4.3 KiB
Are there any movies or other media pieces which at least come close to fitting into the rational framework?
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Author: u/Prezombie *
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/1t9cqx/are_there_any_movies_or_other_media_pieces_which/
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Score: 11
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Created: 2013-12-19T17:45:45
Post:
The closest thing I can think of is a few of the "puzzles" which made up the twists at the ending of Saw films.
Comments:
u/alexanderwales [+15] Time flies like an arrow (29 minutes later)
- Primer - two engineers invent a time machine
- The Man From Earth - a college professor claims to be immortal at a going away party
- Limitless - a man finds a drug that makes him smarter
- The Prestige - duelling stage magicians, but fails the Idiot Ball test
- Moneyball - a stats geek baseball manager uses stats to build a better team
The big problem is that the aesthetic choices that you'd want to make in a rationalist story don't translate all that well to the screen.
u/OffColorCommentary [+15] (a day later)
In Limitless, a man gets access to a drug that makes him vastly smarter, then proceeds to use it in all of the ways an average person would come up with, and also forgets to pay a loan shark back.
u/None [+3] (a month later)
Let's just headcanon that he didn't trust himself enough to deliberately go human-foom.
u/mcgruntman [+5] (8 hours later)
I'd just like to add that Primer is fantastic but very obtuse. I wouldn't recommend watching it with the sort of people that talk through films... you need to concentrate.
After you've seen it two or three times (it takes at least that many to have any idea wtf is going on), try it with the audio commentary from http://qntm.org/primer ... NB Please don't read the summary on that page before watching the film, you'd be spoiling a real treat.
u/alexanderwales [+1] Time flies like an arrow (23 hours later)
Oh wow, I had no idea that Sam Hughes did an audio commentary. That's fantastic!
u/AmeteurOpinions [+6] Finally, everyone was working together. (an hour later)
Twelve Angry Men uses a bunch of "rationalist" techniques as one man tries to convince the rest of the jury the defendant is innocent.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington might fit too.
I want to list a few detective movies, but too often they succumb to stupidity for the sake of drama, so they don't qualify.
u/None [+7] (8 hours later)
Twelve Angry Men uses a bunch of "rationalist" techniques as one man tries to convince the rest of the jury the defendant is innocent.
If I remember it correctly, at first he wasn't even trying to convince them he's innocent, he was only trying to investigate the case without making any definite conclusions. Only later it became clear that he's most likely innocent.
Anyway, good catch.
edit. In the same vein, Paths of Glory might count too.
u/dcb720 [+1] (a month later)
Actually on repeated views I think the guy is probably guilty. The create doubt, but it's kinda far fetched.
u/None [+3] (8 hours later)
Catch Me If You Can - The main character uses outside the box thinking and creative problem solving throughout the film. And it's based on a true story.
Watchmen (a graphic novel/film) might also be interesting for its depiction of utilitarianism and different moral philosophies. Most of the story doesn't really follow rational characters though. And I don't think Dr. Manhattan was very believable as a superhuman intelligence, especially the "we're all miracles" bit was quite a letdown.
u/None [+3] (a month later)
I would have found Dr. Manhattan's portrayal more believable if it hadn't already been a long time since he was human. A pushover nebbish physicist who gets autistically fascinated by atoms but thinks people are hugely complex and improbable is... well, relatively common in academia.
People who haven't taken courses in evolution and learning theory often think our existence is wildly improbable, because they don't understand that evolution over 3.5 billion years is actually a fairly powerful optimizer able to hit small targets (like us).
u/traverseda [+3] With dread but cautious optimism (3 days later)
A lot of songs by Tim Minchin.