A while ago I got a comment about me using fictional examples to illustrate my point. This is because fictional and theoretical examples are, for better or worse, more widely known. Nowadays it is difficult to find a person who has not read Douglas Adams or watched Doctor Who, but it is nearly impossible to find a person up to date with professor Denis Dutton’s Darwinian theory about beauty. It is logical that a person cannot be up to date with every interesting bit of science, hence in the softer points I prefer examples of a more… theoretical kind. This way either most people are aware of what I speak and understand my point better or everyone is able to recreate the situation in their mind.
This is not a statement to defend my right to use non-factual illustrative examples. I know they are good. I know they convey the point better than any actual fact that I should start explaining.
This merely explains why perhaps it is best to use fictional examples in a public statement.
As many people are aware, popular science tends to warp facts and actual scientific theories. What The Bleep Do We Know is a shining example of that. Words and terms are constantly twisted to fit the needs and wants of ignorant minds. You could just try to filter out plausible and implausible theories but you would end up making mistakes. This is why if examples are brought, it is very important to make sure that these examples are reliable, nobody wants a Planet X situation again. Nobody wants incredible works of fiction interpreted as factual information. This is why it is more reasonable to use fictional examples as opposed to so-so-factual theories. Fiction can be interpreted in different ways, doing that with facts is just twisting reality.
Now arises the problem of credibility – anything could be written in a piece of fiction. Hence, it would be easy to claim that people are reborn all the time and they only understand it when they find the Tree of Life – the symbol for eternal life, bliss, redemption. And they die again to be reborn once again. All this because The Fountain depicts it in a very realistic (awesome nova) and emotional way that simply connects with the person watching it. Or that the first cure for cancer will be universal and will treat all kinds of cancer because several fictional works have the invention of the ‘cure for cancer’. That is why I try to bring several examples whenever any examples are involved. Fiction does not come from cosmos, it draws its inspiration from reality. It takes parts of our lives, of past events, of our world, and it changes them, it translates them to a world of wonder. But if you understand where exactly the inspiration comes from, you understand how the human mind works a lot better. And The Fountain is a pretty cool movie.
To sum it all up, I end up with the same claim I have used over and over before. It is the unknown that drives us. It makes us dream of better (or worse) worlds, but the dreams always link with the real world. Fiction toys with our beliefs and fears, but it is always supported by some innate ability of ours. Whether it is the effect rage has on us that makes us beastly, the constant need for gentleness that makes us fragile, the search for patterns that makes us predictable or our love for love that makes us emotional and irrational. It is never the big plot of fiction, it is not the story of fiction. It is what supports the story, sells the story, makes it believable. It is the link to the real world that I seek and support using as examples. Often fiction is more truthful than the currently accepted facts.
So be safe. Dream.
This video illustrates the point of the dream I had[1]. It is what I see the future as, what I hope it to be.
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