Interview: Nar Williams

Nar Williams, TV Host and Nerd

This edition of Science is Speaking is dedicated to all nerds, geeks, fanboys and fangirls, lovers of sci-fi and cool tech! I have the awesome Nar Williams, who's blog Achieve Nerdvana is a go to source for savvy sci lovers and he's the host of the Discovery Science Channel's new show, Science of the Movies!

You’ve made a name for yourself as a source on Geekery- what inspired your love of nerdy things?

My love of anything comes from what I think is a.) Fun and b.) Interesting.

Movies, robots, video games, technology, Dungeons & Dragons, TV, and science fiction are all fun and interesting to me. They’re also considered nerdy.

To me a geek is anyone who is really passionate (and educated) about something. It can be anything. Consider the following:

Wine Connoisseur = Wine Geek

Baseball Fan = Baseball Geek

Fashionista = Fashion Geek

Gun Enthusiast = Geek with Guns

A lot more people are geeks than they realize!

On your blog, AchieveNerdvana.com, you discuss pop culture science tech and media. What type of technology do you most want to see developed in the future? 

Transhumanist technologies like artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, robotics, and genetic engineering interest me the most.

It’s unfortunate that sci-fi flicks like The Matrix and Terminator shape so many people’s views of the future. I love those movies, but I don’t let them scare me. Ethical software is now being developed for artificially intelligent robots, so that we don’t have to live through the dystopian nightmare envisioned by James Cameron.

With careful ethical guidelines, technologies that enhance the human condition will help transform mankind and the planet. I mean, how cool is it that you can freeze some of your own stem cells for use later in life so doctors can repair damaged tissues or organs (or maybe even aging)? 

On a selfish note, my one materialistic dream is to one day have a flying robotic dragon.

Your show on the Science Channel, Science of the Movies, goes behind the scenes to see how movie makers achieve those fancy Hollywood angles and effects. Tell us what it’s like to work with the artists and scientists responsible for movie magic!

The people I met while shooting Science of the Movies were pure genius. You hear people say "it's a collaborative medium" and I've always understood that on some level (in that I've been on sets and seen the legions that it takes to make a film). But this show has been eye opening for me because I've realized it goes way beyond being on set and earning their paycheck.

People like John Dykstra, John Frazier, Gary Theiltges (the list goes on and on) are literally inventing the tools that make the director/writer's imagination get on screen -- most without formal education in mechanical engineering, physics, or computer science… They're just brilliant.

Another fun aspect of the show is seeing how these inventors have borrowed technologies from so many different fields – medical, manufacturing, military – and made them work in the film industry.

Since you’re a movie nerd, I just have to ask: What’s your all time favorite movie and why?

 
This is just so hard it’s impossible. One? You really want one?? Here are a few of my favorites, in no particular order:

Harold and Maude, (Hal Ashby, 1971) – A comedy about death with the most inspiring ending of all time.

The Seventh Seal, (Ingmar Bergman, 1957) – A knight plays chess against the Grim Reaper during the Black Plague! Who thinks of this? Bergman. I love all his work, but the supernatural elements and beautiful dialogue seal the deal for me on this one.

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, (Peter Jackson, 2001, 2002, 2003) – You must watch these films together to really absorb the scope of this story and revel in the cinematic nerdvana of Tolkien’s Middle Earth. I haven’t watched them separately since 2003. Sure, it takes a day to watch them back to back, but are we men… or are we geeks?

The Holy Mountain, (Alexandro Jodorowsky, 1973) – If you are unfamiliar with Jodorowsky’s work, he is one of the most interesting and unusual minds in cinema. His films are full of symbolism, religious themes, magic, and… amputated dwarves. This film was partially financed by John and Yoko, partially based on an unfinished novel by a student of G.I. Gurdjieff, and partially shot under the influence of magic mushrooms. Holy crap does it show. Let’s put it this way: at one point costumed frogs and iguanas reenact the Spanish conquest of South America…

Then there’s Star Wars, The Matrix, Bedazzled (1967), The Thin Red Line, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and about another dozen flicks I think are brilliant…

There’s Achieve Nerdvana, Science of the Movies, as well as your hilarious monthly show called Heads Up where you talk about everything from gaming to gadgets.  Any other projects that you want to tell us about?

This may be so 2004, but I still do an audio podcast twice a week called Nerdbunker with Goober & The Viking. It’s improv comedy with the following premise: What if two idiotic morning zoo radio DJs delivered science and technology news? You can hear it on iTunes or at Nerdbunker.com.

Any advice for the nerds/geeks/bloggers out there in internet land?

Geek out. Whatever gets your nerd on, embrace it and share it. Life is supposed to be fun, not boring!