The "meaning" of Carl Sagan's "Contact"?

Question

The book is different to the film. In the book the Aliens tell the Jodie Foster charachter to go home and study the number Pi.
After a few years of doing this she discovers that somewhere around a billion decimal places a pattern of ones and zeroes appears, which continues for a few thousand places.
Then she finds if she takes, say, the first hundred digits, then places the next hundred underneath that, then the next hundred under that, etc, the ones form a perfect circle (the Pi connection)
Anyway am I right in assuming that the satisfaction the Jodie Foster charachter feels at this discovery is because it's God's signature? but then she's an atheist, as was Carl Sagan.
What about you: if such a thing was ever discovered would you see it as God announcing his prescence? I think I would and I'm an atheist, or would you maybe think - well if there's an infinite number of Universes and if Pi can have different values in each one........
I'm rambling a bit, love to read your thoughts

Answer 1

I couldn't agree with the other poster more. This movie had the worst ending ever... I'll have to go with Mr. Garrison on that one...



I'm not sure about it being God's signature, but my take on the reduction of content from the book to the movie was a time constraint no doubt. If the movie had been as concise as the book, we'd have been in the theatre longer than we were for "The Ten Commandments"...



The meaning is actually closer to religion than one might think - the original that is... I know better than to post anything religious on this forum, so if you would like to know why I think that way, email me...



By the way, neither of the posters who call themselves Atheists actually are in the true sense of the term. Atheists believe that God does not exist and that science proves this as fact... Agnostics believe that the existence of God cannot be proved or disproved. If you see Him and then you believe, you are not Atheist, you are closer to Agnostic...

Answer 2

Carl Sagan Contact Book

Answer 3

There is always some disappointment in film endings, due to the fact they have to close before the audience has to go for a pee!



Sagan actually makes some very interesting technological points, in terms of how SETI should be set up and the advantages of parallel carrier transmissions. He makes the very valid point that, by using parallel digital transmission, one squares the capacity of the medium.



The use of transverse oscilliatory magnetic fields is based on the legendary "Philadelphia Experiment", which was supposed to have made an American warship dissappear. The fact is that the interaction of rotating magnetic fields throws up all sorts of mysteries. Some Irish gentlemen claim to have found an alignment, which produces huge amounts of electrical output!



As for the LOGIC of the meeting between the heroine and the alien, well that is open to whatever interpretation you might wish to make. The underlying point, which Sagan made was that, with advances in knowledge, technology and scientific discoveries, our logic alters. Our modern logic patterns would be totally incomprehensible to medieval scholars. This would also apply to our understanding of an advanced alien's logic.



What we have to remember is that Carl Sagan was one of the great thinkers and teachers of the 20th century. He was, of course, a very accomplished scientist first and author second.

Answer 4

I read the book and saw the film.

I agree that the books ending was good because the plot seemed more "complete" and ended with that fascinating "God" question.

Since you asked for opinions I would say ...No , I would not see it as "...God announcing his presence..." necessarily. Or at least not a God who is separate from human consciousness Pi itself must be part of human consciousness or we wouldn't be able to recognize it's expression with our human "symbols" for numbers. Consciousness can not communicate with anything outside of itself IMO. That "other" would be truly alien to us, incomprehensible.Therefore "God " would have to be "Us" and would have no need to "announce himself". I personally think that, instead, the necessity is for us to "recognize" what we (along with all of reality) are.

Anyway, all of the above is interesting but I was, for once, more satisfied with the movies ending from a psych/social/mystical perspective.

The mystic "priest" character had a certain "knosis" or inner knowledge that the Jodie Foster character could not recognize and he had no way of sharing it beause of its inner nature.

Later in the film, after her "trip" she finds herself in the same predicament as the priest when people refute her story. A highlight of the film , for me, was their simultaneous recognition of this and the respect this would generate.

This cultural element was also present in the book but not as clearly or memorably.

Answer 5

The Pi connection isn't meant to be the signature of God, but the signature of an advanced ancient civilization, even more ancient than the Machine civilization, that had the technology to modify mathematics itself.



But then, the author is dead and you can take it to mean whatever you like.

Answer 6

That makes me want to read the book...I am a huge fan of Carl Sagan.



I would think its the end of chaos or at least first sign of the end of chaos. I am atheist, I would need to see and touch god to believe, so, in other words I have no faith.I cannot assume anything. Anyways, you want to see something REALLY weird , look up Quantum Entanglement.

Answer 7

Didn't know that.. The end to the film was possibly the worst ending to any film in the history of cinema, I am glad to hear that the great Carl Sagan wasn't responsible for that! Cheers

Answer 8

I don't know - but I love the film and having read what you've written I'm going on Amazon right now to find the book. Cheers :-)

Answer 9

Must disagree with all the posters on here.



The worst ending of a film was definitely 'No Country For Old Men'