We've gotten to the point in the movie where word of the extraterrestrial signal has gotten out and people are responding to it in all sorts of strange ways. Here are two questions to consider:
1. Consider the diverse ways in which various people (or groups of people) react to news of the signal. What does that say about human nature and the way in which we come to terms with momentous changes? Think also about how many of the responses to the signal that we observe in the New Mexico desert involve communication devices: microphones, headphones, antennas. What's the significance of that?
2. In the meeting with officials Ellie will not even consider the possibility that the aliens' intentions are hostile. At this stage is she justified in her stance? Are there occasions where it is justified and even desirable to take a 'leap of faith' even in the absence of certainty?
The different ways that people reacted to the signal were numerous in amount. Some thought that Hitler had risen again, while some thought Jesus was an alien. Some were just trying to get a signal with antennas and satillite dishes. With everyone acting in different ways that shows that people are all different, but they all want to now what the signal was. Some people were shocked, happy, and scared by this signal and everyone reacted differently towards it. THe scared ones could go run and hide, or the happy ones could go to New Mexico and try to find out what the signal was. Some of the people at there RV's had antennas to try and hear the signal. Or the headphones with the satillite dish on the RV. Microphones were one of the first things that caught the signal. THe signifigance of that is that other people have had to have faith to believe in aliens, just like Ellie. Each one of them that had antennas or something else that was trying to catch the signal had to believe that there really is some other type of life form in this galaxy. Ellie would not consider that the aliens would be hostile. The reason why is, the aliens had time to do things so why not destroy Earth earlier. The aliens also did not have to send a message, but they did any way. Some of the people at the meeting could have believed that it was a warning or a death ray. Instead Ellie thought that they were not hostile, because this was the closest she ever came to discovering aliens.So, she has faith that the aliens are harmless. Yes, there are sometimes that taking a "leap of faith" is ok. Times like that are when it does not mean you or the whole world are in danger. So, if the whole world was in danger then you would have to be certain, but if it is just something that is small then it would be fine. In the end there are sometimes when a "leap of faith" is justified.
ReplyDeleteWhen Ellie is in the car, she sees the man preaching to the others that this is going to ruin religion. some people riot and the others are very happy to know that they are not the only one in the universe. this tells me that the preacher was afraid that by bringing in all of these scientific facts out here, that it will soon destroy the existence of God. others are very exited to hear the news. they all say that we will go live in Vega and such. we use many communication devices so we can hear the signal correctly.
ReplyDeleteEllie has firm belief that the aliens do not intend to harm them and has full trust in that. she needs to take a leap of faith because she does not kno what will happen when making the machine, but she needs to believe and trust in the design.
When they got the sound they sent it to mexico just to make sure that nothing was wrong with their systems or computer. Also she told them to make her a liar so they make sure that this sound wasn't sound rock or matter giving off sounds.When Ellie was in the car she saw all of these crazy people holding etas around to see if they pick up some sounds. That they believed that aliens were our creators. others thought of Jesus as an alien, Hitler was rising back with the alien army. T
ReplyDeleteThe various ways in which the people reacted to the signal shows that humans react to change by trying to make it fit in with what they already know. They try to make the change part of what they consider normal. So for those who were strong believers in Hitler, the news of the signal was seen as him rising to power again, because this was a familiar and well-liked concept among them. The significance of the communication devices is that it showed that other people had faith in Ellie's project as well. They believed that something really is out there and trying to make contact with Earth.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that Ellie was justified in her stance in that stage of the discovery. There wasn't anything to prove that the message was hostile, but there wasn't anything to prove that it was innocent either. In my opinion, it is best to remain cautious in a situation like that. In some situations, however, it is okay to make a leap of faith. Many great discoveries would not have been made if people always took the safe side. Sometimes you just have to risk it all for the sake of finding answers.
People's diverse responses to the announcement are simply examples of how much each human individual differs. It's no secret that everyone is different, but it's much more evident in gatherings of such vast amounts of people. With the differences in personality comes differences in response. Some people may feel thankful that their beliefs have proved not to be as crazy as they may have seemed. Others may believe that the alien contact is not real and side with the ever-popular conspiracy theory. The means of communication merely show that people want to reach out; whether it's to other humans or to the aliens themselves.
ReplyDeleteI believe that she was slightly justified in her response. She's right about how there was absolutely no evidence that the aliens have hostile intentions. However, there was no evidence that they were not hostile. I believe that a 'leap of faith' is never fully justified. As they say, luck favors the prepared; and there was no reason not to take every precaution possible when handling such an unprecedented event.
When the people heard the news about the signal being received, there was an enormously wide range of response to this. While ellie was going diwn the road through the desert in new mexico, the camera Is pointed out of the window to show you all of the people gathered around. Some of them are trying to get proof by using Household satellite dishes, others are Selling Absurd things like UFO insurance, yet others are doing standard things with twists, such as the Choir singing 'Hail to Vega' or Flying in a Hot air balloon with the words 'Vega or Bust' sewn into the fabric. Yet some people despise the fact that there are such things as aliens. There was a Jesus impersonator trying to express the fact that 'The Scientists should not be able to tell who our god is.'
ReplyDeleteWhen the news got out about the aliens, people couldn't believe it. There were groups of people who were protesting, others were praying and others were trying to see if they could help. This shows that most people are close minded. Religious people thought that the alien signal was a stab against God, when in reality, it was just a extraterrestrial signal coming from VEGA. This shows that some people need to think more, especially the people who that that Elvis was still alive. People brought equipment to the desert so they could also hear the signal. They wanted to hear it for themselves to believe it because anyone can make up a alien story. This shows that Ellie was not alone. There were people who believed in aliens; they just weren't out in the open about it like Ellie was.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that Ellie should completely rule out the possibility of the aliens being hostile. Ellie just heard this signal a couple of weeks ago and an old man decoded it, without her knowing. Even though the data is all in math equations, she still doesn't know for a fact that the aliens aren't dangerous, so she should always have the thought in the back of her mind that the aliens are lethal. "Leaps of faith" are justified sometimes but, that is when you know things for a fact. When it comes to things like aliens, you should always worry because no one knows about aliens and no one can tell you straight up if they are safe or not.
This is the same problem that we have with conspiracy theories. Any person, hearing a new and revolutionary fact, will instinctively try to use it to support his own personal beliefs. No matter how absurd the connection is, they will find a way to use them, possibly lokking for more information to make it sound more plauseible. Meanwhile, Ellie is confronted with the possibility that the message may not be benign. She responds with a leap of faith in this respect. The only logical reasons that can be found in this are found by examining the alternative: doing nothing. We do nothing, and the Earth remains alone for at least 52 years. (26 for the Vegans to figure out that something has gone wrong, and 26 for their message to reach us) Ellie realizes how undesirable this is, and chooses faith instead.
ReplyDeleteAfter hearing about the alien signals, the public had very diverse and sometimes silly reactions to what was going on. I think this shows that most people simply cannot deal with changes that are both life changing and sudden. This change caused most of the people to do some irrational things such as, offering UFO abduction insurance and listening for the signal from their satellite dish. This brings me to my next point which is why the people use these listening devices. I believe that they want to do a number of things with these. First, they probably want some kind of reassurance that this is actually happening, rather than just believing the news. Second, they might want to contribute to the project, even though these attempts at hearing the signals are rather useless. And lastly, some of them could possibly be using this as a form of mockery to the scientists. Them listening to their little satellites that obviously can't pick up the signals can be used as a way to tell the scientists "you're wasting your" or "your work is useless".
ReplyDeleteI would say that Ellie is very justified in her stance. Even though there is no evidence to support either side of the argument I think Ellie is right in wanting to build the machine. This is because if there was an alien race this intelligent and with technology thousands of years ahead of us, and they beam down both signals and thousands of coded messages along with a schematic of a machine, I would say that they are pretty peaceful since they would likely have the technology to obliterate the world with the push of a button but chose not to. I think in situations like this the leap of faith should be taken, the risk might be huge but the reward will be much bigger.
These groups of people all had very different views but all came together on this one thing. That says about human nature that we are all different and what we see can be very different from the person next to us that we can all express how we feel about something. For example people were religious or they were Nazis and maybe they were themselves trying to listen in on what we have discovered in the movie. They wanted a piece of the pie they wanted to maybe discover something that had not been previously figured out or they wanted to see it what was told was true.
ReplyDeleteAt this stage she is pretty much justified in her reasoning that they are not hostile. This is true because no one gives you all this information and gives you this much time before you attack. I believe when you are faced with something completely new and unheard of that you need to take a leap of faith because if you do not you could miss the opportunity.
Many different groups of people camp out in the middle of the desert by the satellite that received the signal. They protested against the scientists and made fun of them. Protesters were trying to listen to the signal with their own tv satellite dishes and claiming jesus was an alien. When a momentous change occurs people seem to be irrational and not so understanding just like in the movie. No, Ellie is not justified in her stance that the aliens could bring no harm to Earth. She knows very little about them and they could potentially hostile. However there is also no reason to think that the Vegans will have a war of the worlds takeover. Sometimes in life you have have to take a leap of faith or you will never know what could have been. You can't always be 100% sure of something, and you'll never know unless you take a chance.
ReplyDeletePeople react to the signal in different ways. Some Christians think it is the second coming of Jesus, other Christians, think the signal doesn't have anything to do with God or Jesus or anything that has to do with religion. Other people think the "aliens" are coming to abduct them all, hence the adduction insurance. When monumentous changes and events occour humans jump to conclusions. Such as the whole Jesus is an Alien thing (which is toal crap). Or that we all are going to get abducted by aliens. The meaning of the people trying to listen and communicate with the "aliens", syboliizes that man is always looking for something to listen to, to guide them. Some people believe that is why Christians believe in god (like Ellie).
ReplyDeleteAt that point in the movie Ellie is not correct in her assuptions. But it is neither right to assume that the civilition is hostile either. As of right now they have not shown any signs of peace or, signs of war. As far as they know the "aliens" could be a bunch of teddy bears who just want someone to hold them. Or they could be a war hungery planet who is plotting to destroy the whole human race. In this instance it is manditory to take a leap of faith, because this chance could lead to a great inter- galactic allie.
People gathered to New Mexico and brought antennae and such because all they were really looking for, was for something to guide them. whether it be jesus or aliens everyone was looking for something to believe in. people were greedy and just all wanted a piece of the alien pie, even when everyone doubted Ellie at first. Ellie should not rule out anything because she doesnt know everything and you never know what will happen. People were willing to make a leap of faith because they were hungry for excitment.
ReplyDeleteThe people gathered in New Mexico show that human nature leads us to react in varied ways to significant events, but that our reaction usually says little about the actual impact of the event, and more of our personal beliefs and biases. The communication devices are significant, probably because of their resemblance to the satellite dishes used to receive the "Vegans" signal. As for Ellie's meeting with the officials, her faith in the benevolence of the aliens is somewhat justified, based on her own logic, but is not entirely justified, based on Kitz's logic. In this situation, however, it could be said to be a reasonable decision to take a leap of faith in relation to this mysterious message, due to the fact that there is concrete fact behind this faith.
ReplyDeleteThe crowd gathered in New Mexico represents the Earth precisely. We all have diverse beliefs about religion, and this scene portrays it well. Humans responded in various ways with outrageous claims that they would have never said in less desperate times. In emergencies, even crazy actions are acceptable, like proclaiming Hitler's second coming and abduction insurance. I understand why she thought the aliens would be peaceful ones. If they really wanted to destroy the planet. They could have done so a long time ago. The contact they initiated must be to finally unite the people into the universe.
ReplyDeletePeoples' reactions to the discovery of the alien signal were incredibly diverse. Honestly, in my more callous opinion, it shows that people are nutty. In a less callous explanation, I would say what we already know: people in general are really unable mentally to handle something so huge. They reacted in ways that show the accuracy of our 'Conspiracy Theorists' article-- most tried to attach the Vegan signal to something they knew and recognized. Some did that by denying it outright, others by preaching that Hitler was returning from space to take over the world with his alien army.
ReplyDeleteThe communication devices show, in a macrocosm of a microcosm, how despite how we may choose to cope with these events, we all cling to a desire for further erudition. We all want to fill in the gaps with cold, hard facts, and in that respect, the fanatics with their TV satellites are no different from Ellie herself.
In her meeting with government officials, Ellie is really not technically justified in her open stance, especially according to her normally intensely logical thought process. However, in many circumstances it is entirely worthwhile to take the risk, however great, because the reward may be much, much greater.
The way the people acted towards the news and signals of this device and the sounds was very curious and shocked that there is life on another planet. Some other people did not have such a bright thoughts or looks about it. I feel like now with all the technology we have we really do not care so much and we do not act like it is such a huge deal! But as ellie was in the room with the officials she did not let go od what she wanted.
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