Michael Crichton just passed away and he deserves mention here. He wrote some attention-grabbing speculative fiction like Jurassic Park, yes, but in this blog it was his controversial views that resulted in commentary.
To wit:
- Itzkoff rails against Crichton in "Genetic Park" - January 8, 2007
- Follow up on Crichton - January 17, 2007
These are not glowing praises of Crichton by any stretch. His foray into global warming criticism got the kind of attention that I'm sure pleased the Bush administration and the oil industry. But there was a nasty side effect. Serious futurists would have been doing their own research...just like I did. Crichton's findings were typically found limited in scope with gaping holes regarding the breadth of his analytical factors. So, from a research perspective, I went from thinking Crichton was a genius to a kid doing bad science experiments.
Crichton may have missed the alarming trends of hydrates sublimating on the ocean floor and other indicators making our spike an anomaly. Humans are clearly influencing the rate at which the temperature is rising. That's always been the argument. No one denies natural trends in temperature increases but this one is clearly not natural. And Crichton contributed to the body of misinformation in his last years. It's a shame.
Closing on a lighter note, the man entertained. No doubt about it. And he had an inventive mind that was also capable of grasping scientific concepts and plugging them into wild tales. I appreciated his work and happily contributed to his fortune. He will be missed not for his scientific analysis but for his keen story telling.
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