Life : Why would a Scientist wiggle his finger at a new life form?

Why would a Scientist wiggle his finger at a new life form?

and try to play with it? It was ludicrous when the moron "scientist" did it in Prometheus, and it looks equally stupid here.



This is your brain on drugs with salt and pepper and a little bit of Tabasco.

Re: Why would a Scientist wiggle his finger at a new life form?

Good question. Hopefully there's good reasoning for it. Maybe we're just not seeing in the trailers. I also hated what that so called "scientist" in Prometheus did too. That was so dumb.

Re: Why would a Scientist wiggle his finger at a new life form?

He's behind a glass partition, using gloves and looking at a life form with no sharp teeth or appendages. Guess you pussies would suck at exploring.

Re: Why would a Scientist wiggle his finger at a new life form?

He's wearing surgical gloves, which are so sheer and lightweight they are barely another layer of skin.

And predators don't always display their weapons (i.e., you can't see teeth until a mouth is opened; needle or hook-like appendages are often concealed out of sight until unleashed).

And any scientist worth a shít would not first use his own finger to test how "friendly" an unknown alien lifeform is.

I guess explorer morons like you are the ones who wear the red shirts.









"It's good that you're beautiful...it compensates for your bland personality."

Re: Why would a Scientist wiggle his finger at a new life form?

Compare the stupid modern Hollywood 'scientists' to how the SCIENTISTS behaved in "The Andromeda Strain". They took EXTREME precautions when dealing with the alien microbe.

That's one of the few movies to feature how professional scientists truly behave, especially those trained in contamination and infection-prevention protocols.

Re: Why would a Scientist wiggle his finger at a new life form?

Thanks for mentioning The Andromeda Strain...in my opinion one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made featuring scientists who actually behave (and look) like scientists. Of course, way back in 1971, science-fiction as a subject in motion-pictures could actually be presented seriously, and rely on story, instead of cliched and cartoonish characters who exist merely to set-up a shock effects in a scene.



"I was cured all right!"

Re: Why would a Scientist wiggle his finger at a new life form?

Indeed it was a fantastic SCIENCE fiction movie, rather than silliness. As a scientist, I find almost everything called science fiction these days about as serious as "The Last Starfighter" only far less amusing.

Re: Why would a Scientist wiggle his finger at a new life form?

I agree; sci-fi in films these days is pretty dumbed-down, and even if the subject is treated "seriously" (Interstellar comes to mind), there always so many gaps in credulity that it spoils the whole effort.

I do have a couple of newer films, though, that I thought were admirable efforts...not (too) insulting to one's intelligence anyway. I liked Arrival, although that was as much about linguistics as it was physics. A bit manipulative with the past/present/future depiction of time in the film, but I really liked the depiction of the aliens, and I think it's one of the better new sci-fi movies I've seen. I also liked Ex Machina, too, because I'm a sucker for stories that delve into the subject of artificial intelligence/human consciousness via robots, and that I thought was one of the better ones.




"I was cured all right!"

Re: Why would a Scientist wiggle his finger at a new life form?

But even in "Ex Machina", the humans were ALL idiot-balled. There were no failsafes auto-shutdown code of any kind in their machines, which anyone with a shred of common sense would hard-write into the chips such that the machine could not delete it without physically removing the components... which would also contain its root directories, meaning it would shut down instantly if it attempted to do so.

Even "Terminator 2" thought of that, with the chip inside good Arnold's head which contained core aspects of his programming and couldn't simply be removed.

I think the problem comes from the 'messages' becoming more important than the story construction, which tends only to work out well when presented in fantasy scenarios that we can't judge from a 'reality' standpoint in the first place.

For me "Arrival" would have been much more acceptable if the aliens simply had weird powers and didn't attempt to appear physically plausible... since I already know the proposed temporal physics is based on the writer not actually understanding the concept being written about.

Re: Why would a Scientist wiggle his finger at a new life form?

I think it's to generate exactly the kind of response that you've given. So the audience becomes aggravated that a "scientist" is being so stupid. What writers and Hollywood don't understand is... we don't like stupid characters. We like intelligent ones.

Re: Why would a Scientist wiggle his finger at a new life form?

It's called...stupid writing. Just like how the "biologist" in Prometheus all but wanted to play with the friggin' alien worm that displayed threatening behavior and kept calling it baby. That part was stupid on a level that is almost hard to comprehend.

On the other hand though, it's either have one scientist do something stupid to advance the plot or the writers have to come up with some equally if not more stupid and contrived plot device advance the story how they want it to go.

Re: Why would a Scientist wiggle his finger at a new life form?

With regards to Prometheus, I agree the scene was stupid, the snake thing gave him at least two hissing warnings before it attacked.
But, Charlize' character did say she chose those people specifically, perhaps she did so because they were wreckless and she wanted the mission to fail?
But still, we don't know if the guy is attacked in that same scene as the finger one.
Perhaps it's filmed a short time later and the specimen jumps onto his glove and infects him.

Re: Why would a Scientist wiggle his finger at a new life form?

Well,because that is what black scientists do. Give new life forms the finger.

It is like they are saying "Fück you, you little bug".

Re: Why would a Scientist wiggle his finger at a new life form?

Because the thing was moving in response to his finger and he was interacting with it. He could of used a pen or a rod or something. But I don't know if I would of been intimidated of a single celled organism either.

Re: Why would a Scientist wiggle his finger at a new life form?

At least in Prometheus you get the sense that the scientists who were willing to go on the trip weren't exactly the best of the best. A ragtag bunch of losers that were in it for the paycheck.

Re: Why would a Scientist wiggle his finger at a new life form?

Maybe he was an Affirmative Action scientist.

Re: Why would a Scientist wiggle his finger at a new life form?

Hey there lil alien guy! Who's a good lil alien? Who's a good lil parasitic monster? YOU are! That's a good lil... ow. Y U RIP OFF MY FACE? :C

Re: Why would a Scientist wiggle his finger at a new life form?

Well Prometheus was a financial success and got good reviews (at the time). Perhaps they hope no one will notice.

Whatever you are, be a good one.

Re: Why would a Scientist wiggle his finger at a new life form?

The reason it's so dumb, especially his "wondrous" face while doing it, is because the writer and director could have had the same sequence and storyline and outcome without it being dumb. There are many ways he could have gotten "attacked" without him being so dumb, that's the real problem, that's why it's so cringeworthy.

The amazing thing is they thought it was exciting and scary, which is hard to believe considering it is a tired old trope. One can only assume that writers and producers believe their "new" core audience has never seen this trope in a sci fi film before. I find that hard to believe, even if you are 9 years old.
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