Comments on: British educational leader advocates The Matrix

By: gregdowney

gregdowney — Sat, 31 May 2008 21:56:03 +0000

On comment #2. And if this is in fact Adm. Parry, nice to meet you sir. If there’s one lesson I’ve learned about being a blogger is that, like my mother told me, always be polite as you never know who’s listening. Every once in a while, I read something that really gets me completely wound up and I have to get snarky, and I usually live to regret it as the snark inevitably winds up on the wrong target. But I continue to do it as my ire overrides my memory of feeling chastened.

It doesn’t surprise me to hear that reporters didn’t get this one right. As I discussed at length in ‘Bad brain science: Boobs caused subprime crisis,’ and we’ve just seen in the ‘uncontacted Indians’ story that’s circulating, bad science writing is responsible for a lot of the problems we have with popular science communication. There should be a special category of bad science writing around movie similes. The Matrix simile, while easy for the reporter to grasp onto and write about, clearly causes some of the trouble (and provoked me).

It’s a timely reminder for me as I get ready for an on-camera interview on Tuesday morning here. Not only should I ‘not believe everything I read,’ but I should also try to be careful ‘not to say anything I don’t want to see in print out of context.’ No wonder our leaders end up repeating talking points; so much of what they say gets twisted, intentionally or unintentionally, until it only vaguely resembles what they said to start.

But now I’ll put Snarky Greg back in his cage. He’s fun to listen to sometimes, but I inevitably regret letting him do the writing.

By: Chris Parry

Chris Parry — Sat, 31 May 2008 21:40:41 +0000

Greg Downey – repeat after me – you should not believe eveything you read in the newspapers. The issue discussed was what technologies should be examined for the future and determining whether technologies such as wireless transmissions to the brain issue are likely to be ever viable. Journalists are not known for picking up the subtlety or depth of discussions about technologies and the future.

Glad to read your excellent blog and input- keep up the good work.

By: mrG

mrG — Sat, 31 May 2008 04:16:38 +0000

no, no, seriously it is true. aliens have been doing this for years, controlling people from their secret base on the moon, implanting thoughts, making kids forget their homework, heck they even made me come home late from work one night I sweartogod it was aliens I tell you, aliens and their mindcontrol implant ray thingy. honest.

ok. don’t believe me. you’ll see. soon enough.