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April 28th, 2008
12:27 pm

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More on human ignorance
NPR's Radio Times just had an hour about aircraft carriers. It was an overview about their size, usefulness, cost, future, and a little about what it's like to land jets on them and to live on them.

There's also a pledge drive going on, and one of the themes that hour was about not expecting to have any interest in aircraft carriers, but discovering through the wonderfulness of NPR that they actually are interesting. They say the same theme about their business show.

Now, I'll grant that I started out with an extreme case of blind spot about the military, but through the wonders of sf fandom, I eventually picked up some sketchy knowledge and an understanding that any complex human institution has quite a bit interesting about it if it's explained at the right level of abstraction.

I don't know if the commentators were underestimating their audience, but I do wonder if that degree of blind spot is common even among the information junkies that NPR seems to be playing to.

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From:[info]dmlaenker
Date:April 28th, 2008 04:50 pm (UTC)
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I don't know if this was what you were trying to say, but looking oppositely, I've stood up in panels about alternate history and other niche genres in SF and complained about the emphasis on militarism, wondering why the panelists didn't seem interested in, or aware of, AH novels that were about turning points that involved social movements, popular revolutions, or, well, something other than yet another military battle or one-man critical changes.
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From:[info]nancylebov
Date:April 28th, 2008 05:27 pm (UTC)
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No, what you're talking about is the converse or somesuch-- people who are so fascinated by things military that they have trouble focusing on anything else.
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From:[info]dmlaenker
Date:April 28th, 2008 05:58 pm (UTC)
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I guess it is the converse... but it's always boggled me. I want to quote that thing from Mark Rosenfelder where he says that science fiction presents a world of social systems and dystopias and yet all so many SF fans see are "wonderful toys" like flashy guns and fast rockets, but I can't seem to find it.

It really is difficult for me to understand, enough that I've never been able to see why people play Warhammer 40k without sympathy about the utterly dystopian world.
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