Michael Crichton Dies

Of cancer, at home, yesterday

Jurassic Park, ER, Andromeda Strain... and much much more!

A broad thinking technology wonk and skeptic. My kinda guy.

 

Sad to hear he passed. His books were formula but I loved the fact that the scientists and mathematicians were the heros - my kind of guy too.

 

Re: RE: Michael Crichton Dies

Uhh... I really dont like to quibble incessantly Mo. But are you sure about that?

Seems to me the 'pure science' types were NOT the heros. I think that was the point.

I always took Crichton's underlying theme to be 'look out for Amoral - because we can' science.

 

I havent read one of his books for a long time but I've read quite a few of them. I viewed the typical formula as being - a crack team of scientific experts are brought in to analyze something or solve a problem, some people die but in the end the good scientists prevail. I guess I thought greed or power or government was always behind what ever problem arose. My thinking wasnt as deep as yours 'Fog.

His plots always involved an interesting & contemporary sub-field of science or technology, and he was very good at weaving the science it into a story.

 

But get back to the underlying plots. Technically feasible > commercially feasible > acclaimed accomplishment > Fix/limit results of disastrous 'unintended consequences'

Sorta like 'corn ethanol'.. or trading derivatives... or drastically changing our way of life to address 'global climate change'