Visit our website
New America Cypbersecurity Initiative
New America Cypbersecurity Initiative
MIT Technology Review
MIT Technology Review
io9
io9
Techdirt
Techdirt
Knowledge@Wharton
Knowledge@Wharton
Bioscience Technology
Bioscience Technology
redOrbit
redOrbit
Technology & Marketing Law Blog
Technology & Marketing Law Blog
Popular Science Blog
Popular Science Blog
Pew Research Center
Pew Research Center
Genomics Law Report
Genomics Law Report
Science 2.0
Science 2.0
The Guardian Headquarters
The Guardian Headquarters
Genetic Literacy Project
Genetic Literacy Project
Disclaimer

Statements posted on this blog represent the views of individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Center for Law Science & Innovation (which does not take positions on policy issues) or of the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law or Arizona State University.

Arrival: A Review

 

By Brad Allenby (LSI Faculty Fellow)

The cult movie The Matrix (the first in the series; the others were lightweight by comparison) is perhaps best appreciated as an extended soliloquy on Descartes.  Similarly, Arrival can be appreciated as an extended meditation on a blending of Einstein and Nietzsche:  Einstein for his famous remark in a letter to a recently deceased friend’s grieving family (“For we convinced physicists, the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”), and Nitzsche for his doctrine that in the fullness of time, all things reoccur endlessly (“Everything becomes and recurs eternally – escape is impossible!”), and that such a reality can only be embraced by one who is truly the ubermench, the overman, the superior individual of the future.

On top of that, it is a good movie. It is far better than most of the self-indulgent quasi-documentary ruminations on various technologies that seem to be so popular these days, because it is coherent and doesn’t bury normative railings under a false patina of pretended objectivity.  It is also far better than most scifi, because it eschews the violence and simplicity of the space opera genre which remains so popular – and deservedly so . . . a good space opera is a fun piece of escapism which shouldn’t be denigrated unnecessarily.  But Arrival operates on a different level, not unlike a few other recent scifi gems such as Ex Machina: the story flows not around action, but around plot and ideas.  And, like the best in its field, it takes complex ideas and makes them visual, and thus real and accessible.  So, while you won’t learn much about the Internet, you will enjoy a good movie, and might even end up asking yourself: could I, like Louise, embrace Nietzsche’s challenge?

Reviewer’s grade: A-