Hollywood NASA

[Geirunni]

Ever since my computer´s CPU melted, I have resorted to applying the Orbiter software on my university´s (ITT Tech,Oxnard, California)machines. It is an inconvenience at this time, but at least I can access the portable software.

While in the L.R.C., using one of their machines, another student saw my screen and inquired about it:

¨What is this?¨ He asked.

¨This is Orbiter. It´s a free portable program that simulates realistic space flights,¨ I replied.

¨What a stupid program. If it ain´t Star Wars or Star Trek, it ain´t worth playing. Besides, even if it was real, it´s not very important.¨

¨What do you mean by that remark?¨

¨Everyone knows NASA just makes things up. Hollywood is more real than NASA could ever be.¨

I didn´t know how to reply; I was flabbergasted. I realize he was in a different degree than me (I am in the I.T. Program; he is in Graphic Design) but have things really become this confusing??

Of course most things on T.V. aren´t real. Does that mean that EVERYTHING on it is fake?

I know that, in my country, the field of Science – any science – is no longer encouraged in schools (even many private ones). This situation, however, is mind-boggling.

I was about 3 years old when I was conscious enough to remember what I saw in the television. I remember actively watching the last lunar missions (Apollo 14-17). My father worked for a company that designed and built many of the engines used in the rockets (Rockwell International´s Rocketdyne division). I guess I lived around the space program for most of my life. Even the ones that criticized the space program by my country and, at that time, the Soviet Union at least acknowledged that it did happen.

The fact that this student wasn´t in a science degree is irrelevant. I have met many people who never had a thought in their lives and were darned proud of that fact (my tour in the U.S. Army comes to mind) but this just got to me.

Maybe I am overreacting. I just find it hard to fathom this student´s concept of reality. Every day I hope that I will find the light at the end of the tunnel....and it not be an oncoming train.....

 

[garyw]

I just smile, shrug at them and leave them in their own world of idiocy.

 

[Moach]

i usually just sigh, with that famous "Picard and Riker double-Facepalm" in mind, then proceed to scratching such a person from my list of peers with whom i may have a real conversation

MTV has probably rotten his mind to a sludge years ago, back when it was "cool" to be stupid...

there's relief in knowing the fact that such person will probably wither in the looming poverty that will befall him in the wake of his inaptness to properly discern reality from, ehrm... stupid...

or worse yet - he'll end up in a purpose-ridden job doing something he mostly dislikes to no long-term avail of any kind...
most likely in something marketing-related, pretty much my idea of what hell must be like

in the most allarming cases, there's a good chance a Darwin Award may be amongst the highest glories such a person might come to achieve over his promisingly meaningless existance


yet i'm usually not bothered by people who speak or do things that are wrong in some way... as long as they are capable of understanding their mistake and learning from it - or at least prove sufficiently intelligent to take up an interested conversation over the matter....
i actually enjoy meeting such types - it's very satisfying to realize you've added something to a person's life

now, i find it grueling to live with people who are set off to live in alienation and frown upon the thought of learning something new - those deserve and get no patience whatsoever from me....


i blame schools in many ways (although not exclusively by a longshot) - the way things are thaught in classes appears to be devised with the sole purpose of making learning seem like the very opposite of fun - a purpose in which they unquestionably succeed....


perhaps in my misadventures over the course of school (having flunked thrice) i somehow managed to drag myself away from that whole "learning is bad" nonsense.... once i got into college - things were VERY, VERY different....

but i consider myself lucky... the example above of a person plummeting vertiginously towards the nadir of civilization is just an unfortunate example of the vast majority of folks....

that's how the general Brazillian population has finally managed to LITERALLY elect a CLOWN into congress.... his campaign was based on something like "i have no idea what a congressman does, but vote for me and i'll let 'ya know"

i guess people thoght that was "funny"

 

[Eccentrus]

The same thing is also happening here in Asia, people are more likely to abide to the "pop culture", the "stupid is the new smart" etc... And as Moach has said, it's mostly the education system's fault, since these systems actually discouraged learning, where people are getting the A++ marks by copying or parroting the teachers and lecturers, and worse yet, I have to learn medicine, where the oral examiners have a check list on what the students must talk about to pass (and to be careful to not explain it deeply), therefore, the tests is never about how deep a student understand the subject (never ever present your train of thoughts before an examiner) but rather, how much a student can follow and parrot his teachers.

 

[Keatah]

This is the type of students our so-called colleges and universities are producing? That's a pretty sad state of affairs for the United States and humanity in general.

Oftentimes I have to be careful to *NOT* talk about Orbiter or I get labeled as 'strange' and 'un-normal' .. or 'unsociable' .. !

The root cause seems to be a laziness toward learning. Or immediate dismissal based on lack of serious or integrity of personality. Some such stuff.

 

[Izack]

A sad fact of society today. It's one of the main reasons I've become a shut-in; there are no people (I've starting calling them sheep of late) left worth talking to. Thank goodness for places like O-F where the world's semi-intelligent folk can talk.

 

[Keatah]

You're just ahead of your time. And it is common knowledge that smart folks are often frustrated by lesser not-so-smart sheeple. Just get with the right crowd. It took me a long time to figure out how to trade beer stories with the mechanics AND simultaneously date a software engineer & theoretical physicist, whom was previously a marine biologist. The going back and forth from one mode of conversation was the difficult part. One minute we're talking about who slept with who, and the next about Planck. One evening we got Irish drinking songs from the high seas for music, the next night its Tom Jones or some other "old-lady" theatre ballads. Or something!!

An evening out could be a rave or an opera. 50/50

We have a some LCD screens set up in the English tea room/observatory like in Swordfish, AND some grimey oil-stained computers down in the garage. The garage ones are filled with questionable content, no doubt..etc..etc..

A world of contrast! She likes fine art and musicals, me and my buddies like the brawling at the truck repair shop. I like photography with light effects and orbiter screenshots, and she likes pottery & flower pictures, ughhh..!!! Taking pictures of stupid clay pots is about as exciting as loading windows'95!

The truck shop guys are just simply tons of fun! I don't know how many computers got bashed up and busted over brawls. But each one was worth it! If you ever kick a pc real hard with stomper boots you'll understand! The best was when one guy took a monitor and bashed it over some other guy's head; you know Tom & Jerry cartoon-style, where it is usually a painting and wood frame, with the canvas being ripped.

So, my point being, learn to adjust your conversation style to the crowd you're with and you'll do just fine.

 

[IgnoreThisBarrel]

From my experiences among other humans, a lot of people don't like actual science because it is just so "boring" compared to sci-fi. Somewhat related, many people I know prefer the idea of creationism or "intelligent design" over the concepts the Big Bang, abiogenesis, and evolution because the latter three require studying (or reading the Wikipedia article on) quantum electrodynamics, polymer chemistry, and whatever the heck concepts drive evolution.

My advice is, since most of the willfully ignorant people will eventually wise up and learn to appreciate the real world, just don't feed the trolls, however hard it may be.