Prophets of Science Fiction

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If you get the Science Channel and you're interested in the kinds of shows that always include interviews with this guy...



...then I'd like to bring this show to your attention. It's produced and hosted by Ridley Scott. It focuses both on the authors and their works and how they relate to the modern world. Last week they did Mary Shelley, and this week it's Philip K. Dick. Unfortunately, the episodes don't seem to be available on the website, but my cable program guide is showing lots of repeats. According to the website, next up is H.G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Jules Verne, Robert Heinlein, and George Lucas.

Edit: There's a preview video and a few clips from the Shelley episode on this page, but no full episodes as far as I can see.

Oooh...I wonder if this will be broadcast elsewhere too. I've been a huge fan of Clarke for years.

I started getting into William Gibson in recent months too...shame that series doesn't seem to be looking at his stuff because everything from Neuromancer onwards would certainly qualify.

There's some pretty good science programming on the BBC on occasion but sadly the current series of Horizon has finished now. I recall a couple of episodes going into String Theory and the origins ofthe universe...they blew my mind!

There's a good show I've recently noticed called The Fabric of the Cosmos that's airing on Nova on PBS, which focuses on things like string theory. Unlike Prophets of Science Fiction, you can watch some of these episodes online on the PBS website here. (Although the website is giving me trouble right now, so I can't confirm if they're full episodes.)

I caught about 10-15 minutes of the one on Dick. Interesting fellow that made some rather accurate predictions on modern day technology back in the 60's. Also caught a few minutes of The Fabric of the Cosmos. I thought it did a nice job asking/answering questions in the way my mind asks them. I think I remember one of the Ivy League schools having cosmology video lectures online, though the link is bookmarked in my own non-functioning laptop. It was a couple of years ago so I don't know if it is still up. I thought they gave a little more insight than what you see on TV.

I enjoyed the Dick episode, but I got more enjoyment out of the parts about how he relates to the modern world than the parts about his life. They fell into the unfortunately common trap of portraying him as a whackjob who was drugged out of his mind. The actor playing the young Dick had a constant look of confusion on his face and he was shown talking to hippies in his house with bottles of pills lying around on the tables. It's true that Dick had a drug problem, but he did legal amphetamines. It's like they do the minimum possible research, and just saw that he wrote some very paranoid stories and did a drug, so he must have been dropping acid and smoking weed all the time, right? But as a "Dick for Dummies" episode, it's not bad at all.



Shows like this do a surprisingly good job of presenting ideas like quantum mechanics and string theory in simple ways that anyone can understand. Obviously you'll get more insight if you look elsewhere, but I like the "for Dummies" approach of these shows. I don't think I even knew the basic ideas behind quantum mechanics and string theory until shows like this explained it to me. It made me wonder why other sources couldn't have explained it better.