Don't Look Up

[Evangelicalhumanist]

I wasn't going to do it, but this evening, I actually watched the Netflix film "Don't Look Up."

The film follows an astronomy grad student, and her professor making an astounding discovery of a comet orbiting within the solar system, but on a direct collision course with Earth. Ho hum -- except, it seems to be impossible for them to actually make anybody give a damn. Warning humans about a planet-killer the size of Mount Everest is just something nobody seems able to think about -- so of course, they don't think about it.

It's obviously something of a spoof, and I'll provide no spoilers here, but there is something that I want to say about the film -- and that is that I think the writer/director really did capture something about human nature. We have evolved enormous intelligence, compared to all other species on earth, but also something that works directly against that intelligence -- the ability to believe nonsense for reasons that we can't really even articulate, and to disbelieve what is obvious because it doesn't comport with our desires and innate prejudices. This is something that, in my personal view, may well spell the end of human existence in the universe.

Anyway, worth a watch, keeping what I just said in mind.

https://www.netflix.com/watch/81252...bac6e31e69790e41bbdd9,unknown,,,titlesResults

 

[anna.]

It's obviously something of a spoof, and I'll provide no spoilers here, but there is something that I want to say about the film -- and that is that I think the writer/director really did capture something about human nature. We have evolved enormous intelligence, compared to all other species on earth, but also something that works directly against that intelligence -- the ability to believe nonsense for reasons that we can't really even articulate, and to disbelieve what is obvious because it doesn't comport with our desires and innate prejudices. This is something that, in my personal view, may well spell the end of human existence in the universe.

I watched it, and enjoyed its sharp cultural commentary, and yes, it did capture something about human nature, you said it very well. We humans have so many cognitive biases and distortions, none of us are immune - and it seems amazing that on occasion we can manage to push past them.


Cognitive biases

Cognitive distortions

 

[RestlessSoul]

Can’t understand why this film isn’t getting more attention tbh. Well told story, A list cast, and a message we really can’t afford to keep ignoring.

 

[JonSL]

Great movie.


Pope Francis Encyclical and Climate Change
Pope Francis’s encyclical on ecology, Laudato Si, says that climate change is real and mainly “a result of human activity.”

Pope Francis Encyclical and Climate Change | Catholic Climate Covenant

 

[pearl]

I wasn't going to do it, but this evening, I actually watched the Netflix film "Don't Look Up."

I watched it a few nights ago. It can easily be compared with those who refuse to acknowledge climate change as a reality. But I preferred the older movie where the same danger was acted upon, 'Deep Impact'.
As for reality:
It will pass within 1.2 million miles of our planet, moving at 47,344 miles per hour, according to NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies, which tracks potentially hazardous comets and asteroids that could collide with our planet.

Kilometer-wide asteroid to make its closest pass by Earth next week | Latest Headlines | martinsvillebulletin.com