Pseudoscience, Discovery Channel

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Oh you happy Americans! How lucky you are to have the Discovery Channel.
For all who need background information, it is even on the Internet.
http://www.discovery.com/DCO/doc/1012/online.html

Over here in Europe we have a series of good regular "science shows"
produced by the big TV stations in nearly all countries. The problems come
when special reports or talk shows are broadcasted that are designed to
deliver sensations to the viewers, with the screen full of UFOs and
extrasensual stuff. Critical reports on TV (they exist) are hardly
recognised by the public. The big discussions (is there extraterrestrial
life?) start after the unscientific speculative shows. It is very obvious
to me that scientific information is not what the people want at that
point. It is spiritual and pseudoreligeous stuff that inspires them. A
while ago I had a discussion with a UFO-believer who ended with: "They are
out there in space and we are nothing compared to them. It makes no sense
if we build our world. They can do it much better for us." I think that is
the point.

Fighting agains pseudoscience is like anti-drug education. The people need
to learn that their life is valuable and they should not waste their time
with this stuff. However, properly educated critical people may even start
to ask more questions. I find it very logic if NBC broadcasts pseudoscience
shows. Who would watch all the rest of their program when people start to
think?

Heinz Hilbrecht




Address:

Heinz Hilbrecht
Geological Institute
ETH Zentrum
Sonneggstr. 5
CH-8092 Zuerich
Switzerland

phone:  ++41-1-6323676
fax:      ++41-1-6321080
WWW: http://eurasia.ethz.ch/~heinz/
e-mail:  Hilbrecht@erdw.ethz.ch