Mad Scientists are really Mad Engineers

Does anyone think there should be a trope for this? The vast majority of "mad scientists" in fiction are really engineers. Scientists formulate a hypothesis and test it to learn more about the natural world. The Mad Scientist that creates doomsday devices or genetic monstrosities would probably be considered demented versions of The Engineer in real life.

While scientists have done ethically abhorrent things in real life (Those Wacky Nazis as an example), people that resurrect monsters or invent a Death Ray here or there aren't scientists. Nothing they do relates to "knowledge about or the study of the natural world based on facts learned through experiments and observation (Merriam-Webster)."

Because most crazy engineers are titled mad scientists, and most "mad scientists" are really engineers, I think there should be a trope page for Mad Scientists are Really Mad Engineers.

edited 23rd May '15 1:05:03 AM by jag140

It depends on the Mad Scientist. Mad Scientist in World Of Warcraft and Hearthstone create plagues and deal with genetic engineering.

Doctor Frankenstein is evidently a scientist. If memory doesn't fail me the novel begins with him trying to resurrect small critters and things of the sort before applying what he learned on a human being (thus Frankenstein's Monster)>

Send it to YKTTW and see what the tropper hivemind thinks about it.

Probably has to do with how fiction usually doesn't distinguish between engineers and scientists. So the trope name doesn't either, as that's how it's actually used. I don't think it's more complicated than that, and we don't need to distinguish between those either, even if the dictionary says it's not the exact definition.

Usually with mad scientists, we're meant to understand that the things they build are based on scientific theories/discoveries they came up with themselves. Normal scientists might leave the development of practical applications up to other people, but when everyone is convinced that you and your theories are mad, the only way to get anything done is to do it yourself.

The problem with using real life to define what a scientist is, is that fiction doesn't often go along with that. When science characters crop up in stories, they almost always are not what real life scientists are: they're often an Omnidisciplinary Scientist who knows (or can find out) anything about anything even vaguely related to science, technology, engineering or maths. The "mad scientist" being regarded as a "scientist" even if he's technically an engineer or even just an "inventor", is very much an established part of storytelling, even if there's a disconnect between scientists in real life and fiction.

edited 30th Jun '15 4:48:55 PM by Wyldchyld

Trust an engineer on this: WE *ARE* Mad Scientists—or, at least, as close as we can be and make a living at it.

Not evil, mind you, not angry: just frequently mad as hatters and crazy like foxes.

Locking this 4-year old necro...