My wife & I recently watch the movie "Arrival". It is a movie about the sudden appearance of enormous alien spacecraft around the world, and the effort to communicate with their inhabitants. It was a very interesting exploration of the intellectual challenge such a scenario would present to the entire human race.
I don't watch a lot of movies, so going into it I have to know it's good & worth experiencing. My wife usually balks at my choices, because they're usually sci-fi or some kind of documentary, but she ends up admitting it was good!
The movie is based on a short story by Ted Chiang:
We both enjoyed this movie & it spurred some great discussion on language and communication, which is already mysterious enough between human beings. Trying to exchange ideas or information with another species is absolutely mind-boggling... just really think about the idea of somehow recognizing brain patterns in another biological system- from a distance. Although the process of deciphering the alien language was simplified for movie purposes, it still provided real insight into the difficulties that would be involved.
"Arrival" imagines another aspect of a situation where alien life appears around the world. How would different nations and governments act when presented with this scenario, and how would they interact with other countries? You would hope that people would realize the existential importance of such an event, to come together as a species. However, the primitive monkey mind of human beings is still a powerful influence on our collective behavior, something the aliens in the movie realize and work around.
The key insight that's highlighted in the story is this- the type of language used by a living being is a defining factor in their mindset, and even the basis of conscious experience itself. The inverse is also true- the way a sentient being perceives the world will be reflected in the way they communicate.
In "Arrival", the alien heptapods are found to perceive time-space holistically, meaning they see time as a fourth dimensional space that can be perceived as a whole. This is reflected in their writing, consisting of dynamic, ink-blot circular forms. These round symbolic creations are layered multi-dimensionally with vast amounts of information and meaning.
Medium:
Arrival — Decoding the Universal Language of Time
I would recommend this movie to anyone interested in the mysteries of language, the likelihood of extraterrestrial life, and the nature of consciousness. As I mentioned, it created some deep discussion and really makes you think about these profound, universal issues. When a movie or any work of art can do that, it has succeeded.
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