The aliens who arrived need our help in 3000 years?
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horsecoach4hire — 9 years ago(February 08, 2017 10:52 AM)
Humankind can travel through space, kill people with a droplet on a doorknob, create watches to call your house, follow you with a satellite, but cannot cure the common cold or cancer. If we could travel through time to find an alien race that COULD cure cancer, aids and such, wouldn't you do everything you could to make sure you could communicate with them?? To save people?
One thing that is a constant about earth is that it has many resources not available on other planets that we know of currently. What if this alien race needed one of earth's resources that hasn't been found by man yet but will be in 3000 years? This is what theoretical concepts are about. Not all people will accept this concept, but that's the fun bout having theoretical concepts and being a writeryou can create anything you want. I do recommend people read the short storyit's quite good.
I also think writers and film have made the assumption, causing viewers to perceive that alien races are far more intelligent than humans. Sure, they have obvious technology that mankind doesn't, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't need help from us: If anything, I think an alien race would NOT come to man because of our history of violence. An intelligent alien race would see that we kill each other/segregate each other based on differences and not accepting each other, so humans being open to an alien race? Highly doubtfulin fact that was one of the biggest plot holes I saw: the reality is, all those nations would, in part, would be afraid and attack, much like what happened later in the film.
(note that in the short story, there were many more spaceshipsthey condensed it to 12 to make it easier for viewers and likely production's budget
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dividiiiiiium — 9 years ago(February 09, 2017 06:15 AM)
I was thinking the same thing too. Why on earth would they need the help of humanity three thousand years down the line. They'd have be so much more advanced it's crazy to think about.
Maybe if they said 50 or 100 years from now, it might be a bit more believable. -
Gaze73 — 9 years ago(February 09, 2017 02:32 PM)
3k makes more sense because you have no idea how developed humanity can be in 3k years. We may even surpass the heptapods in many ways. And maybe they'll just have a scratch they can't itch because they have no hands.
And don't waste time reading this line, it's just my pointless signature. -
Brendan3 — 9 years ago(February 09, 2017 03:03 PM)
The help could come in any of a number of forms.
But more importantly it is not impossible to believe that, with three thousands of years of scientific and social progress, that we could not be equal to, or even surpass, a culture that is currently far more advanced than ours. -
Neuronhead — 9 years ago(February 11, 2017 10:04 PM)
or even surpass
That's an interesting spin. They could need our help three thousand years in the future we're actually more advanced than them. They are just squids after all.
I choose to believe what I was programmed to believe -
Neuronhead — 9 years ago(February 11, 2017 10:09 PM)
That would make it a parradox.
Not necessarily
http://www.imdb.com/board/12543164/board/nest/265775883?d=265972610#265972610
I choose to believe what I was programmed to believe -
laplante-co-672-297856 — 9 years ago(February 12, 2017 05:40 PM)
No, they saw ONE future of an infinite number the one that they wanted to ensure came to pass.
It's just the same as Back to the Future. Marty goes back in time to 1955 at which point an infinite number of futures are possible. To make sure that the one he came from the one he wants to get back to comes to pass he has to make sure that everything happens in the way that he knows they should.
But, the thing about infinity, is that an infinite number of futures exist which are ALMOST the same but there are subtle differences between them as Marty found out. -
fetzky — 9 years ago(February 10, 2017 02:44 PM)
You have a problem with the premise? How about Ms Banks starting with zilch and three weeks later almost flawlessly communicating with friggin ALIENS, while only a few frames earlier having problems translating from Mandarin.
Oh, and also the film was not ABOUT helping out the aliens in 3000 years, but perhaps if you wait a couple of years Emmerich or Cameron will make a sequel where Will Smith and Arnold go off to fight space lizards. -
Crom86 — 9 years ago(February 10, 2017 04:05 PM)
Think of this analogy for a moment:
You are the millionaire CEO of a company. You have immense amounts of resources available. You walk down the street and a car hits you, leaving you dying on the road. At that moment an underpaid nurse happens to pass by.
In this analogy the nurse possesses first aid training, which you do not, and can help you. So, even though you would perceive the nurse as an insignificant speck compared to your place in the world, she possesses a particular skill that at this point in time that can effectively save you.
The film obviously leaves this open to interpretation but to me it's a similar case like the above scenario. Maybe humanity (the nurse) has "something" that the aliens (CEO) don't, and at one particular point in time (3000 years later) can save them.
If you want a totally different explanation, at some point they mention that, to the aliens, time is non-linear, so the time-frame of "3000 years later" could just be totally insignificant or have a fundamentally different meaning than the one we perceive (just like we mistook "tool" for "weapon"). It's just that to the human mind the relativity of time is a very hard concept to grasp (hence the impossibility of creating a time-travel movie with no contradictions )so we need to assign a measurable value to the term "3000 years".
There are so many ways to go about it. -
orland1995 — 9 years ago(February 12, 2017 07:21 PM)
I was thinking along similar lines, like a trade agreement between nations for specialized skills or resources, but got stomped because of the idea that the aliens can see the future. So even if they need help at some point, they can anticipate far in advance such that they should be able to prep themselves to not be reliant on the help needed? At least those were my thoughts when I asked the question
But maybe even in that scenario, it was still more practical for them to just let the other party help or assist them so they can be more effective at what they do or like to do. Like a Doctor would still need a nurse or assistants for a planned surgery in the future instead of doing it all themselves and the CEO should stick to business and not pursue a medical degree, so your analogy is very applicable.
The other way to look at it - as pointed out by other posts is that with the new tools provided, the human race may have an accelerated knowledge and evolution such that we can be at par with the alien technology or even overtake them in some areas at some point in the future. In which case, the help can be anything under the sun, or under the galactic stars for that matter.
Anyways, I appreciate the response and ideas from people. I really enjoyed the movie personally and reading the posts allowed me to expand my appreciation of the film.
Cheers! -
Sashquash — 9 years ago(February 13, 2017 07:34 AM)
This is a great answer!
Myself i saw it as a metaphor for international cooperation. Empires have made conquest with war or trades, i think the movie try to say that in the long run the peaceful way will benefit both civilisation instead of one winner taking all the benefit after a war. (this is the win-win or non-zero-sum game)
Have a nice day. -
Neuronhead — 9 years ago(February 11, 2017 09:59 PM)
In three thousand years we will also be more advanced than we are now. With the aliens' help in their past, our present, we are directed in such a way that we become that advanced race.
Just because they are advanced, doesn't mean they don't need help. We have no idea what help they require. We probably don't even have the capacity to understand it now. But presumably we will in three thousand years.
I choose to believe what I was programmed to believe -
johncg25 — 9 years ago(February 12, 2017 04:30 AM)
It doesn't matter. Some dumb screenwriter wrote it because their job is to write imaginary junk to sell movie tickets, it doesn't have to make sense, and it doesn't. A screenwriter does not know more about science or time than Einstein. Its just psuedo science drivel written by a guy who is making imaginary stuff up to sell movie tickets. Like war of the worlds in the 1950's when people listened to it on the radio and thought it was realexcept its 2017 with CGI and with "time travel" lol