It really seems like the producers of the movie contact were out of touch with their physics in some parts of the movie (sorry for the pun). Nearing the end of the movie the writers made an error in their physics and it really begs to be rewritten. So, here is my attempt at it.
Nearing the end of the movie, Jodie Foster's character comes back from her trip into the space void after falling through the contraption. In essence, what appears to be 18 hours in Jodie's reference frame, is actually only 1 or 2 seconds in the earth's frame of reference. This is sort of right, however, it's backward as to what relatively and the twin paradox actually states should happen. It should have been 1 or 2 seconds in Jodies from of reference and 18 hours for the people on earth if she was traveling at the speed of light for any given portion of time. Even warping space-time with a warp hole would cause the same effects such as the movie suggests happens. So, in essence, Jodie would have experience 2 or 3 seconds to pass and her lover-boy Matthew McConaughey would experience 18 hours or so to pass.
So, to fix the movie. I will propose two possibilities. One is way more interesting but I have no idea how it would physically work and am well aware that it also defies physics. And the other is boring.
Starting with the boring one, the contraption shoots her up into the sky and sends her rocketing off towards vega at 98 percent the speed of light or something crazy. She gets there, and it takes 50 years or so to get there and back assuming she didn't spend much time on Vega. Then when she gets back, she watches Matthew's character die of old age being all like "I knew you'd make it back to me" and happiness ensues before death. The government praises her (for once), and she gets to have her cake and eat it too just without her dead boyfriend so more cake for her I guess.
The second option is my personal favorite but I'm also aware that it probably defies all logic. When Jodie falls into the object and reaches the center a shockwave is sent out shattering glass amongst other things. Once this happens, Jodi's sphere is trapped in place in the center of the device by an electromagnetic field of some kind. Once there, you hear the sound of the original sound recording being broadcasted from Vega again and the wall in front of her starts the fade to show a huge amazing image of an alien city (like a movie screen).
This is basically the alien equivalent of the Voyager Golden records on the Voyager spacecraft at this point and it begins to tell the whole history of the aliens and everything about them welcoming us after they detected us approximately 30 years ago (which means it took us 5 years to find this signal). They then use this device as a way to lock communications (however slow they may be) between the two civilizations. And from there on in knowledge proceeds to flow between the two civilizations.
Honestly, I would have much preferred either of those to the whole "I met my dead dad the government sucks" thing that was done.
Nearing the end of the movie, Jodie Foster's character comes back from her trip into the space void after falling through the contraption. In essence, what appears to be 18 hours in Jodie's reference frame, is actually only 1 or 2 seconds in the earth's frame of reference. This is sort of right, however, it's backward as to what relatively and the twin paradox actually states should happen. It should have been 1 or 2 seconds in Jodies from of reference and 18 hours for the people on earth if she was traveling at the speed of light for any given portion of time. Even warping space-time with a warp hole would cause the same effects such as the movie suggests happens. So, in essence, Jodie would have experience 2 or 3 seconds to pass and her lover-boy Matthew McConaughey would experience 18 hours or so to pass.
So, to fix the movie. I will propose two possibilities. One is way more interesting but I have no idea how it would physically work and am well aware that it also defies physics. And the other is boring.
Starting with the boring one, the contraption shoots her up into the sky and sends her rocketing off towards vega at 98 percent the speed of light or something crazy. She gets there, and it takes 50 years or so to get there and back assuming she didn't spend much time on Vega. Then when she gets back, she watches Matthew's character die of old age being all like "I knew you'd make it back to me" and happiness ensues before death. The government praises her (for once), and she gets to have her cake and eat it too just without her dead boyfriend so more cake for her I guess.
The second option is my personal favorite but I'm also aware that it probably defies all logic. When Jodie falls into the object and reaches the center a shockwave is sent out shattering glass amongst other things. Once this happens, Jodi's sphere is trapped in place in the center of the device by an electromagnetic field of some kind. Once there, you hear the sound of the original sound recording being broadcasted from Vega again and the wall in front of her starts the fade to show a huge amazing image of an alien city (like a movie screen).
This is basically the alien equivalent of the Voyager Golden records on the Voyager spacecraft at this point and it begins to tell the whole history of the aliens and everything about them welcoming us after they detected us approximately 30 years ago (which means it took us 5 years to find this signal). They then use this device as a way to lock communications (however slow they may be) between the two civilizations. And from there on in knowledge proceeds to flow between the two civilizations.
Honestly, I would have much preferred either of those to the whole "I met my dead dad the government sucks" thing that was done.
So, kind of an "Interstellar" come back and see your daughter on her death bed? Except in this case boyfriend's death bed. What is the sexes had been reversed? Maybe the boyfriend could come back to discover he had impregnated his girlfriend before the journey and meet his adult child!
ReplyDeleteI like the interstellar communication idea, except in that case I don't get the need for the device. Why not just beam whatever message you want in the first place?