"Interstellar" And "Where Do We Go From Here?"

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ, Paleontologist/Cosmologist: 

"Research As Adoration"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/09/scientific-research-as-adoration-pierre.html

Dear Byron,

Thanks for your email.

I am happy to hear you had opportunity to see Interstellar.

Friend Chuck owns "The Science of Interstellar" by Kip Thorne whose introduction is a fascinating study of movie-making done by gifted people who set standards for themselves. 

Next time you're in a bookstore, check it out. http://www.amazon.com/The-Science-Interstellar-Kip-Thorne/dp/1494559390

I think "the science" -- coupled with the "science fiction" and "the overarching/subtending process of making this movie" -- will fascinate you. ("Interstellar" was originally in Steven Spielberg's hands.)

You're way ahead of me "on the science" and I look forward to learning from you.

Concerning The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics...

Do we have good reason to believe that "our" physical laws operate in Dark Matter?

Concerning "dimensionality..."

We commonly assume that Kubrick's "Hal" was able to "cross a threshold" separating electromechanical circuitry from conscious circuitry but are reluctant to make this same supposition in terms of homo sapiens hardware-software continuum.

Since "threshold phenomena" are commonplace -- and often linked with unpredictable outcomes -- I suspect "the acceleration of culture" is predisposing us to some kind of unforseeable, but inscrutable, "leap." 

H2O offers rudimentary but clear illustration. 

If the ambient temperature surrounding a block of ice reaches 33 degrees Fahrenheit, H2O passes from solid state to liquid state. And when ambient temperature then rises to 212 degrees F, H2O as water suddenly becomes a gas. Accompanying these "changes of state" are all manner of highly-differentiated physical and chemical correlates.

My personal act of faith is that "cultural acceleration" qua acceleration is on an untenable trajectory and what appears to be a "predictably extrapolable" outcome within the existing predestined "crash paradigm" is in fact gestational, with unprecedented "acceleration" morphing into a categorically "new thing" that we cannot possibly imagine until its first "change of state" manifestation. 

The Hundredth Monkey Effect is a social illustration of how quantitative change can -- and does -- result in qualitative change. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundredth_monkey_effect

We also bear witness to the 6th century B.C. when the whole planet went through sudden, inexplicable psycho-social-spiritual transformation. 

To wit: the 6th century B.C.  was "home" to the great Greek philosophers, Lao Tzu, Buddha, the emergence of fully-developed Vedic texts - and lots more!

"The Axial Period As A Great Mental Revolution" https://books.google.com/books?id=SvMYBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA171&lpg=PA171&dq=the+sixth+century+bc+as+a+turning+point&source=bl&ots=AEshHDeJAu&sig=rMUZT1_D05DVj_RgdxH-JDaP8PQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=eC4oVfLyEKHjsASn3oGYDw&ved=0CCQQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=the%20sixth%20century%20bc%20as%20a%20turning%20point&f=false

"The 6th Century B.C. Was A Turning Point In World History" http://www.bible-history.com/timeline/timeline_600_500_bc.html

If our own "generation" is thought to be the generation of "Man," perhaps "The Son of Man" adumbrates humankind's next evolutionary manifestation. 

The Son of Man

(Notably, the phrase "Son of Man" originated with the prophet Ezekiel who lived in the 6th century B.C.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Son_of_man

In recent years I have begun reading a Seattle professor's 1993 translation of The New Testament. 

The last 10 verses of Matthew's 5th chapter (as rendered in The Message) is a good example of Prof. Peterson's mind-opening rendering:

Love Your Enemies

38-42 “Here’s another old saying that deserves a second look: ‘Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.’ Is that going to get us anywhere? Here’s what I propose: ‘Don’t hit back at all.’ If someone strikes you, stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.

43-47 “You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.

48 “In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5%3A+38-48&version=MSG 

The Message

Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Message_(Bible)

Tolkien, Lewis, Rowling And The Redemption Of The Modern World

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/08/tolkien-lewis-rowling-and-redemption-of.html

Paz contigo

Alan

PS I just saw Janet off at RDU. She was delighted to break bread with you, a pleasure enhanced by sharing The Big Game.

On Fri, Apr 10, 2015 at 12:26 PM, BCH wrote:

I watched "Interstellar" last night.  It's an interesting film, and certainly a cinematic treat.  My initial impression is that it's Christopher Nolan's remake of "2001:  A Space Odyssey" mixed with a little dystopian science fiction instead of Arthur C. Clarke's optimistic view.

I thought the _most_ interesting idea in the film, however, was that the Deux ex Machina "aliens" live in an incomplete superset of our dimensions.  They could not communicate directly with humans because they exist in a set of dimensions that incompletely includes our three but leaves them unable to locate themselves in our time-space.  We see it from human eyes as Coop attempts to locate himself in Murph's time-space but cannot do it because it is not continuous.

Christopher Nolan loves to play with time and space concepts in film, witness "Inception" and "Memento."  This is a nice conceptual addition to that, though where you go with it I'm not sure.

Most of the science is nicely solid.  Kip Thornburg (the science advisor) is well known.  That being said it does face the same problem as all time travel stories, i.e. multiple paradoxes involving direct violation of the second law of thermodynamics.  He tries to end-run the problem by only transmitting information through gravity, but violations of causality are violations of causality.  We can talk about waveform collapse and other nasties over wine but essentially if we "know" (not can guess) the future to a certainty then it becomes no longer the future in a quantum sense, but the present.

Still, there's always a "bear" in science fiction where if it doesn't work, then there's no story -- like "warp drive" and "transporters" in Star Trek.  Science fiction fans are reasonably tolerant of them. What's interesting here is how he tries to make a close end-run around it.

--B