Senior Thesis- Part Two

Like I said in my last journal entry, it looks like my screenplay is heading in the direction of a sci-fi. So far though, I've decided to focus more on the “sci” than on the “fi”. The reason I’m doing this is because I find a lot of Sci-fi movies in recent years choose to create worlds which bear no resemblance to ours, which is ok if you’ve decided you're movie isn’t sci-fi. For example, Star Wars is a film that has nothing at all to do with science. It completely disregards the laws of physics. How you ask? Well, for starters, in the final installment of the series, Return of the Jedi, the film depicts a TIE Fighter craft exploding in outer space. This would be ok, aside from the fact that there are no such thing as a “Ka-boom” in outer space. If something exploded in outer space, it would make no sound. That's because there is no air in outer space to transmit sound.

Sound is a pressure wave which requires matter of some sort to propagate it. Light, on the other hand, is an electromagnetic wave which doesn’t require matter in order to be transmitted.

Why do I know this? Because I started reading books and journals having to do with real science. I figure, if I’m going to write something sci-fi (something that takes place on planet earth, nonetheless) I should have a foundation built in reality and that stems into the fictional world. It should aggravate viewers when they see movies like I Am Legend simply set aside the laws of physics and biology even though they know better. No one is going to think less of a movie that agrees to play by the rules. I am a believer in creative license, but only to a certain extent. It should come with some rules depending on the genre. I care because I find it insulting to the viewer's intelligence.

On that note, since I cant really take part in any field work for my senior exploration, I've chosen to take it upon myself to add a few more books to my reading list. So I paid a visit to the school library and picked up a book called The Living Cosmos, by astrobiologist Chris Impey. His book doesn’t bother with the super natural at all. In fact, it steers clear from it. Instead, he chronicles the complete history of life in the universe, from the first microbes (which predate all other living things), all the way to the first humans. Luckily for me, he doesn’t assume his reader has a degree in biochemistry. He talks a lot about the elements required to build cells, and the likelihood that other planets out there host life.

The most important thing for me is that, he also has an entire chapter discussing the creation of artificial life. He states that we cant yet create life in a Petri dish by simply adding all the necessary elements. We can, however, take life that already exists and multiply it. Funny enough, he also mentions one of the other books I read for my senior exploration, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? By Philip K. Dick. He also mentions author Isaac Asimov, and asks, “Does life really need carbon or water? Could we have all of the functional processes of biology without organic chemistry?” He goes on to talk about potentially having computer algorithms replace the functions of DNA, and if androids could ever qualify as life. He says that in order for a robot to qualify as “living”, it would need to be self aware. It would need a conscious, which is exactly the point I make in my screen play.

He also talks about the likelihood of existing life on Mars, and its ability to host life, but he only covers it from an organic stand point. I am looking to combine the two and ask if Mars can host artificial life.

The Living Cosmos By Chris Impey

Movie Science:
http://www.intuitor.com/moviephysics/