Over the last few days, as I write this, the news has been filled with tributes to the 50th anniversary of the American television show Star Trek.
Many scientists, astronauts, and business people have proclaimed how this TV series inspired them.
This made me wonder -- in YOUR discipline, what works of fiction have inspired and motiovated you?
Are there fictional characters who represent role models for you?
What have you learned about what you do every day from fictional characters?
As far as I am concerned, these fictional characters may be from books, media entertainment, ancient myths and legends -- any source, as long as it is not a "real person."
I am a clinical and developmental psychologist by degrees and an ethologist (behavioral biologist) by heart and research career. As a very young child I was fascinated by the veterinarian Dr. Marsh Tracy of "Daktari", an American children's drama series. Curiously, although he was not a "real" person, his character was developed by producer Ivan Tors that was inspired by the work of 'Toni' Harthoorn and his wife Sue Hart at their animal orphanage in Nairobi. I was also very inspired by John Cort of the novel "The Village in the Treetops" (Original title: "Le Village Aérien") by Jules Verne.
In reality, Joachim, the stories were products of their time. In the original series, they were reflecting concerns about the first generation of computerization.
the most powerful thinking computer of the original series was The Ultimate Computer, which was a metaphor, I think, for unintended consequences resulting from failing to think through the removal of the human elements from computer control systems.
And also from a story-telling point of view, the writers did not want all of the problems of the crew to be solved by the computer. :-)
That did you think of Andromeda, the AI in the TV series Andromeda, in which the starship had an avatar and intelligence.?
I think inspiration is a process, having its roots in the personal childhood (at least). Later, when person grows, makes contact with more specific sources of inspiration, conducting to real world tasks. Then, first of all, I'll mention books.
One of the first was "As man became a giant", written by M. Illin (russian writer: Как человек стал великаном). Even when I read the book, it was outdated, but was a way to know about the evolution and the origin of Human Being. Another book of this type was Yakov Perelman "Astronomy for Entertainment".
Later, following the idea of evolution and the History as the result of it in a social context, I read fiction books mainly related with Geography, Mithology, History, from authors like: Emilio Salgari (italian) Jules Verne, Daniel de Foe, Victor Hugo, Homer, etc. After that, books on the First and Second World Wars: Boris Polevoi, E. Hemingway, Konstantin Simonov,
Finally, Science Fiction, from authors like: H. G.. Wells, Arkady and Gennady Strugatsky, Isaac Asimov, Stanislaw Lem, Ray Bradbury, Ivan Efremov.
Regarding movies, they are not among my favorite sources, but I liked films, like Solaris, A Beautiful Mind, Tron.
But, regarding inspiration, I think there are non fiction books, oriented to open minds to new ways of thinking, like those written by Marvin Minsky, Douglas Hofstadter, or Carl Sagan.
I am a clinical and developmental psychologist by degrees and an ethologist (behavioral biologist) by heart and research career. As a very young child I was fascinated by the veterinarian Dr. Marsh Tracy of "Daktari", an American children's drama series. Curiously, although he was not a "real" person, his character was developed by producer Ivan Tors that was inspired by the work of 'Toni' Harthoorn and his wife Sue Hart at their animal orphanage in Nairobi. I was also very inspired by John Cort of the novel "The Village in the Treetops" (Original title: "Le Village Aérien") by Jules Verne.
I remember Daktari very well. I have not read The Village in the Treetops. I will look for it.,
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