To celebrate national science week, Australia’s Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) surveyed 1,250 Aussies to ask if sci-fi ideas like hover boards and light sabres were real or not. Here are some of the interesting results. What do you think?
• 76.1% wrongly believe microscopic life exists on other planets
• 53.5% wrongly believe hover boards, (think Back To The Future) exist
• 44.1% correctly believe flying cars exist
• 42.6% incorrectly believe in reverse cryonics
• 23.6% believe light sabres exist
On microscopic life, I think ANSTO is referring to if we’ve found it already. Either way, kind of confusing.
Otherwise, do you a quarter of you guys really believe in light sabres? Not sure about that. Much more inclined to believe the survey suggesting women are most interested in robots doing housework, while blokes are more interested in time travel. Speaking of which, only 7.2% of Australians surveyed believe time travel is possible. Big ups to us, because a massive 30% of Brits thought we had the scientific means to do so.
The Australian sample was only just over a 1,250, so I’m not really sure how reflective is of the population as a whole. Still, it makes for some fun Friday stats. Especially going into Saturday where a bunch of interactive discussions will take place at the University of Sydney. More info at: [ANSTO]
Andreas
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 2:21 PMDid they do this survey at Comic-Con?
ozoneocean
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 2:55 PMObviously not. People who are actually interested in SciFi tend to be far more aware of its limitations than those who aren’t.
Disco_box
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 2:28 PM“76.1% wrongly believe microscopic life exists on other planets”
Why is it wrong to believe that there could be microscopic life on other planets?
spk
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 2:32 PM+1
Although it is probably meant to read.
“76.1% wrongly believe that there is proof of microscopic life existing on other planets”
Hiro
Monday, August 22, 2011 at 9:46 AMThat would still be wrong because “if” there is such proof, we simply would not have discovered it yet. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
cayal
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 2:32 PMEspecially since we’ve surveyed probably 0.00000001% of possible planets.
Matt L
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 3:17 PMAaaaaaaaaand…. How many people around the world believe in god?
Hiro
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 2:29 PM“76.1% wrongly believe microscopic life exists on other planets”
I see ANSTO has secretly studied every planet in the universe. Way to beat NASA to the punch !
EckyThump
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 2:32 PM“76.1% wrongly believe microscopic life exists on other planets”
Just because there’s no proof yet doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist! That’s a really stupid question in the first place! #[
MDolley
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 2:33 PMI have to agree with everybody else. The question should probably have been “Have we discovered microscopic life on other planets?”
EckyThump
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 2:33 PMAsk a similar question about any recent discovery, ten, twenty one hundred years ago!
Big Windows
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 2:41 PMBad questions I think. Unusually the easiest to refute is the reverse cryonics… It certainly does exist just not in a laboratory. The wood frog (Rana sylvatica) is a cryobiological… frog. In winter it literally freezes.
So the question should be… Who writes the questions… Answer – A moron with a high level of self belief?
Adz
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 2:43 PMMaybe my 5 year old was included in this survey.
He has asked me to buy him a real light sabre and not a toy one.
par3182
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 2:48 PM“What do you think?”
I think people are idiots.
rb
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 2:50 PM67.2% wrongly believe that results from small sample size surveys with ambiguous questions are a true reflection of the beliefs of the population as a whole…
Damo
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 2:55 PM44.1%… flying cars…
Surely this is either poor phrasing of the question or interviewees with a sense of humour.
- and as if light sabres aren’t real!
Danny Allen
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 3:12 PMNo, there *are* flying cars. :) http://www.gizmodo.com.au/tags/flying-cars/
ozoneocean
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 3:29 PMThere aren’t really flying cars though, they’re just “cars” that convert into aeroplanes… And don’t perform well in either role.
Ultimately a “flying car” would be more like something from the Jetsons, where it’s not just a sort-of-car that can sort-of-fly, but that actually functions as a car while flying, along with other flying cars, with the whole flying car traffic system :)
ozoneocean
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 3:01 PMThat all sounds about right for the average Aussie. Unfortunately we tend to gravitate towards sensationalism, popular fiction and memes rather than hard science or dull facts.
Unless it involves sport.
Mudze
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 3:12 PMI… Don’t think they get Australia. We joke around. It’s the extent of our collective personality.
StevoTheDevo
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 3:16 PM+1 to the joke responses idea.. either that, or the interviewees were 5 year olds!
Corteks
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 3:55 PMI’m intrigued how these questions were asked?
I mean lightsabers exist. Sure they aren’t a laser-beam type thingy that can actually cut stuff but you can get ‘em off of Thinkgeek.
Flying cars? They’ve been “coming soon” in a few forms since 2000 (or maybe earlier) but they don’t really exist in any practical sense.
And hoverboards? Some dude made one, sure it was just an art installation that used magnets for its levitation but it did hover and it was a board made to look like the one from Back to the Future.
So yeah, not exactly great questions. As has been pointed out in different ways by other commenters.
Elliot
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 3:59 PM74% of statistics are made up anyway.
Theophilus
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 4:10 PM93% of people that say statistics are made up have made up that statistic.
Virus__
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 5:39 PM“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” – Mark Twain. I think that sums up statistics.
Mick
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 4:08 PMTime travel in which direction? Time travel forward in time may be possible:
“[...] 98 per cent of the speed of light, and each day on the ship would be a year on Earth.” – Stephen Hawking
Link to an article from May this year.
news.com.au/technology/time-travel-possible-but-only-moving-forwards-says-stephen-hawking/story-e6frfro0-1225861418565
Glenn
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 4:21 PMI time travel everyday. I close my eyes and a few seconds later I’m 8 hours into the future!… oh wait…
Sean
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 4:23 PMTime travel forwards is definitely possible. I’m doing it right now and reaching speeds of 3600 seconds per hour.
Corteks
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 6:34 PMLoLoL Indeed!
Tristan
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 4:59 PMDidn’t NASA confirm that they thought the fossilized bacteria found on that asteroid in 96 originated on Mars? Isn’t that proof of microscopic life on other planets?
Pete
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 5:47 PM..Lightsabres don’t exist?
Josh
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 7:48 PMThey’re essentially plasma cutters, just alot easier to carry around; theyve been around since WW2
FSM
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 7:54 PMYeah I love how almost every question they ask (at least with the wording used) the correctly/incorrectly part is wrong as you can easily argue that flying cars do not exist, that flying cars do exist, that reverse cryonics might exist (for humans, even with the dna damage that it causes etc).
I remember when reading the British one I thought it was hilarious that they were laughing at how stupid people were, when really it was the questions and the wording that was daft.
Space2099
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 9:15 PMThese question are a rather misleading and open to interpritation.
There is no comclusive proof one way or the other microscopic life exists on other planets.
The term hover board could mean almost anything to people that haven’t seen BTTF.
My definition of a flying car, is a car that flies not a combination of a car and a plane.
What the Frak is reverse cryonics (boiling)?
I’m prety sure you can buy a Light Saber on eBay.
Euan Melville
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 10:16 PMGotta love when retards try to make other people look like retards and only end up making themselves look like bigger retards. To be a smart arse you must be smart and an arse, 1 out of 2 is not enough.
Steve
Saturday, August 20, 2011 at 12:04 AMCome on
“• 44.1% correctly believe flying cars exist”
is obviously people just fucking with the survey.
james_whatsit
Saturday, August 20, 2011 at 2:48 AMi think the brits who thought time travel was real thought doctor who was a doco
Lillee
Saturday, August 20, 2011 at 1:07 PMWait what? Lightsabres don’t exist?? Lies
olearymo
Saturday, August 20, 2011 at 8:37 PMI notice they all say ‘correctly’ or ‘incorrectly’ except the lightsabers question…
Purposely not drawing a conclusion?