A colleague of mine, Eric Charles (psychology), recently posted some thoughts about how brains work in the world of Marvel X-men. It occurs to me that the modest role of expertise and cognitive psychology that oftentimes make it into our classes on STS might be meaningfully enhanced if we teach a lesson like this about X-men to students.
Explicitly how memory works might be a fruitful avenue, the role of memory and what it means to “know” something, and what expertise might mean if we consider the brain/body relationship, and of course, one gets to talk about Wolverine during class in the process.
Installing (Social) Order 
Ah, just the fact that Magneto's power is defined by his ability to control all things metal and electric, but maybe Dr Doom (the main antagonist of the fantastic four) is an even better example of a supervillain with a special power of enrolment. And isn't it interesting that it is usually the villains that are allied with the forces of the machines? Maybe people are afraid of somebody taking over and turning against them their artefacts and infrastructures, and writers exploit that via these characters.<br><br>Posterous <
LikeLike