layperson

One of Brooks’ persistent themes is that laypersons can’t grasp the difficulty of translating technological concepts into reality — that some problems are far more difficult to solve than their promoters admit.

Once in Kerala, the film whizzes through a checklist of things a layperson might associate with the tourist-favourite state - its famous backwaters, the ubiquitous coconut trees, toddy, elephants, and Onam, its most popular festival.

The average layperson — and that includes some White House officials making policy decisions about scientific endeavors — has no idea about the effort required to put a satellite into space and keep it there.

But “smaller” earthquakes, in the minds of researchers, are still big to the layperson.

He explains why in terms a layperson can understand: “Trains suck up leaves under the wheels and you get black surface on the wheels and if it’s wet it gets really slippery.”