Archetype

Early call from Science

My brother had the courtesy of regressing me to a time in our childhood that may be partially responsible for our choice to become professional scientists. You see, our parents had bought us a Batman comic book that came with an audio cassette. Playing the audio cassette, one could hear the story in voice acting and special effects while following the artwork. A bell ring would indicate when to turn the page.

In the story, “Trumping the Joker”, Batman and sidekick Robin chase after the Joker that had just escaped from Arkham Asylum and stolen a famous Picasso from the Gotham City Museum of Fine Arts. Great story. After apprehending the Joker and saving the Picasso the story ends with a short dialog between our superheroes that includes a profound, final reflection by Batman.

Here is the audio snip of the passage in question in mp3 format, and a transcription below:

Robin- I sure hope they put the Joker away a good long while this time.

Batman- Robin… knowing the cleverness of this artful dodger, who can say for sure… Perhaps a frontal lobotomy would be the answer. If science could operate on this distorted brain, and put it to good use… society would reap a great benefit… Come, Robin, into the Batmobile… and home!

Now, if anyone does not hear this and immediately feels drawn into a vocation  in science acting at the service of society, I don’t know what will move you. Even if neuroscience is not your thing. And what better than to have your kids ask “daddy, what is a frontal lobotomy?”, rather than the uncomfortable “where do children come from?”

I did not speak English at that time (and some of my colleges tell me I still don’t). Side A of the audio cassette was in English, while side B was in Spanish acted with the same old-fashioned radio quality drama. And the plastic case of the cassette was bright red. Awesome is the only term I can think of to describe it.

For those born after 1990 and wondering what the hell is that “audio cassette” I speak of let me explain: an audio cassette was like an classic iPod, but with two big holes inside which spools will turn to spin the “hard-drive” that consisted of a long, thin tape that was very delicate and prone to break. Now, to make this “iPod” work you needed to insert it into a larger device, say a Mac Pro for the sake of the analogy. And unlike today’s iPods that automatically shut themselves down, the pitch of the sound produced by these ancient devices will become lower and lower as the “clock rate” of the “Mac Pro” slowed down while the batteries drained. By the way, you needed to flip around these “iPods” half way through the playlist to listen to all the songs. It didn’t have a screen properly, but you could write the name of the artist directly onto the case with a pen, which I guess makes it similar to the iPod-Touch in that regard.

[Audio bit from Jeff Herbert blog.]

Tags: Batman, Lobotomy

1 Comment to Early call from Science

1

Martha
February 22, 2009

Oh, sí que me hiciste reír. Y sentirme anciana también.