Snarky Commentary 3

Ive held it in as long as I could. As Popeye used to say on the Saturday cartoons Its all
I can stand; I cant stand no more! Plus, its well-past the opening day that Im not a
spoiler for anyone who hasnt seen it yet.

Yes, I pumped up Interstellar and looked forward to the weekend of its opening. I read
Black Holes and Time Warps: Einsteins Outrageous Legacy by Kip Thorne as prep for
it. So determined to see it, I basically went myself since my permanent date element,
AKA wife-unit was at a craft fair all day and too tired to accompany me.

1st observation: at the theater where I viewed the show in Fishkill, NY; it seemed I was
the only African American viewing the film in the crowd.

2nd observation: the two African characters that played the fungible school principal at
the beginning of the movie and the physicist throughout brought the total number to
three, albeit virtually. The principal was ignored; the physicist got the red shirt.

Part of the reason African Americans dont usually get into science fiction is simply we
typically dont see ourselves in it represented positively, or lasting to the end of the
story. Uhura changed that in the 1960s for many a young mans fantasies (me included).
She seemed never to date anyone as I recall and in TOS, if you were a red shirt, your
days were numbered and screen time quite short!

The plot is the typical dystopian we-have-to-save-humanity shtick with some allusions
to global warming, Grapes of Wrath world-dustbowl, and daily meals of corn. A
wormhole is constructed by a mysterious they assumed aliens or our 5th dimensional
descendants that for some strange and unexplained reason either has a need for us not
to disappear from our own environmental hubris, or are victims of the same time-like
causality loop seen in Terminator. Having five-dimensional hyper beings allows
Christopher and Jonathan Nolan to use the overused techie word Tesseract:
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Tesseract.html
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014/11/07/interstellar_explained_the_ending
_who_are_they_the_tesseract_the_blight.html
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The aspects of time dilation a few hours on a planet near a black hole = several
decades on Earth was the correct emphasis and math. A little depressing realizing that
you couldnt warp to the star and be back in time for dessert with the same people
youd left. I guess thats left up to 5D hyper dudes.

As Carl Sagan has noted, any space exploration neednt be altruistic, adventurous or
inspiring to seek out new life and new civilizations in Star Trek parlance: it should be
pursued as a matter of survival of the species. I had my problems the only African
American in that viewing of the film wondering which variant of the human species
Anne Hathaways character had in the incubators: did it represent all humans, or a
specific hue (also, how she was planning to feed and educate them upon birth)? Most
complaints of science fiction center on its lack of diversity. Virgin Galactic despite its
spectacular, recent failure is essentially a bunch of rich guys joyriding into orbitfor
now. They could get a little selective if survival and Newtonian payloads are factored.

Also, theres pushback of the literary kind (and possibly, a more realistic movie if the
rights are opted): Verdant Skies offers an orbital solution to Earth resources stick us
all up on satellites, like in Elysium and we wait out any disaster. The Bernal Sphere
alluded to in Interstellar towards the end of the movie is quite doable technologically.
After all, the Earth can heal itself without our smokestacks and pollutants, and weve
behaved like a virus with an attitude! My fear, like my observations of Interstellar,
altruism is not what got humanity on the brink of its own self-induced mass extinction
event. The billionaire joy riders would likely reserve only space for themselves and some
useful science flunkies to keep any habitats going.

A richer experience would be a plurality of ALL of us living, working, going to school,

seeing an Earth rise; learning in space would change our perspective of ourselves.
Many astronauts Ive read about that came back from Apollo to the ISS felt more
connected, less tribal than before they gazed down on the Earth from high orbit (aptly
called the Overview Effect). Carl Sagan opined about our Pale Blue Dot. The
dinosaurs never developed technology to leave the planet: they are now poetically, the
fossil fuels that may ruin it.

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"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love,
everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was,
lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident
religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero
and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every
young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer,
every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme
leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of
dust suspended in a sunbeam."

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, Good Reads

Weve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody

understands anything about science and technology. And this combustible mixture of
ignorance and power, sooner or later, is going to blow up in our faces. Who is running
the science and technology in a democracy if the people dont know anything about it?

Charlie Rose, an interview with Carl Sagan, May 27, 1996.

We have lawmakers that can say on the one hand Im not a scientist, which is true and
an overused dodge, as many of them ran in the other direction during science and math
classes in high school and college; then within a next breath lets see what the science
says when it supports their view of profit over the survival of humanity.

Something Ive been thinking about: a Democratic Technocracy. A technocracy in and of

itself is government by technicians; specifically: management of society by technical
experts. (Merriam-Webster); also: the government or control of society or industry
by an elite of technical experts (Google). By pairing the two words, the notion evolves
into something familiar and yet something quite different. A Democratic Technocracy
Id define as a representative democratic republic of elected officials independent of
outside financial interests with experience in and/or an appreciation of science,
technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to effectively govern a nation and
global economy exquisitely dependent on STEM. A lot of saner, better decisions could
come from that. It seems to be working quite well for recent global number one
communist China. Their technocracy is largely authoritarian.
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This last midterm election, the astronauts on the International Space Station voted as
they usually do from orbit via email. The Electoral College is ballyhooed antiquated as
the horse and buggy, born when both were the primary means of transportation.
Washington State and Oregon voted by mail. Registrars could mail instructions to
voters to download a RSA Secure ID token used only for the election midterm or
presidential unique only to the downloader that would allow you to cast your vote in
the comfort of your living room. Youd print out your ballet and mail it in, to first verify
to yourself you did cast it as you thought, and to match what you cast electronically via
scan. Libraries could be made available for citizens that dont have computers in the
home; you could cast your vote from your smart phone. Doesnt that sound less
stressful? What, other than maintaining the status quo or suppressing particular groups
from participating, is stopping us from doing this?

We need to insist ScienceDebate.org is not just a unique site, but is mandated that our
elected officials go on record on what their views on science are; how those views will
advance or inhibit our technological progress not just as a nation, but as a species once
they assume or retain the reins of power. Division, delusion, Jingoism, sloganeering and
speechifying should no longer be tolerated nor a means to gain it.

Those who refuse, should be treated as human anachronisms and unqualified for office;
like the dinosaur, their remnants viewed as curiosities in museums; their stubbornness
fuel to spur us forward together into a brighter future.

Related links:

SETI.org: Interstellar A Galaxy Too Far?

Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer and Director of SETI Research

RightBrane.Wordpress.com: Go Interstellar? No go orbital

Steven Lyle Jordan A Futurists Observations

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