Monday, 23 March 2015

energy - Physics errors in the movie "Arrival"


After seeing the movie Arrival, though I enjoyed it, I nevertheless kept feeling that there were some serious violations of physics occurring. However, I'm not sure what the precise problems are (I am not a physicist).


Question: what, if any, are the physical laws broken in Arrival ?


Spoiler alert



In particular, I felt that the main character's seeming ability to not only see into the future, but also influence it, must have violated laws regarding the light-speed limit on information transfer.



But, maybe more importantly, doesn't it violate some kind of energy conservation? i.e. the movement of information and other influences over vast spans of spacetime, seemingly instantaneously, powered by...




her brain(?). Perhaps the movie implied that she was simply "remembering" the future, not influencing it, but I suppose that's a violation of relativity (future events influencing the past). And makes her future actions look inane.



Incidentally, I think that issues relating to the alien's technology are valid, but perhaps easier to explain away by e.g. "sufficiently advanced technology being indistinguishable from magic" arguments.


Also, I am aware that there are some media articles on this, but I do not find them to be very scientific (I always appreciate equations accompanying words).




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