Anton does his usual dependable job in explaining stuff. 

What makes me angry is that a perfectly fascinating scientific inquiry was turned into a clickbaity, goofball, sh*tshow.  Now that the genuine science papers are coming out the YouTube Goobers have already moved on to the next kerfuffle.  

This might be an odd spot for a movie review but it’s because of the subject. 

Here is the YouTube’s trailer for Steven Spielberg’s new movie, ** you do not have permission to see this link **.  I unexpectedly got an invite yesterday on opening day and saw it.   I think most people can figure what it’s about.  Nevertheless my comments will contain no overt narrative spoilers of anything not pretty obvious from the trailer.  I will discuss some of the ideas raised by the movie and since some people do like to get their art unmediated this will serve as your SPOILER ALERT.  

First of all, if you’re already a big Spielberg fan you’ll enjoy it. He is a technical genius and a master editor.  Spielberg still has the same itches to scratch: no matter how smart you are you don’t understand a thing until you feel a thing.  I was happy that the movie is character driven rather than a CGI epic.  That said, as you would expect the film looks beautiful.  And a nice atmospheric John Williams soundtrack.  All the actors are terrific, especially Emily Blunt.  Colin Firth makes a great villain. 

I do have a couple film-type criticisms but they’re the same issues I have with all Spielberg’s films so beside the point.  I’m more concerned here with the liabilities of the concept.  The fundamental paradigm that is being presented without question. 

Everyone knows it already.  At some point the human race was contacted by aliens.  Dark Forces are hiding the truth and exploiting what knowledge they gather for nefarious purposes.  Courageous former insiders are trying to reveal the truth to an unseeing public. 

I don’t believe in the Conspiracy Theory of history simply because if you actually look at history it’s an unplanned mess – a mass of ineptitude.  What pack of humans who ever lived has had the discipline to conduct a successful long term conspiracy?  What humans can be counted on to do is act in their own interest.  And at times that interest is best served by spilling the beans.  If somebody other than Oswald really had shot Kennedy don’t you think they would have been on Oprah decades ago?  

What does the Good Book say?  For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known and brought to light.  –Luke 8:17   Amen!

But that’s not the major problem.  I’ve discussed this before but I am nothing if not perseverative. (Look it up. Look it up. Look it up.) 

The scenario being offered us is inherently incoherent. 

We still have questions of course but we have explored our own Solar System well enough to be able to determine that we do not share it with another spacefaring civilization. Any “aliens” who visit will come from another star in a different solar system lightyears away.    

To perform interstellar travel these aliens would be centuries, if not thousands of years ahead of us technologically.   (Consider what it would require of a civilization to accomplish reliable interstellar travel.  Remember, these aliens are depicted as routinely visiting our planet over decades.)  As impressive as interplanetary travel is to think about, interstellar travel is orders of magnitude more difficult. We can make some assumptions about the aliens simply from the fact that they accomplished such a feat.

1. They will have solved the energy problem.  Such journeys require a dependable, efficient, manageable, almost limitless fuel supply and supporting tech.

2. They will have solved the social problem.   Crumbling, anarchistic societies don’t build starships.  This kind of tech presupposes a strong, stable, thriving, long-lasting social order be in place.   

One problem for the scenario is that if these two assumptions are granted, then it removes 99.99999% of all the motivations applied to the aliens in the first place by the Conspiracy Theorists.   Some conclusions follow:

A. They would need nothing from us.

B. They would have nothing to fear from us.

If they wished to remain undetected we would never know they were here.  If they wished to land in public they could do so unmolested, with impunity. 

Yet how are they depicted in this unquestioned scenario?

They are both omnipotent and hapless.  They can travel lightyears across space successfully but they can’t pilot a flying saucer without crashing all over the place.  (There have been as many recovered bodies at crash sites at this point as there were chapels in the Middle Ages that contained pieces of the True Cross.)  They come all this way to scare the living crap out of kids and draw crop circles!   They have some quixotic interest in earthly politics.   

Isn’t it clear that this view of alien contact is simply a projection of our own fears and desires? 

Of course that’s what art is.  I was always told that when I described a problem I should be ready to offer a solution. So let’s interrogate the scenario artistically, ok?

1. Make a movie about a secret government group whose job it is to suppress this information about aliens because the truth is so horrible that if it did come out it really would drive humans insane.   Take the point of view of the Colin Firth character in Spielberg’s movie.  A Lovecraftian reversal.  The truth doesn’t save – it destroys.

2. Explore the idea of what actually seems to have been the case. Namely that even if the govt didn’t invent the UFO phenomenon whole-cloth they used it as a disinformation screen to deflect interest in Cold War secret projects.  

3. Explore how people really would react to the announcement of alien contact.  In other words start where Spielberg’s film ends.  With First Contact.  The film hints at various possible responses from worship to utter fear but has unyielding faith in human nature.  That old classic from 1951, ** you do not have permission to see this link **, is more on the mark.  The alien visitor is shot within minutes of landing.  He encounters hope and vision but also fear and suspicions. 

First Contact is a major subcategory of science fiction.  It explores the initial moment of contact and the resulting social & cultural & personal existential shock of discovering we are not alone.  My favorite account is from Arthur Clarke’s 1953 novel ** you do not have permission to see this link **.  Clarke’s aliens announce themselves just as earthlings are about to journey to space.  They demonstrate their benevolence by stopping all ongoing wars and introducing technology into human society that benefits all.  But they don’t physically reveal themselves at first for reasons that are explained later in the novel.  They know from past encounters that people need prep time. It lessens the shock when people are already used to your presence.  (Of course the aliens have their own agenda.  Read the book. One of my favorites.)  

Option #3 could be a good movie, properly handled.  Various people confront the revelation of aliens with various responses.  Keep it on the human level.  No special effects extravaganzas.   Drama.  You could even use the same cast as Spielberg!    

ps Of course there is also the other side.  Make a movie where people determine somehow that we really are alone in the universe.  Just us.  Contact that. Identify with that. 

Steefen said
A review of a fictional movie, not even a documentary, is inferior in quality as a counter argument to nonfictional realities (the press conference and the discussion in the press conference).
  

That press conference was a movie tie-in.  Spielberg is very powerful.  Head of the illuminati.  Hmmm…maybe I shouldn’t have said that outloud. 

Lockheed Martin looked at the alien UFO technology.

The Anunnaki genetically engineered humans and the Bible in the book of Genesis blamed it on Eve and Paul and St. Augustine called it original sin–when it was Enki who gave Adam & Eve knowledge, disagreement between Enlil and Enki, not the Fall of Man.

Stephen, your counter argument is the Illuminati.

ROFL

And to think, Steefen, for a long time I didn’t think you had any sense of humor.