Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality

I was watching Letterman last night, through the fuzzy snow caused by my rigged antenna array propped up between my TV and my nightstand. He had some blonde actress headline and then moved on to his second guest, Brian Greene. Greene, for those of you who don’t know, just released a book entitled “The Fabric of the Cosmos : Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality”. Before, after, and during Greene’s interview, Letterman was criticizing him for his intelligence, laughing at the perceived trivialities of the subject matter, and generally harassing him. It was absolutely disgusting, and I’ve always been a fan of David Letterman. Now, as I consider it, I don’t believe my opinion of Letterman will change as it should. Because this dismissal of science, especially experimental physics, has become so commonplace, the behavior is almost expected. If I were to begin using scientific trivialization as a litmus test for those whom I would no longer respect or patronize, I’d end up with a pretty short list. Can you imagine how better this world would be if the common attitude was one of admiration for people like Greene, rather than that of ridicule?