The Orion's Arm Universe Project Forums





Annihilation
#9
(03-16-2018, 01:47 PM)JohnnyYesterday Wrote: Maybe. I still don't buy it; if physics was different enough that nothing worked, then people wouldn't work either. The Shimmer would be nearly instantly fatal. At the very least a mechanical telegraph (Spectra fishing line that is tugged in pulses) would work. Kilometers of fishing line would be fairly easy to carry. 

Exactly! The cosmic horror nature of the film is that none of it makes any sort of sense. None of the biology is possible, it's completely nonsensical that every organism in the environment would start swapping DNA strands and they'd not only still function but their phenotype would stability blend macroscopic traits. And that's what is so frightening about the Shimmer. It makes no sense yet it's all there right before their eyes. The intention of the film/book is to invoke that sense of horror that comes from humans being totally out of their depth with no ability to understand what is going on. The filmakers clearly thought about it because when the husband (or his clone) comes out of the Shimmer his body starts failing, massive internal bleeding and multiple organ failure. Which is exactly what you'd expect if you could somehow take a person and randomly cut and edit the DNA of each tissue with samples from other organisms.

I expect that if you tried to make some sort of mechanical telegraph no signal would be received outside more than the mechanical equivalent of static as the pulsing of the tugs was randomised as it left the shimmer. Though you'd probably just hear nothing given that every team that enters is seemingly mentally compromised, to the point where they skip entire days with no memories.
OA Wish list:
  1. DNI
  2. Internal medical system
  3. A dormbot, because domestic chores suck!
Reply


Messages In This Thread
Annihilation - by Cray - 03-05-2018, 11:31 PM
RE: Annihilation - by Rynn - 03-06-2018, 12:22 AM
RE: Annihilation - by stevebowers - 03-06-2018, 08:44 AM
RE: Annihilation - by Cray - 03-06-2018, 11:13 PM
RE: Annihilation - by Rynn - 03-15-2018, 02:24 AM
RE: Annihilation - by JohnnyYesterday - 03-15-2018, 12:11 PM
RE: Annihilation - by Rynn - 03-15-2018, 07:48 PM
RE: Annihilation - by JohnnyYesterday - 03-16-2018, 01:47 PM
RE: Annihilation - by Rynn - 03-16-2018, 09:19 PM
RE: Annihilation - by Drashner1 - 03-17-2018, 12:22 PM

Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)