Regarding 1, it settles pretty nicely into that overlap between Applied Science and Engineering, which wouldn't have been as distinct in the late 19th century as it is today. Dr. Frankenstein is probably the quintessential "mad scientist", and is definitely more in the realm of applied sciences than engineering. It's not really all that clear a line, especially in an historical context. Unfortunately, you're completely right that the combination of this fact and these stereotypes leads to major problems in the modern world.
It would be neat if we could remind the world that these characters generally represent people who have been outcast from the scientific community for their failure to meet some combination of standards of ethics, morality, and appropriate procedures for getting meaningful results. The last is why the cry of the "mad scientist" is "They all said it couldn't be done, but I'll show them!" Today that cry is usually heard when what they actually said was, "Your methodology is crap and can never yield meaningful results, stop pretending you've shown anything."
(For those playing along at home, obviously no, you can't step up as a token member of a disadvantaged group and state on behalf of that group that a term widely held by that group to be harmful actually isn't, nor can you give one person permission to use it anyway because they "don't mean it that way" or somesuch.)
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ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2010-12-15 05:04 pm (UTC)It would be neat if we could remind the world that these characters generally represent people who have been outcast from the scientific community for their failure to meet some combination of standards of ethics, morality, and appropriate procedures for getting meaningful results. The last is why the cry of the "mad scientist" is "They all said it couldn't be done, but I'll show them!" Today that cry is usually heard when what they actually said was, "Your methodology is crap and can never yield meaningful results, stop pretending you've shown anything."
(For those playing along at home, obviously no, you can't step up as a token member of a disadvantaged group and state on behalf of that group that a term widely held by that group to be harmful actually isn't, nor can you give one person permission to use it anyway because they "don't mean it that way" or somesuch.)