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Optimum directed by Henry Colomer. Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens E-mail: ballast@netins.net Apparently still on display in a cabinet at University College in London are the mummified remains of British philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), who willed that his corpse be dissected in the presence of his friends, and a permanent effigy made of his bones. Bentham is best known as the leading proponent of Utilitarianism, the belief that society ought to ensure "the greatest happiness of the greatest number." An unparallelled eccentric, he tried to arrive at a system by which human pain and pleasure could be precisely weighed, to which he assigned the term "felicific calculus." This film, which is to some extent bizarre, is both an informative and entertaining overview of Bentham's proposals as compared to the equally curious work of two later Victorians, Charles Babbage (1792-1871) and Francis Galton (1822-1911). Its title comes from the belief of all three that "all human resources should be optimized and made profitable." Babbage, who was obsessed with classification and mathematics, invented a forerunner of the computer called the "calculating engine" (from which comes the current use of that word, as in "search engine"). Galton, the cousin of Charles Darwin, made important contributions to the scientific measurement of inherited physical and mental attributes, in the interests of using "eugenics" to shape the biological inheritance of humans. As the film makes clear, with a dry and perpetual humor, all three of these men were examples of genius-gone-batty. Just how offbeat their research was is explained in meticulous detail with vintage photographs, drawings, diagrams, and delightful animations. (Reprinted by permission from Ballast Quarterly Review 17, No. 2, Winter 2001-2002.) |
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