Sister blog of Physicists of the Caribbean in which I babble about non-astronomy stuff, because everyone needs a hobby

Monday, 18 April 2016

The case for Boaty McBoatface

I'm sort of tempted to start an e-petition to compel them to actually use the name. Yes, the government couldn't directly force them to choose the name, but I'll bet the science minister has some influential clout.

Why I think they should actually use the name instead of dismissing it as the internet having a laugh :
- By having the audacity to use such a silly name for such a serious project, it will project supreme self confidence to the world.
- It will instantly appeal to a huge number of young taxpayers who would otherwise not have cared.
- It's a conversation starter. The name buys you a massive outreach opportunity that a polar explorer or a naturalist just doesn't.
- It will instantly and forever shatter the image of the elitist, out of touch, boring scientist. I can't emphasise enough how important that is. Also this : http://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2016/04/16/ask-ethan-why-dont-you-look-like-a-scientist/#61aedb12272c
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36064659
at
Labels:

2 comments:

Due to a small but consistent influx of spam, comments will now be checked before publishing. Only egregious spam/illegal/racist crap will be disapproved, everything else will be published.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Upgrades

Today, a few more thoughts on AI, per some recent upgrades to ChatGPT's image generator. I generally stand by my previous assertions , b...