Last Week’s MM: Terrible Minds

I am a nerd.  Since high school, maybe before, I have been into science.  I remember reading Stephen Hawking when I was 14, and having my mind blown.  I spent a brief period of time wanting to be a cosmologist or theoretical physicist.   I even looked at colleges.  But, then I decided that I’d either be making bombs or teaching at a college, which wasn’t anything I wanted to do at the time.  So, I changed my mind.  I took a brief detour into wanting to be a fashion designer, and then, by time I went to college, I went for psychology.  I’m right and left brained.  A combination of arts and science.  And, in a lot of ways, I think the show Cosmos is, as well.  

In the 1980s, Carl Sagan brought information to a pre-internet world.  He tackled many topics, expanding many minds and really, informing and calling a generation to action.  After his death, his wife and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson wanted to bring the show back to life.   But they had a hard time selling it.

Seth MacFarlane decided to help out.  I’m a Family Guy fan (most seasons), American Dad, too.  In fact, he’s basically just a great entertainer.

Put the two together, and you have a fantastic show.  It delivers science, but does it in an incredibly entertaining way.  The graphics and special effects are fantastic.  I love the look of the cosmic calender.

And the show doesn’t always take the easy road.  This show doesn’t really explore theoretical principals that much.  It doesn’t talk about parallel worlds or time travel.  It sticks solidly in the known and proven.  There is some question about what tomorrow will hold, but they usually leave that open ended, with a hint that it’s not good unless we make it good.  It also doesn’t always pick the obvious.  There have been so many inventors and scientist, vital to our way of life, that I had never even heard of.  Like I said, I’m a nerd, but this show catches me off guard.

I think that this show could be a great resource for writers.  It gives you examples of the past, shows where things came from, and cutting edge things that are happening now.

Even if you’re not into science, this show is entertaining enough that I think it might just peak a curious mind.  It has calls to action.  It explains complex matters, and some things that you may have never known, in a way that is entertaining and easy to follow.  This show inspires.  If you let it, it might even make you a better person and help make this a better world.

If nothing else, it’ll at least open a few minds that may have otherwise always been in the dark.