Science is Cool

Someone posted an article today that breaks down five hours of average cable TV coverage - from a respected source:

The Project for Excellence in Journalism just released The State of the News Media 2008, its annual analysis of cable television news. The mediascape proved barren: On average, five hours of viewing would yield 71 minutes of politics, 26 minutes of crime, 12 minutes of disasters and 10 minutes of celebrities. Science, technology, health and the environment received just six minutes of coverage (with health and health care accounting for half of that.)

Science is all about exploration, and adventure. Its about asking deep questions -and its also about trusting your guts. You don't fire up a seven foot long gold vapor laser without trusting yourself first. It takes courage to throw the switch.

Science also helps us to understand the world around us - and to ask deeper questions. To get at the truth. So much of what we see, in the above article - is interpretation. Telling people what to think, and how to feel - isn't the way to go. We should be asking questions like "Where and how does life begin?" instead of screaming in the streets about abortion. Life on a tropical island, which would involve knowledge of wind and sea - and making things for yourself - is more about science than staying at home and waiting for the dark eerie moment when the rapture will occur. And science gives us courage. Alot of times, in our blindness - we lash out and get off balance. Science restores balance. It's the secret ingredient X.

But the amount of coverage is appalling. Here's the breakdown, out of that five hours :

1 minute and 25 seconds about the environment
1 minute and 22 seconds about education
1 minute about science and technology
3 minutes and 34 seconds about the economy
3 minutes and 46 seconds about health and health care

This week, the big story is that WikiLeaks posted 90,000 military documents on their site. These are documents that are helping the American public to finally see that they are being involved 1984-style, in a war that will never end. They were released during a time in which the number of documents that were classified - rose 600% and in which Government secrecy is at an all time high.

And then, quietly - came the revelation that the Military Industrial Complex had found the person who leaked the documents. A 'hacker' revealed his identity.

But did anyone ask the question... what role did warrantless search have to do with discovering his identity. The hacker in question that supposedly volunteered the identity of the soldier - hurt the concept of what the WikiLeaks site should be all about. If you leak something to WikiLeaks, you should feel that no one will give away your identity. But ever since the Bush Administration, there's been this thing called a 'NSL' or National Security Letter - that authorizes the FBI to search you without a warrant, or to force ISP's into giving information out about user's identity. Did the 'hacker' find the FBI on his doorstep? Nobody seems to ask these questions. But they're pretty obvious. The thing you don't want to have happen is to have people afraid to tell the truth.

WikiLeaks simply stands for the open exchange of information, and truth. As does science. Maybe the mechanism that's working against science here is our need to be entertained. But maybe some part of entertainment is just life under glass. Certainly in the 50's , it was all about 'Ozzie and Harriett' - staged family scenes, staged laughter. Maybe we are going to evolve to the point where we don't need fake people in fake houses getting filmed while they are doing fake things by people who are more interested in artificially making themselves feel one way or another , than they are actually getting out and doing the real thing. Cameras are getting lighter, and faster - and better. Perhaps one day we'll leave the shell of Television. Trade it for a game. The trick then becomes, what stakes would you play for?