About blackhole3/16/2023 ![]() ![]() “I am the director of sciences there-I started the science studios there-and we have a lot of live events, or we used to, pre-pandemic. And maybe we could have a novel about mathematicians’? So I feel very fortunate to have those collaborators.” Otherwise I don’t think I’d get anything published, if commercial appeal was-I mean, do people really think, ‘Oh, I’d love a book on whether the universe is infinite or finite. I find that they really believe in the book as the book should be, and they don’t buckle to that kind of psychology, mercifully. “Everyone was really excited about the concept of this sweet little book, and I think once it arrived, we were all delighted with how tiny it is. And check out some highlights from the discussion below. Listen to the complete interview with Janna Levin in Episode 442 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (above). “If you knew you had a year to live, but wanted to see your grandchildren born, you could go on this epic journey, so that your children have time to grow up, have their children, and you get to see your grandchildren born,” Levin says. Due to time dilation, those messages could reveal the entire sweep of future history. A person who flew into a supermassive black hole could survive for as a long as a year, and would still be able to receive messages from outside. ![]() It would be very, very hard to get a lot of power out of it.”Īnother possible use for black holes would be to see beyond your lifespan. Maybe we’d have to make it out of the moon, or a giant Earth-sized magnet. “I think I concluded we would have to use all the resources in the solar system, essentially. “I once tried to imagine what it would take for a black hole battery to power New York City,” Levin says. You could float right across, and not really realize anything was happening, because there’s nothing there.”ĭespite their fearsome reputation, black holes can be safely manipulated with gravity and magnetism, and it might even be possible to draw power from them, though doing so won’t be practical any time soon. “And if you crossed the event horizon, it would be completely undramatic. “If you were in empty space with complete darkness, and you were right outside a black hole, you wouldn’t know it was there,” she says. But Levin says the reality is much different, and that you might fall into a black hole without even realizing it. ![]() Not a classic, but not that vacuous.A century of sci-fi shows have conditioned us to think of black holes as whirlpools in space, violent maelstroms that reach across the void to suck in passing starships. ![]() What are the limits to which mankind can play God? Are the mysteries of the universe for Man to explore? Do black holes lead to anything? We are left to draw our own conclusions, but at least the ending here allows us to think seriously about what really is out there. Is it worth watching? In that respect, I think so. But in the end, you see a movie like "The Black Hole" for the story itself. In the acting sense, at least, this movie matches "2001". A shame, since actors like Forster, Mimieux, Schell, Perkins and even Roddy McDowell (in voice only) have all done good deeds on film prior and since. Each actor supplies their own black hole empty, dark voids where there once was talent but now serve only to suck away all the life and energy surrounding it. But if the FX are exemplary, the flesh and blood on display are not. The ships all fly as they should, you can BARELY see the robots flying about on their strings and the wonder and mystery of what a black hole really is (physically as well as metaphorically) are explored satisfactorily. From a technical standpoint, the movie is impressive (moreso when you consider that Harrison and Peter Ellenshaw, virtuosos in matte paintings, did the background FX work). Now, let me tell you the truth about "The Black Hole". At the time, it was being hailed by everyone whom had not seen it as a return to cerebral, thought-provoking space opera, with the same kind of reverberations as "2001". Even I could see that (being 14 at the time). Back in 1979, when this first came out, this could be seen coming down Main Street as a "Star Wars" cash-in. ![]()
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