On a collison course?

3 Body Problem (Miniseries; Season 1, 8 episodes )

Adapted from the Hugo Award-winning novel by Liu Cixin

There is an episode in the original Twilight Zone series titled "Where is Everybody?" in which a person wanders around a township with no soul in sight. Enveloped in 'The Great Silence,' he runs around like a headless chicken, looking for any sign of life. That must surely be a veiled reference to Fermi's paradox. With so much wasted space around us and after so many years of searching, why can't we contact any lifeform elsewhere in this widespread Universe? With time, the possibility of the presence of more and more solar systems is being suggested. Surely, someone somewhere must have picked up our radio signals by now. What if they are advanced enough to pick up gestures of friendship. Or maybe they have already made visitations before if one believes the ideas mooted by Erich von Däniken about ancient aliens.

Conversely, if a civilisation is indeed more advanced than us, wouldn't it want to dominate us? Come to think of it, our announcement to the Universe may be counterproductive as it may put us at risk of being run over.

This is exactly what happens in this story. An alien race, the San-Tis, from a distant planet, Trisolaris, in Alpha Centauri, four light years away, are looking for an alternative home. Their planet is unstable, and they are looking for an alternative home. A signal from a Chinese scientist comes in. The Trisolarians grab this opportunity. They send advanced minuscule computer programmes called 'siphons' to Earth through accelerated methods (breaking light barriers) to retard science on Earth while San-Tis conquer our planet. Reaching Earth takes over 400 years because they have not breached the light-speed barrier. 

Meanwhile, scientists are committing suicide as science results are going haywire (Science, as they knew, is dead). The gist of the story is trying to save Earth from the inevitable space invasion. In the midst of all that, there is death, murder, love, deceit and friendship.

I do not claim to fully understand the science behind the story. It skips me why the scientists decided to commit suicide, as scientists are generally resilient and have the in-built capacity to resist adversity. 

I understand that the 'three-body problem' is a physics/ mechanics conundrum. Predicting the path of two bodies with gravitational pulls towards each other can be done by looking at their trajectory, pulling forces, and a pre-determined point of reference. In a three-body model, the path looks chaotic and appears like they may collide at any time. It is more difficult for scientists to foresee. This is the exact problem San-Tis has. Their three suns (hence the name Trisolaris name for the planet) cross paths, leading to destructive outcomes. There was the need to colonise.

The series is mired with controversy even before its release. Its producer, who helped to bring it to Netflix, died of poisoning in a business dispute. The Chinese Government is not pleased with its altered storyline, choice of casting and the adverse depiction of China. Under the guise of diversity, the Chinese are cast as villains, and the White man comes to the rescue.

(P.S. The novel is the first of a trilogy. Dark Forest and Death End will follow, as this sci-fi has geeks talking.)

(P.P.S. Food for thought: Are our efforts to send probes and time-capsules counterproductive? Like how flaunting our boarding passes online will expose our personal data to prowling eyes and unsavoury characters, will it attract space imperialists?)

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Overstretched assumption?

Ancient Apocalypse (2022)

Netflix, Documentary series

Graham Hancock is an old hand at this. A veteran journalist prolific at this topic, he has earned himself the dubious reputation of being a pseudo-historian and pseudo-archaeologist. Many of his previous books have dabbled with the same issue. His premise is this: Even before mainstream history dated humans to be hunter-gatherers around the end of the Ice Age 11,600 years ago, Hancock's research posits that a far more advanced civilisation existed during this wave of hunter-gatherers. 

The ruins he so skilfully shows in this series of documentaries depict the advanced skill of architectural marvel and skill that those people exhibited. 

If Erich von Däniken had earlier suggested an ancient alien race to have assisted human civilisation, here Hancock does not invoke ancient intelligence. He instead suggests that we had already developed all these advanced levels of knowledge in building and astronomy but lost most of it to the rise in sea levels due to the melting of glaciers at the end of the Ice Age. Many land bridges disappeared. Sunda, which engulfed all of Indonesia from Borneo to the Malayan peninsula, was separated by rising seas. He explores ruins in Gunung Padang to reveal a possible civilisation lost to a cataclysm. 

Like that, many ancient mammoth structures around Malta went underwater. So did building around Central America. Then there is Öbekil Tepe, ruins in Turkey dated to be 12,000 years old, before the end of the Ice Age.

Graham Hancock

Exploring the folk tales that have emanated around the foregoing areas reveals one thing that is common: People in that area were visited by somebody in a serpentine-looking boat to teach the locals about farming, building, science, and technology. 

Hancock explains the purpose of building many of these mammoth structures. Astrological references are of paramount importance in the layout of these buildings. There may even be animal drawings which could refer to constellations. Could our ancients be so advanced as the developers of the fabled Atlantis?

Many of the proposals here are considered too preposterous by mainstream historians. His association with Joe Rogan and other conspiracy theorists only lends little credence to his scholarship. 

Generally, archaeologists and historians admit loopholes in their understanding and explanations of the complex ancient buildings. But to attribute all these to an advanced intelligence before the end of the Ice Age is an overstretch. 

The archaeological fraternity does not see any scientific correlation to support Hancock's theory. 

Whatever is said and done, this documentary is made with brilliant cinematography using drones and a production team spanning continents. Many local historians and archaeologists were interviewed to drive home his point of view. The good thing about this show is that it makes its viewers take a step back and ponder whether we know everything about our history and world. 

Now, the exciting thing is that Hancock is saying that the whole world was civilised to a single advanced civilisation. It seems humans did not have the intelligence to discover things for themselves. The human race seems amnesiac about its past. There needs to be more depth in our knowledge about our world. What happened during Younger Dryas, the later part of the Ice Age, before Earth became warmer?

Knowing that bringing up India's past is like opening a Pandora's Box, he conveniently avoided mentioning India in his discussion. He may be suggesting that the Mesopotamians and the fire-worshipping Zoroastrians were the first civilisation in the world. 

Some in the media call for this series to be axed and view it as dangerous for public viewing. They insist that the show is a freak show that reinforces the rhetorics of conspiracy theorists. They call for research not to be funded by public funding.

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A twisted tale of cops and bandits!

Churuli (2021)
Director: Lijo Jose Pellissery

When it came to my attention that the Kerala High Court agreed that the language used in this movie is 'atrocious in nature' after a portion of the film was played in the court following a writ petition, I was excited. In my mind, any publicity is good publicity. After plucking the movie out of cyberspace and watching it, I was hooked. I was eager to find out where the film was heading.

Amidst the beautiful green lush of tropical Kerala countryside, two undercover cops infiltrate into a remote village to apprehend a hardened criminal. The problem is that neither of them had a clue how he looked like, but they were determined to find out anyway by mingling with the villagers.

The towering trees, the rugged terrain and the imposingly dense forest with the eerie background sounds of Nature set a perfect backdrop for a suspenseful thriller with hints of extraterrestrial visitation.

The undercover cops, Anthony and Shajivan, soon discover that the timid villagers who share the transportation suddenly turn abusive after a certain village perimeter. This is the beginning of more surprises and suspense to come. The cops end up becoming helpers at an arrack shop which morphs into a church on Christmas! Many things happen around them, but they cannot finger them. There are many bizarre characters around them, the hut which houses giant machinery with tiny gear-like contraptions ticking away inside, the firefly-like flashes of light that appear every day now and then, and many more.

At the end of the day, this story is based on old folklore. A monk once entered a forest to fight a demon. After looking high and low, he found no monster, only a coiled-up anteater. The monk placed the anteater on his head and continued his journey. He sensed he had got lost in the woods. He asked the anteater for directions. With this 'assistance', the priest got more and more misplaced into the jungle. Nobody knows the outcome of the search. The moral of the story is to highlight the importance of choosing the right partner in any endeavour. A wrong one will lead one astray.

By the end of the film, it is anybody's guess who the villain is and what the story is all about? Are the character caught in a time loop where events happen again and again in indefinite loops? Are the characters subject to alien experimentation? Is there some kind of energy that brings out only the evil part of people? These are precisely the uncertainties that make this film enjoyable!

(P.S. Is the use of profanity necessary? Yes. This lingo is used in the real world, away from civilisation and the rule of law, where hardened criminals rule. Civility only manifests when life is at peace and certain.)

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