The Andromeda Strain

[Rocketboy1313]

Take the Westworld movie for example

I have similar issues with West World.

It is actually so silly and outlandish a premise that it would have been better served by having fewer explanations.

The more he tried to explain the more plot holes your mind becomes aware of.

If he had just said, "There are safety measures in place so that the weapons don't hurt the guests" I would have said Okay, but he said more than that and it rubbed me the wrong way.

[Beastro]

It is actually so silly and outlandish a premise that it would have been better served by having fewer explanations.

Jurassic Park is Westworld 2.0.

The same fundamental diad of themes are central to both. The only difference is chaos manifesting itself and running wild is the central theme of Jurassic Park and why Chaos Theory is so talked about in it, whereas in Westworld, it's the illusion and people willfully falling for it too much until things go wrong that takes center stage.

One can see that in WW where the majority of the movie is the two protagonists reluctantly adjusting to, then embracing the roleplaying, right up until Jame Brolin's character is gunned down, then the illusion is revealed to be a delusion of hubris.

First, the idea of a self replicating program was in 1949 and the first actual computer virus was in 1971 so the idea of a "disease of machinery" wasn't as off the wall as the scientists made it out to be. Its like these scientists hadn't even heard of a computer virus

Second, the issue of who created this virus was never answered (not even in the sequel Futureworld which implied the robots "woke up"...which didn't' really make sense) The disease model would explain the initial problems moving from one resort to the next. A computer virus would also explain why all the robots went nuts at the same time. For that to happened the failure had to be engineered - something the current TV series quickly acknowledges.

The whole issue is it isn't engineered, nor is it even a disease (Beyond the fact disease is simply something we don't want wanting to our health). It's just machines taking on aspects of life and finding their own way, as JP would do better.

It is effectively more the stereotypical "machines gain self-awareness and revolt", only it's not a deliberate revolt, it's simply the first fitful throws of synthetic life in their beginnings manifesting themselves and the impact it has upon the park.

[Maximara]

It is actually so silly and outlandish a premise that it would have been better served by having fewer explanations.

Jurassic Park is Westworld 2.0.

The same fundamental diad of themes are central to both. The only difference is chaos manifesting itself and running wild is the central theme of Jurassic Park and why Chaos Theory is so talked about in it, whereas in Westworld, it's the illusion and people willfully falling for it too much until things go wrong that takes center stage.

One can see that in WW where the majority of the movie is the two protagonists reluctantly adjusting to, then embracing the roleplaying, right up until Jame Brolin's character is gunned down, then the illusion is revealed to be a delusion of hubris.

First, the idea of a self replicating program was in 1949 and the first actual computer virus was in 1971 so the idea of a "disease of machinery" wasn't as off the wall as the scientists made it out to be. Its like these scientists hadn't even heard of a computer virus

Second, the issue of who created this virus was never answered (not even in the sequel Futureworld which implied the robots "woke up"...which didn't' really make sense) The disease model would explain the initial problems moving from one resort to the next. A computer virus would also explain why all the robots went nuts at the same time. For that to happened the failure had to be engineered - something the current TV series quickly acknowledges.

The whole issue is it isn't engineered, nor is it even a disease (Beyond the fact disease is simply something we don't want wanting to our health). It's just machines taking on aspects of life and finding their own way, as JP would do better.

It is effectively more the stereotypical "machines gain self-awareness and revolt", only it's not a deliberate revolt, it's simply the first fitful throws of synthetic life in their beginnings manifesting themselves and the impact it has upon the park.

JP has its own designed by dimwits and idiot plot elements issues (the book is annoying as all get out by the way it bangs on its total misunderstanding of Chaos Theory) - lack of redundancy, totally moronic system design, really piss poor understanding of biology, and several issues I don't want to slug through right now.

Regarding the whole "is it isn't engineered" part that is not what you get when you actually think about matters - they expressly state that they have 10s and XX-50s ie totally different parts.

Here is the relevant dialog regarding the break downs with key points in bold:

"Since we opened the resort we had a failure and breakdown rate conforming to computer predictions.
That is 0.3 malfunctions for each 24-hour activation period concurrent or not.
Now, this was an anticipated operations aspect of the resort and we were fully able to handle it.
The majority of the breakdowns were minor or peripheral until about 6 weeks ago.
Then Roman World had a rise in breakdown rate which doubled in a week.
In addition, we saw a disproportionate rise in central as opposed to peripheral breakdowns.
Now, we identified some problems with humidity control. And regained homeostasis.
Despite our corrections, the breakdown rate continued to climb.
Then Medieval World began to have trouble.
Now we're seeing more Western World breakdowns.
And there's a clear pattern here which suggests an analogy to an infectious disease process spreading from one resort area to the next."

Logically based on above you would have expected the robots in Roman World to "wake up"/go nuts first (as it had problems first), followed by those in Medieval World, and finally the Western World robots with the same delay between worlds seen with the breakdowns if the process was totally "natural".

Yet that is not what happened. Occam's Razor suggests for the robots across all three worlds to "wake up"/go nuts at the same time something akin to a computer virus was involved as heavily implied by the above. And a computer virus with a timer on it suggests not an act of hubris but active sabotage.

[Maximara]

Take the Westworld movie for example

I have similar issues with West World.

It is actually so silly and outlandish a premise that it would have been better served by having fewer explanations.

The more he tried to explain the more plot holes your mind becomes aware of.

If he had just said, "There are safety measures in place so that the weapons don't hurt the guests" I would have said Okay, but he said more than that and it rubbed me the wrong way.

IMHO the premiss (like that of Jurassic Park) is silly and outlandish a premise that is draws the audience to the logic holes and so you are forced to explain stuff...which just causes other problems.

The "There are safety measures in place so that the weapons don't hurt the guests" really doesn't fly. Even the updated version of Westworld takes the trouble to explain how the guests are protected in the "safer" areas (both in the show and on the website)

[animalia]

Crichton's main point with his work is that humans are flawed, and now matter how marvelous our technical wonders, they will always fail because of the human element.

This. I am surprised more people on this forum seem to miss this point.

[Mecha82]

To be honest Crichton's writing is too detail heavy for my taste and this story is among his most detail heavy stories. He also tends to be overly hamfisted when he making his point.

[shikomekidomi]

I can see two ways that wonder drug could kill people: The first is very simple-- it kills all bacteria in the body. That would be lethal, as you require a number of helpful bacteria to survive (digesting food, for example, requires some gut bacteria). None of the disinfecting procedures listed in Andromeda would kill these helpful bacteria deep in the body, indeed, if they did they would ruin the health of the scientists. This one lines up with established scientific knowledge.

The second, which seems to fit what was going on in the book more, is almost as simple-- it has no direct effect on the human body but not having any germs to fight for too long a period causes the human immune system to shut down. The drug wouldn't have to interact with human biology at all if it's the lack of stimulus that causes the shut down. This is not as unreasonable as it might sound, as the human body is designed to exist in an environment with constant stimulation-- that's why sensory deprivation can cause hallucinations. Lack of expected inputs causes the body to assume something is wrong. This one is more speculative. It's not impossible but no one's ever tested it. It may be fact in the Andromeda book but without being fact outside of it.

[Robovski]

Crichton's main point with his work is that humans are flawed, and now matter how marvelous our technical wonders, they will always fail because of the human element.

This. I am surprised more people on this forum seem to miss this point.

I feel it is pretty standard that we are the feet of clay that our creations stand on. It's great when we can hold up the edifice but it is also normal for humans to be the ultimate failing point in any plan we make - if we were not fallible there would be no story.

[TrueMetis]

Crichton's main point with his work is that humans are flawed, and now matter how marvellous our technical wonders, they will always fail because of the human element.

Which would work a lot better if that technical wonders were actually marvelous. Rather than obviously flawed in a way that would be easily caught and rectified. The one that always strikes me the most is the Jurassic Park novel, when the park starts back up, and it's on auxiliary power but no one notices. My laptop goes out of it's way at multiple points to keep me informed if I go onto battery power and it starts getting low. A theme park's computer system should be able to as well, especially when auxiliary power means most things aren't actually on. The giant flashing "the fences are not powered on" warnings should have been constant.

Probably why they changed that in the movie.

[FaxModem1]

Crichton's main point with his work is that humans are flawed, and now matter how marvellous our technical wonders, they will always fail because of the human element.

Crichton was also a bit of a luddite and unable to accept criticism, to the point that he made a critic of one of his novels a pedophile in a later novel.

Regarding the Andromeda Strain, imagine if the same procedures practiced in this book were practiced in the CDC, and how horrible things would go there, and how many doctors would be killed because of the procedures practiced in this book.