Ian Malcolm's take on life
Key themes in Jurassic Park
by Reg Harris
Copyright © 1999 by Reg Harris. All rights reserved. This article may not be copied in whole or in part without my expressed written permission. Contact me for permission. Please respect my copyright.
What If...?
Science Fiction always concerns itself with the question, "What if...?" What if aliens attacked the earth?
- What if a natural or man-made disaster made the earth
uninhabitable?
- What if people let their computers or their government take
complete control of their lives?
- What if people were turned to sheep through "benevolent"
censorship?
- What if an entire population is made apathetic by being overwhelmed by inessential news and meaningless trivia?
Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park is not what we would
consider a "great" work of science fiction, but it poses some
profound "What if’s…?" --- and most of them have very little to with
dinosaurs. Beneath the surface frills and thrills of raptor and rex,
the book explores questions which are important to a culture that
seems increasingly addicted to technology and entertainment.
What’s more, these themes relate directly to the process of growth
and the Hero’s Journey cycle which forms the foundation of our
lives. They are even more important to our youth, who usually lack
the knowledge, experience, and judgment to confront the pressures
which would draw them away from their own journeys into the roles of
mindless worker and unthinking consumer.
Malcolm is the key
The most important of Jurassic Park’s themes are
addressed by Ian Malcolm, the mathematician hired by John Hammond to
evaluate his park. In his criticisms and ramblings, Malcolm
addresses several disturbing social trends and offers the reader
some important insights.
Through the book and Malcolm, teachers can help their students
discover important influences on their lives. Through its key themes
and the questions those themes raise, Jurassic Park can become a
powerful and relevant unit on our culture and our relationship to
it.
While there are many themes in the book, there are three which I
have found especially useful in working with students:
We are given our assumptions about life.
We are learning more and more about less and less, a concept which
Malcolm calls "thintelligence."
Despite an explosion in the use of technology (most of it extremely
expensive), we have not seen a dramatic improvement in the quality
of life, when measured by more holistic, life-affirming standards.
Assumptions about life
We are given our assumptions about life.
Early in Jurassic Park, paleobotonist Ellie Sattler is
discussing with Ian Malcolm his unconventional taste in clothing
(all black or gray). Malcolm replies,
"...We live in a world of frightful givens. It is given that you will behave like this, given that you will care about that. No one thinks about the givens. Isn't it amazing? In the information society, nobody thinks. We expected to banish paper, but we actually banished thought." (p. 72)
Malcolm could easily be talking about a "mythos", a pattern of
fundamental values and attitudes shared by a people. In close or
traditional societies, where communication is not difficult, these
values and attitudes are usually transmitted through myths and the
arts. However, in a large, diverse culture such as ours, the images
and metaphors of our "national mythos" (if we have one) are created
by and transmitted through the media, the only vehicle which has
virtually unlimited access to the majority of the people in the
culture.
A cultural mythos permeates a society, shaping its values, coloring
its thinking, defining its relationships and even determining an
individual’s self image. In Malcolm’s terms, the cultural mythos
provides us with "givens" about life. We either accept the givens
and live by them, or we reject them and live in conflict with
virtually every aspect of our environment.
If the media is providing us with a mythos, the givens by which we
structure or lives, we should look at the media, its techniques and
goals and its impact on how we think and live.
Questions for discussion or research
Media and advertising
What givens does the media present to us --- that is, what images
or beliefs about ourselves, others and the world does the media ask
us to believe? Advertising, for example, provides a "model" for
life, a model which requires us to adopt a certain self image and to
cultivate certain desires. What does research tell us about the
impact of the media/advertising on how we view ourselves and our
world?
We should realize that virtually all media exists to sell something.
Even something as important as the news, on which we base important
decisions, is selected and packaged to draw viewers for advertisers.
We will not hear news which attacks sponsors or their actions. How
and why does the media package information and images? What do they
want us to think or do? Who actually controls the news organizations
and networks? (I remember reading some years back that something
like 80-90% of the media is controlled by fewer than 20 companies.)
Impact on thinking skills
Is Ian Malcolm right? Have we really banished thought? How many
people really think carefully about what they are told or about the
assumptions upon which they build their lives?
What role should the schools play in countering or mitigating the
media’s influence? For example, Robert Thompson, a professor at
Syracuse University and founding director of the Center for the
Study of Popular Television stated,
"Just as 200 years ago the skills of reading, writing and doing
arithmetic were seen as the foundation of education in our culture,
learning how to watch television now needs to be added to that
base." (California Educator, Dec. 1998, page 22)
In that same article, Lois Tinson, president of the California
Teachers Association, states, "Students need guidance in how to
handle the onslaught of the many television programs, video games
and movies available." She argues that students should be taught how
to be critical viewers and listeners.
If these experts are correct, what should the school’s role be? Is
it meeting its obligations. What classes have been replaced be
school-to-work programs or computer/internet programs? What
percentage of classes actually teach students to be discerning and
critical?
Technology and "thintelligence"
When asked his opinion of John Arnold, the park's systems engineer, and Henry Wu, the park’s geneticist, Malcolm introduces the concept of "thintelligence."
"[Arnold and Wu are] technicians. They don't have intelligence. They have what I call 'thintelligence.’ They see the immediate situation. They think narrowly and they call it 'being focused.' They don't see the surround. They don't see the consequences. That's how you get an island like [Jurassic Park]. From thintelligent thinking. Because you cannot make an animal and not expect it be act alive. To be unpredictable. To escape. But they don't see that." (p. 284)
Malcolm’s point here seems especially important in a culture which is becoming increasingly complex, where specialization is the rule. However, such ‘thintelligent’ thinking is not without its risks.
Questions for discussion
Specialization
What are the dangers of specialization? What risks do scientists
face when they are so specialized that they see and understand only
one small part of an entire system? (Students might research the
controversy surrounding genetic engineering in food crops, including
the activities of corporations such as Monsanto. Genetically
engineered crops might work in an isolated situation, but what is
their impact on their environment, on the whole environmental system
of which they are a part?)
Our culture tends to admire experts for the depth of their knowledge
in a given area, but there is a new movement that focuses on breadth
of knowledge rather than depth. It is usually called "integrated
studies." What strengths could a person trained for a broader,
integrated knowledge and understanding bring to a culture? To
science? Are their parallels between the "new" integrated view and
the concept of the "renaissance man?" (Students might research
colleges and universities which offer in "integrated studies.")
Systems theory
If the topic of integrated systems generates student interest,
there is a film you might try. When we studied Jurassic Park, I
showed part of a 1991 film called Mindwalk, which is based on
Fritjof Capra’s book The Turning Point.
Mindwalk follows three people--a poet, a politician and a quantum
physicist--as they wander through the island-abby of Mont St. Michel
on the coast of France. They discuss the impact of science and
technology. The character of the physicist (played by Liv Ulmann)
makes a strong case for an integrated view of the world, a view
which sees the whole of a system rather than just its parts. She
also makes the point that we rely too much on expensive and wasteful
science and technology to help us after the fact rather than on
taking more conservative and effective action before the fact. (For
example, relying on expensive by-pass surgery instead of inexpensive
education and preventive efforts.)
Associated with this topic is "systems theory," which is a
relatively new way of analysis. Systems theory makes the case that
we cannot understand or correct part of a system in isolation; we
need to look at its interrelationships with the rest of the system.
It also suggests that we cannot "fix" part of a system without
"fixing" the whole system (which is why we can’t "fix" schools
without addressing the cultural problems which manifest on our
campuses).
What advances?
One of the most interesting questions Malcolm raises relates to the 'contributions' and 'advances' of modern science. When challenged that science and technology have given us many valuable advances, Malcolm responds,
"What advances. The number of hours women devote to housework has not changed since 1930, despite all the advances. All the vacuum cleaners, washer-dryers, trash compactors, garbage disposals, wash-and-wear fabrics...Why does it still take as long to clean the house as it did in 1930? ... Because there haven't been any advances. Not really. Thirty thousand years ago, when men were doing cave paintings at Lascaux, they worked twenty hours a week to provide themselves with food and shelter and clothing. The rest of the time, they could play, or sleep, or do whatever they wanted. And they lived in a natural world, with clean air, clean water, beautiful trees and sunsets. Think about it. Twenty hours a week. Thirty thousand years ago." (p. 285)
A generation ago, a family could survive with a single parent
working. Now, it seems, both parents must work, sacrificing many of
the activities and relationships which supported the family unit.
In addition, research indicates that there has been virtually no
increase in productivity because of computers. About 43% of the time
people spend working on their computers is wasted in trying to get a
program to work or in trying to figure out how to do something.
For research or discussion
-
How has the buying power of the money we earned changed over the last 30-40 years?
-
Are we working more hours now? Why do both parents need to work in a family?
-
Research has shown that despite the trillions of dollars spent on computers, there has been no significant increase in national output. Why are computers having such a huge impact on our culture without having a significant impact on our productivity?
-
Students should be asking "What if…?"
- Like all science fiction, Jurassic Park deals with the question "What if…?" The themes covered here are just three of the important questions Ian Malcolm asks in Jurassic Park.
They are important questions because they force us to look at our
culture and our technology and the relationship between the two.
They force us to look at ourselves and how our culture shapes our
thinking and self-image (and thus our actions).
From the Hero’s Journey point of view, they are important because
they will make us aware of those "false calls" which would draw us
away from our own Journey and turn us, instead, into mindless cogs
in the machinery of corporate America.