Arrival

[shakatany]

The friend I usually share a Thanksgiving dinner with is in San Francisco as one of her sons is now living there. I am currently staying in her apartment taking care of her dog. This morning I went to see "Arrival" which is truly a terrific SF movie. Last century I loved SF movies like "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "Forbidden Planet". This century we finally have a couple of good movies like "The Martian" and this one. It's a believable movie with characters that are very true to life. The heroine, Louise played by Amy Adams, appears like a realistic woman and not a movie star in terms of makeup and clothing and I love the house she lives in. The creators did a wonderful job of making the aliens very alien in terms of appearance, culture and communication. Of course if you truly analyze the aliens you wonder why they have not already found ways of communicating with us as we have been broadcasting into space for some 70 or so years but ignoring that, it really points out communicating with aliens will not be easy . I know we have made translating apps but those deal with the languages of our home planet and making universal translators like on Star Trek may truly be impossible. I plan on seeing "Arrival" again though probably it will be on TV. I'm also left wondering what is going to happen in 3000 years. Here's an interesting article on how the movie makers created the alien language and writing: https://www.inverse.com/article/23159-arrival-invented-new-complicated-alien-language.

ETA: Here's an interesting article on how great a SF movie "Arrival" is from a scientific aspect: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/76811

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL AMERICANS AND HERE'S TO EVERYONE HAVING A NICE THURSDAY.