Capricorn Dumb

Three bloomin' idiots in Great Britain have been duped into believing they have been sent into space for several days. The TV production company built a bogus training facility from an old military base, bought up a bunch of actual unused Soviet space hardware and made a huge thundering racket at to simulate a launch. The show, Space Cadets, is being broadcast on the BBC's Channel 4.

If the show's contestants manage to formulate a cohesive thought long enough to to wonder why they are not floating they will be told that "gravity generators" have been used to stick them to the floor. (Hey, they've worked on science fiction shows for years.) But based on the jaw-dropping level of ignorance I think they'd be just as likely to accept "pixie magic" as an explanation.

From a TV writers standpoint this is pure gold. One expects aliens to make an appearance sooner or later - followed by an air leak or a visit from Captain Kirk. You can do a lot with that level of sheer stupid. The advertisers will certainly love it, since science (standing in line after drama and literature) has been made profitability's sweet whore.

But from the standpoint of basic literacy this is horrifying. We live in a world powered by information and engineering, where every meaningful piece of human activity stands on the shoulders devices and machinery understood by an increasingly smaller group of people. From the Internet to the brakes on your car to oil refineries, the average citizen knows zilcho about how stuff actually works. The rest of us could be told by Katie Couric that pretzels cause elbow cancer and we'd all freak out and demand that Mr. Salty testify before congress.

Original link Slashdot. Post title reference here.