Adam Savage at TAM5

[steve s]

I dropped by the Mythbusters forum and there's a discussion about whether Adam said the following at TAM5. Can anyone comfirm it?

My goal this year is to prove natural selection on the show. It's gonna take a while, it's gonna be very hard to make it fascinating on film in the context of our narrative structure, but I figure screw it. The sky's the limit. Let's do natural selection. I'm sick of fifty percent of this country thinking creationism is reasonable. It's appalling. And I have the unique ability, maybe, to sell this idea to Discovery, and they'll, they might allow me to do it, and I'm gonna try as hard as I can.

Steve S.

[Lisa Simpson]

I do recall him saying that. Gimme a minute to watch the DVD.

[TX50]

If anything is worth trying to design a "testing protocol" for, it's this!

[Dicon]

This could be particularly interesting given his and Jamie's habit of taking things to a rather extreme limit even after they've proven/busted their topic. Sure, they may show that XYZ will blow up if you do ABC, but then just for fun they double the explosive charge, drop it from a higher point or add six more chickens.

Adam: We've confirmed natural selection and totally busted creationism. But we still have a 55-gallon drum of primordial ooze, the engine out of a '74 Impala, and 200 pounds of C4. Whaddaya say we push this one to the limits and test some extreme natural selection?

Jamie: OK.

[Boo]

This could be particularly interesting given his and Jamie's habit of taking things to a rather extreme limit even after they've proven/busted their topic. Sure, they may show that XYZ will blow up if you do ABC, but then just for fun they double the explosive charge, drop it from a higher point or add six more chickens.

Adam: We've confirmed natural selection and totally busted creationism. But we still have a 55-gallon drum of primordial ooze, the engine out of a '74 Impala, and 200 pounds of C4. Whaddaya say we push this one to the limits and test some extreme natural selection?

Jamie: OK.

Took me a few minutes, but I think the keyboard is dry enough......

That is probably the most accurate Adam and Jamie impression I've ever read.




Boo

[kittynh]

Mattfn would be the expert here. she would know if he ever said it anywhere or not.

[Mattfn]

I honestly hope I would have remembered that, and I do not. But checking the DVD, which I don't have yet, is the idea. I don't think it would be in his talk with Tory, because I have notes on that, and didn't note that subject was asked. If it's there, it's probably in the panel disscussion.

I wouldn't be surprised if he said something to the ilk of it, for that would be in keeping with what I've heard him speak of, but as that quote notes, it would be very hard for the Mythbusters show, because it would be tough to do anyway, but especially in their format, because they aren't doing that level of science and might end up doing more harm than good. Even if they alluded to it, it would come out so very sublely it would accomplish nothing in provoking thought. MB is too fast paced and must think of the entertainment potental in what they test. Another show......sure.

That was the Discovery Channel messageboard, yes? Got a link?

[steve s]

That was the Discovery Channel messageboard, yes? Got a link?

Thanks for responding.

Here's the thread discussing it. (http://community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9701967776/m/5171973698?r=8141993698#8141993698) Someone mentions hearing it on a podcast. I was wondering if the comments were made at TAM5.

Steve S.

[Mattfn]

Ah, thanks. On a podcast makes more sense, and reassures me I didn't fall asleep while a Mythbuster was on stage! (I wonder if they would come over & say hi anymore if that happened?)

I'll check that message out & check the podcasts I have soon.

[The Bad Astronomer]

Calling Rebecca! Did Adam say this on the SGttU 'cast?

[steve s]

Calling Rebecca! Did Adam say this on the SGttU 'cast?

It appears to be SGttU Episode #81. I haven't listened to it yet (I'm on a pokey dial-up connection) but Adam is interviewed on that episode. Thanks.

Steve S.

[Skeptic Ginger]

I do recall him saying that. Gimme a minute to watch the DVD.
Your minute's up, what'd ya find out? :)

[Frogberto]

he said something similar on an NPR podcast I heard a few weeks back. But the year before this one, at TAM 4, he and Jamie promised that they'd rent a submarine, and test the hypothesis that the oxygen depleted environment of Lake Tahoe preserves the bodies of mobsters, sacrificed indians, and anyone unfortunate enough to have drowned and not recovered, in a stabilized zone near the bottom of the lake.

That never materialized, likely due to cost prohibitions.

[rebecca]

Calling Rebecca! Did Adam say this on the SGttU 'cast?

We did discuss that very thing, but whether or not the tape was rolling at the time, I'm not positive. If no one finds out, I can check in a bit. Here's the ep:
http://www.theskepticsguide.org/skepticsguide/podcastinfo.asp?pid=81

[Ranb]

.....That never materialized, likely due to cost prohibitions.

There is an easier way. Get one of those pigs they so like to use when testing cannons or making a car stink. Put it in a cage, attach a long wire and a float so that the float is about ten feet under water when the cage is submerged so it is not a hazard to watercraft, then toss it in to rest on the bottom.

Raise the cage after a certain number of months, then they have some data to work with.

Ranb

[hilliag]

Uh-oh. Not good news for Adam -- or any of us, really. This just showed up on azcentral.com: USA Today
Jun. 7, 2007 05:12 PM

WASHINGTON - Majorities of Americans in a new USA Today/Gallup Poll say evolution and creationism are both likely explanations for life on Earth - underscoring the complexities of an issue that has put Republican presidential candidates on the spot in recent weeks.

Two-thirds in the poll said creationism, the idea that God created humans in their present form within the past 10,000 years, is definitely or probably true. More than half, 52 percent, said evolution, the idea that humans evolved from less advanced life-forms over millions of years, is definitely or probably true. All told, 25 percent say both creationism and evolution are definitely or probably true.

Geoffrey Layman, a politics and religion expert at the University of Maryland, says people are trying to reconcile science and religion. "They might believe the science, or they might see the science as hard to dismiss, and they don't necessarily take Genesis to be literal," he says. "But they do think that God played some role in directing this evolutionary process."

So two-thirds, not 50 percent, believe in creationism. It's worse than we thought! But if 52 believe in evolution and 67 percent in creationism, that's an awful lot of overlap. How come those people's heads don't explode?

[skepticality]

It *could* have been his interview with Swoopy on our Skepticality show when we were playing all of our TAM content. Cause, I remember him talking to her about it when I was standing near. :|

[Curnir]

It's in SGttU #81
57 minutes 52 seconds in.

[skepticality]

Ah ha!

I knew I heard it somewhere... :)

[Antiquehunter]

Psst... does anyone have Adam's email he distributed for his survey response? I have mislaid the email address... PM if anyone has a concern about posting (although it was distributed publicly at TAMV)

[Mattfn]

PM'd ya, since I wasn't sure the one I have is the one on the survey, but it's the most known one.

[Antiquehunter]

Thank you.... thank you very much...

<end Elvis>