04.22.11
For the Delight of Adult Children
For the delight of adult children, Michio Kaku is hard to beat. In the past couple of weeks I’ve seen him asked to bring light to the awfulness of the Daichi nuclear disaster on cable news.
It’s the way of the hosts and producers. If you smile a lot, tell wondrous stories and are glib — or are just wonderfully oily — you’re perfect for the jobs of science popularizer and explainer of all problems with a science component.
That’s Michi Okaku.
Earlier in the week, on discussion roped in for the one-year anniversary ‘celebration’ of the BP oil disaster, Kakio burst out:
“The solution for the pollution is dilution!”
Wow. Can’t beat that.
The adult kids who love Kaku need great stories, too. Preferably short, well-repeated ones, because they easily forget things.
“You’re the best guy to talk about this,” comedian Bill Maher says to Kaku before getting the skinny on the tragedy of Daichi, laughing it up.
First, Kaku compares the situation to nuclear facilities being run by a “Homer Simpson,” a rib-tickler he’s pushed for the past couple weeks. [Much audience laughter.]
“This is a science experiment and we are the guinea pigs!” Kaku adds.
The video of the segment is here. If you savor the image of turning a combined tsunami/earthquake/meltdown disaster into 90 seconds of laugh lines, then by all means, go – go – go!
Kaku knows that to keep the adult children cooing and clapping their hands in delight, you need money shots. Kaku’s money shots are his encapsulations, specifically this nose-gold:
“This is a science experiment and we are the guinea pigs!”
Here is Kaku last year, using it twice for the BP Oil disaster (the first incidence comes at about 5:30):
Good news, lads ! Good news! Olbermann may be gone but Michio Kaku ain’t!
A sampling of Kaku yields more riches:
On Daichi: And you begin to wonder, I mean, is Homer
Simpson operating this nuclear power plant?
Again on Daichi, this time on contaminated water leaking from the plant, for MSNBC:Well, think of the little Dutch boy facing all these cracks in a dike. This hole, that hole, that hole has to be taken care of.
For MSNBC, not Maher: We`re witnessing a science experiment with humans, us, as the guinea pig.
Kaku on the book he’s currently flogging, Physics of the Future:
The job market of the future will consist of those jobs that robots cannot perform. Our blue-collar work is pattern recognition, making sense of what you see. Gardeners will still have jobs because every garden is different. The same goes for construction workers. [Who will live in giant shanty towns because they’re only paid minimum for tending the gardens of the wealthy, like in California, now.]
The losers are white-collar workers, low-level accountants, brokers, and agents. Already when you book a flight, do you really talk to anybody? No. People involved in software, ideas, human values, leadership, and creativity will still have jobs in the future. [Like Michio.]
The military, of course, is pioneering this technology. They have a version of this now. I’ve tried it. Through a little eyepiece I saw an entire battlefield, with the positions of friendly troops, enemy troops, and tactics all marked.
Yes, the US military has these things which map out where all things is. That’s working well in [fill in the name of your favorite country we’re at war with.]
Our grandkids will lead the lives of the gods of mythology. Zeus could think and move objects around. We’ll have that power. Venus had a perfect, timeless body. We’ll have that, too. Pegasus was a flying horse. We’ll be able to modify life in the future.
Stoop and bend the knee.
Dave Latchaw said,
April 22, 2011 at 6:17 pm
Screw the flying horses, Michio. We want unicorns.
He’s also become one of the go-to guys for the History Channel’s insultingly stupid junk science shows.