I saw Ridley Scott’s Prometheus the other day and in it there’s some talk of “belief.” What does scientist Shaw, the Noomi Rapace character, believe and what does she know? It reminded me of an exchange I had with Jill Tarter of the SETI Institute at the Hat Creek Observatory, home to the Allen Telescope Array.
In the audio below, you’ll hear me stumbling to find my question. Thankfully, Tarter knew what I was getting at and rescued me from embarrassing myself completely.
[audio:http://alifesworkmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/tarter_belief_mp3.mp3]
Christine
Two thoughts/quotes come to mind after I was pondering this over:
“When you finally figure out that you’re never going to figure it all out, you’re finally beginning to figure it all out.”
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
Things are what they are, no matter what name we give them, or if we know of their existence or not. I’m actually happy to just let the universe unfold and reveal to me what it wants me know on it’s own.
I spend a lot of time just looking for my car keys, so not a lot left over to contemplate the bigger things out there! LOL 🙂
So, what is your review of the movie??
David Licata
This comment went under my radar for some reason.
I think a lot about the words “faith” and “knowledge” and I do think it’s important to recognize that they are very different things. Yes, they are essentially arbitrary sounds given to concepts, we could easily call one “flrplard” and the other “dralprlf,” but those concepts are very different, the human experience of them is different.
I enjoyed Prometheus. It’s action packed, and kind of gross at points, but it has a little meat to it, too. It’s not 2001: A Space Odyssey, but what is? There hasn’t been a SF film since that has approached that kind of intelligence.