OOS 33-3 - Storyomics: Proof that scientists evolved from humans

Wednesday, August 8, 2012: 2:10 PM
A106, Oregon Convention Center
Randy Olson, Filmmaker,
Background/Question/Methods and Results/Conclusions

Scientists suffer from "storyphobia" (the irrational fear of the words "story" and "storytelling") AND they think they are sooo different from normal people, BUT they need to communicate more effectively, THEREFORE they should work harder on their communication skills (did ya get the "And, But & Therefore" template?). We now know that scientists descended from humans and, more importantly, that the split occurred not that long ago.  This is revealed by the recent common ancestor, "Renaissance Man," who was in fact capable of both writing literary novels whilst also engaging in scientific inquiry.  More powerfully, we can see the evidence of how recent the divide occurred through the three "Storytelling Vestiges" of speaking, writing and thinking.  Scientists still respond to "well told stories," they write their papers following a structured template that is clearly descended from three act structure (alignment analysis confirms this), and the "problem/solution" approach of the scientific method is no different than the "question/answer" approach of your basic "who dunnit" novel.  The bottom line is that it's time for scientists to come down off their high horse, admit they still have human DNA in their genome, realize there is no such science as "Storyomics" that will instantly solve the challenge of effective communication, and accept the need to learn the same age old storytelling processes that all humans have used since before the time of pipettes.