From: Chris Russo (extropy@russo.org)
Date: Sat Dec 23 2000 - 07:23:52 MST
At 07:43 -0500 12/23/00, GBurch1@aol.com wrote:
>Uh oh -- I forgot one. "Contact". It may actually be the only OTHER
>"Science SF" movie ever made, as well as a damned good "Social SF" movie.
>The opening equence alone is worth the price of admission. (And yes, I know
>there are a couple of pretty terrible scientific gaffs in "Contact", but they
>don't go to the heart of the story . . .)
The whole idea of where a society with backwards technology is able
to replicate fantastically futuristic machines with only a blueprint,
not even considering all of the manufacturing support needed, turns
me way off. It would be like sending a circa 600 AD earth society
the plans for a Pentium IV. I somehow doubt that they could figure
out the lithography and how to create extraordinarily pure silicon.
To further think that there would have been any doubt as to the alien
origins of the machine after they had built it leaves me cold as
well. She stepped into the chamber, and metal pieces (like the door)
morphed. What, while building the chamber there were no testing
phases where this occurred? Oh, so maybe they built this fantastic
machine without ever debugging any of it? So after our circa 600 AD
earth society successfully builds that Pentium IV system and plays
Quake for a few minutes, everyone is going to say, "Nothing special
here. must be a phony."
There was a South Park where Mr. Garrison wanted to get a nose job.
He was in the doctor's office, having the procedure described in
graphic detail - the doctor said things like, "Then we'll snap this
piece of bone in your nose and cut away all the meaty cartilage we
don't want. There'll be a lot of blood." Mr. Garrison listens
without emotion, then the doctor says (something like), "We could
also give you a nose like Jodi Foster in Contact". Garrison starts
retching explosively, "Oh, God! Why did you mention that awful
movie? <retch> I sat through two hours of that crap and the alien
was her father! <retch>"
Regards,
Chris Russo
--
"If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that I am wrong in thought
or deed, I will gladly change. I seek the truth, which never yet
hurt anybody. It is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance
which does harm."
-- Marcus Aurelius, MEDITATIONS, VI, 21
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