The work of Carl Sagan was noble and inspiring, and I don't blame him.
This film grows more ridiculous with time. The basic premises are all absurd.
What a disappointment...
I'll take Punctuality
Which premises do you think are absurd?
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You got your mind right, Luke?
The basic premise of the movie is that humans search for truth and that intelligent aliens may exist. Neither is absurd at all. Carl Sagan's book is not all that different from the movie. Just more people on the ship.
shareThe basic premise is that our radio signals can travel to another civilization and still be readable which is wrong. I recently read the following on Emily Lakdawala's blog from the planetary society:
the signal from our radio and TV broadcasts is so attenuated by that 100-light-year boundary as to be undetectable except by some kind of magical alien technology
THAT is what catches your attention as too fantastic to believe and not the idea that some far off alien life form knows how to send some universal/rosetta stone blue prints to build a wormhole machine? With such a low threshold for artistic license, how do you get through any movie which is not a documentary.
shareActually you are right, lately the only thing that truly captures my imagination and attention are documentaries.
But that's not the problem, I can suspend my disbelief for quite a bit, but for a movie produced from a book who's author is the herald of scientific thought I do expect a certain amount of accuracy. But someone corrected me in the comments below and reminded me that Vega is only 25 LY from earth, so this probably will work as I doubt that Sagan would make such a mistake in his book.
Anyway here is a summary of what is my main concern with this book and movie:
https://briankoberlein.com/2015/02/19/e-t-phone-home/
And what of broadcasts that travel 25 light years to reach Vega? Would they be untenable at that distance?
Not to say that this movie is without flaws, but seeing as you were quite specific in your criticism I thought I would aptly reply in kind.
Point taken! I did not check the distance of Vega to earth prior to conceiving this comment.
I also lack the mathematical skills to correctly calculate the attenuation of the radio signal over 25 light years.
I guess it goes something like this:
Radio Signal Power /
4 Pi x 25 Light Years ^2
But I don't know the power output to begin with and whether I should divide by light years or km or meters.... I would appreciate some help in calculating this.
Thanks
One more thing since I haven't read the book, I found this quote about the book:
This was even pointed out in the book when they realized it couldn't be VEGA that was actually picking up the signal, but a satellite installed by aliens to listen.
Actually, that fact is more than implied, it is shown. When Ellie takes her ride she ends up at Vega, but then she is whisked off to some other place after a few seconds. The clear thing being shown is that Vega was just the location of some alien technology doing some listening, and not the actual home of the aliens - the Vega system was not her destination.
shareI kinda agree. In time it does get more ridiculous. The presence of faith makes it ridiculous. Imagine it today, a decision being made over who goes on the journey, based on nonsensical beliefs. Skerritt along with MM roles get funnier every year.
shareOr you are growing more stupid as time goes by.
shareI don't blame him either, at least he had imagination and passion for a subject he devoted his life to and wanted to share an interesting idea for us to embark on a flight of fancy for us to momentarily ask what if.... It's not like he just sat on his butt and just critiqued other people's work and provided no real quality reason for doing so. what type of D-Bag does that... I mean seriously.
share