For me, they signify a time when Television/streaming companies produced content promoting science , rational thought, and blowing crap up.
Their show was running alongside all the Discovery and History crap about ancient aliens, mermaids, and Bigfoot, so I’m not sure about those first two things.
In its first years, it actually ran alongside a lot of interesting and significantly more scholarly shows (than what we have now) on those two networks. The early 2000s actually had some solid programming on the history channel. Pretty quickly devolved into pawn stars and ancient aliens after that, though. So, yeah, half to most of its run was alongside utter garbage.
Edit for clarification: More scholarly than the current and last decade and a half of shows on history channel and discovery.
The same people working for David Zaslav who pushed discovery and history to be almost entirely pseudoscience and low effort variety/reality TV are currently running HBO’s streaming service, Max.
Yeah, Adam did say they would never have the same opportunity today than they have in 2003, the landscape of edutainment show is just too different today.
They’re remembered well for both, though. And the fact that there’s no conflict between rational thought and blowing crap up.
Remember kids: the only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down.
Actual quote from Adam Savage on an episode of Mythbusters.
More critical thinking in world would good right now.
At least adam still doing his thing on youtube.
I grew up thinking that. As I got older, I realized they’re actors like Bill Nye. That style of edu- tainment helped me internalize the scientific method. I loved the explosions growing up, but now I just love the humility, educational content, and entertainment. All that being said, the explosion tests they did were a good wake-up call for any young kids who wanted to play with explosives/ fireworks. Also, Discovery should have better advertised the fact they weren’t scientists. They curtailed it by calling them professionals, which is anyone who’s paid.
I don’t understand anyone starting from the premise they’re scientists. Nobody made that claim about the hosts? They’re very much entertainers who have an educational angle (sort of). I follow Adam and one thing he discusses often enough about the Mythbusters is that they were storytellers first, the scientific process was part of the story, and teaching was never really the intent even though we all feel like we learned from the show.
You don’t need a degree to be a scientist, all you need is to apply the scientific method to your quest for knowledge.
Micheal Faraday never attended school after about the age of 8. He was absolutely a scientist, and certainly one of the greatest. Look around and see the world he gave you.
