[extropy-chat] Sigh!... fi

Brian Lee brian_a_lee at hotmail.com
Mon Oct 3 19:10:36 UTC 2005


I think it's more an example of bad testing rather than bad technology. It's 
not wise for a government/corporation to test their new wonder drug on an 
entire colony population. That's why we have monkeys and stuff for testing.

Of course, the characters didn't see that. They just saw it as another sign 
of government trying to control the lives on individuals.

BAL

>From: Damien Broderick <thespike at satx.rr.com>
>To: "'ExI chat list'" <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
>Subject: [extropy-chat] Sigh!... fi
>Date: Mon, 03 Oct 2005 13:07:51 -0500
>
>
>http://www.locusmag.com/2005/Features/10_Westfahl_Serenity.html
>
>Review of Serenity, by Gary Westfahl
>
><the film ... asserts that certain sorts of knowledge should never be 
>employed ­ specifically, knowledge that might be used to "improve" the 
>nature of humanity. The problem with the evil Alliance, Mal explains, is 
>that they think "they can make people better," and Mal disagrees: "I don't 
>hold to that. I aim to misbehave." Of course, when the only evidence on 
>hand of efforts to improve humanity is a drug that turns some people into 
>inert statues and others into crazed cannibals, the film's deck is pretty 
>much stacked against human-transforming technology, and one might also 
>protest that "making people better" could be said to include putting them 
>in spaceships and giving them terraformed worlds to live on, which nobody 
>in the crew of Serenity seems to object to. But after all, science fiction 
>films that overtly or covertly oppose scientific advancement are hardly a 
>novelty and, in fact, include in their numbers many of the genre's most 
>cherished masterpieces. To underline his point, Whedon names one important 
>world Miranda to recall William Shakespeare's The Tempest, the story of a 
>powerful magician who ultimately resolves to stop using his amazing powers, 
>which is exactly what the film argues the Alliance should do. >
>
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