[extropy-chat] Future friendly movies

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

I have long been persuaded that the best way to promote a positive and 
hopeful attitude toward future developments in science and technology is 
through movies. Apparently the idea has been taken up by the US 
establishment.
Slashdot<http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/05/1413200&from=rss>: 
*According to the New York Times, the Pentagon is funding classes in 
screenplay writing for 15
scientists<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/04/movies/04flyb.html?ex=1280808000&en=b35c2085878bcf51&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss>.
The idea is to encourage kids to go into science and engineering through 
mainstream media and thereby presumably bolster long-term US national 
security. While it sounds like a lot of fun for the researchers involved, 
and anything that stems the spiral of the US into a culture of 
anti-intellectualism is a good thing in my book. Will glamorizing science in 
the movies make kids pay better attention in chemistry class?
*In the New York Times
article<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/04/movies/04flyb.html?ex=1280808000&en=b35c2085878bcf51&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss>the
idea is using movies to make science sexy again so that American kids
chose technical careers and replenish a pool of US experts on technologies 
for national security. Professional scientists and science communicators are 
asked to contribute to film making as they are the ones who can develop 
realistic future scenarios: "to reconcile the cinematic suspension of 
disbelief with the scientific method and with their basic purpose of 
bringing accuracy to the screen".Teaching screenwriting to scientists was 
the brainstorm of Martin Gundersen, a professor of electrical engineering at 
the University of Southern California and sometime Hollywood technical 
adviser. Recently, he was asked to review screenplays by the Sloan 
Foundation, which awards prizes for scientific accuracy, and found most to 
be "pretty dismal," as he put it."My thought was, since scientists have to 
write so much, for technical journals and papers, why not consider them as a 
creative source?" Dr. Gundersen said.
I believe the same concepts can be used to promote a friendlier attitude 
toward radical, "transhumanist" scientific advances and their deployment in 
society through technological (and legal) developments. We need movies set 
in believable and "accurate" future scenarios and with a positive or at 
least non-threatening view of future technologies such as radical life 
extension, Mind Machine Interfaces (MMI), and eventually mind uploading.
I think Matrix was a horrible movie as it had a very dark atmosphere and 
made viewers actually scared of the future. There are many excellent science 
fiction novels that could be turned to good pro-science, "transhumanist" 
movies. I am sure we can help the movie industry with ideas and scenarios.
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