You know, years ago, I used to really like Neil before he adopted this "Well, ackchually..." shtick over scientific inaccuracies in works of fiction. I find him absolutely insufferable now. It's the same kind of brainworms as CinemaSins.
Relevant comic:
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2012-03-21
Physics teaches you can model reality with math.
If you get really good at anything, there’s a natural temptation to use that skill outside of its proper context.
If you get really good at anything, there’s a natural temptation to use that skill outside of its proper context.
Indeed! It explains a lot of the issues in many fields, today. A bunch of us computer programmers got really good at that, and now it's still illegal to shoot us for it (for now). /s (mostly...)
I know, buddy… I know.
This motherfucker watched a movie where a girl inherits all of the memories of her 4 most recent female ancestors because her mother used drugs while she was pregnant and he's like "that isn't how sound moves through sand"
I think that Neil doesn’t understand something very vital about being a science educator which if there is one thing people know about them, it’s that they are smart as hell and whether that is actually true or not the science educator must adopt a self-deprecating, disarming character to be relatable to the audience within the context they are in because of it.
You can’t play the character of a king and be relatable if people perceive you as actually being a king outside the context of the play….
Similar story. I liked him a lot, read one of his books, and started listening to his podcast. But the more I listened, the less I liked him.
Ah yes, loved CinemaSins, ruined how I watch movies, then became too annoying to watch.
OH GOD THE BELLS
That one tweet about the stars in Titanic was the only good one of those.
I want Neil to give a scientific explanation for Leto II (2) turning himself into a sandworm.
I need that meme where he talks about kissing himself in the mirror
Tweets need to go away period. what a piece of shit content model and platform. Having a very short character limit was never the genius move people thought it was
Originally it was a technical necessity since Twitter had to work via SMS which has a limit of 160 characters. The enforced brevity was part of it's original charm IMHO.
"Somebody didn't do the research on that," Tyson told the talk show host, making the case that if you pound your fist into a sand dune, it wouldn't actually produce a thumping sound the way it does in the film. "You can't thump sand."
Oh, this is easy. Neil, the thumping isn't for the sand its for the spice in the sand which is a near-magical substance that is tied biologically to the sandworms and when consumed by humans in large quantities lets you see into the future. Are you going to try and tell me a substance which clearly grants its user the ability to see through space-time can't be excited mechanically with thumping it on the ground?
Actually it does work with regular sand dunes. The sequential baked layers creates a reasoning champer that amplifies sound at certain frequencies.
Which means Neil is actually upset with how much scientific world building Frank Herbert did, since it confuses people like him who haven't studied sand dunes for decades.
Besides the sand worms can pick up on the vibrations. It doesn’t need to be loud. Just be a consistent pattern.
So having the thump sound is there for artistic purposes. For the art. In a medium used for art.
Well, it's more than that. I think this is even mentioned in the new movies, but there's a phenomenon in Dune called "drum sand" that is a section of sand that somehow amplifies vibrations. Obviously it doesn't matter how any of this works. It's a story where, if you get high enough, you can predict possible futures. No shit it isn't realistic. No one cares.
Neil failed to remember that they are on Arrakis, not in the Mojave desert.
Personally it was the behemoth worms and psychic mind readers that made me think it wasn't a documentary, but YMMV
That man's pedantry is truly beyond parody.
Honestly I think it's just his form of boomer humor. Like he slaps his brain knee. At least it's weird and not like malicious.
Ehhhh sometimes it goes too far. I remember one time he commented after a mass shooting that, uhm ackshually the flu kills more people than mass shootings so why are you all upset? It was pretty offensive.
The original book finds itself in a science fiction genre only because anything with spaceships and technology is placed there. For all practical purposes though, it’s a space fantasy.
In other words, complaining about science of Dune is like complaining about poetic meter of a tax report - something you do only with the closest of friends.
There's also a lot in there about how a planet's ecology influences culture. Also the long term effects of banning computers. Also about how in the far future people will forget about Earth but some cultural artifacts will remain even when people have forgotten why they do things. Also about how over enough time, people may change so much they may not even be recognizable as human. Also how with the existence of FTL travel it may become impossible to escape the killer robots people will inevitably build unless someone turns themself into a worm.
NdGT is a pretentious twat who needs to just shut up and sit down.
I swear the only time he’s relevant is when he’s bitching about some science fiction movie not being 100% accurate
Science fiction not science facts. When was the book written again? And why is an Astrophysicist giving opinions on worm biology? Not his area of expertise?
The specific thing he's bitching about is sand physics, that is that sand doesn't really 'thump'.
This is something that is actually specifically addressed in the book, I'm not sure about the movie; short version is that the sand and weather on Arrakis are weird, and the sand forms more solid areas than elsewhere.
So not only is he complaining about a minor (from a realism perspective, it's important in-universe) detail, he's also showing that he did not read the book
To be fair, he did this in Colbert’s show, which was kinda done in jest/humor. Having said that, the guy does like to “ackchually” stuff a lot, even for fictitious things. And he definitely was his usual smug self even though it was a comedy bit.
This is all a bit of harmless fun beginning to end, but this is such a model of misinformation it loops around to being actually fascinating.
Harmless event>fair but misleadingly titled article>social media responding to the headline. There's some worm life cycle for you. Simultaneously elegant and horrifying.
Professional "That guy" has "That guy" take. Shocking
Well, Niel, it's not called a "science" film. It's "science fiction."
wait til he gets to the part where they fold space with their minds and shit
Um, actually, in the books, the Spacing Guild Navigators use the spice only to gain prescience into the future as a way to steer the ships while undergoing FTL travel. This can't be done with a computer or droid like in Star Wars because thinking machines are illegal.
So I guess transcribing a YouTube video and providing a weak opinion on what was said is considered journalism these days? This is such a low effort article.
I watched the interview and it seems like more of a comedy bit than Neil's actual opinion of the movie overall. Some people just want something to get upset over I guess...
When the planet's massive sandworms move, they barrel forward in a straight line. But as Tyson points out, pretty much all legless, worm or snake-like creatures on Earth have to slither in S-shaped lines if they want to move forward.
"Have you ever seen a snake chase you as a straight snake? No!"
Has he ever seen an earthworm???
Sand worms have pulsating segments. Sure snakes slither but they can also move forward by pulsing. This isn’t some impossible thing.
Or maybe this snake doesn’t exist?
That's not mysterious. It's one of the methods snakes use to move forward across terrain that doesn't have things to push sideways off of when they slither. Everyone knows this. Neil knows this. He's just too busy being an ass to remember that he knows it.
Neil DeAss Wipeson
Why does the Internet dog pile onto NDT over every tweet, but seems to try it's best to ignore Alex Jones et al?
Everyone knows Alex Jones is a piece of shit. We expect more from NDT, and nitpicking everything doesn't help inspire more people into STEM.
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