That movie with Robert Redford on the leaky boat caused me and the person I watched it with extreme anxiety for an hour and 46 minutes.

In other words, Crichton paints with too broad a brush.

@273kelvin - The reality that true genius is actually quite rare and the idea that the general mass of humanity is not intellectually enlightened is worth considering as it was so postulated... the idea that some of us are able to ponder that is interesting - like the science of Neurology which is the concept of our brain studying itself? As George Carlin so eloquently said... "Imagine how stupid the average person is, and then you realize that half of humanity is stupider than that..."

@FrostyJim Just because some horses run faster than others does not mean that horses cannot run fast. We also have written language and specialisation. True I know very little about brain surgery but then the neurosurgeon who once employed me knew very little about assembling his flat-pack wardrobe! (Btw he opined that brain surgery is no more complicated than any other). However, most of us know how to defer, delegate or at least consult someone with specialist knowledge. (anti-vaxers and climate change deniers being the exception) We pretty much all know "head hurts, take aspirin", thus consciously altering our internal environment.
As I have travelled through life, I have found that most are not that smart but not that dumb either. Yes, some are ignorant but that is not the same as dumb. Most have at least one interesting story to tell and something you can take away from the encounter. If that has not been your experience, then perhaps you have not been listening well enough?

@273kelvin - hmmmm... sounds like a lot of anecdotal hyperbole to me... yes brain surgery is much more complicated than other surgeries and Neurosurgery is a subset of Neurology or better yet Neuroscience - or the study of the brain and nervous system... by the brain itself. The quandary still remains - nurture vs nature or trait vs acquired? Darwin regards Evolution as survival of those best capable to adapt and pass on their genes. That may include our intelect as simply a biologic evolutionary byproduct? There is a good book " The God Part of the Brain" that presents a scientific argument why belief in God is an inherent evolutionary mechanism that enables us to cope with our greatest, universal terror-death.

@FrostyJim I can only repeat what the guy said to me but he may have been jaded by the number of times people's eyes widen when he told them what he does. Btw I previously used to say my job was not as complicated as nuclear physics till I did work for a lady who worked for the inspectorate.

The gnat does not have the nervous tissue to support higher level consciousness. It's just a little biological machine acting out a set of genetically programmed instincts.

@Flyingsaucesir To our understanding of higher purpose. lol

A gnat might enjoy its day of birth rut and die though?

@BufftonBeotch Depends on what you mean by "enjoy."

@Flyingsaucesir I just hope they get some pleasure in that day. I doubt they appreciate and linger to watch their one sunset. And what it it was raining? snicker

@BufftonBeotch I think those lifespans a a bit longer than one day. Prolly measured in weeks

@Gwendolyn2018 Crows remember faces of humans and will bring treasures of found shiny things to people they have come to favor.
They will also dislike some people and loudly cry out when they see them.
Do not live life in such a way that you call forth the wrath of crows.

@Flyingsaucesir I would like to imagine the smallest of beings get some pleasure in existing before their eyes go through their asshole on a windshield.

@Gwendolyn2018 How would your alien see all humanity lumped together? Probably not as favorably as we see ourselves.

Elephants recognize themselves in a mirror. That's a sign of self awareness, which indicates higher level consciousness or sentience.

I would say that crows are sentient beings.

@Gwendolyn2018 Crows are awesome.

We are here merely to feed the world's cats their noms and to clean their poo sand as they are clearly the master race.

@BufftonBeotch I like dogs, they think i am their master.......

Crichton likes to play around with (and stretch) the possibilities that present themselves at the limits of scientific knowledge. And he knows how to weave together a commercially successful story. In the end, he generates more questions than answers. That's OK; questions can be useful too.

@Flyingsaucesir The Andromeda Strain shook me the most of any of his books.

That story has not gotten a retelling in film above a flat soap opera type rendition.

@BufftonBeotch Was that a Charleton Heston film?

@BufftonBeotch Oh! I remember now: they figured out why the baby didn't get sick; low blood pH due to constant crying. And so the world was saved.

@Flyingsaucesir I don't think so. But the only Charlton Heston movie I like is Planet of the Ape because he runs about in that little loincloth for most of it. He was in Earthquake and many other mostly camp movies that I am not sure he ever realized were camp.

@BufftonBeotch You're right. CH was not in Andromeda Strain. I must have been thinking of Soilent Green.

Hardly

Look around you, most people are culturally conditioned, fact….

Michael Crichton was a horror show. Some good stories. But he would have been more comfortable in the 16th century.

Probably not enough of us to make any differenc?

Given the nearly nil response to climate change, I would say you are correct…..

Doritos lives Matter...
" Woke ass snowflake". Great Tee shirt idea . lol

Isn't that Seth? Ages since I have seen the movie.