Strange Matters
Social psychologist Erich Fromm once said, "A technological civilization is programmed by the principal that something ought to be done if it is technologically possible. If it is possible to make nuclear weapons, they must be built even if they destroy us all." So it is in the world of science as it is practiced today. The ambitious and beautifully produced new documentary Strange Matters shows us a scientific landscape populated by the most brilliant minds of our time - all collectively accelerating discoveries which could hold the power to destroy us all.
Such a discovery was made in August of 2014, when researchers at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York uncovered the means by which to manufacture strange matter, a quark liquid which existed billions of years ago and is thought to have played a key role in the Big Bang. When properly manipulated, this liquid quark serves as the most explosive element in the known universe, and can consume and destroy all planetary mass.
The accomplishments and capabilities of the nuclear science industry are advancing at a rapid pace, but at what cost to the future of humanity? Spokespersons for the industry itself downplay these risks by appealing to the public's insatiable appetite for innovation. Many of the eye-opening revelations presented in Strange Matters lie in stark contrast to our general view of science as a positive force for the betterment of mankind. As explained by Otto Rossler, one of the founders of Chaos Theory and a valuable contributor to the film, "Science sometimes is dangerous to sustainability."
This dynamic is apparent throughout the history of scientific innovation, particularly in the doomsday functions of an invention such as the atom bomb. The film argues that current research involving particle manipulation and manmade black holes carry the threat of even greater devastation.
Strange Matters contains ample servings of dense scientific data, but presents this challenging information in a clear and easily digestible manner. Beyond the science, however, lies a troubling ethical conundrum: just because our species has the curiosity and power of invention needed to unravel these scientific mysteries, does that mean that we should?
I am a transistorized, transgenderized, transmogrified, trans-human
A corporatized, commercialized, industrial strength consumer
A goal setting, gym sweating, debt fretting freak
A social climbing net worker that's always on heat
I got my education majoring in indoctrination
Where they taught me to comply, to never question why
And so I'm chasing an illusion of success that's a delusion
That's sending me insane, exploding my brain
And as we teeter on the brink, soon to be extinct
I always wear a smile, coz I'm living in denial
Criminal psychosis
If consumer culture were a separate individual and assessed psychiatrically, its diagnosis would be criminal psychosis of the most fiendish variety. But since its lunacy is agreed upon, we lap it up.
Like psychopathic dung beetles, we let future generations pay as we roll up the latest cultural excretions, coming away with everything except the love that faded as life became a romance with the appetites. In a system that hawks selfishness, vanity and exhibitionism, we become easily excited with the fake orgasm of trappings and tantalizations. Once sold on ourselves, we can be wooed by the most impoverished of ambitions, from ‘having it all’ and ‘living the dream’ right on down to ‘making it to the top’.
Conformity usually reassures, even when a culture is morbidly sick. What makes our rampage so titillating is that it is bound up with cultural heroism. Excess, over-indulgence, over-consumption, dandyism, stylish indifference – all part of the act, all trumpets of conquest, prosperity, success and ‘being somebody’.
Positivity-peddlers are working overtime, but the big picture is sobering. Consumerism and predatory capitalism are not viable long-term organizing principles for a society. Our myths about progress, superfluous wealth, limitless expansion and endless resources are formulas for global ruin. Hyper-competitive individualism is a lonely straitjacket that fuels frustration, alienation and rage. Freedom has cheapened into a demeaning free-for-all in a prison of petty wants. As a springboard to happiness, emotional health and social wellbeing, ‘the good life’ is an exhausting flop.
This documentary provides many insights including the origins of Nobel the Merchant of Death and the evolution of the nuclear industry. It explains the process of how we got to this point and the trail of warnings and reflection from Einstein through to present day personalities.
The nuclear industry is powerful and is effective at self-promotion and misinformation. We should pay attention to the connection between Nobel awards and support for the nuclear industry.
This is not a slick production and does not aim to entertain. Some scenes of children harmed by Chernobyl are difficult to watch. This film is complemented nicely by John Pilger's documentary on the Bikini Islands. Thank you for providing an informative and meaningful documentary.
In a media culture, if an idea can be presented which will, in any manner, connect with the culture of fear, it must and will be presented as such.
i think you guys protest too much, for some reason
What a stupid paranoid and MISINFORMING idiotic "documentary"
what nonsense
What a sissy video. I think we should take more and bigger risks and soon.
Sub par garbage
it is remarkable how angry are the commenters, obviously they are a bit afraid it is all truth. Nothing ore obvious that the anger of people to prove something is right when it does not make happy. Man up children, death is 1/2 of reality and 'shooting the messenger' does not help to survive
Mockumentary. Wild conclusions based on overreached, overstretched correlations.
"Fetishist machines" oh man you lost me. The way this film gleans clips from other documentaries. The way its twists opinions. Wilczek really should sue for this garbage. The woman explaining about taking two things and smashing them together to look at the debris in the first 15 minutes or so is from a fantastic documentary which is on Netflix so go watch that instead
Propagandist bunk.
This should not even be categorized as a documentary. I'm a bit offended that it is.
Couldn't get past 12 minutes.
Quite unfortunate, as the description of the film made it sound very interesting.
I, too, vote this should be removed. It's not a documentary. It's propaganda in a rather blatant state.
I guess I'm interested in following up the citations shown at the beginning from CERNTruth and Brookhaven Newsroom etc about what's been discovered and the concerns expressed by Wilczek, Rossler, and Wagner in the paper about disaster scenarios. The information about Alfred Nobel was kind of cool too. (war profits funding the nobel prizes and the continued existence of his multinational corporation). I used to think Eisenhower was inconsequential until I read his speech about the military-industrial complex and I used to think LBJ was an bad warmongering president until I started reading about his successful push for civil rights legislation and the great society and how he got Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court. Real life is complicated, not just heros and villians. I thought this was an interesting film. Made me want to learn more.
Not science, guys. Wrong section.
This is really, _really_ bad. I managed to watch 16 minutes, but then I realized I just can't. I wouldn't even call this a documentary, but if I did, I did, I would say it's the worst "documentary" I've ever seen. And I have seen my fair share of UFO and conspiracy stuff. This is more like psychotic hate speech than anything else.
sh*tty, biased, unsupported propaganda
I made a sandwich and decided to find a nice science documentary to watch, I wish I didn't click on this. This isn't a documentary, it's pure propaganda and nonsense. Saying scientists and engineers are basically worshiping the machines they create.
15:07 - "A tradition continued today by its modern practitioners who still develop their fetishistic machines with mystical creationist theories proposing an energy only universe" By modern practitioners the film is referring to modern scientists at places like CERN and such.
Honestly I think this video should be removed.
Went in expecting a science documentary on quantum mechanics, stopped watching after 10 minutes because the author is a goddamn idiot. This is not a science documentary this is anti-intellectual propaganda that should be banned on this website. We are here to learn or here to enjoy new theories, not to listen to some paranoid fool babble on about nonsense that damages, aside from space exploration perhaps the most important field known to human kind. Shame on every poor unintelligent person who created this load of crap.
Oh neat! Fear mongering propaganda is considered to be the same as a science documentary now? All hail the machine overlord!!!
Well, i must say that the method i use to recognize a research from a propaganda is that the first focus in presenting the results of an study and then theorize about what that could mean. An the word "could" is the really important factor because science always leaves an open door for possible error. Propaganda in the other hand will most of the time focus in convince you about something, there will no "could" in the results, the study will be analyzed in only one manipulated direction, discarding all other possibilities through the use of fear to maximize the impact on your opinion. So, for me, this video is clearly a propaganda, not science or research.
Finally, in this video you will see a lot of "it has not been proven" and then you will see proof to the oposite, but this proof will be equally arguable as the ones discarded. For me, that's a contradiction and this video is full of them.
P.S.: Acording to this video there is no possibility for the existence of supersymmetry. Without any proof they discard it just like that.
This is not a science documentary. This is utter BS.
Well, after about 12 minutes of this, it became apparent that this "documentary" is about as intellectually dishonest as it gets. But I get the feeling that the presumable science-hating right wing conservative Luddites who created this ridiculous piece of anti-intellectualism don't REALLY understand what they are criticizing or the role of physics and science, and their mis-estimation of which is just flat out painful in it's fear and paranoia. Just sheer nonsense. Shameful how far some of these nuts are willing to go to mislead and misinform.
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Also I still await cyberdog's reply but he declared he had won the argument, as he declared he INTUITIVELY knew the creators of this film made no research.