The Day the Earth Stood Still

[sbrothy]

The Andromeda Strain, although a little silly (I think the proper term is "zeerusted") is still one of my favorites.

EDIT:
Just noticed that Daniel H. Wilson ( The author of Robopocalypse) wrote a sequel 50 years after the original. I'm a big fan of Daniel H. Wilson so I'm for sure gonna give that one a try.

 

[Hornbein]

When I was maybe ten I saw on television a movie about enormous ants taking over the world. Scared the hell out of me. It might have been called Them.

 

[pinball1970]

When I was maybe ten I saw on television a movie about enormous ants taking over the world. Scared the hell out of me. It might have been called Them.

Yeah. Scared me too. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Them!

 

[difalcojr]

Big bugs are pretty scary, glad I missed that one.
Just read "Farewell to the Master" by Harry Bates. As good as the movie, different, probably better, great ending. I had Klaatu and Gnut mixed up.
Also, read Jerome Bixby's "It's a Good Life." Scariest short story I've ever read!

 

[PeroK]

When I was maybe ten I saw on television a movie about enormous ants taking over the world. Scared the hell out of me. It might have been called Them.

That might have been the first sci-fi film I ever saw.

"How did he die, doc?"

"Any one of five ways. His skull was fractured, his chest was crushed, his neck and back were broken, and he had enough formic acid in him to kill 20 men!"

 

[pinball1970]

The remake of the original was pretty good too (The day the Earth stood still) John Cleese was the main scientist!

 

[Algr]

The remake of the original was pretty good too (The day the Earth stood still) John Cleese was the main scientist!

I had an odd discussion about this film in another forum. I observed that what the alien does at the end of the film would have killed most of humanity by making food production and distribution impossible. In other words, the writers didn't understand the consequences of the alien's "kindness". . Another member replied that he thought that this proved that all real-world environmentalism was bunk. I tried to explain to him that climate scientists and film writers are not the same people, and he just wasn't buying it.
----
The blackboard scene with John Cleese was awesome though.

 

[DaveC426913]

The Andromeda Strain, although a little silly (I think the proper term is "zeerusted") is still one of my favorites.

Never heard the term zeerusted before. Is it synonymous with retro-futuristic? Or are they similar-yet-distinct?

Sounds like retro-future is intentionally-dated (like Brazil) - or at least self-aware - whereas zeerust is unintentionally dated.

 

[DaveC426913]

would have killed most of humanity by making food production and distribution impossible. In other words, the writers didn't understand the consequences of the alien's "kindness". .

Depending on how specific the term 'electronics', we* managed up until the middle of the 20th century. Even if a broad term, we** managed up until the middle of the 19th century.

*~2.5 billion of us
**~1.2 billion of us

They did say there would be a "cost"; and it would take a while to reach a new equilibrium.

It's a matter of the rate of die-off from starvation versus not having to completely re-invent the agricultural and distributional wheel. (As just one example, we still have the vast network of roads covering every square kilometre, and sea routes, including Panama and Suez Canals.)

 

[Algr]

When the population of Earth was 1.2 billion, probably more then 1 billion of them had practical real world experience in farming without electricity, electric water pumps, or chemical fertilizers. A similar number of people knew how to manage and care for horses, and had access to them.

Communication back then was based on an efficiently designed mail system that had evolved with centuries of experience. If you delivered mail, you understood horses and wagons well. In the alien's blackout, it would take years for some places to learn why the lights had gone out, and who, if anyone, was still president.

The roads would work for walking and bicycles, but canals would need electricity to open and close their gates, and to coordinate. And all of them would be clogged with beached and unpowerable ships, aka Evergiven.

And of course within days, the cities would all be on fire from everyone lighting candles and trying to heat skyscrapers with improvised wood burning stoves. (Since the flashlights, emergency lighting and radios don't work, this is much worse than a blackout.)

And of course, everything above assumes that everyone is acting rationally to solve the problems and re-establish a new working economy. As opposed to Mad Max larping, which is what more people think they know how to do.

Humanity would survive, but the die off would be apocalyptic, with perhaps 100 million people left alive before things stabilize and the population begins to recover. That population would be quite unequally distributed, with the least developed cultures fairing best.

 

[sbrothy]

Never heard the term zeerusted before. Is it synonymous with retro-futuristic? Or are they similar-yet-distinct?

Sounds like retro-future is intentionally-dated (like Brazil) - or at least self-aware - whereas zeerust is unintentionally dated.

Retro-futuristic is very apt. And yes, unintentionally.

TV-tropes on "zeerust".

 

[DaveC426913]

TV-tropes on "zeerust".

Thanks. (he said facetiously).

TV Tropes is my Achilles Heel.
So there's two hours I wasn't doing anything useful...

 

[sbrothy]

Thanks. (he said facetiously).

TV Tropes is my Achilles Heel.
So there's two hours I wasn't doing anything useful...

yeh. A tvtropes walk can be more insidious than a wiki ditto, but the time spent is much the same. :)

 

[sbrothy]

Playing Scrabble you'd know that the most frequent letters are A, I, N, T.

Thus, good starting points are words like SAINT, AUDIO, AUREI etc....

Exclude as many vowels as possible for staters.

 

[difalcojr]

So, in the original 1940 Harry Bates short story, the robot was the same height as in the movie, but in an exact anatomical shape of a human being, muscular. Made of the same green metal as the spaceship. Impenetrable.

Is this a physics/metallurgy/materials sci. question of what would be the color of a theoretical, impenetrable solid such as an alien robot and spaceship?

Or would such a metal have a distinctive color at all? Is this theoretically known?

Or is this just very good science fiction writing?

 

[DaveC426913]

Is this a physics/metallurgy/materials sci. question of what would be the color of a theoretical, impenetrable solid such as an alien robot and spaceship?

It's ... made of handwavium. It will be whatever colour the art director thinks will look right.

Or would such a metal have a distinctive color at all? Is this theoretically known?

No. The makeup of robot and spaceship is straight up fantasy.

Or is this just very good science fiction writing?

It's not good or bad. It's a trope that some parts of a science fiction story are straight up 'things humankind was not meant to know'. Also known as 'not important to the plot'.

What the SFX artist was using to portray the alienness of the objects was the material's smooth, curved seamlessness. Something difficult to achieve in armour in the 50s.


There is no way to predict or even guess what such a material might actually look like.

 

[difalcojr]

Well, I thought there may be a little more known to it than that.

Tektites are thought to be from outer space, and they are green.

When I worked in a tungsten mine, one area had the scheelite ore in a green skarn. The rock was so hard that the miners were dulling the carbide bits on their drill steel very quickly. They were always upset they couldn't make any advance in the drift to get any extra bonus pay. Tungsten is a very hard metal and has a very high heat capacity. When a UV light is put on a pile of scheelite at about 1-2% ore grade, it fluoresces bright yellow. Looks like a big pile of gold! Otherwise, it is clear, colorless.

 

[Algr]

Is this a physics/metallurgy/materials sci. question of what would be the color of a theoretical, impenetrable solid such as an alien robot and spaceship?

If the metal is impenetrable, then photons would all bounce off of it. So it would be white, or silvered like a mirror. I have a degree in handwavium!

 

[difalcojr]

Evidently.
So, now I should have to ask the Mentor of this forum this question? Because this is a SF and Media Fantasy forum in an otherwise, non-fictional PF setting, are the laws of physics to be discussed herein, are they limited to real or conjectured physics, or can they be also fictional physics like in the movies and books that they are part of?