Unsung heroes and multiple practices

Abstract

A few weeks ago, the city of Trondheim hosted the Starmus festival, an event celebrating science, the universe, life and rock music. The festival gathered an impressive collection of older white males, in the form of esteemed scientists, Nobel laureates and astronauts, with the goal of celebrating the “true heroes” of enlightened knowledge and exploration. Starmus was draped in rhetoric about brilliance, genius, excellence and courage, cultivating metaphors where scientists emerged as athlete-rockstar-superheroes faced with the messianic challenge of educating the ignorant masses of lay-people through the gospel of capital “S” science in singular form. Stephen Hawking was the festival headliner, but could not attend due to health issues. Nevertheless, the moment of peak-festival for many was when Mr. Hawking over video-link declared that humanity has no more than 100 years left before we need to evacuate the planet and colonize another world to survive.