Blindness (2008) The Movie

In 1995, the Portuguese writer Jose Saramago wrote a novel entitled Blindness in his unique style of writing that uses punctuation sparingly and often times his sentences and paragraphs can extend for pages. His novels are also unique in the aspect that his characters have no names and he writes allegorically about the human condition, one of my favorite topics. He finally agreed to have his novel Blindness made into a movie in 2008 under the condition that it follow the setting of his novel in an unknown city and the characters have no names.
The movie was amazing to watch and I had to keep reminding myself of the author's intent, to explain to us his vision of the human condition and not in a literal fashion. In my opinion, the characters did not go literally blind by some mysterious infectious illness that suddenly struck the population of this city, but it was symbolic of the blinders we put on in our daily lives. I feel that the wife of the doctor was not blind because she was aware in her life, thought for herself, and did not believe everything she was told, she seemed more aware of human behavior, and the cruelty that exists in the world. The plot of the story shows how fear and lack of education can lead to a total breakdown in society, violence, lack of compassion for others and oneself. The movie is well made, great acting, and the location could be any city in the world, pointing out to us that this could happen anywhere in the world because after all is said and done, we are all human beings despite our different races and cultures. When it comes down to survival, the human condition shows its ugly side. I have commented on this in the past, if people are willing to trample and kill others to get into a store to buy unnecessary things because it is on sale, what would happen in a food and medicine shortage? This movie spells it out pretty clearly and graphically. This movie is not for the faint of heart and remind yourself it is an allegory.
Here is a clip of the movie.

Avatar (2009) to See or Not to See

The movie Avatar is due out in the theatre this December and I usually watch all types of sci fi movies but I have my doubts about seeing this particular film for two reasons. First, it looks like a video game and I have nothing against video games, I like them, but I would play one if that is what I wanted to do and not watch one in the theatre where I cannot make decisions. You can create believable aliens with excellent make-up instead of relying heavily on CGI, but that is my opinon. The second reason is this appears to me to be the same old story of one culture or race feeling superior to another and trying to conquer them and exploit their resources. I could watch the evening news for that instead of going to the theatre for the fancy version. I hope that science fiction movies in the future do not take this direction of an "us" vs "them" mindset and instead explore relationships between humans and aliens. I guess that is why I am a huge fan of the Star Trek Franchise and Stargate Franchise because they both explore relationships that are positive and negative, there are disputes, but for the most part, diplomatic solutions are sought, the suffering of war is exposed and how fighting should be the very last option. Well, I am still on the fence about this movie but here is a trailer to get an idea of what the film looks like.

Do You Live in the Real World Part Two

I have blogged on this topic in the past and will include those thoughts here once again in this post. I talk to a lot of different people because I live in a border town so I hear points of view from people who live in many states of the United States and various states in Mexico. Some people tell me they expect the worst next year in terms of job loss, standard of living, more store closures, etc. Others tell me California has a lot of jobs and money and people are just lazy and do not want to work and this whole crisis is a lie ( I am not making this up, someone told me this earlier in the week), and someone else told me yesterday they just lost their house in Las Vegas. The news paints a rosy picture and acts like the recession is over, well as I said before, it feels like science fiction. It reminds me of my favorite episode of Stargate Atlantis in which Dr. Weir is in a psychiatric hospital being told she is basically crazy and convince her to take her meds and move on with her life until the medical team on Atlantis is able to immobilize the nanites infecting her brain and thus influencing her thoughts. When she is revived, she cannot believe she is back in Atlantis and not on Earth and her entire view of what is real vs what is not is put into question. Do we all have our own unique points of view about the world, yes, but are they realistic?
Here is my previous post on this topic:
There are days when I feel as if I am living in a science fiction novel. I do not mean that people have been "body snatched" or I see flying saucers landing on my roof, although, one day a neighbor told me a UFO had landed on his roof and the last I had heard of him was that he is in a mental institution, but I digress.
What I see are distinct groups of people who appear to be living in alternate realities. In my line of work, I have the opportunity to talk with all kinds of people and the current economic crisis has amplified the differences in the way people see the world.
There is one group of people who say the economic crisis is fake because they are doing just fine in their lives and they don't know what all the negative news is about. It is as if they have closed their eyes to what is going on around them.
The other group of people I have encountered have lost everything: jobs, houses, cars, etc. For them, the crisis is very real.
The other group of people I talk with own their homes, have jobs and cars but know this crisis is not a fantasy because they are willing to see that stores have closed, "For Rent" signs are everywhere, empty houses and tent cities are real.
It is interesting to me to see how some people distort reality for whatever personal reason they may have. They seem unaware or unwilling to accept certain situations and to be truthful with themselves.
I think it is best to be as aware as possible of all situations in life and especially these troubled times and even though I love to escape for a while into my science fiction world, I also know when I need to be aware of reality.

Bulgarian Scientists Converse with Aliens

I could not resist musing on this story I found in the Telegraph news since I am always posing the question about how humans would react if aliens made first contact with us on Earth and now we have this story about Bulgarian scientists claiming that extraterrestrials have been answering questions posed to them, and the answers are in the form of crop formations. Well, my first reaction was to laugh because of the inclusion of the crop formations. I was expecting some form of electronic communication, or an actual confidential conversation with an alien revealed by an anonymous source, but the scientists claim to have asked 30 questions to the aliens and the answers were being given through 150 crop formations. Don't get me wrong, I love to think that aliens are living among us, I have a Star Trek concept about it in terms of we all do not look that much differently from each other and they wish not to interfere in our development, I could believe that governments would cover up alien contact such as in the Stargate series, and I do believe that alien life does exist in the universe, that is why Contact by Carl Sagan is one of my favorite stories.
So my reaction to this story, then is skeptical, but I like that the scientists are insisting that alien life exists, I would like to know more about the 30 questions that have been asked, how they were asked, and how they have been interpreting the answers given by the aliens and how the aliens call themselves. I hope one day we can make first contact and not try to blow the aliens away, conquer, enslave, or quarantine them, but we shall see, we have enough trouble treating each other with respect right here on planet Earth.
Here is a link to the ARTICLE.

Asimov and Socionomics

Image via Wikipedia

I obviously love science fiction and I have a great interest in the economy, trends in general, and I occasionally receive e-mails that combine those topics.
Isaac Asimov wrote a trilogy of novels entitled the Foundation Series with his main character being Hari Seldon a mathematician who develops the concept of mathematical sociology: a way to predict future events using the law of mass action.
From the article:

In the 1940s, renowned science fiction writer Isaac Asimov began writing a trilogy of novels called the Foundation Series. Asimov’s protagonist discovers and develops “psychohistory,” a mathematical science that statistically predicts the general course of future events for large groups of people.

As it turns out, Asimov’s idea was actually science, minus the fiction. In the 1930s, a decade prior to Asimov's initial Foundation stories, Ralph Nelson Elliott made a discovery that became key to the development of socionomics, a new science of social prediction.

This leads us to the Elliot Wave which is used to predict social mood trends that affect changes in history and culture.

The foreword to The Wave Principle of Human Social Behavior (1999), Prechter's explication of socionomics, summarizes that:

Social mood trends represent changes in human attitudes. Changes in social mood trends precede compatible changes in history and culture, indicating that the former causes the latter. Thus, there is powerful evidence that the pattern of mood change produced by the social interaction of men is the underlying engine of the trends of social progress and regress... The relationship of the pattern to Fibonacci mathematics suggests that the Wave Principle is another manifestation of a type of growth pattern found throughout nature in processes of growth and decay, expansion and contraction.

Nowadays, Socionomics and the Elliot Wave are tools being used to predict peaks and valleys in the stock markets but on a broader scale, these models can be used to monitor and predict changes in human thought, habit, and ways of life that will then lead to major shifts historically and culturally.
Right now with massive unemployment, for example, we are facing a social mood trend change on a mass scale. When you are out of work, short on cash, and hungry, your outlook on life and what is really important begins to shift.
I love science fiction that deals with these kinds of ideas and even though fiction is mixed in, there is still that degree of truth that makes me sit up and think about life differently and observe current events more closely. People I talk to on a daily basis perceive our current economic situation in different ways:
1. They think recovery is around the corner.
2. They know this is the worst "recession" they have ever seen.
3. They recognize we are entering into a new way of life even more different than the first depression and permanent in nature.

I am in camp number three. Even though people hope and wait, it is obvious that people are making major lifestyle changes and some not by choice. These changes are being made by massive numbers of people but the outcome is happening in slow motion. So I expect that the changes historically will also take time and when we look back years from now we will be amazed at the changes. One thing for sure, going through these lifestyle changes is painful but I hope at the end we will have more peace in our lives.

This is the ARTICLE in full.

Blogging From The Space Station!

I cannot even imagine getting to the International Space Station (ISS), let alone living on it for six months at a time! Well Maksim Suraev is living on the ISS and has begun to blog about his unique experiences upon the station, what an interesting position to be in and what amazing things to blog about and not only the view from the station but the challenges of working in a zero gravity environment, exercising, repairing or modifying components, and conducting experiments.

Here is a sample from his blog:

A reader asked me: “How good is space for tranquility? For peace?”Tranquility here comes only when you sleep in your cabin, when there is no work to do. :)

Here is a link to his BLOG and it is well worth the read, Enjoy!

IPhone Tricorder Star Trek Style

I read an interesting article about an IPhone that was converted into a tricorder by some NASA scientists that is capable of detecting certain chemicals and gasses in the air. While this sounds cool and very futuristic, I really don't see a very practical application at this date for this device. It could be a stepping stone to a more advanced gadget and because it is being applied to an IPhone, it seems that it may be for the general population. However, in Star Trek, only Starfleet personnel have tricorders to detect anomolies on the ship, in a strange environment, they are used for medical purposes, and to scan alien life forms. So while the gadget is fun and creative, I will look at it as a step to something bigger and better and independent from the IPhone. I would like to see a device that is focused more on medical advancement but that is because my area of work is in the medical arena and it would be nice to have less invassive equipment to detect things in the body like anemia, tumors, problems with joints or bones, etc.
Anyway, here is a clip from the article:

A NASA scientist may have come up with the world’s first ever Star Trek Tricoder. Combining an iPhone, a tiny sensor chip, and some nifty programming, the prototype can detect dangerous chemicals and gases in the air.

Jing Li and his team at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffet Field, California came up with the prototype using a silicon sensing chip in micro-board with 64 nanosensors. It can detect even trace amounts of ammonia, methane, and chlorine gas in the air. Being based on the Apple iPhone, it can communicate the results to other iPhones — or the computer mainframe of the owner’s battleship, who knows.

The iPhone still can’t “beam me up,” but with these kinds of developments, it’s probably just a matter of time.

Here is the article and enjoy your weekend.