[geeks] TV/book rant was:Chrighton

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 04:40:17AM +0000, wa2egp at att.net wrote:
>  Certainly was, he used a sniper rifle.  Are you sure you were watching the same show? :)
> Actually it is a great show for searching for mistakes.  I love where they get holographic monitors and other stuff that doesn't exist yet.

Harking back to the Chrighton and Moore discussions, it's science FICTION,
not a documentary. 

I understand that a lot of people think it's real, but it's not and it
was never portrayed as anything but. In the pilot the first ones on the
scene are cops and when the CSI's arrive, Brass says to someone else
"here comes the nerd squad". 

It actually presented a new, but flawed concept in police work, the independent
subcontractor (the lab) who was paid by the solved case. It never worked
out in the real world and as the show went on the CSI's became police officers.

I would no more use it for a serious scientific education than watching House
for medical advice. Or watching Star Trek for millitary, engineering or
science education.

There was a book published in the 1980's on using Sci-Fi for science education,
my wife was the research assistant/editor. If you have a copy you can find
her credited in the "thanks" page. :-)

I think there was a second edition, I don't remember if she was involved
or not, and a new one is in the works by the main author.

Geoff.

-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM