I don’t think movies are good for much else than entertainment,
You raise an important question that applies to fiction in general.
But consider that EY’s inspiration for AI came from science fiction novels. I was greatly inspired by HPMOR and I wonder if studying science for the equivalent amount of time would have been better. Truth is that even what you study in books fades away, either because you forget much of it or because the excitement also wears off after a while. You could argue that fiction has an advantage because it is much easier to remember stories/characters than raw science.
Could you make a very inspirational and educational movie for rationalists? Probably. Are such movies actually made? Probably not. Good movies are expensive to produce and need to make money. Rationalists are a tiny niche market. Literature doesn’t have this problem to the same extent. Also the time constraints of movies don’t really allow much room for development of ideas.
You raise an important question that applies to fiction in general.
But consider that EY’s inspiration for AI came from science fiction novels. I was greatly inspired by HPMOR and I wonder if studying science for the equivalent amount of time would have been better. Truth is that even what you study in books fades away, either because you forget much of it or because the excitement also wears off after a while. You could argue that fiction has an advantage because it is much easier to remember stories/characters than raw science.
Could you make a very inspirational and educational movie for rationalists? Probably. Are such movies actually made? Probably not. Good movies are expensive to produce and need to make money. Rationalists are a tiny niche market. Literature doesn’t have this problem to the same extent. Also the time constraints of movies don’t really allow much room for development of ideas.
Moneyball, maybe? (I haven’t seen it though)
I liked the book better (and I liked the book a lot!)