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Distance Learning for fun and profit...

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PossiblyEnos said:
concepts have to be massively simplified
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Because shows have to generate revenue (generally). Sure, some shows are made purely for the artistry of storytelling, but those are the tiny minority. And they only last as long as the people funding it remain able to sink money into it. They're almost always fan made films and put up on YouTube (Offhand, I can only think of the Bat In The Sun channel run by a father/son team. And that's not even Science Fiction!). Too often, the producers (who generally have a vested monetary interest in the show) want the show to appeal to the broadest possible audience, which leads to making the show "understandable" to more people. In other words: they dumb it down because they're stupid or they think the audience is stupid. Either way, we get technobabble and oversimplified garbage instead of plausible scientific explanations.
 
Text presents technical information in a more fluid manner than video. Consider this scene:

mp3.1415player said:
And now she had everything she needed to make almost anything she could conceive of, including a tiny little benchtop multi-axis CNC milling machine very similar to the one at the DARPA lab they'd visited, along with a small but very good vapor phase solder reflow oven, the microscope which she loved, a cutting edge machine for turning out prototype PCBs in very little time, and several other incredibly useful tools. Not to mention stocks of absolutely anything she was ever likely to need from components to wire, bar, and sheet material in at least a dozen different metals including pure gold.
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How would a TV show present this information? It could pan over the machinery and stock, but that mostly shows machinery that many viewers couldn't identify even for types of machines that already exist. Let's assume the viewers need more information than just what each machine looks like.

The film could show Taylor using each of the machines, and the result of each step. The source chapter here also does that, so it's not too hard to work into the script assuming you don't need to spend time waiting for metal vapor to condense or something. However, this approach presents some difficulty for technology that doesn't actually exist.

Or the film could have someone talk about the machines. That's about thirty seconds of lecturing - very awkward to insert into the script, and with a more natural setup it might consume several percent of your dialogue budget for an entire TV episode. So it's tempting to cut some explanation by saying how the technology relates to underlying principles but not explaining what those principles are.

The first approach is the Star Wars way. Name the technology and show what it does. Don't bother explaining how it works, if that's not immediately apparent.

The second approach leads to technobabble.


(E): I'm not claiming these are the only two ways ever used.
 
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Graviator said:
Text presents technical information in a more fluid manner than video. Consider this scene:



How would a TV show present this information? It could pan over the machinery and stock, but that mostly shows machinery that many viewers couldn't identify even for types of machines that already exist. Let's assume the viewers need more information than just what each machine looks like.
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You sweep past a rack of the most exotic/expensive samples, with a mechanism for rolling more into view, or perhaps an electronic catalog with everything "in stock" green.
You then pass by a few shiny boxes making light and noise with sample items in the infeed and output trays.
The microscope is obvious, but has some stickers or engraving to show its favour with the protagonist.

If the viewer somehow *needs* to know a detail because the plot is a murder mystery or something, then you have a screen with a 256 pt font red text saying "X too high/low" until the operator updates its configuration by mashing the keyboard as the viewpoint passes.
 
To be fair to Eden, a full sized entity isat least as large as a planet. Are you saying you have never bumped into a kitchen counter/door/streetlight? We view planets as huge because compared to them, we are tiny.
 
Valdimarian said:
Look, you try Uninstalling your GPS, Downloading a new app, installing said new app, Texting a new friend, driving your manual transmission car, delivering pizzas, and parking simultaneously and see how you do.

"A LLAMA? He's supposed to be DEAD"
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This whole post just makes me think of ASDF. "They said I could never teach a llama to drive!"
 
mp3.1415player said:
Brockton Bay: Exceeds Expectations In Every Way!

We Welcome Visitors.

Please Enjoy Your Stay.

Do Not Feed The Lizards, It Will Only Encourage Them.​
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The Ta-class turned to the Re-class leading her group. "Well, that last bit seems ominous. Let's go raid that Boston place instead."

The Re laughed. "Come on you coward, what's the worst that could happen, we get shot at with AA guns?"
 
Kryslin said:
Actually, you should feed the Author of Lizardly Wordz. That would definitely encourage him. :)
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Nah, it'll just distract them with food. Be it good or nasty. And enough of it would be a feast, which will only distract them longer. And if a large enough feast, will also gain weight and sleep more frequently. So no to the offerings of food to the author, we want them able to write when they finally get bored enough to do so.
 
Kryslin said:
Actually, you should feed the Author of Lizardly Wordz. That would definitely encourage him. :)
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The problem is, do I want to encourage Lizardly!Wordz, or Tanky!Wordz or Learning-y!Wordz or DOOM-y!Wordz or Kernel-y!Wordz or Incompatible!Wordz or Preparation-y!Wordz or....

"Hi, I'm sdwood, and I have a problem."
 
sdwood said:
The problem is, do I want to encourage Lizardly!Wordz, or Tanky!Wordz or Learning-y!Wordz or DOOM-y!Wordz or Kernel-y!Wordz or Incompatible!Wordz or Preparation-y!Wordz or....

"Hi, I'm sdwood, and I have a problem."
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Well, Taylor Anne Hebert, supergenius keeps jumping the muse queue, so Education!Wordz keep happening. I personally want more Tanky!Wordz because it's been too long since we've heard from Doctor Curlyhair, and that means she's probably up to something.
 
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