasingly as a partisan soapbox. Like Tom Clancy, but starting as a better fiction writer and ending up worse, so the fall is much more pronounced.