Because of the approach, it hits - but as i made comment to over there - how much of the news that we accepted to be true, in retrospect looks like sabotage to the basic comprehension of how things work. The reality of life is what we create it to be on an individual basis - and common knowledge has been shared because the images handed forth where honest interpretation of physical events. With the ability of people to see things that are made specifically for their edification, we have come to globally accept some longitudinal falsehood that permeate our ability to discern fact and fiction. The fiction is so believable today, that we know there is little difference between the worlds of a Clancy novel and reality.
When Crichton takes liberties with science and calls it fiction to allow the story line and plot to develop, it does not invalidate the science that he discusses in the novel. When Spock, Kirk and McCoy get to play Chicago style gangsters, it embeds myths as images that relate to a story we have been told and now that image becomes the reality that we work from. The Real Story tells a cops and robbers tale with several characters, but then Donaldson takes four more books to bridge the gap to reality and explain the situation from other characters points of view, the real story melts behind history as seen through a variety of vantage points.
We make our own world by believing what we believe. Our basis of thought attempts to make sensory input the primary discernment - illusion is one of my favorite forms of magic. But when you stretch your imagination beyond reality, comprehension follows rapidly and we return to the ground rapidly. The further off reality we went, the further accelleration added will cause pain on impact. Wile E. Coyote running off a cliff doesn't fall til he looks down.
Evolution is happening on a real time basis. Comprehending this is beyond our ability to cope, so we do not. Science fiction and reality have blended to the point where the average citizen has more knowledge of science fiction than science fact. The little liberties taken, which are well understood by the authors, are lost on the public. People understand sports, not science, but there are so many parellels between the two, and the entertainment value is only a matter of refinement. the difficulty of science is in the burden of proof - the standard of acceptance - but not the quality of the question or the ability to answer at any level. Skuls frighten people into thinking that science is hard because questioning authority is wrong, and science requires open questioning and thought. I wonder how much of the science that we surmize is fiction, how close we are on our near misses and what clues we can find to cue in on the reality before things slip away on us.
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