"DON'T LOOK UP" (A FILM) - THIS SHIP OF FOOLS SAILS ON ... "VILE BODIES" AND ALL, VIEWS FROM THE RABBIT HOLE

This blog post is 12+ years old from 2009 with President Obama's first term. Our posts focus on national affairs and culture, and occasionally technology. Sometimes our observations receive a critical eye, but our 'pen' remains unblunted as we keep a sharp eye on the ways and directions of American politics and culture. 

With this said, we report on the recently released, apocalyptic-dystopian-themed movie, Don't Look Up (Adam McKay, author, producer, and director, 2021, Netflix Inc,). [Note: the film's themes ring very true by our close readings of politics, culture, aerospace, and astrobiology.]

This film is a brilliant parody, with excellent acting, excellent script, and excellent scenery and staging. BUT IT IS NOT FUNNY! It hits close to what's happening in America right now, today. It is a mirror of current America reflecting our double speak politics, personal and institutional cynicism and corruption, and above all, the overriding monetization of everything even the coming extinction of planet earth (as if that makes sense).  

Acting: great-as-usual performances by Streep and De Caprio. Also great to see how Jonah Hill has honed and matured his craft. Jennifer Lawrence is significant as a kind of Greek Chorus-like critical eye and commentary that keeps things from slipping entirely into the numbing, erratic madness that was the last president's term. 

Watching "Don't Look Up" was a learning event rich with already-witnessed but newly-processed reflections on the last presidential term that will be recorded as a historic 'low' in America's 250 years. The Trump years are extra sobering when seen through this movie. 

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With the 'Jan 6 (2021)' investigation committee hearings underway in a few days, we can ponder this film about American disfunction and decline into absurdity.

But. Not funny? Why? Because its exaggerations seem like current America  - double-speak politics and players, media crassness, conspiracy and corruption, and a pervasive monetization of everything even extinction, that reduces 'truth' and extinction to this evening's tv ratings.

As the result of reading a few early, at-best non-committal reviews of Don't Look Up, I put off watching it until my daughter 'suggested' I see it. (I've learned to 'hear' my daughter as much by her tone of voice as from just her words. Her message was 'Dad,...a tool.')  With that guidance, needless to say, I was very impressed by the film's crafting, acting and message but disappointed that the film hasn't gotten the praise it deserves... I feel this is coming. 

"Don't Look Up's" portrayal of a ratings-obsessed media corporate bloc even in the face of global extinction is damning but isn't this what appears to be the current media reality?  

This film is not funny because its seeming science fiction content is real: 

1. A potentially planet-killer cosmic body might hit Earth, 2027-2037 (European Space Agency);
2.  NASA already landed a probe on a comet in 2005 (! hmmm!);  
3. Humans leaving Earth - Elon Musk plans to launch his SpaceX Mars colonization ship in 2024-25 (USA DOD has so far given Musk maybe 10 billion dollars and Musk anticipates by 2030 getting a trillion dollars more for transporting a million humans to Mars) 

Mass media's cynical hyping of eventual extinction has long been a 'usual' and we already have in place the film's puppet red-hats, i.e., Trump's MAGA crowd; and the curtain is being drawn back revealing the willingness of the military-industrial combine to go with the flow in order to make and acquire more exotic weapons and gear.

Don't Look Up should be viewed by as many American and global citizens as possible. It should become an important assignment in future college and high school courses on a wide variety of subjects (film making, politics, satire, media conduct and ethics, corruption, history, social movements, astrobiology and extinction, global warming ...and other areas that are, or should be, of national concern but are ignored, downplayed, spun around, demeaned ...all out of a cynical institutional and individual commitments to special interests usually involving money or institutional preservation for the sake of... self-preservation.  (It seems appropriate here to reference the American Supreme Court's 2010 granting of human-like, political-donor status to business corporations and their interests to the political action group, Citizens United (Citizens United v. Federal Election Committee, US Supreme Court, 2010).   

Don't Look Up revisits the spirit and insights of prior classic literary works about the weaknesses and failures of human governance structures. Notably,  my list of such works includes the 'gold standard' of dystopian social illness, 1984, (George Orwell, 1949), which brings into sharp focus the complicity of individuals with our institutions-become-'persons' to oppress,  monitor and imprison...ourselves.  

One should also include in such a list of predictive, dystopian books:  Brave New World (Aldous Huxley, 1932),  Keep The Flags Flying (Evelyn Waugh, 1930), and  Little Brother  (Cory Doctorow, 2008). In these works, a central theme is the overriding dismalness of human constructs and our species' atavistic, not-far-from-monkeys-with-hands-stuck-in-the-cookie-jar inability to let go and save themselves when there is money to be made ... even in the face of a soon-to-come tomorrow when money and material goods will be meaningless. (Note actor, Jonah Hill's, masterful rant lamenting the coming loss of luxury condominiums, 'the good "stuff" of society as if this was the most significant loss from extinction - I am liking how he has continuously honed and broadened his acting craft over the years ... in this case a wicked, nearly perfect portrayal of our former president's erratic ramblings.)

Other important and distinctive themes in these works include keen perceptions of society's inequalities, its dis-and-malfunctions, pervasive cynicism, the manipulation of political and especially populism, the vulnerability of humanity to sharp-eyed 'users and manipulators'.   

The result seems to be an American 'normalization' of superficiality... in many areas, we seem to prefer a superficial life of artificiality - of emotions, tastes (ersatz foods), work, etc. More so, is the normalization of societal stress ... on institutions that lose sight of their purposes and on individuals who are so heavily stressed they (we) lose the ability and incentive to protest or even react. (Or, seek artificial means to counteract stress such as opiates, alcohol, and a myriad other palliative means  (open-market or illegal).

My overall reaction to 'Don't Look Up' was the same as one of the movie's messages —  humanity, in the face of truly global dangers, is being badly served by the complicity of Big Media with our other national estates (eg, government, military, politics, ...) to sell and preserve their specific institutional interests rather than protecting the nation's or humanity's well being. 

In this 'New World', global extermination becomes merely another media spin project as if 'extermination' is simply a dictionary entry to be replaced with a nicer sounding synonym ... and as if it all is a fantasy existence whose meaning is how much money one can get and how extravagantly one lives.

"Superficial" is too mild a description of where we were under DT (aka RICO Dedito, aka TFG). Meryl Streep's POTUS is both superficial and evilly so because she knows exactly what, why, how and where-to she is spinning. (Are these the qualities needed to be elected POTUS?)

I didn't laugh watching "Don't Look Up" and I still won't laugh during the twice-more times I plan to watch it. I see its characters - the heroes, the satanic, the naive, the herd, and the corruption, and end-times, all being played out on our stage of reality right now.

[The author - world citizen, educator, technologist, candidate for elected office...santiago-compostela pilgrim.]

MIGHT THERE BE LIFE ON VENUS? PHOSPHORUS GIVES A HINT.

As reported Sept, 2020, scientists have detected Phosphine (PH3) in the atmosphere of Venus. This is significant because it suggests the possibility of life based in part upon a biochemistry that incorporates phosphorus as a byproduct or ‘mainframe’ of at least one life form on Venus.

In solution chemistry the salvation coefficient ‘determines’ the effectiveness of a chemical species to have an effective Dynamic in a specific solvent. And this coefficient is a function of the predominant pressure and temperature. The sigificance for extraterrestrial life forms is that under varying standard conditions (T,P, radiation...) there exists for a range of extraterrestrial environments a correlated range of solvation populations much like various fauna populations in planetary zones. Consequently, there are ‘families’ of chemical species, with similar solvation properties, stability-suited for various extraterrestrial zones. And, as well, there are families of solvents available to match to those zones. Consequently, just as water, H2O - the hydride of Oxygen is the predominant solvent on Earth (and ammonia, NH3, the predominant  atmospheric component... and the building block of our protein and DNA-RNA bio-information transfer systems),  we might expect ‘hydride cousins’ to be favored solvents and basic chemical building blocks on other planets. Thus on Venus, it is not surprising in that very different ‘T,P’ environment, to find the hydride of phosphorus, PH3 (Phosphine), to be a (stable?) ‘Life-marker’. (There also are other families of chemical life-markers, each distinctive to, and thermodynamically appropriate for, a wide range of extraterrestrial environments.) These basic points lead to the wonderful expectation that for nearly every extraterrestrial environment, there could theoretically be a characteristic (and ‘stable’) life-chemistry (‘life’ is a chemical system as far as we know.) With that said, we should expect ‘life’, varying from ‘primitive’ to ‘sentient forms, to exist throughout the universe... but with the proviso that other factors are present to sustain life ... for at least some time. Relative to cosmic time, billions of years, Earth’s life didn’t take long to appear (organized RNA assemblages) but it took several billion years of stop-and-go, near-total-extinctions and dead-end ‘life experiments’ for planetary conditions to ‘stabilize’ long enough, or ‘be influenced by’ eg cosmic ray mutations, for sentience to appear and be sustained. Of course, as we’ve come to realize there is a downside to sentience that human thinkers recognize to be a detriment to our continued existence, I.e., ‘Poised Sentience’, enough to build our own shelters and ‘husband’ our own food supply , not enough sentience to understand when to stop selfish gratification and save ourselves from self-extinction.

Stephen Hawking to Collaborate in Private Funded Search for Extraterrestrial Life

[Pericles21 submitted this piece in response to a request for comment at 'quora.com', July 22, 2015]

First, I feel it is good that Private Money will back the project because I expect Private Money will (potentially?) protect the project from non-scientific interference (belief orthodoxy and political pressures). Second, I feel there isn't a better project principal (designer/partner/adviser) than Stephen Hawking. His overall contributions can be 'earth changing'. should he let loose all his inner genius, i.e., the knowledge and intuition that lies within himself still unformed, unuttered. I hope to see exotic new concepts in astrophysics and astrobiology from Hawking, especially in the development and application of new mathematics formalisms and applications.

However, I am not wholly confident that Hawking personally is free from bias, i.e., I am made less confident of his objectivity by his openly (and frequently) stated warnings against naively reaching out and making contact with superior Aliens whose motives or psychology, in his words, 'might be harmful to humanity'.

(I don't fully share Hawking's apparent paranoia here.)

On the other hand, I hope the project will employ only passive detection methods and instruments, guided (and controlled) by a truly innovative search protocol with new design features for enhanced-performance detection instruments. In this context, I have full faith that Hawking's contribution to the project will be startling for the resulting protocol, improved instrumentation (in components and concept, i.e, #nano-scale-photometry) and results.

I pose the following topics for Mr Hawking to think on and develop or rule out:
- What kind of galaxy might have the greatest stability?
- How close to a central (massive) Black Hole might lie stable sol systems, dwarf galaxies and other space groups and bodies? How plentiful are Rogue Planets and rogue sol systems?
- What form(s) of energy (not currently conceived of on earth) might be used
by an advanced civilization? What might be the 'leakage' factor (radiation to space) for each? Would't an advanced civ develop 'non-leaking' energy?
- What other forms of detectable markers might there be other than energy and atmosphere? What markers miht not be detectable by current methods?
- Wouldn't a developed Alien disguise their civilization's location and state of advancement? How? Still, what markers might be leaked, detected and and deciphered?
- Wouldn't an advanced civ leave markers throughout it's home galaxy? What kind?
- What kind of 'code' might Aliens employ in their signals to 'externals'?
- Can 'entangled' communication be detected/hacked?
- What markers might hint at Alien tinkering with a Black Hole for energy tapping or signal modulation?
- Is it possible to develop (if not already) an advanced algorithm that might generate a matrix of possibilities, based on home planet astro-biological factors, for Alien features - language (yes!), mathematics, behavioral modes, ethics, cross-species prejudice and aggression, physical morphology, technology type...?
- What kinds of statistics might apply to this search? What new statistical tools or uses might be required?
- What kind of 'weaponry' might an Alien have? Personal? 'Battle craft'? Interstellar? Kinetic and/or energy?
- What form of energy intake might an advanced Alien require? Physical food? Abstracted energy (tablets, fluids devoid of origin identification)? Radiation?
- what morphology (or mix) might an Alien have? Physical? 'Gone cyber'?
- What might be Alien psychology types? What might be their significance to human safety?
- Overall, considering what we so far know about the distribution of 'habitable' planets, what radius segments might be best to search? I don't mean to seem uneducated about 'Habitable Zones' but what about non-water based life? Non-liquid based life (solid, gaseous, plasma, other states?)
- What innovative detection instruments might be developed? New wavelengths? New electronics? New modulation detection schemas - i.e., Alien Fourier signals, new algorithmic mixes, innovative exo-math series groupings, etc?
- How far might Alien employment of math series go? 5th or 6th order? 10th or above? What other radiative/dimensional relationships (ala Maxwell-Gauss) might Aliens have?
- How valid might be earth-based manifold theory applied to Alien technology? How might maths for 'extra-earth level' manifolds be formatted, codified and utilized?
- When in advanced tech might an Alien develop extra-Newtonian space propulsion? Beyond plasma? Space warping? Black Hole hopping? What signs might there be of Black Hole manipulation/control for inter-galaxy travel?

These are just some ideas.

NASA's December 2, 2010, Web Conference on Astrobiology - Tantalizing, Wasn't It?

The December 2, 2010, NASA-TV streaming conference was for this blogger a kind of chilling experience in a Christmas morning sense ... but not for the science. I believe today's NASA panel, conducted in a familiar, entertaining, enthusiastic (and fetching) manner, was part of a public education seminar series that is designed to "prep" the general public for Disclosure -a Disclosure that "we" (NASA, global governments, leaders, military police at landing sites, ordinary citizens experiencing encounters, etc) have already experienced contact with ET and most probably that ET has been with us for a long time. This is a personal intuitive sense that the blogger does not equate to belief in, or declaring obeisance to, the popularized web and TV-based sensationalist (some say also "paranoid") voices. This blogger's personal belief is that ET is a real phenomenon and when publically "exposed" will very likely prove to be "mundane" (non-superpowered) in purpose, intelligence and general capabilities.

Scientifically, this blogger heard little news from what physical inorganic and organic chemists, and forward looking biologists and research physicians (and general forward-thinking citizens who are carpenters, plumbers, bookkeepers, etc) haven't already predicted or suspected for decades - the polling indicates that well over 50% of Americans believe in or accept the possibility of ET. Certainly, there have been many less mind-chained technologists, and lay persons, writing science fiction over the last century who have been visualizing life formsw based on non-water and non-phosphorous homologs. Michael Crichton's books are notable examples.

Almost 40 years ago, ths blogger personally developed and taught an advanced course in non-water based chemistry and electrochemistry, with biological implications and applications such as biosensors and replacement of carbon with other, homologous, elements. The most popular near-water model for HOMOLOGOUS chemical systems was even then believed to be based on Arsenic and its close neighbors in the periodic table (e.g., Germanium, Silicon, etc). The point being made is there are a host of elements just as likely as Arsenic to show up in exotic life systems.

So what else sent shivers thru this brain? It was the coincidence-that-is-non-coincidental timing of a clean and simple, public panel being held on this particular subject, exotic life chemistry, at this time of near-critical-mass-point of ufo sightings along with an increasing rate of "disclosures" by military guards, government officials, statesmen, nurses, and just ordinary citizens from all parts of the globe who are now telling, near the end of their time on this orb their stories about past and current ET encounters. These encounters number in the thousands - and even tens of thousands if one also includes alleged events in the abduction arena.(And notice how presentable, entertaining and down-to-earth the panelists conducted themselves while disclosing some striking implications.)

I expect there will be one or two more publically televised "education" events before the "good" news is let out that ET, our bio-chemical brothers, exist. Even the Vatican has moved to anticipate that eventuality with its announcement in 2008 that the good Patria feel it is "OK" for Catholics to believe in ET because they are our "brothers" though perhaps being different in their lack of original sin (a stateement with profound implications and whose exact meaning is still to be explained). But how our new family thinks, spiritualizes, behaves,now it's ethos is structured, etc. is another question. However, one imagines that if ET has revealed themselves, and we are still alive and the globe is not in ashes, then ET is not a threat from the perspective of our programmed, instinctive, naked-ape attack-or-flee reaction base. There might of course be bio-hazard dangers (and we have also heard in the more expansive (speculative?)ufo-ET network about quarantine sites for ET's in various areas of the US and elsewhere (Dulce, New Mexico, etc).

How ET might smell to us, how and what ET eats for energy (certainly not eating us, but think of ET as terrifically strong radishes, hmm), eliminates as waste (our earth's deep ocean, super hot thermal vents have led to the evolution/adaptation, of life to live on a sulfur-based biochemistry where thir waste products are allomorphs of pure sulfur), and what ET drinks are questions whose answers are delightfully up for grabs and yet to be answered. However, these points bring up articles in the speculative UFO web world that have presented alleged personal accounts of ET encounters and "weird" or unsettling smells and "awareness" that evince sometimes severe psychological stress - which are expected reactions from our human biology base.

For instance, Arsenic-based chemistry, though perhaps "operating" along similar (homologous) chemical paths as phosphate systems, most likely leads to metabolic wastes that incorporates Arsenic hydrides which tend to smell strongly of a garlic essence instead of the familiar rotten egg smell of human waste. Or think of Arseno-proteinaceous breakdown sludge instead of human-like coproplytes, or and think of really bad breath, perspiration, etc.

The ufo-ET web network has long reported first hand witness "accounts" (claims?) of the very terrifying effect of just the smell of ET - an immediate recognition by the human brain smell centers that the wafting odors don't fit into our 3-D stereo-configured smell receptacles which are evolved to accept and recognize not only differently shaped molecules but those within specific ranges of elecro-charge-density, etc. (Human sensing organs are very comprehensive and sensitive instrument arrays especially when combined with such our complex, "intuitive" central computing center, the human brain.)

The Nasa panel today, also very nicely explained, in an easily understood show and tell manner, that we humans are not biologically unique. Further, the NASA panelists implied that in the vast, chemically complex universe we should not be surpised to meet "life forms" (at least chemical-based life) that are sentient and perhaps more advanced than us: this technically trained blogger believes Life is a term that deserves deeper analyses than has been done at present and has broader meaning than our usually understood bio-organic definition ... and conceivably might occur as non-physical formats.

I believe, further, that NASA has more cards hidden in their hand but are waiting for the right near-time to show them ... now that the public, through the mainstream media (CNN, MSNBC, Fox, etc) is being educated to wider and higher expectations.