Tyler Shaffer
Professor Dennis Quinn
IGE320.02
05.06.2011

Synthesis Essay I: Contact and Bucchi

After reading Bucchi’s Science in Society as well as watching the Film Contact, I can see that there are several connections made between these two works. Both Bucchi and the film explore many issues pertinent to science and technology in today’s world. Using Bucchi’s Science in Society as a basis for my analysis, I will relate the film Contact to his writings as well as provide my own thoughts into the subject, raising questions into science, technology, and religion, providing examples along the way. Contact is a great movie, hitting multiple levels of suspense, action, politics, and intelligence. It deals with the struggles of Astronomer Dr. Ellie Arroway, who was able to make contact with an alien intelligence near the star Vega. After contact was made, her vindication of the find is short lived when people including the government, Dr. Drumlin (her supervisor), and many others rush in to take control and validate the find. However, it is discovered that the alien’s want us to build a machine that would enable a person to travel to them, which would eventually put the entire world on edge. One connection that immediately popped into my head is the idea of a paradigm. A paradigm “refers to a set of tacit assumptions and beliefs within which research goes on (Google definitions).” In Bucchi’s chapter regarding “Paradigms and Styles of Thought,” he states “According to Kuhn, science does not advance smoothly along a linear path and by gradual approximations to the truth; rather it is characterized by abrupt ‘leaps’ and profound ‘discontinuities’ (Bucchi, 26).” This idea can very much be applied to the film Contact, as it connects with it on so many levels. In the film, society once believed that there was a supreme existence (God), and that humans were the only form of intelligent life in the universe. However following the discovery Dr. Arroway made from the VLA (Vert Large Array) Satellite Network in New Mexico, the world’s view on this matter is flipped upside down, challenging everything we once knew to be correct. This fact, according to Bucchi, is a perfect example of a “paradigm shift” (Bucchi, 29). For example, being a geography major it is safe to say that I know a good bit about maps. In a recent class on mine, it was said that the first person who “proved” the earth to be a sphere was Magellan in the 1400’s. This altered everybody’s thinking in that the only means of long distance transport at the time was by sea, under a notion that you could fall off at a certain point if you went far enough. Besides Bucchi’s point on paradigm’s and its relating to Contact, there are many other ideas that transfer over as well. None so much as the Prologue of Bucchi’s book, Science in Society (Bucchi, 5). In this section, he comments on the everyday life of a scientist at CERN, or The Center for European Research in Nuclear Physics. Markus, the scientist conducts experiments on the world’s largest particle accelerator. However besides the new science and technology presented here, it was another thing that struck me as being the most awe inspiring. In describing Markus’ life here, he states a question that Markus receives all the time, regarding practical monetary payoffs from the machine. To this question, Markus replies ‘None’ and continues to explain how instead it “aims to gain understanding of where we come from, what matter is really made of (Bucchi, 6).” This alone in my opinion can be directly correlated with the movie Contact, where Dr. Arroway searches in a vast cosmos of emptiness looking for the tinniest glimmer of hope. It is these two things that personally give me hope in the world. Science for the sake of science and progress not directed solely towards a purpose of monetary gain. Another scenario played out in Contact, and probably my favorite part of the movie, was during the construction of the machine after the alien intelligence sent us the blueprints. After the giant device was built, there was a huge debate to how it actually worked and what precautions to take as a result of building it. The mysterious machine reminded me much on Bucchi’s chapter “A New Science” in Science in Society. Within this chapter, Bucchi touches on new and upcoming technologies such as Cold fusion, HIV and AIDS, Climate Change, and Evolution (Bucchi, 93) in modern society. The technology and issues presented here are ones for which we have incomplete explanation’s of, ones for which we don’t know are possible or not, as well as ones that people still do not believe in. Just like the previous example where I mentioned the Particle accelerator, I think that the machine built in Contact as well as this have several connections. Once the particle accelerator was built and used for the first time, I remember there being theories to how it will create a black hole and literally suck up the earth, among other things. When Ellie was dropped into the center of the “alien” machine, nobody knew whether she was going to float in the middle and take off, or drop right through it like she did. Besides new technology being built, the film Contact takes an interesting standpoint in religion, bringing up both sides of the argument with anti-religious Dr. Arroway, and her future love and religious presidential advisor Palmer Joss. Throughout the duration of the movie, Ellie struggles to come to an understanding with God and refuses to think in any way that he exists, stating “So what’s more likely? That an all powerful mysterious God created the Universe, and decided not to give any proof of his existence? Or, that He simply doesn’t exist at all, and that we created Him, so that we wouldn’t have to feel so small and alone?” However, when Ellie challenges Palmer to prove the existence of god, Palmer asks Ellie to prove that she loves her father, to which there is no way to prove it. Dr. Arroway’s views of science in this matter closely resemble that of Bucchi. In Science in Society, Bucchi states “the demise of a teleological, man-centered cosmology and extensive discussion of the most appropriate methods with which to study nature” as being one of the most significant innovations brought by the latter to styles of thought and inquiry into nature (Bucchi, 11). The previous statements regarding science and its relationship to religion is one that greatly intrigues me. Personally, while I would like to rely on science and technology to provide proof and factual evidence to bring me to conclusions, a big part of me still believes that there is a bigger purpose and that some God has to exist. While many things in the bible have been disproven like the earth being the center of the universe and evolution among many others, there are still greater messages embedded deep within, almost guidelines for living of some sort. Through my career at Cal Poly Pomona, I have taken several classes; one of the most interesting being my World Religions class. In the course, we studied the teachings of almost every major world religion practiced in today. Unless it is just me, but if 95% of the world believes in some higher power, that would mean that either the majority is correct or 95% of the world suffers from some sort of delusional dementia. As you can see, the film Contact can be related with Bucchi’s Science in Society on so many scientific, technological, and religious standpoints. I covered the idea of a paradigm in science, new technology regarding the alien machine and the particle accelerator, and connected all of it with the foundations of religion. However, this brings me point out some observations I made regarding the film Contact and points made from Bucchi. For example, earlier I discussed Bucchi’s chapter on “Science Wars” in which he describes new and upcoming technologies and fields of advancement. In my opinion for being such a big topic and connecting on a high level to Contact’s mysterious alien machinery, I wish it could have been a much bigger chapter than it was so that I would have a better framework off of which I can make comparisons. Yes, Bucchi does admit in his introduction that his book “can only provide a partial survey of its subject matter, one restricted to the themes or approaches most distinctive of the discipline,” (Bucchi, 2) but it seems like he could have gone much deeper into the material on a subject that is getting to become ever so important in modern day society. Overall, the film Contact explored many of the issues pertinent to Science in Society as presented in Bucchi, and as time progresses more questions will be raised and hopefully answered.

Bibliography 1) Bucchi, Massimiano. Science in Society. London: Routledge, 2004. Print. 2) Contact. Dir Robert Zemeckis. 1997. Movie.