There's a substantial interest in movies that play with the fabric of reality and all of them do that to some extent but a small number of them will shake it like a handkerchief blowing in a hurricane. "eXistenZ" is fascinating in that way and so is "Contact." There's really not so much to say about that as every sighted person in the western hemisphere has already seen it.
Finding other creatures in the Universe is, presumably, the opposite extreme from when reality was the idea that Earth was the center of everything. As we learn more, we discover Earth is just a grain of sand in a dust storm. These types of fluid realities fascinate me as you can find any number of things about which a great many people are absolutely certain ... and they're shocked beyond belief to discover the world isn't really flat. It's not that they're stupid, they just didn't know.
There hasn't just been an expansion of knowledge but also an expansion of consciousness, whether you want it or not. It's conceivable that a large part of the anomie of today is due to an expanded awareness that we really are insignificant in the face of an unimaginably gigantic Universe. What people don't see so much is they are also magnificent as none of it exists without them. It's the converse of Schrödinger's cat as, from its standpoint, the Universe may have self-destructed or it may not. There is no way of knowing without opening the cat's box so, from that view, the Universe exists and does not exist at the same time.
This is, to some extent, just first year philosophy trickery but the expansion of knowledge is 'real' as is the possibility of a diminution of one's position in the Universe as a result of it. The consequences of these radically-changed realities are not, in my view, fully understood as is also not understood the fluidity of reality now. When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse ... but as we grow we accept various things as solid even when we know they are not and we reject everything else. There won't come another glimpse because we won't permit it. One example is the stock market which is the modern adult fantasyland ... but it makes money so it must be real. But even money isn't real as you never see cash anymore.
Another example is paying forty grand for a suburban utility vehicle just so you can say it isn't a station wagon. Anyone looking it can plainly see the only things distinguishing it from a station wagon are that it doesn't have wood panels or Hugh Beaumont driving it.
(Five points extra credit if you can figure that one out without Google.)
Although "The Matrix" is good for bending reality, I doubt I'm up for a six-hour marathon although there are some others that are interesting to me. More to come.
Excerpt from "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd
When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown
The dream is gone
I have become comfortably numb.
Finding other creatures in the Universe is, presumably, the opposite extreme from when reality was the idea that Earth was the center of everything. As we learn more, we discover Earth is just a grain of sand in a dust storm. These types of fluid realities fascinate me as you can find any number of things about which a great many people are absolutely certain ... and they're shocked beyond belief to discover the world isn't really flat. It's not that they're stupid, they just didn't know.
There hasn't just been an expansion of knowledge but also an expansion of consciousness, whether you want it or not. It's conceivable that a large part of the anomie of today is due to an expanded awareness that we really are insignificant in the face of an unimaginably gigantic Universe. What people don't see so much is they are also magnificent as none of it exists without them. It's the converse of Schrödinger's cat as, from its standpoint, the Universe may have self-destructed or it may not. There is no way of knowing without opening the cat's box so, from that view, the Universe exists and does not exist at the same time.
This is, to some extent, just first year philosophy trickery but the expansion of knowledge is 'real' as is the possibility of a diminution of one's position in the Universe as a result of it. The consequences of these radically-changed realities are not, in my view, fully understood as is also not understood the fluidity of reality now. When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse ... but as we grow we accept various things as solid even when we know they are not and we reject everything else. There won't come another glimpse because we won't permit it. One example is the stock market which is the modern adult fantasyland ... but it makes money so it must be real. But even money isn't real as you never see cash anymore.
Another example is paying forty grand for a suburban utility vehicle just so you can say it isn't a station wagon. Anyone looking it can plainly see the only things distinguishing it from a station wagon are that it doesn't have wood panels or Hugh Beaumont driving it.
(Five points extra credit if you can figure that one out without Google.)
Although "The Matrix" is good for bending reality, I doubt I'm up for a six-hour marathon although there are some others that are interesting to me. More to come.
Excerpt from "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd
When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown
The dream is gone
I have become comfortably numb.
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