knowledge is power

For the most part, I'm enjoying reading State of Fear, even if the near death action adventure scenes are starting to get redundant. I liked Chrichton's messages at the end, especially the one on P. 718 (third one down), that talks about the respect he has for people who can change their views with more information/ better understanding of a topic, rather than stubbornly clinging to opinions for 30 years. I would agree that advances in technology, scientific breakthroughs, and time can give us a better understanding of certain things as well as change the ways we see and operate. An example of this is the events that led to banning lead in gasoline(the black box theory- we know something works but don't exactly know how and what the consequences might be).

In the same vein, a part of the book so far that I thought was interesting is the 'Sequoia' chapter (pp.500-509), in which the the actor Ted Bradley talks about global warming. This character is just reciting the lines that he has been given, and has not bothered to research or check out the facts himself. He trusts his source, and "NERF would not have told him to say anything that was untrue (p.519)". Chrichton does a good job of making this character seem ignorant and unaware, especially when you compare Ted with the brainy tough girl character of Jennifer.