Wooo-Hoo! I gots me a major gig!

[mburbank]

The Museum of Science just hired me freelance to write a twenty minute play that will run while the Einstein exhibit is here, 2 to 4 times a day for three months, possibly longer.

The other plays I've written for the Museum have run only once a week, and only about a dozen times each. Plus, this play will pay about ten times as much as those ones.

That means this will be far and away my largest professional sale. It also means I will be able to py my credit card bill come January.

EDIT: I put this here instead of general blabber because the theme of the play is Science Ethics, what are the ethical responsabilities of scientists.

[The One and Only...]

Ethics do not exist, along with morality and undeniable rights.

[mburbank]

Yeah, see, that would be a kind of boring play.

I don't think anyone is that interested in watching me apply free market analysis to the developement of the Atom Bomb.

[Vibecrewangel]

Congrats Max!!!!

I've been sitting in on a lot of science/medical ethics seminars here since it's sort of slow and to be honest, I think a play would help some people see themsleves the way others do. Something I find lacking in most professionals......
A little perspective!

Guess I'll have to make a trip across the country to get it.....

[Cosmo Electrolux]

so does OAO just spout random slogans and meaningless bullshit in every thread Max posts in?

[Perndog]

So tell us, Max, what *are* the ethical responsibilities of scientists?

[The One and Only...]

That wasn't a free market analysis. I think most free marketers are strong supporters of the natural rights theory, and Objectivism maintains that morality does exist and can be deduced by logic.

[kellychaos]

All that worrying about funding and employment for nothing. That's the last time I'll be your shoulder to cry on, mister!

[Helm]

Someone's playing on the ethics != morals thing that was amusing 10 years ago to try to seem funny.

[The_Rorschach]

Christ OAO. . .Go exorcise the minor demons of puberty by raping chickens or something and stop bringing your silly teen angst bullshit to the table.

Tool.

Post Script: That is awesome news Max. I guess you never needed Burb-Aide afterall. . .Do we get to see a treatment when you have it all polished?

[El Blanco]

I thought ethics refered to the speciffic profession they governed. If that is true, then ethics do exist.

Anyway, cool beans, Max.

[mburbank]

My position is ever more entrenched. I worry more for colleagues who's positions can be seen as 'redundant'.

Whatever shape my play takes, I'm sure they don't want me to answer the questions of science ethics, but more make the audience concider those questions, particularly on the grand scale.

Brilliant theoretical discoveries often lead to world altering consequences, some very good, some downright horrible. If I made a discovery about the realtionship of gravity to energy that if practically applied could lead to space travel but also the total annihilation of all life on earth, what is teh nature of my responsability? Do I publish?

On a smaller scale, perhaps my discovery in genetic engineering could cure some forms of cancer, but is could also be a valuable stepping stone on the road toward genetically targeted biological weapons. I know other scientists are working on similar problems. Perhaps it's only a matter of time in any case. If Einstein hadn't formulated E=mc2 (I can't make my keyboard do the square sign) at some point someone else almost certainly would have eventually. Does the fact that other's will almost certainly make my discovery soon enough absolve me of responsability?

The Gypsy Moth was one mans attempt to breed a more hearty silk worm. Anyone who's ever lived through a new England gypsy Moth infestation year will tell you how that worked out, and their silk is shit all worthless in the bargain.

Disocevery has consequences. What is the relationship between the discoverer and the consequences.

And OAO, don't just say there is no relationship, because A.) I was not hired to deliver a message, I was hired to examine a question and B.) There's damn little story in that conclusion.

[ziggytrix]

ethics was my least favorite class when i was a chemical engineering major. it was total crap.

(note: i pretty much failed out of the chem e program, but i made an A in that class, make of that what you will)

edit: g'morning max :)

[AChimp]

Christmas can finally come to Max's house. :)

[mburbank]

Damn straight. In addition, I will now be able to pay for the glasses I've needed for about the last three years.

[Zhukov]

Are they paying you upfront?

[Vibecrewangel]

ethics was my least favorite class when i was a chemical engineering major. it was total crap.

More intrigued than ever.....

[Protoclown]

Congrats, Max. You'll be back to wearing shoes on your feet in no time!

[mburbank]

They're paying me in three installments, one not exactly 'up front' but before completion, one at first draft and one at second draft. f they deicde to put the play into rotation beyond the run of the exhibit, I'll get a small roaylty on it twice a year.

Aaaah, shoes. So Important in New England Winter.

While the money is nice, and the most I've ever been paid for writing, the resume credit is a lot more important.

[kellychaos]

"I don't know what to do!" cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath; and making a perfect Laocoön of himself with his stockings. "I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to every-body! A happy New Year to all the world! Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!"