Postby Technomancer » Tue Apr 10, 2007 6:46 am
It's not like he has a thick accent or anything, so probably not. I suspect it has more to do with Sigourney Weaver being a draw in and of herself. People who are interested in science and the environment will probably watch it anyways, but the producers might also feel they need to do something extra to bring in a broader audience who generally wouldn't watch a nature show. A Hollywood celebrity might help with that. However famous Attenborough himself might be, it's doubtful many members of the broader audience would have heard of him, much less read one of his books.
The scientific method," Thomas Henry Huxley once wrote, "is nothing but the normal working of the human mind." That is to say, when the mind is working; that is to say further, when it is engaged in corrrecting its mistakes. Taking this point of view, we may conclude that science is not physics, biology, or chemistry—is not even a "subject"—but a moral imperative drawn from a larger narrative whose purpose is to give perspective, balance, and humility to learning.
Neil Postman
(The End of Education)
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge
Isaac Aasimov