Contact within the next 100 Years
Rick Knight (rknight@platinum.com)
Mon, 14 Jul 97 09:33:06 CST
James Rogers queried:
"Why would the next 100 years be any more special than the last
million? Or the next million? On someone elses timetable it should
make no difference."
I respond:
Perhaps I'm still drifting in my fantasy haze from yesterday's viewing
of Contact but I think Sagan (Zemeckis?) pose an interesting theory in
that only since the middle of this century have we been sending
broadcast signals that could travel out of this solar system and reach
other systems over a period of decades. It may be akin to the tired,
semi-conscious scientist when his orangutan utters what sounds like an
intelligible sound, he snaps to full alertness.
This new film, more than any other sci-fi flick in several years
(since Spielberg eeked it out of me with Close Encounters as a kid),
touched me at the very core of my being.
Insignificance is a relative thing but maybe in this vast nothingness,
best efforts are acknowledged. Maybe someone's just waiting for us to
wake up. Loneliness and communion might not be a human-centric thing.
Regards
Rick