The Science of the Big Bang Theory: What America's Favorite Sitcom Can Teach You About Physics, Flags, and the Idiosyncrasies of Scientists by Mark Brake

Author:Mark Brake [Brake, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781510741508
Amazon: B07HCP9DLM
Publisher: Skyhorse
Published: 2019-05-06T23:00:00+00:00

THE PORKCHOP INDETERMINACY AND ROCKET SCIENCE

In “The Porkchop Indeterminacy,” Season 1, Episode 15, Sheldon is humiliated by being called a rocket scientist.

“We knew that we had created a new means of warfare, and the question as to what nation, to what victorious nation we were willing to entrust this brainchild of ours was a moral decision more than anything else. We wanted to see the world spared another conflict such as Germany had just been through, and we felt that only by surrendering such a weapon to people who are guided by the Bible could such an assurance to the world be best secured.”

—Wernher von Braun, press statement after surrendering to US Forces (May 1945)

“If our intention had been merely to bring back a handful of soil and rocks from the lunar gravel pit and then forget the whole thing, we would certainly be history’s biggest fools. But that is not our intention now—it never will be. What we are seeking in tomorrow’s trip is indeed that key to our future on earth. We are expanding the mind of man. We are extending this God-given brain and these God-given hands to their outermost limits and in so doing all mankind will benefit. All mankind will reap the harvest. . . . What we will have attained when Neil Armstrong steps down upon the moon is a completely new step in the evolution of man.”

—Wernher von Braun, banquet speech on the eve of the Apollo 11 launch (July 1969)

What Lurks behind Sheldon’s Snobbery?

When Sheldon’s attractive sister Missy comes to town in “The Porkchop Indeterminacy,” Sheldon is mortified that she describes him as a rocket scientist. Most people would be rather pleased at such an assumed job title, of course, but Sheldon’s reaction is typical of the response many theoretical physicists would give.

Through many periods in the past, science was separated from technique. Traditionally, what we now call science was meant to be based on solving technical challenges, or easing administrative tasks. But the Greek “scientists” whom Sheldon most admires, we assume, were very theory based, and very much removed from practice and technique. The mathematics and astronomy valued so highly by Sheldon and the Greeks is based on deduction and proof. And the immense prestige of these disciplines rests on scholarly thought, with little concern for the grunt work of observation. For academic snobs such as Sheldon and most ancient Greek aristocratic scholars, hand-workers such as modern rocket scientists are considered inferior to brain-workers or contemplative thinkers. This social class division was greatly reinforced by the association of hand-work with slavery, particularly in Greek society. Free men may choose to practice technique, of course, such as fashioning mere rockets out of constituent parts, but they would be nonetheless degraded by comparison with slaves, and their work described as base or servile. Yet perhaps Sheldon’s revulsion at rocket scientists also has a more modern political dynamic. And maybe Sheldon’s disquiet has the same root as the incredible story about rocket science that led to one of the greatest American movies of the twentieth century.

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