E.T. PHONES HOME – some notes of communicating with extra-terrestrial intelligence, mainly of popular culture.
This is extended English version of text couple days ago, about Sagan, Clarke, SETI-project and other subjects touching.
Sagan's book of receiving message from outer space was directed – rather surprisingly – by Zemeckis, with much less visual jokes than usually seen from this director. While Clarke (and Kubrick) use monolith as both message, medium, and method of teaching terrestrials, Sagan moves to message being carried with radiowaves – similarly as human do both intentionally and unintentionally: Earth transmits radio signals to all directions, has been transmitting for long a time.
Clarke's monolith, on the other hand, is already a physical evidence, a message by itself, carrying meaning "you're not alone". Monolith(s) do have other functions, too: for example, possibly to send message to makers – someone, somewhere, has cultivated to certain technological level. Any other artefact, or similar physical evidence, could carry this message about extra-terrestrial existence: only condition is that it has to be somehow identified to be alien origin – on words of communication theory, signal must not be lost because noise of channel.
The existence of physical evidence doesn't, however, guarantee the communication with extra-terrestrials in any deeper level: seeing White House annihilation in Independence Day certainly tells to Earth beings that someone is out there, but the communication level will otherwise be rather weak. Less dramatically the communication fails in Stalker (novel from brothers Strugatsky, movie directed 1979 by Tarkovsky). In Stalker, visitors have come to Earth, and left, and the remaining artefacts have been harvested without knowing the original purpose of different findings. The Rosetta Stone, shared code, is missing.
Similarly in modern science fiction Vernor Vinge shows limits of understanding found in infosphere and technological levels of cultures. In his novels, metaphor to technological levels limiting communication is galaxy itself: when there's too wide gap between two cultures, it may be impossible to understand the message of the other – or even recognise such a message to exist. Vinge also brings to us some really alien extra-terrestrial races; usually extra-terrestrials that do come to communicate with humans are, after all, very human-like mentally, just looking strange. Not with Vinge.
Another new-wave space-opera author, Alastair Reynolds, taking a bit of post-cyberpunk coolness and stepping into adventures across the space, gives laconic and cynical answer to this Fermi paradox ("Where is everybody?"): there have been others, but civilisations achieving certain level get usually wiped out. Behind settings of universe there's constant battle between civilisation and barbarism, order and chaos.
Reynolds and Vinge are, as Clarke and Sagan, scientists by profession. There's still interesting step from the hard-core sci-fi of Clarke to story-focused, easy reading, über-cool space-opera of Vinge and Reynolds. While earlier the scientific sci-fi was pretty much stories for engineers, new wave space-opera is stories for people who like stories.
riku
This is extended English version of text couple days ago, about Sagan, Clarke, SETI-project and other subjects touching.
Sagan's book of receiving message from outer space was directed – rather surprisingly – by Zemeckis, with much less visual jokes than usually seen from this director. While Clarke (and Kubrick) use monolith as both message, medium, and method of teaching terrestrials, Sagan moves to message being carried with radiowaves – similarly as human do both intentionally and unintentionally: Earth transmits radio signals to all directions, has been transmitting for long a time.
Clarke's monolith, on the other hand, is already a physical evidence, a message by itself, carrying meaning "you're not alone". Monolith(s) do have other functions, too: for example, possibly to send message to makers – someone, somewhere, has cultivated to certain technological level. Any other artefact, or similar physical evidence, could carry this message about extra-terrestrial existence: only condition is that it has to be somehow identified to be alien origin – on words of communication theory, signal must not be lost because noise of channel.
The existence of physical evidence doesn't, however, guarantee the communication with extra-terrestrials in any deeper level: seeing White House annihilation in Independence Day certainly tells to Earth beings that someone is out there, but the communication level will otherwise be rather weak. Less dramatically the communication fails in Stalker (novel from brothers Strugatsky, movie directed 1979 by Tarkovsky). In Stalker, visitors have come to Earth, and left, and the remaining artefacts have been harvested without knowing the original purpose of different findings. The Rosetta Stone, shared code, is missing.
Similarly in modern science fiction Vernor Vinge shows limits of understanding found in infosphere and technological levels of cultures. In his novels, metaphor to technological levels limiting communication is galaxy itself: when there's too wide gap between two cultures, it may be impossible to understand the message of the other – or even recognise such a message to exist. Vinge also brings to us some really alien extra-terrestrial races; usually extra-terrestrials that do come to communicate with humans are, after all, very human-like mentally, just looking strange. Not with Vinge.
Another new-wave space-opera author, Alastair Reynolds, taking a bit of post-cyberpunk coolness and stepping into adventures across the space, gives laconic and cynical answer to this Fermi paradox ("Where is everybody?"): there have been others, but civilisations achieving certain level get usually wiped out. Behind settings of universe there's constant battle between civilisation and barbarism, order and chaos.
Reynolds and Vinge are, as Clarke and Sagan, scientists by profession. There's still interesting step from the hard-core sci-fi of Clarke to story-focused, easy reading, über-cool space-opera of Vinge and Reynolds. While earlier the scientific sci-fi was pretty much stories for engineers, new wave space-opera is stories for people who like stories.
riku
posted by riku at 10:32 AM
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