_Contact_, the movie

[wispfox]

The movie _Contact_ is the first movie I ever owned. One of these days I'll read the book.

Just re-watched it. It's a wonderful movie because it reminds me that no, I do *not* have to give up appreciation for beauty and magic just because I have a highly scientific side. They are not mutually exclusive, and never have been.

Sometimes, I forget this, and my rational, scientific side tries to convince me that the bits and pieces of reality that I have run into, but which don't yet fit into our current models of detection or scientific understanding, are therefore not real.

Having an idea as to why something beautiful happens does not make it any less magical an occurance. And it should not. Nor does not knowing/being able to explain why or how something occurs make it necessarily not true.

Belief in 'God'? Not really. Belief in something greater than myself? Yes. Although I don't think they/it (unknown gender and plurality) spend all their time watching over, taunting, and/or laughing at us. I suspect far more that they are us, or something like us, just a bit further along.

Watching the movie put some faint, elusive music into my head. I wish I could record it. Or get it enough to the forefront of my mind to grasp more than echos of it. And I wish I could figure out some way of expressing it. Kinda like the visual beauty I sometimes have in my head, I have no way to share it. Ah, well.

Yeah. Sleep now. Perchance to dream...

Comments

[happyfunpaul.livejournal.com]

Have you ever read Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynmann? I think that was the book that (when I was 18) first got me thinking about the issues of how scientific understanding and art/beauty appreciation relate; there's a section in which Feynmann argues with an artist about it. In brief, though, my own opinions are strongly similar to yours.

[vulpine137.livejournal.com]

I need to watch that movie again...I saw it, but I was on flu meds and I couldn't keep up with it.

The book...

[unicyclesteve.livejournal.com]

On Tape read by the author ... is rather inlightening.It's 4 tapes long. well technically its 8 tapes long as each siude is left the right channel :>)

Pale Blue Dot is a very interesting perspective and this movie is so much more of a surreal-metaphor in a part of this book. The movie is actually a - I'm not sure how to word this - umm, a novelete within the book and then the data in the book is then flipped into being the body of the movie... sorta make sense to you?(I hope)

I guess the best way to say it is this.... its a good read to listen to. And the movie did leave me with a profound feeling of infantesimal smallness. I saw it in a stadium movie theatre and the intro of the movie with the satilite departure of earth and having all the sounds rumbling in the theatre - that cacaphony of all the broadcasting satitlites and then back in time to the sputnick sat. to the radio broadcasts and then the telegraph sounds then just the pink noise of the stellar background...... it was just ...well, I got goosebumps thinking about it.

As for the "god Particle" I really have been walking a similar path that you speak of. It kinda felt like .. if i may metaphor it here, "you where preachin' to the choir then sister." :>)

does that hit the nail on the head well enough for ya?
This is the telescope I work with in college:
http://www.geocities.com/electryc_monk/NTA.html
http://www.geocities.com/electryc_monk/S-C-73.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/electryc_monk/S-C-mouth72.JPG

hope you don't mind the eut-n-paste... i just saw the time ;>)

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Have you ever read Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynmann?

Nope, but I've now added it to my utterly insanely long book list.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

I guess the best way to say it is this.... its a good read to listen to.

*smiles* I think I'd rather read it, but good to know.

well, i normally would too.

[unicyclesteve.livejournal.com]

but, when a fellow classmate/ student says hey i have that book on tape you want to borrow it for that roadtrip to michigan and return it when your finished?

Do you say no? I didn't.
It was a very good way to pass the time.. and it did take more then the drive up. Granted that was a 18 hour drive but it was worthwhile to listen to him speak.

(smirks) yeah it is a "good read to listen to" :>)

[szasz.livejournal.com]

I thought Contact delivered its message a little heavy-handedly, but otherwise I really enjoyed it. Like you, I loved its message that science/technology do not need to conflict with spirituality/religion. For someone who has a foot firmly in both camps (also, I guess, like you), it's just a nice message to hear.

"I'm bound by a different covenant than Dr. Arroway, but our goals are the same: the pursuit of the truth."

Re: Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynmann

[wolfieboy.livejournal.com]

I have to add my whole-hearted endorsement to this recommendation...