Published on September 29, 2024 10:35 AM GMT
Recently, I watched anime Dr Stone, and noticed that it was starting many thoughts like "why did social interactions turn out so?", "what might be the best way out of situation?" - in short, rationality-related. I really enjoyed watching with pauses to think for myself, and recommend it to all who are fine with anime.
Spoilers follow. A reminder: this is fiction, not real-world evidence.
Premise
The protagonist, Senku Ishigami, is a "scientist" teen, excited to advance the world of technology. In particular, once he wanted to build a rocket; with some help and some years of exploring ideas, he achieved that dream, sending statuettes of his friends and himself to orbit.
Suddenly, birds began turning into stone. Senku noticed this phenomenon through social networks and, looking at reports from all over the world, managed to estimate the origin point of effect. Though, he wasn't able to discover any way to counteract the effect: very soon, the world was flooded with green energy, turning all humans into stone.
The teen noticed that he was still alive and began counting seconds to track the current season (as "waking up" in winter would be a probable death). And indeed, after a few thousand years the stone shell broke open, allowing Senku to start doing something. He also took care not to remove remaining pieces of stone, inferring that depetrification did some regeneration all around.
Interpretation
To this point, Senku has already 1) built a somewhat working rocket iterating over several possible designs, 2) discovered a petrification effect origin, 3) anticipated waking up and concentrated for survival. It should also be noted that he had a few friends who had fun with him but no girlfriends.
These behaviors align with acquiring knowledge (both from others' past observations and from actual world, highlighting both theoretical and empirical learning) and achieving goals, which are the points of epistemic and instrumental rationality respectively.
Stone World
In a stone world, Senku determined to revive all of humanity (which we only learn later) and restore technological civilization. He did some gathering and managed to start a campfire. (Note about anime accuracy: the teen could not start fire just rotating a branch with bare hands - as is often shown in cartoons - and had to use a tool instead, which seems more realistic). With help of his friend -- spuriously depetrified Taiju -- he discovered a way to wake up other statues conditional on them being intact.
A few months passed. With "miracle fluid" made, the teens went to depetrify their next friend Yuzuriha, only to be attacked by a few lions. (The story claims that this was the first attack, and that nor Senku nor Taiju had met lions in the area before.) Taiju, being reasonably strong, offered to hold the pride of lions off, sacrificing himself; Senku decided instead to revive a very strong person, Tsukasa Shishio, who was subsequently able to win the fight and vowed to protect all of them.
A few days later, Senku and Tsukasa discussed their goals and inferred that their ideas of best worlds clash, as Tsukasa wanted to build a "pure" world: not reviving those who don't do useful work in a wide sense, and not recreating dangerous technology like firearms (nor inventing even more powerful things).
The events continued with Tsukasa deciding to monopolize "miracle fluid" ingredients and to make Senku not restore technological civilization at all, possibly killing him to this end.
Reviewer's note
At this point, a thought rang aloud in my mind: "why do all the primeval situations end up in a conflict?" I believe the answer in this story is: Senku was reasonably sure that he could beat Tsukasa and then achieve a better world than a compromise, and vice versa. Also, Tsukasa might have had less social priming towards cooperation.
Still Stone World
Senku and his friends attempted to escape from Tsukasa. They didn't quite manage, so Senku "sacrificed" himself, being the main opponent to the other's goals; friends, left alone for a while and close to despair, finally found a piece of stone shell on Senku's body, which did regeneration and really revived him. Then, he left to find other people who were sending signals, recommending Taiju and Yuzuriha to become spies in Tsukasa's empire.
Interpretation
To this point, Senku has 1) remembered primitive tech and reconstructed some of it; 2) inferred Tsukasa's motives a bit before he said them out loud, then managed to withhold some information about his own capabilities; 3) remembered to distrust Tsukasa's protection vow (or just not took it seriously, which is a bit more probable considering power of terminal goals overriding whatever was said); 4) hidden his chance for a "second" life.
That's a good level of social interaction - both of obtaining information about others and of being convincing. Those are identical to the points of epistemic and instrumental rationality respectively.
Ishigami Village, up to end of the Stone War
From then, Senku concentrated on restoring technological advances, impressing other people from a village he met so that they joined him. He simultaneously cured a Very Important Person from village, won in a tournament (the second feat came pretty much randomly, though) and impressed others, so he became the village's chieftain.
There were a few battles against Tsukasa's Empire of Might, which primarily scared people but had zero casualties, with only one exception. Once, the battle stalled because of some fumes spreading along the ground; Hyoga (Tsukasa's right hand man) decided to check if those were toxic, and kicked two of his own soldiers there, indeed killing them (as the gas came from sulfuric acid spring).
Senku was not exploring any new tech during that, preferring instead to build what was possible. He with the villagers built a pair of cellphones and an armored car, which they used to take Empire of Might's base bloodlessly. A few threats to blow everything up were exchanged, but finally Tsukasa agreed to a ceasefire... Hyoga stabbed him, not being pleased with this outcome, but got jailed, while Senku decided to cryopreserve Tsukasa.
Interpretation
In particular, these arcs demonstrate Senku's ideas: keep everyone alive whenever possible even if very hard, and make technology for the benefit of humanity.
As Senku doesn't attempt discovering new things, he does not count as a scientist in my opinion. Instead, he anticipates events, finds best items to solve problems, and can reach his goals (as shown in next seasons as well); in other words, he is a rationalist.
Wrapping up
Dr Stone has scenes-inlets describing some processes (both physical and chemical); some bloggers have verified those to be real (but somewhat simplified, including shorter taken time), matching claim of the anime itself "based on real concepts but fictional events". There are some implausible things, but I feel that probability decreases smoothly over watching anime - in contrast to some works, where some characters' actions can only be explained by authorial fiat.
The anime is not a good guide for either rationality or living in primitive society, I guess (after all, it is fiction!); however, it is inspiring, and it is a good reminder of what it means to be rational and grounded in reality. I recommend watching Dr Stone (or reading, as there's a manga version) to whoever doesn't find anime style repulsive.
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