Survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 from the popular television show Lost are thrown by a hydrogen bomb explosion into a multiverse where history has been altered to make it seem as if they never crashed on the island. Travelers stepping on the “Einstein-Rosen-Podolsky Bridge,” in all five seasons of the television show Sliders, enter through a vortex, or wormhole, and into a multiverse. Crewmembers of the Federation Starship Enterprise from Star Trek, in an episode entitled “Mirror, Mirror," are swapped with their evil counterparts due to a transporter mishap, and as a result, also enter a multiverse. These three instances illustrate how the multiverse has now become commonplace in science fiction allowing us to consider what is beyond observable reality. The multiverse is used not only in television shows, but also in films like The Wizard of Oz, Back to the Future, and Donnie Darko. It’s employed beyond the screen while remaining integral to science fiction literature that can range from The Epic of Gilgamesh, Brazen Head (1955), and even in DC and Marvel Comics. More than a widespread cultural phenomenon, the multiverse stretches “the fabric of reality” (Deutsch, 1997) through scientific discourses of and about observable reality.
Philosopher and psychologist William James, it is often claimed, first defined the science (fiction) multiverse in 1895 when he said, “Visible nature is all plasticity and indifference, a multiverse, as one might call it, and not a universe” (10). My presentation makes two contributions to his claim, and, for that matter, all later uses of the multiverse in science and science fiction by contending that the multiverse is a much older Sophistic device. I call this the “rhetorical metaverse,” claiming tha...
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...ribe observable reality where science fiction merely describes different realities, but I argue that both are in fact rhetorical metaverses since neither can completely nor accurately describe our observable universe. As a result, the numerous artistic representations creating rhetorical metaverses (i.e. alternative realities, or parallel universes) reciprocally interact with scientific theories. While the multiverse may be traced back to Ancient Greece, or even further back beyond the 5th century, new technologies merely dress this “old trick” in new (predominantly visual) rhetorics that create cinematic representations, like Avatar, or that more generally create embodied psychosocial experiences. I close by claiming that the tension between science and science fiction can be framed in this way in order to address how we separate the multiverse from the universe.
Literature and film have always held a strange relationship with the idea of technological progress. On one hand, with the advent of the printing press and the refinements of motion picture technology that are continuing to this day, both literature and film owe a great deal of their success to the technological advancements that bring them to widespread audiences. Yet certain films and works of literature have also never shied away from portraying the dangers that a lust for such progress can bring with it. The modern output of science-fiction novels and films found its genesis in speculative ponderings on the effect such progress could hold for the every day population, and just as often as not those speculations were damning. Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein and Fritz Lang's silent film Metropolis are two such works that hold great importance in the overall canon of science-fiction in that they are both seen as the first of their kind. It is often said that Mary Shelley, with her authorship of Frankenstein, gave birth to the science-fiction novel, breathing it into life as Frankenstein does his monster, and Lang's Metropolis is certainly a candidate for the first genuine science-fiction film (though a case can be made for Georges Méliès' 1902 film Le Voyage Dans la Lune, his film was barely fifteen minutes long whereas Lang's film, with its near three-hour original length and its blending of both ideas and stunning visuals, is much closer to what we now consider a modern science-fiction film). Yet though both works are separated by the medium with which they're presented, not to mention a period of over two-hundred years between their respective releases, they present a shared warning about the dangers that man's need fo...
There is a fundamental dilemma that, presumably, each person faces as they begin to develop an understanding of their existence and identity which is something like, "What am I? Who am I? Where am I?" These questions are almost identical because they each address the same essential metaphysical issue of identity, "How and why Am I; why do I exist; what am I? What is the origin of I? Where am I going?" The answers to these difficult questions, whether intellectually satisfying or not, come in the form of cosmologies. Cosmologies create systems with which we understand the existence of the phenomenal world, and our own existence within it. They offer us a map, a concept, of our existence, tell us why we are here, where we are, and most often, where we are going. Of course, the most pervasive cosmologies are directly linked with particular religions, for religions are based upon the same issues: identity, origin, purpose, structure. However, this is not the domain of inquiry that I wish to pursue here, rather, I am interested in how the genre of Science Fiction creates, or recreates, cosmologies with which we might understand the universe and our individual meaning within it. How does SF create linguistic models of the cosmos, and what are the underpinnings of those cosmologies? If cosmological representations are created so that we can understand reality, in some sense, how is it done, and what questions do these cosmologies pose for the disciples thereof? I will look at two works in particular for this inquiry, Italo Calvino's short story cycle, Cosmicomics, and Pamela Zoline's short story, "The Heat Death of the Universe." I have chosen to focus my in...
Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History by historian David Christian explores a “modern creation myth” (2). Christian takes his readers from the big bang to modern day in a technical and historical narrative. He believes that big history is a new, yet important, area of history ignored by historians. Christian tells us big history is “a coherent story about the past on many different scales, beginning, literally, with the origins of the universe and ending in the present day” (2). The strength in Christian’s argument is in that he carefully takes his readers through each stage in history, much like a textbook, using charts, graphs, pictures, and the language for each area, like astronomy or biology. However, Christian’s goal is not complete. Christian, at multiple points, tells his readers there are many more details and theories that surround any one of his given subjects. Although his book is a great overall coverage for a topic as large as big history, his readers may wonder if such the idea of big history is a good one.
Everything is larger than life; not real but hyperreal, leading us into the imaginary worlds of
...tives through questioning of absolute truths such as established fact (science) and faith, intertextuality through a mass of references, manipulation of time through a non-linear narrative and generic hybridity through the show’s complex layers.
Hawking, Stephen. “Our Picture of the Universe.” Fields of Reading. 6th ed. Ed. Nancy R. Comely et al. New York: St. Martin’s, 2001. (565-574)
With our world progressing so quickly in science and technology it is fascinating to look back at the literature that was the inspiration for these advances. It is strange that this genre, filled with such outlandish plot lines and characters, could influence the real world. In a way it’s beautiful. When these brilliant minds of mankind are able to grab an idea from the fictional world and work together to make it a reality. For hundreds of years, people have dreamed of what they thought to be impossible but to quote Star Trek, “Things are only impossible until their not.”
Cobb, Kurt. "The Singularity: The Fantasy and Its Effect." Resource Insights. Blogspot, 4 Dec. 2008. Web. 6 Dec. 2011.
Part I: The Edge of Knowledge Chapter 1: Tied Up with Strings This is the introductory section, where the author, Brian Greene, examines the fundamentals of what is currently proven to be true by experimentation in the realm of modern physics. Green goes on to talk more about "The Basic Idea" of string theory. He describes how physicists are aspiring to reach the Theory of Everything, or T.O.E. Some suspect when string theory is completely understood that it might turn out to become the T.O.E.Part II: The Dilemma of Space, Time, and Quanta Chapter 2: Space, Time, and the Eye of the Beholder In the chapter, Greene describes how Albert Einstein solved the paradox about light. In the mid-1800's James Maxwell succeeded in showing that light was actually an electromagnetic wave.
To begin with, scientists should continue to research the multiverse because it is backed up by many scientific theories. With this in mind, “a scientific theory is a coherent group of propositions formulated to explain a group of facts or phenomena in the natural world and repeatedly confirmed through experiment or observation” (Dictionary). Even though the multiverse is not actually a theory because it certainly is not falsifiable, the concept of the multiverse is made up of many scientific theories that can be tested. There are two theories about the multiverse that make me ponder the whole idea of the multiverse, with the first one being the concept of inflation. The theory of inflation states that there was exponential expansion in the early stages of the universe. This theory manages to explain what happened with the big bang. With this growth of the universe, there could be as a result, “other regions in the universe that did the same thing and are forever beyond our horizon” (Phillips). The universes that could have been formed during this expansion, are
An underlying theme present throughout the series is the possibility that our existence is not the only one. According to current theories in physics, it is entirely possible that our universe is just one of many universes f...
In 2002, Brent Staples communicated with Jean Baudrillard about the use of his philosophy in The Matrix (1999), a film written and directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski. Staples wrote, “He [Baudrillard] noted that the film’s “borrowings” from his work “stemmed mostly from misunderstandings” and suggested that no movie could ever do justice to the themes of this book”. In this paper, I will argue that the Wachowski Brothers did not want to “do justice to the themes of this book”; they wanted to adapt Baudrillard’s theories about the blurring of the real and unreal, and the eventual extermination of the real, into a story that provides hope for humans wanting to escape the suffocation of the “hyperreal”. The “hyperreal” was first coined by Baudrillard in his book, Simulacra and Simulations (1983); it is the product of the distortions of the real through endless simulations of it in radio, newspaper, television, and film.
Science fiction is a genre, which depicts what life would be like in a world with major scientific and technological developments. When it comes to science fiction, the exploration of future technology is a major element. Many stories and films focus on space, robots, aliens, a mad scientist, and/or artificial intelligence. “The universal themes found in science fiction—themes of freedom and responsibility, power, love, individuality and community, good versus evil, technology run amok, and more—present ample opportunity to explore complex issues and compelling controversies at length and in depth in ways that not only engage the intellect, but involve the emotions and expand the imagination.” The story “Flowers for Algernon,” by Daniel Keyes, is an example of science fiction that examines the impact of artificial intelligence. “The End of the Whole Mess,” by Steven King, is an example of science fiction that focuses on the fall of a mad scientist. The film “Gravity” is an example of a science fiction movie that explores the use of major technological advancement within space. In this paper I will assess the major themes portrayed in “Flowers for Algernon,“ “The End of the Whole Mess,” and the film, “Gravity.” Additionally, I will examine how these models of science fiction teach a major lesson about the imperfections of future scientific and technological advancements on society.
The Web. The Web. 9 May 2012 Hogsette, David S. "Metaphysical Intersections In Frankenstein: Mary Shelley's Theistic Investigation Of Scientific Materialism And Transgressive Autonomy." Christianity And Literature 60.4 (2011): 531-560. MLA International Bibliography.
Impey, Chris. How It Began: A Time-traveler's Guide to the Universe. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. 123+. Print.