Leserbriefe zur Rezension

Anca Tureanu schrieb uns am 11.03.2018
Thema: Redaktion literaturkritik.de: A central Idea of the successful Hollywood film „Downsizing“ (2017) is found in the German science fiction thriller „Das Miniatom-Projekt“ of 2006

Some years ago, I read "The Miniatom Project" novel by Prof. Richard M. Weiner, a well known colleague of mine. I found the book very interesting, among other things because the author applied the most advanced results of atomic physics to a very important sociological problem, the saving of natural resources on Earth. His idea consisted in shrinking human bodies and thus reducing their consumption of raw materials.  
I enjoyed learning very recently that Weiner's pioneering idea proved to find many followers. Indeed the success of the new film "Downsizing" by Alexander Payne which deals with the same problem and applies the same idea of shrinking humans, albeit with scientific tools which, if scientific at all, are quite different, proves exactly this state of affairs.
With best regards,
Anca Tureanu
Docent
Department of Physics
University of Helsinki

Geoffrey Sewell schrieb uns am 12.03.2018
Thema: Redaktion literaturkritik.de: A central Idea of the successful Hollywood film „Downsizing“ (2017) is found in the German science fiction thriller „Das Miniatom-Projekt“ of 2006

It was a great pleasure to read your article about the key scientific idea behind the Hollywood film titled "Downsizing". In fact, as you state in your article, that idea was the brain child of Professor Richard Weiner, as cogently expressed in his book titles "The Miniatom Project". In my view, that is not only a highly readable book, but also a culturally important one, since it carries a cross-fertilisation of literary and scientific themes. So I trust that your article will help to popularise it.
Yours sincerely,
Geoffrey Sewell

Prof. Geoffrey Sewell
School of Physics and Astronomy
Queen Mary, University of London

Richard Kerner schrieb uns am 15.03.2018
Thema: Redaktion literaturkritik.de: A central Idea of the successful Hollywood film „Downsizing“ (2017) is found in the German science fiction thriller „Das Miniatom-Projekt“ of 2006

I had a look on the article in "Literaturkritik.de" – thank you for citing me (and our common friend Masud Chaichian). The text is pleasant and adequate, in my opinion. Nevertheless I must tell you that I am much less optimistic in what concerns the idea of miniaturization itself, no matter how amusing and fascinating it can be. Not only from the point of view of physics (the energy required for cush transformations would exceed the energy of most violent nuclear reactions and could not be harnessed harmlessly). But even if this dream came true, and human beings were miniaturized but the planet Earth would remain as it is, now with quasi-illimited resources, in a few generations the miniaturized humans would proliferate again, now not by billions, but by trillions, and the situation will become as desperate as it is now.
But art has its own laws, and the dream is so pleasant! I liked Richard Weiner's book a lot, it is well written and psychologically convincing (even if I cannot subscribe to hypothetical physics behind it).

Thomas Anz schrieb uns am 17.03.2018 als Antwort auf einen Leserbrief
Thema: Re: Redaktion literaturkritik.de: A central Idea of the successful Hollywood film „Downsizing“ (2017) is found in the German science fiction thriller „Das Miniatom-Projekt“ of 2006

The idea of reducing people to use less energy to protect the environment is equally original, enjoyable and funny, but unrealistic for other reasons. I can not believe that a miniaturized humanity would reproduce so strongly in a few generations and again damage the environment with too much energy consumption. On the contrary, the downsized humans would probably soon all be eaten by dogs, cats and other animals, and humanity would no longer exist.

Richard M. Weiner schrieb uns am 17.03.2018 als Antwort auf einen Leserbrief
Thema: Re: Redaktion literaturkritik.de: A central Idea of the successful Hollywood film „Downsizing“ (2017) is found in the German science fiction thriller „Das Miniatom-Projekt“ of 2006

The apprehension that miniaturized humans might be eaten by animals is certainly justified from the point of view of the film plot. In the Miniatom-Project, however, this danger is avoided, since in this novel the entire Earth, with everything on or inside it, is miniaturized. (cf. page 133)