2001: The aliens that almost were

 

(This is a completely revised and extended english version of an article published in italian in March 2013)

 

 1. Early conceptions

In a film like 2001, a project that started with the explicit purpose of investigating the possibility of extraterrestrial life, it comes as no surprise that Kubrick decided very soon in the production to tackle the problem of how to actually depict the extraterrestrials themselves.

Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke had met for the first time in April 1964: by the last months of that year the director had already set up a team working on hundreds of drawings about possible E.T. shapes - his wife Christiane was on board as well and worked on preparatory drawings - and in late 1965, the young and recently hired collaborator Anthony Frewin joined the team, researching on modern sculptures, paintings of German artist Max Ernst and modern art in general to try different ideas. (Here's a detailed account by Frewin about his appointment to the movie and about Kubrick fondness of Ernst; thirty years later, Ernst's influence resurfaced in a Ian Watson interview about the making of the movie that turned out to be Spielberg's Artificial Intelligence).

2001: The aliens that almost were

There Is a Companion Short to 'Gravity' That Shows a Key Scene the Film Didn't

 
It's probably safe to assume that if you're reading Movies.com, you're the kind of person who has seen Gravity by now. But if not, know that the below contains important spoilers about the film, and its companion short film Aningaaq, which actually shows something Gravity only talked about.
 
You've been warned.
 
One of the most memorable scenes in Alfonso Cuarón's film involves Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) sitting in the Russian Soyuz space capsule, on the verge of failure and oh so close to giving in to her doomed fate in space. She tries to contact Houston using the radio, but she only manages to make contact with someone on Earth who doesn't speak English. The two try to talk to one another, but technology and distance fails them. Instead Stone enjoys the howls of the man's dogs, as well as the sound of his newborn baby crying. It's a wonderful moment; one final, bittersweet dose of human contact before the end.

There Is a Companion Short to 'Gravity' That Shows a Key Scene the Film Didn't 

A number of early episodes of Doctor Who, which were believed to have been permanently lost, have been returned to the BBC.

BBC Worldwide is expected to confirm the find at a press screening in London later this week.

It follows weeks of speculation that some lost episodes had been located.

A total of 106 episodes featuring the first two actors to play the Doctor, William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton, are currently missing.

The BBC destroyed many of the sci-fi drama's original transmission tapes in the 1960s and 1970s.

However, the majority of the episodes had been transferred on to film for foreign broadcasters. It is often these prints found in other countries that are the source of retrieved episodes.

BBC to reveal a number of missing Doctor Who episodes

Harrison Ford in talks for Blade Runner 2!?

Prometheus director Ridley Scott has been playing around with the idea ofBlade Runner 2 for a while now, but the question on all of our minds is still: Will original star Harrison Ford possibly return as Rick Deckard?

Watch this interview with man himself and find out:

New MIT course aims to make science fiction technology into a reality

 
Mad Scientist 101: A New MIT Class Aims To Turn Science Fiction Tech Into The Real Thing

A new class at MIT is devoted to building functional prototypes of technology from classic sci-fi works like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Transmetropolitan, and Flowers for Algernon.
Scientists and engineers, as a whole, love science fiction. At a recent technology conference I went to, a sedate collection of engineers suddenly jumped into animated discussion when one said Star Trek's teleporter would be impossible. Now a new college class is devoted to turning science fiction technology into real-life products.

Read More

Scientists plan test to see if the entire universe is a simulation created by futuristic supercomputers

US scientists are attempting to find out whether all of humanity is currently living a Matrix-style computer simulation being run on supercomputers of the future.

According to researchers at the University of Washington, there are tests that could be done to begin to work out whether we are in fact real, or merely a simulation created by a futuristic android on its lunch break.

Currently, computer simulations are decades away from creating even a primitive working model of the universe. In fact, scientists are able to accurately model only a 100 trillionth of a metre, with work to create a model of a full human being still out of reach.

By looking for underlying patterns, physicists believe that it may be possible to work out if we are existing in a computer created universe, created many years in the future.  Looking at constraints imposed on simulations by limited resources could show signs that we are mere bit-part players in a Matrix-style film plot.
 
It will take many years to reach the computational power to give a real glimpse of whether we are living in a simulation, the scientists contend, but even by looking at the tiny portion of the universe that we can currently accurately model, it may be possible to detect 'signatures' of constraints on physical processes that could point to a simulation.

The researchers suggest that a signature could show up as a limitation in the energy of cosmic rays, for example.  By testing the behaviour of cosmic rays on underlying 'lattice' frameworks governing rules of physics that could exist in future models of the universe, the researchers could find patterns that could point to a simulation.

“This is the first testable signature of such an idea,” one of the researchers, Martin Savage, said.
Aside from the rather mind-boggling proposition that we may be part of a computer simulation, another researcher pointed out that this would bring up the possibility of inter-universe computer platforms, and the potential to communicate across these.

“Then the question is, ‘Can you communicate with those other universes if they are running on the same platform?’” UW graduate student, Zohreh Davoudi, asked.

Read more: http://news.techeye.net/science/scientists-plan-test-to-see-if-the-entire-universe-is-a-simulation-created-by-futuristic-supercomputers#ixzz2F2IBqTf8

Source: http://news.techeye.net