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Wait, how do we know that Venkman isn't a legitimate scientist, again? Because he's insufficiently skeptical about ghosts? But in the universe of Ghostbusters g

Wait, how do we know that Venkman isn't a legitimate scientist, again? Because he's insufficiently skeptical about ghosts? But in the universe of Ghostbusters ghosts physically exist! If anything, the part of Ghostbusters that strains my credulity is that in their universe there seem to be scientists who don't believe in ghosts. You'd think that the accumulated evidence would be pretty overwhelming by the 1980s!

gravitycop 18y ago
the part of Ghostbusters that strains my credulity is that in their universe there seem to be scientists who don't believe in ghosts. You'd think that the accumulated evidence would be pretty overwhelming by the 1980s! Accumulated evidence has actually tended to slam into the brick wall of popularity contestance. http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/RiskandSafety.html http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/RiskandSafety.html http://www.google.com/search?q=aaron+wildavsky http://www.google.com/search?q=aaron+wildavsky http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress http://www.google.com/search?q=john+mccarthy+sustainability http://www.google.com/search?q=john+mccarthy+sustainability http://www.juliansimon.com/writings/Ultimate_Resource http://www.juliansimon.com/writings/Ultimate_Resource http://www.phyast.pitt.edu/~blc/book http://www.phyast.pitt.edu/~blc/book http://www.google.com/search?q=war+against+the+atom http://www.google.com/search?q=war+against+the+atom http://jamesphogan.com/heretics http://jamesphogan.com/heretics
scott_s 18y ago
I was thinking more of that scene, where his line before that one was "Are you, Alice, menstruating right now?" It's clear he's more interest in her than the study. Again, it makes for a funny movie, but it's also making fun of scientists.
jjs 18y ago
IIRC, the spate of hauntings in the movie was brought on by the imminent return of Gozer the Gozerian (or by the same rare set of conditions that allowed Gozer to return). By the sequel, the Ghostbusters had mostly closed up shop due to the collapse of the haunting bubble.

gravitycop 18y ago

the part of Ghostbusters that strains my credulity is that in their universe there seem to be scientists who don't believe in ghosts. You'd think that the accumulated evidence would be pretty overwhelming by the 1980s! Accumulated evidence has actually tended to slam into the brick wall of popularity contestance. http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/RiskandSafety.html http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/RiskandSafety.html http://www.google.com/search?q=aaron+wildavsky http://www.google.com/search?q=aaron+wildavsky http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress http://www.google.com/search?q=john+mccarthy+sustainability http://www.google.com/search?q=john+mccarthy+sustainability http://www.juliansimon.com/writings/Ultimate_Resource http://www.juliansimon.com/writings/Ultimate_Resource http://www.phyast.pitt.edu/~blc/book http://www.phyast.pitt.edu/~blc/book http://www.google.com/search?q=war+against+the+atom http://www.google.com/search?q=war+against+the+atom http://jamesphogan.com/heretics http://jamesphogan.com/heretics

scott_s 18y ago

I was thinking more of that scene, where his line before that one was "Are you, Alice, menstruating right now?" It's clear he's more interest in her than the study. Again, it makes for a funny movie, but it's also making fun of scientists.

jjs 18y ago

IIRC, the spate of hauntings in the movie was brought on by the imminent return of Gozer the Gozerian (or by the same rare set of conditions that allowed Gozer to return). By the sequel, the Ghostbusters had mostly closed up shop due to the collapse of the haunting bubble.