Mainly divided into four main form factors.
- Small spherical or disc-shaped objects from 20 to 100 centimeters in diameter. They appear most often at low altitudes. This phenomenon is also called fireflies.
- Small disc-shaped or egg-shaped UFOs with a diameter of 2-3 meters. As well as the previous type, they most often fly at low altitudes.
- Basic UFOs, discs or saucers. The diameter is 9-40 measures, they also have an elevation in the central part of the object from one fifth to one tenth of their diameter. Able to move at any height, as well as carry out landings.
- Large cigar-shaped or cylindrical UFOs, from 100 to 900 meters or more in length. They mostly appear in upper layers atmosphere, do not perform complex maneuvers and landings. Often, eyewitnesses assured that smaller ones were separated from such objects. Less common are disk-shaped objects with a diameter of 100-200 meters with a behavior similar to cigar-shaped objects.
The forms listed above are most often described by eyewitnesses who saw UFOs, and get on video and photos, but this is not all of the alien ships that appear. There are a number of features that distinguish one device from another. It is on these grounds that some ufologists divided them.
Ships of alien civilizations
According to some, scientists studying the UFO phenomenon, the difference between the ships is not accidental, it refers them to different alien civilizations. We will give a description of some of these ships, and indicate which civilization they belong to, as well as note the approximate percentage of sightings from the total number of UFO sightings.
- Gray disk apparatus. The shape and color are most often easily distinguishable. They practically do not perform complex maneuvers, but have a huge speed of movement. The diameter of such objects is 10-20 meters. It is believed that these devices are quite earthly and belong to new military developments. Approximately 30% of observations.
- A black pyramidal triangle reaching several meters wide and over 10 meters high. According to researchers, belongs to the reptioid race Alpha Draco. Approximately 10% of observations.
- A multi-colored, iridescent disc with a diameter of 10-30 meters. Refers to the Pleiades Venus. Approximately 3% of observations.
- Sphere with a bright green color. The same applies to the Pleiadians. About 1% of observations.
- Black triangle with three brightly lit holes in the bottom of the fuselage, sometimes with a fourth hole in the center of the triangle. It has a high speed of movement and is almost silent. It is a completely earthly object called Astra TR-3B or XR7. About 1% of observations.
- A cigar-shaped ship similar to an airship of enormous size. Most often hovering high in the sky. Sizes range from 300 to 1,200 meters in length. Owned by Zeta Seti. Occurs no more than 1%.
- A gray cylinder of medium size, more often located vertically. Refers to the Andromeda fleet. This object is observed no more than 1%.
- Translucent, as if vague devices, in which contours and flickering lights are mainly visible. Have different shape and sizes. They are also called "interdimensional" ships. Belong to the Orions, Sirius B and other systems. Percentage of appearances is about 3.
Purpose of alien ships
Beyond form factor and accessories alien ships are divided according to purpose and perform strictly defined tasks.
- The highest class ship, called the uterus, is an intergalactic battleship, heavy, armored ship. Most often based on the outskirts of the galaxy. It has colossal dimensions. Volume from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of cubic meters. The length reaches tens of kilometers. Carries fuel reserves, provisions and other technical devices. Also inside such a ship are located from 7-10 staff cruisers.
- The command cruiser is designed for interstellar travel over relatively short distances. long distances. Its length varies from 3 to 10 kilometers, and the volume is tens of thousands of cubic meters. Capable of carrying up to 5 light cruisers. Several cases of observation of entire alien, flying cities have been recorded, this is just a second-class ship.
- Astran. Used to move within the same planet. The volume is from several tens to one hundred or more cubic meters. Some ships this class capable of carrying on board smaller vehicles of the two following orders below.
- Technorave. A small, not large apparatus, often performing tasks such as providing communications or monitoring the weather, can also be used to land on the planet. It is not large. The volume is not more than a few tens of cubic meters.
- Flashhorb. The smallest object with a volume of no more than ten cubic meters. Often piloted by automatics. Performs surveillance and reconnaissance functions. If necessary, it can use the self-destruct function.
In this article, we have tried to collect all the data on alien ships found in various sources. We do not undertake to evaluate the reliability of the information described here, and provide it as an acquaintance, as one of the versions of those who study the phenomenon
Picture dated 04/29/2017.
Image three-dimensional space, UFO of the seventh alien civilization Spirals - a symbol of movement in space. Probably shown moving into three-dimensional space through another dimension. Dates, numbers. The cross is a symbolic designation of this highly developed civilization.
04/29/2017. Question to Galaxia Andromeda. Please draw more details about this drawing. Thank you!
An image of a triangular alien spacecraft. Symbols of movement in space. The big circle is a symbolic drawing of the Earth. The dot in the circle is the image of the neutron star Typhon - Medusa Gorgon. Numbers. Dates.
The circle is probably a symbolic image of the planet of an alien civilization with the image of triangular spaceships. Symbols of movement in space, the distance to the planet and the location of their star. Numbers, dates.
May 1, 2017. Question to Galaxia Andromeda. Please draw more details about this video. Thank you!
https://www.facebook.com/galaxia.andromeda.12/videos/1363114383769707/
Showing the movement of a triangular aircraft, lines of force space, a spatial tunnel, and probably a star and a planetary system of aliens. Numbers, dates.
May 2, 2017. Question to Galaxia Andromeda. Please draw more details about this video. Thank you!
https://www.facebook.com/galaxia.andromeda.12/videos/1368935469854265/
Figure from 3.05.2017.
In the center of the figure, a spiral is a symbol of movement in space. The dot in the circle is the image of the neutron star Typhon (Gorgon Medusa). Triangles - spaceships of an alien civilization. A change in the trajectory of a neutron star by alien spacecraft is shown.
May 3, 2017. Question to Galaxia Andromeda. Please draw more details. Where is the neutron star Typhon currently located? Thank you!
Image of the neutron star Typhon (Gorgon Medusa), three-dimensional space. Image of triangular spaceships, UFOs, symbols of movement in space. The neutron star is currently still in the region of the orbit of the seventh planet - Uranus. Dates.
05/04/2017. Question to Galaxia Andromeda. Please draw more details about this video. Thank you!
https://www.facebook.com/galaxia.andromeda.12/videos/1371207856293693/
Figure from 05/05/2017.
In the center of the circle is an image of a UFO of the sixth civilization. On the right - a triangular spaceship with symbols of movement in space. Numbers. Dates.
May 5, 2017. Question to Galaxia Andromeda. Please draw more details about this video. Thank you!
https://www.facebook.com/galaxia.andromeda.12/videos/1371207636293715/
Figure from 05/06/2017.
A drawing of a rapidly rotating neutron star of the georotator class Typhon - Medusa Gorgon. Left - ancient image neutron star - "Star of David". The dates for the next appearance of a neutron star near the Earth are 3212 - 3219.
May 6, 2017. Question to Galaxia Andromeda. Please draw more details about this video. Thank you!
https://www.facebook.com/galaxia.andromeda.12/videos/1372202292860916/
UFO images of the seventh alien civilization. Symbols of movement in space (spiral). Drawing of the neutron star Typhon - Medusa Gorgon (stars - comets). An ancient drawing of a star (Star of David) and its four largest satellites. Neutron star (dot in circle). Numbers, dates.
In the center - an image of a neutron star of the georotator class Typhon - Medusa Gorgon (a cross - a star). The symbolic designation of a star is a dot in a circle. Shows the solar system, the symbols of the planets and the movement of a neutron star next to its planets.
05/08/2017. Question to Galaxia Andromeda. Please draw more details about this video. Thank you!
https://www.facebook.com/vikmanciniofficial/videos/1727063170644062/
The circles on the left are the designation of the Earth (the third planet from the Sun). The circle on the right is a drawing of the alien planet with images of triangular spaceships, symbols of movement in space. The cross is a symbolic designation of an alien civilization.
Image of the triangular ship of the seventh civilization. Probably the cross is a symbol of this highly developed civilization. Numbers.
Squared image triangular UFO, symbols of the Earth and possibly the Moon. Probably showing alien bases on our night satellite. Numbers, dates.
Images of triangular spaceships of alien civilizations. Symbols of movement in space. Numbers.
The circle is a symbolic image of the planet of aliens. In the center is a drawing of a UFO of the fifth civilization. Black circles on the left - the movement of the neutron star Typhon, Medusa Gorgon (cross - stars) is shown. The spiral is a symbol of movement in space. In the squares of the number of mathematics of the Mayan Indians.
The image of the lines of the world space, the symbols of the planets, UFO drawing. Numbers. Dates.
May 14, 2017. Question to Galaxia Andromeda. Please draw more details about this drawing. Thank you!
Connecting with Hollywood
“Interesting scenario,” said one of our PR team [at Wolfram]. We are used to getting requests from film companies to show our graphics or posters or books in films. But this time it was different: we were asked if we could quickly create realistic things for a big Hollywood sci-fi movie project that is about to start filming?At our company, unusual tasks usually end up in my inbox. It so happened that, thanks to a combination of leisure and professional interest, I've seen virtually every mainstream sf movie in the last few decades. But based on the working title The Story of Your Life, I couldn't even figure out if it was going to be a sf movie or what it would be about.
Then, when I found out that the film was about the first contact with aliens, I said, “Of course, I will read the script.” And, yes, the script was interesting. Difficult but interesting. It was not very clear to me whether the film would be more about SF or about love. But it did have interesting references to science - albeit mixed with nonsensical nonsense, and occasionally there were also scientific blunders.
When I watch sf movies, I often get frustrated thinking "someone spent $100 million on a movie and made such terrible scientific mistakes that would have been so easy to fix if they had asked the right person." So I decided that even though I'm very busy, I need to participate in what is now called "Arrival" and contribute as much as possible to the scientific approach.
I think there are several reasons why Hollywood films don't take a proper scientific approach. Firstly, filmmakers do not feel the scientific background of their films. At the everyday level, they can figure out that something is wrong - but in the case of a scientific approach, their knowledge is not enough. Sometimes they call the local university and ask for help, but often they are sent to a highly specialized academic whose only help is to tell them that their whole story is wrong. Of course, more often than not, following the science doesn't make much of a difference in a film's success. But it seems to me that such following can help turn a good film into a great one.
Our company has experience working with Hollywood, for example, we wrote all the mathematics for six seasons of the television series Numb3rs. Personally, I had not been involved in films before, but many of my friends worked in films. Jack Horner worked on Jurassic Park, and as a result, he is behind almost all paleontological theories, including those that turned out to be false. Kip Thorne (famous for the recent triumph of discovering gravitational waves) was the main force behind the movie Interstellar. He also made the original effects for the black hole using Mathematica. He was preceded by Marvin Minsky, who was a consultant on 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Ed Fredkin, who became the model for the eccentric Dr. Falken in War Games. Then there's Manjul Bhargava, who spent ten years nurturing the idea for The Man Who Knew Infinity and followed the math during filming.
All of these people were involved in making films at a very early stage. But I decided that if I get involved in the film before the shooting starts, I will have the advantage of knowing that the film is likely to be made. At the same time, my role was clear - I only needed to trim the science in the film. I didn’t even have to think about changing something serious in the plot.
The inspiration for the film was a 1998 short story by Ted Chiang. But the concept of the story was complex, stemming from a rather technical idea in mathematical physics - and I wasn't the only one wondering how a movie could be made out of it. But here it is in front of me, a 120 page script that contains some of the science from the original story, and adds a lot of other stuff. And I got to work, commenting, giving advice, suggesting corrections, and so on.
A few weeks later
My son Christopher and I arrived at the film set in Montreal. The next X-Men movie is being filmed in a large pavilion next door. The "Arrival" pavilion is more modest. We arrive there at the moment when the group is filming a scene in a helicopter. We don't see the actors, but we watch what's happening on the monitor along with a couple of producers and other people.The first thing I hear is "I prepared a list of questions [for aliens], starting with a few binary sequences ...". And I’m like, “Wow, that’s exactly what I suggested! Cool!". But then there is a new take. And change the text. And more duplicates. And yes, the dialogue sounds better. But the meaning is not the same. And I understand that it will be harder than I thought. Lots of compromises. Lots of complications. Luckily, the film ends up with good dialogue and the right message.
After a while, a break in filming is announced. We're talking to Amy Adams, who plays a linguist who communicates with aliens. She's been following a local professor of linguistics for a while, and she talks passionately about how much the language used determines thinking - a topic I've been interested in for a long time as a computer language designer. But the producers want me to talk to Jeremy Renner, who plays the physicist. He feels out of sorts, and we go with him to the "science tent" built for filming and think about good visual details.
We write the code
The script offers many possibilities for creating interesting scenes. But, despite the fact that I would be interested in creating them, I did not have time for this. Luckily, my son Christopher, a fast and creative programmer, has taken an interest in it. At first we thought about sending him to work on location, but because he was still very young, he started working remotely.The strategy he chose was simple: “if we really did this, what kind of analysis and calculations would we do?”. We had a list of alien landing sites - what is the scheme for choosing them? We have geometric shape spaceship - what does it mean? We have a text "written" by aliens - what does it mean?
Filmmakers gave Christopher raw data, as in real life and he tried to analyze them. And turned every question into different variants code and visualizations for the Wolfram Language.
Christopher knew that often the code from the movies doesn't make sense (most of all, regardless of the context, filmmakers like the nmap.c sources on Linux). But he wanted to make meaningful code that actually analyzes what is happening in the film.
The final version of the film included a mixture of the code created by Christopher, some of its derivatives and separately added texts. Sometimes you can see the code. For example, there is an interesting shot with an analysis of the writing of aliens, where you can see quite elegant Wolfram Language code in a Wolfram Language notebook. And the specified code does exactly what is specified in the notebook. This is real code with real calculations.
Theory of interstellar travel
When I first saw the script, I quickly realized that in order to get coherent advice, I needed to develop a coherent scientific theory what is happening. Unfortunately, there was very little time - in the end, I, in fact, had one evening in order to invent a plausible way of interstellar travel. Here is the beginning of a comment I wrote for filmmakers that evening (I won't quote it in its entirety to avoid spoilers):
All these physical details were not directly involved in the film. But in order to give coherent script advice, it was useful to think through all of them. And they also led to various dialogues that sound quite sci-fi. Here are a few phrases that were not included (perhaps for the better) in the final version. "The whole ship moves through space like one giant quantum particle." "Aliens must be manipulating the entire space-time network on Planck scales." "Spatio-temporal swirls are created around the ship's covering." “It’s as if the ship’s coating is composed of an infinite number of types of atoms, and not just the 115 known to us” (this phrase was supposed to refer to a laser beam reflected from the ship’s coating in the form of a rainbow). For a "real scientist" like me, it was very interesting to come up with. I felt a kind of release. Especially since one of these sf dialogues could lead us into a long and serious physics discussion.
For cinema, some definite theory of interstellar travel was required. And who knows, maybe in the distant future it will turn out to be true. But so far we don't know. In general, there may be some "hack" of existing physics that will allow us to instantly make such travel possible. For example, in 1982 I was working on a theory that would allow us to continuously extract "zero point energy" from a vacuum. Over the years, this simple mechanism has become one of the most cited sources of power for interstellar travel, although I don't really believe in it myself.
Perhaps there is a more prosaic way to send a small spacecraft at least to those closest to the stars, propelling it with the pressure of laser light. Or you can tame black holes, create curvature of space-time, even consistent with Einstein's theory of gravity. It is important to understand that even if we know the fundamental theory of physics, we may not immediately understand whether it is possible to provide faster-than-light travel in our universe. Is it possible to somehow line up quantum fields, black holes, and anything else? Computational irreducibility states that there is no upper bound on the complexity of such a system. As a result, you can use all the computational capabilities available during the life of the Universe, not invent the desired structure, and not know for sure whether it is possible in principle.
Physicists - what are they?
Coming to the set, we sooner or later meet Jeremy Renner. He sits on the steps of his trailer, smoking, and looks exactly like brave heroes many of his adventure films. I'm thinking about how to best describe what physicists are like. I come to the conclusion that you just need to start talking about physics. So I begin to explain the theories related to the film. We talk about space, time, quantum mechanics, travel faster than light, etc. I'm adding a few stories from Richard Feynman about the work of a physicist "in the field" on the Manhattan Project. The discussion is vigorous, and I wonder if my mannerisms and features are similar to those typical of physicists. I can't help but remember Oliver Sacks telling me how eerie it was for him to see how much manner Robin Williams took from him for Awakening after a very brief interaction, and I wonder what Jeremy can take from me in those few hours.Jeremy seeks to understand how science is connected to the film's plot, and how both aliens and humans might feel. I'm trying to talk about how it is - to understand the nature of things in science. Then I understand that it would be better to show by demonstrating live code for the Wolfram Language. It turns out that Jeremy in the movie himself needs to use the Wolfram Language (as do - I'm very happy to say this - a lot of real-life physicists in life).
Christopher shows the code he wrote for the film and how the dynamics controls work. Then we talk about how the code comes up. We do some tests. Then we write the code live. And here is our first example - based on the digits of pi, which we discussed in relation to the SETI project
What to say to aliens
Part of the film is dedicated to interstellar travel. But the theme of communications with aliens when they have already arrived is more developed in it. I have thought a lot about alien mind. But for the most part, not as it is presented in the film - but in a more complex case, when we do not have aliens or spaceships, but only a certain stream of data, for example, a radio broadcast, from which it is difficult to even understand whether it can be considered evidence intellect. Recall that often even the behavior of such a phenomenon as the weather seems to us complex enough to give the impression of consciousness.But in Arrival, the aliens are already there. And how do you start talking to them? We need something universal, independent of the details of human language or history. OK, if you encounter aliens, you can point your finger at physical objects. Of course, this assumes that the aliens have concepts of individual objects instead of some kind of continuum, but you can bet on this, since they managed to create spaceships. But what if you need to be more abstract?
You can always turn to mathematics. But is it really universal? Do ship builders need to know about prime numbers, integrals, Fourier series? Of course, in the development of human technology, these things are indispensable. But are there other, perhaps better, technological paths? I think yes.
From my point of view, the most general abstraction that has to do with how the universe works is what we get when we consider the computational universe of possible programs. There is also mathematics. And an endless variety of other abstract rule sets. And I realized some time ago that many of them make sense - and are well suited - for creating technology.
So, looking at the computational universe of possible programs, what are the reasonable universal things to start an abstract discussion with aliens?
Since we can point to individual objects, we can start talking about numbers, first unary, then perhaps binary. Here is the beginning of the notes I made for the film. Words and code are for people, but for strangers they are just cards with graphics.
What comes after numbers and arithmetic? Interestingly, even what we have already discussed does not reflect the history of human mathematics. Despite the fundamental binary numbers(appearing even in such old materials as the I Ching), they have gained popularity recently - after the appearance of much more complex mathematical ideas.
So we don't have to follow the history of mathematics or science, or even the order in which they are taught. We need to find something that can be understood directly, without the use of words. What we would learn, for example, by looking at an artifact mined from the ground at an archaeological site.
It turns out that there is a class of computing systems that I have studied for several decades, which, in my opinion, is excellent for this role - cellular automata. They are based on simple rules that can be explained visually. They work by repetitive application of rules, and often result in complex structures - which, as we know, can be the basis of all sorts of interesting technologies.
By watching a cellular automaton, one can begin to build an idea of the whole world, or, "A new kind of science" - that's how I called the book about these things. But what if we need to convey more traditional ideas about science and mathematics? What should we do?
Maybe start with two-dimensional geometric shapes. Gauss in 1820 proposed to draw in the Siberian forest [more precisely, to plant trees in a special way in the tundra - approx. transl.] a diagram representing the Pythagorean theorem for aliens to see.
But it's easy to get into trouble here. You can show the Platonic solids. 3D printer printouts will do. But two-dimensional drawings with perspective depend on how the visual system works. Networks are even more complicated - how do we know that these lines connecting dots represent abstract connections?
Maybe one can show the theorems of logic. But how do you represent them? You need a symbolic representation - textual, using trees, or something else. We know from computational examples that logic does not serve as an ideal starting point for representation. general concepts. But in the 1950s this was unknown, and there is a fascinating book that tried to build a language for communicating with aliens based on logic.
What about concepts with numbers? In the film "Contact" prime numbers became key. Despite their importance in the history of mathematics, they are not particularly needed in modern technology, and where they are used (cryptoprotection) their appearance seems to be accidental.
In a radio signal, prime numbers can be good evidence of intelligence. But of course, they can be generated by programs - and quite simple ones, including the same cellular automata. The sequence of prime numbers does not automatically mean that it was created by an intelligent civilization. They could have come from some "natural" program.
Visually, prime numbers are easy to show. But further work with them requires concepts that are no longer so easy to show directly.
It is very easy to fall into the trap of things that are obvious to a person. One of my favorite examples is Pioneer 10, a human artifact that has advanced farthest in space (today it is almost 18 billion km, or 0.05% of the distance to Alpha Centauri). There is a plate on it, which shows the 21 cm spectral line of hydrogen. Today, the most obvious way to represent this would probably be a line 21 cm long. But in 1972, Carl Sagan and others decided to do something "more scientific" and made a schematic diagram of the quantum mechanical process leading to the spectral line. The problem is that the diagram is based on human conventions—for example, the use of arrows to denote quantum spins—which are irrelevant to the concepts being described and are very specific to the development of human science.
Let's go back to Arrival. To ask a question like “what is your purpose on earth?” one has to go much further than binary sequences or cellular automata. This is a very interesting problem, which in a strange way is similar to the very important task today of communicating with AI and determining what goals and objectives they should have.
In a way, AI is now a bit like alien intelligence. So far, we understand only human intelligence. Each example of its application contains details of human conditions and human history. But what does intelligence look like without sharing these details?
One of the conclusions of the science I have been involved in is that there is not a very clear line between intelligence and computational results. The same cellular automata or the weather do things that are comparable in complexity to the brain. In a sense, they "think". But not like people. They don't have our context and our details.
But to communicate on topics such as goals and objectives, we need to find common ground. In the case of AI, I'm working on what I myself call "symbolic communication language", a way to express concepts that are important to humans and communicate them to AI. For this there is an immediate practical use like smart contracts. But there are also long-term goals, like creating an analogue of the constitution for the behavior of AI.
When communicating with strangers, we need to develop a common universal language that allows us to express concepts that are important to us. It is not easy. Natural languages are based on the details of human circumstances and history. My symbolic language tries to convey things that are important to people - not what might be important to strangers.
In "Arrival" it is already known that the aliens have something in common with us. Like the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey, we are judging by the shape that the alien spaceships are artifacts. They don't look like strange meteorites. They look like something made on purpose.
But with what? Intent cannot be defined in the abstract. This can only be determined in relation to the historical and cultural platform. And in order to ask strangers about their goals and objectives, we first need to understand what cultural and historical platform we are on.
Sometimes I think about the day when we can develop AI so much that we can ask it a question about their goals. I think we are in for a disappointment. Because, in my opinion, there is no meaningful abstract definition of purpose. And AI will not tell us anything unexpected. His definition of purpose will be a reflection of his history and context. And over this, as the creators of AI, we have serious control.
But that's not the case with aliens. But the movie is about that too.
filming
All my life I have been involved in big projects. And I've always been interested in how different big projects are organized. I'm one of those people who watches movie credits all the way through. So it was interesting for me to look at the filmmaking project up close.In terms of scale, filming a movie like Arrival is a project comparable to the release of a new full version of the Wolfram Language. There are both similarities and differences here.
Both projects have ideas and creativity. Both involve sharing many different skills. Both must come together to release a cohesive product.
In a sense, filmmakers have it easier than programmers. They only need to do one thing that they can just look at. In the case of software, and especially with language development, we need to do something that different people can be used in an infinite number of different ways, including ways not intended by us. Of course, you can always make new versions of the software, gradually improving it. A film can only be made once.
When it comes to HR, software is easier to work with than movies like Arrival. Well-managed software development has a constant rhythm, people have permanent job and permanent teams for a long time. For the filming of the film is usually involved a large number of people, many of whom may not have met each other before, a short time. It's amazing that it works at all. I think over the years a lot of the tasks in the film industry have been standardized so that a person can work on something for a week or two and then successfully hand it off to someone else.
I have managed several releases of full-fledged software. And one would think that now any such release would be a simple and calm process. But he never is. Perhaps because we are always trying to do new and innovative things. Or because that's the nature of projects. But I found that in order to bring the project to good quality I always need to work really hard. At least in the case of our company, the project is always worked extremely talented people. But there are always unexpected tasks that take a lot of energy, concentration and effort.
Sometimes it seemed to me that our process is a bit similar to making films. In the early days of Mathematica, we even had titles that looked like they were in the cinema. Only the categories of contributors I often came up with myself ("module lead", "expression formatting", "font lead", ..). But ten years later, because of the many patches, it became too difficult to figure it out, and the credits disappeared. And yet, for a while, I tried to organize graduation parties, just like the movie people. But there were always some critical issues or improvements, and key developers could not come to the party because they were fixing them.
Software development - or at least language development - has some structural similarities to filming a movie. It all starts with a script - a general specification of the final product. Then we try to create it. Inevitably, in the end, looking at the result, we understand that we will have to change the specification. In films like "Arrival" this happens at the final stage (post-production). In software development, this is the next development step.
I was interested to see how the script and my proposals went through the life cycle of "Arrival". It reminded me how I lead software development: everything is gradually simplified. I'm making a detailed comment about the dialog fix. "You shouldn't talk about avoiding reckoning, your character is too analytical." “You don't have to say that the spacecraft traveled a million light years. It will be out of the galaxy. Say a trillion miles instead." Changes are being made. But then everything is simplified, and the main idea is conveyed in a certain minimalistic way. I didn't see all the steps, but the results reminded me a lot of software development - cutting down on all the complexity and making everything as clear and simple as possible.
Can you complete the board?
My contributions to Arrival mostly happened during the filming of the film in the early summer of 2015. Almost a year after that, I heard that the film was in its final stages. But all of a sudden, in May, I got an email: can I fill the board with believable physics in a quick way for the movie?There's a scene in the movie with Amy Adams in front of a blackboard, and it turned out that what was written on it was about high school physics - not what you would expect from physicists at the level of Jeremy Renner's character.
I was surprised because I realized that I did not have to work very hard on the whiteboard for markers. I used computers for all my work and presentations for 30 years, and before that I used chalkboards and film projectors. But I honestly set up a whiteboard in my office and began to write on it (and I rarely write by hand anymore) what I thought a good physicist should have written when trying to understand the sudden emergence of interstellar travel.
Here's what I came up with. Empty gaps are made to make it easier to fit Amy Adams moving in front of the board. For the final version of the film, the board was rewritten again, so in the film it differs from the photo below.
I imagined myself in the place of the character Jeremy Renner or his colleagues, who write down worthy spaceship ideas and their corresponding formulas. After some time, I got a good story from physical facts and hypotheses.
1. Perhaps the ship has such a strange shape, since it rotates during movement and creates gravitational waves.
2. Perhaps it is optimized to maximize the intensity of some pattern of gravitational radiation.
3. Einstein's formula for the strength of gravitational radiation emitted by a mass with a changing distribution. Q ij - quadrupole moment of distribution, calculated from the specified integral.
4. Elements of higher order, depending on the multipole moments of higher order , calculated by the indicated integrals of the ship's mass density ρ(Ω) weighted by spherical harmonics .
5. Graviwaves will lead to changes in the structure of space-time, represented by a 4-dimensional tensor h μν
6. It is possible that the ship is somehow "floating" through space-time, powered by the effects of these gravitational waves.
7. It is possible that gravitational turbulence is created around the covering of the ship's hull, with power-law correlations, similar to those that arise around objects moving in liquid (or the ship "boils" the space-time around it).
8. Papapetrou's equation for the evolution of the spin tensor in general relativity as a function of time τ.
9. The equation of geodesic motion, which describes the motion of objects in curved space-time. Γ is the Christoffel symbol, determined by the space-time structure. And yes, these equations can be solved using NDSolve in the Wolfram Language.
10. Einstein's equation for gravitational field generated by a moving mass (the field determines the movement of the mass, which itself affects the field).
11. Another idea is the negative mass of the spacecraft, or at least negative pressure. The photon gas pressure is 1/3 ρ; the most common version of dark energy has a pressure of -ρ.
12. The equation for the energy moment tensor, which defines the combination of mass, pressure and velocity, is found in relativistic calculations for ideal fluids.
13. Perhaps the ship is a bubble with a different space-time structure. The arrow points to the shape of the ship drawn earlier on the board.
14. Do the Christoffel symbols (“coupling coefficients on tangently stratified space”) matter for the shape of the ship, as calculated from its spatial metric tensor ?
15. A gravitational wave can be described as a perturbation of the space-time metric with respect to the flat background of the Minkowski space, on which SRT operates.
16. Graviwave propagation equation, taking into account the first few non-linear effects, due to which the wave affects itself.
17. The relativistic Boltzmann equation describing the motion and collision in a Bose-Einstein gas of particles such as gravitons.
18. An abstract idea: it is probably possible to create a "laser" from gravitons instead of photons, and the ship works on this principle.
19. Lasers are a quantum phenomenon. This is a Feynman diagram of the interaction of gravitons in a cavity (photons do not have such direct non-linear interactions with each other).
20. How to make a mirror for gravitons? Perhaps this is a metamaterial with a special microscopic structure up to the Planck scale.
21. Lasers are used from superpositions an infinite number photons formed by infinitely nested creation operators applied to the theoretical vacuum of the quantum field.
22. There is a Feynman diagram for this: it is a self-consistent Bethe-Salpeter equation for a bound graviton, which can be coupled to a graviton laser.
23. Basic nonlinear interactions of gravitons in the perturbed approximation of quantum gravity.
24. Possible refinement term for the Einstein-Gilbert action from GR for quantum effects.
I realize these explanations themselves may seem alien language! But even they are rather modest in comparison with the language of "full-fledged physics". Let me explain more physical history from the board.
It begins with the obvious property of the ship: it has an unusual asymmetrical shape. It looks like a celtic stone that can start spinning in one direction and then change direction. And I thought: maybe the ship is spinning. And any massive non-spherical rotating object will create gravitational waves. Usually they are too weak to detect, but if the object is massive enough or the rotation speed is large enough, then the waves can also be strong. Indeed, last year, after a 30-year search, gravitational waves from two black holes rotating around each other and merging were discovered - and they turned out to be detected at a distance of a third of the observable Universe. Accelerating masses create gravitational waves in the same way that accelerating electrical charges create electromagnetic ones.
Let's imagine that the ship is spinning rapidly so that it creates a lot of gravitational waves. What if we could trap those waves in a confined space using the movement of the ship itself? Then we would get interference. But what if they are coherently amplified, like in a laser? Then they will become stronger and begin to influence the movement of the ship - perhaps pushing it through space-time.
But why will the waves get stronger? In a conventional laser using photons (particles of light), it is necessary to constantly create new photons by pumping energy into the material. Photons are Bose-Einstein particles (bosons), so they tend to "behave the same way" - so laser light is a coherent wave. Electrons are fermions, which means they try not to do the same thing, which leads to the exclusion principle, which is critical for the stability of matter.
One can imagine that light waves are made up of photons; similarly, gravitons can be composed of gravitons (although we do not yet have a complete theory for them). Photons don't interact with themselves - simply put, because photons react with particles like electrons that have an electrical charge, while photons don't. Gravitons interact with each other - due to the fact that they interact with everything that has energy, and they themselves have it.
Such nonlinear interactions can lead to unusual effects. For example, gluons in quantum chromodynamics interact non-linearly in such a way that they remain trapped inside particles such as protons, as if "glued" together. It is not entirely clear what the nonlinear interactions of gravitons will lead to. Perhaps a self-sustaining "graviton laser".
The formulas above describe the creation and effect of gravity waves. The lower ones relate to gravitons and their interactions. The upper ones belong to general relativity. The lower ones are a mixture of classical and quantum approaches to gravitons and their interactions. The diagrams are Feynman diagrams, schematically showing the propagation of gravitons through space-time.
I don't know if a graviton laser is actually possible, or how it would work. But in a conventional photon laser, the photons essentially bounce around inside a cavity whose walls act like mirrors. Unfortunately, we do not know how to make a mirror for gravitons - just as we do not know how to close ourselves from the gravitational field (dark matter would be such a shield, if it really exists). On the board, I pointed out my guesses on the possibility of making a Planck-scale metamaterial of 10 -34 meters (where quantum effects become important for gravity) that could act as a mirror for gravitons. Another possibility is to operate a graviton laser on the principle of a free electron laser without cavities.
Remember, I wanted to write on the board what a good physicist plucked from a government lab might think when confronted with the situation in the movie. These are more "conventional" things compared to what I personally came up with for interstellar travel. But this is because my theory depends on my other ideas about the work of fundamental physics, which have not yet become generally accepted in the physical society.
What is the correct theory for interstellar travel? I don't know. I would be very surprised if the main theory I came up with for the film, or the theory on the blackboard, turned out to be correct. But who knows? Of course, it would be very helpful if aliens flew to us in spaceships to show us that interstellar flights are possible.
What is your purpose on earth?
If aliens appear on Earth, one of the obvious questions will be: why are you here? What is your goal? The characters in the film talk about this a lot. And when Christopher and I were on the set, we were asked to make a list of possible answers that could be put on the board or on the tablet. Here's what we came up with:
Colonization.
Mining.
Trade.
Philanthropy.
Evangelism.
Tourism.
conquest and expansion.
Zoology, ethnology, geology.
Expansion of the interstellar communication network.
Mapping the Universe.
Curiosity.
Education.
Technology test.
Finding shelter.
Accident.
ritual tradition.
Something incomprehensible to people.
Just.
I have already noted that the principle of purpose itself is something closely related to cultural and other contexts. It is interesting that when compiling such a list at different historical moments, people would place different items on it. It is also interesting what goals AI and humans may pursue in the future. Perhaps I am overly pessimistic, but it seems to me that for future humans, AIs and aliens, the answer to this question will lie in the computational universe of possibilities - for which we have no words and concepts today.
And that's the movie
The movie turned out to be quite good, early reviews are encouraging. It's very interesting to see things like this (and Christopher's code) in it:
It was interesting to participate in its creation, it stimulated. I have a better understanding of what it takes to make all the films I watch - and what it takes to combine science with exciting fiction. I also started asking scientific questions that I hadn't gotten to before - related to all the things I'm interested in.
I can't help but think about what it would be like if aliens actually arrived on Earth. I like to think that having participated in the creation of "Arrival" I am a little more ready for this. And of course, if their ships are going to look like giant Celtic rocks, we already have some pretty good Wolfram Language code for that.
With great interest I studied the book of the largest Russian and world scientist Nikolai Viktorovich Levashov "The Last Appeal to Humanity". The book was republished in 2012.
Let's start with UFO-type spacecraft. It is now pseudoscientific to reduce their appearance only to natural phenomena. Highly developed civilizations have long ago begun to move in space on ships such as UFOs. Such ships fold space according to a program given to them.
AT recent times we often observe them both on Earth and in the solar system. They are able to move over very long distances, which have their own limit. It is dictated by the allowable strength of the ship's materials and the limits of the pilots' ability to control the ship. To understand this, consider the history of the discovery of the principle of such movements. It is based on the curvature of space.
Any mass of matter affects the space in which it is located. Any star bends space, including our Sun. Light waves near stars change their rectilinear motion to curvilinear. neutron stars, having a mass equal to three to five solar ones, bend space more strongly.
Black holes with masses on the order of eight to ten solar masses and a diameter of about ten kilometers bend space so strongly that parallel universes are connected. And at the point of contact, matter from our Universe goes into a parallel one. A similar process takes place in the microcosm.
The nucleus of each atom bends the space around it. The heavier the core, the greater this curvature. But at atomic weight more than two hundred atomic units, the nucleus becomes unstable. It breaks up into smaller and more stable nuclei.
Organic compounds in the form of carbon chains also strongly bend space at the level of the microworld. And this leads to the disappearance of the qualitative barrier between the physical and ethereal levels of our planet.
The flow of matter from the physical level to the etheric one leads to a qualitatively new organization of matter. Namely, to living matter. The mechanism of division of old cells of organic matter was studied and filmed. The old cell is destroyed, goes to the ethereal level. An ethereal double of cells is created there. Then this ethereal matter returns to its old place in the form of two cells, exact copies of the old cell. This happens to every living cell of any living organism millions of times. Having understood the mechanism of such overflow, the key to solving the problem of movement in space was found.
Overflow technologies were developed and zero-transition ships were created. They have a bimetallic structure, consist of large organic molecules, which have free bonds heavy metals. This allows you to bend the microcosm not only between the parallel levels of the planet, but also at the macro level between the stars.
The process of flowing the matter of the ship with pilots from one level to another is started by the pilots themselves. They set the task to which point in the Universe the ship should get to and which one to return to. The control is carried out by psi-fields created by the pilots of the zero-transition ship.
The farther the distance of the planned movement, the greater the power of the psi-field must be created. Therefore, two to six pilots work synchronously. If their synchronous operation is disrupted, then the ship may not get out of parallel universe and not materialize at the right point. And this leads to an annihilation explosion of the ship.
Such an explosion was observed on Earth. It's widely known Tunguska phenomenon. Over the taiga, the ship of the zero-transition of civilization from the constellation Cygnus crashed. He couldn't get out of the parallel universe. There was an annihilation explosion, after which neither debris nor radioactive contamination terrain. The consequences of the explosion were minimized by the ship's cyborg. The crew managed to leave the ship in escape pods and land in the northern zone. Western Siberia, from where they were then taken to another ship sent to save them.
And the emergency ship, controlled by a cyborg, continued its flight, changing its trajectory by ninety degrees. Neither a comet nor a meteorite could make such a maneuver. Several explosions can be explained by explosions of separate parts of the ship. As you can see, long-distance flights of such ships require great skill of pilots for well-coordinated work, as well as great courage, courage, and the ability to take a conscious risk in order to achieve the goal.
Of course, with the development of terrestrial technologies, we will create zero-transition ships. And many of our young men and women will become the same brave pilots and will be able to master longer flights than those made now. And this will accelerate the development of many civilizations.
Striking design flair Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. He sent his expedition to the site of the Tunguska explosion in order to find the wreckage of an alien ship, and not the remains of a meteorite or comet, as scientists believed. In his OKB, a group of engineers tried after hours to create a UFO-type ship, but their work was not supported due to urgent work on the lunar and Martian projects.
Thanks to the work and scientific discoveries Nikolai Levashov, now we have the key to the creation of zero-transition ships. He also gave an explanation of the physics of processes at zero-transitions. It turns out that there are three classes of such transitions, which differ greatly in the physics of the processes. Only zones of the class of neutral zero-transitions are suitable for space flights. But this is a large independent topic, which we will discuss in another article.
The hierarchs of a large unification of a number of civilizations faced the problem of increasing the flight range of spaceships. This would open up an opportunity for greater information sharing and faster progress. In order to solve this important task, it was decided to raise a new generation of people who are better suited to control the psi-field. Skillful and well-coordinated management of it defines the boundaries of long-distance flights.
The planned EXPERIMENT was started on ten planets at once. After all, it can not end successfully on all planets. Our Earth is one of these lucky planets. And we should be proud of our important space mission.
On all planets chosen for the EXPERIMENT intelligent life For one reason or another, it was on the brink of extinction. Our planet was prepared for life. And from thirty to forty thousand years ago, the Earth was inhabited by humanoid creatures. Representatives of several different civilizations were brought to the planet. When they were mixed, a new promising civilization was to be born.
All selected civilizations were genetically compatible. From the settlers were formed white, yellow and black races. They were settled taking into account their habitat in their old homeland. The level of development of the chosen ones was specially chosen to be different.
All participants in the EXPERIMENT had only three to five percent of the active neurons left in the brain. The rest of them are closed and are our reserve. There is a rationale for this. It can be found in the writings of Nikolai Levashov. The mixing of races allowed earthlings to combine many qualities in one individual and get accelerated and promising development.
On Earth there is a permanent base of those who started the EXPERIMENT with us. It is located in remote areas of Tibet. This is the legendary SHAMBALA. To accelerate progress among earthlings, cosmic entities were embodied. Buddha, Krishna and Christ did a lot to enlighten people.
Our creators have developed a special code of relations with us and are constantly guided by it. It is interesting and is given in the writings of Nikolai Levashov. If the white races comply with the code on all points, then the gray ones - with the exception of a few points.
There were cases when the ships of other civilizations were forced to seek their salvation on Earth. So, before the explosion of our tenth planet Phaeton, part of the Phaetonians managed to escape on spaceships. They took root in China and mingled with the talented and hardworking friendly people of this country.
The catastrophe on Phaeton led to the loss of the atmosphere on Mars. Part of the Martians also managed to fly to Earth. They landed in Africa near the Nile River. A strong state was quickly created there.
Nikolai Levashov managed to establish that Mars, Phaeton and the Earth were inhabited by migrants from other stars. Earthlings need to remember for what great tasks we were created. Our primary task today is the exclusion of wars in any conflicts, so as not to destroy ourselves and the Earth. Another, no less important task is to be careful with our Earth and take care of this our only home so far.
Evgeny EMELYANOV, Samara
TO HOME
The art of ancient civilizations can be interpreted in many ways, how to know what drove the inspiration of the ancient master. But sometimes the question is obvious, the artist clearly wanted to express the scenario: Aliens visiting the Earth.
the gods took care of the inhabitants of Earththe gods took care of the inhabitants of Earth
The stone withstands a serious test of time, so we have a unique opportunity to see through the eyes of our ancestors the greatest event of distant ages - the visit of the Earth by aliens.
Statues of aliens on the island of Nuku Hiva.
In the case of the outlandish sculptures of Nuku Hiva, we can contemplate large, almond-shaped eyes, which can be recognized as belonging to a race of aliens.
Nuku Hiva is the largest island in French Polynesia. European explorers reached the archipelago at the end of the 16th century, by which time the islands had been inhabited for nearly 2,000 years.
The ancient culture left behind a rich collection of intriguing artwork depicting creatures with unusual heads and large eyes. The figures are terribly reminiscent of the "gray aliens" as we imagine them.
Some of the sculptures are likely to be hybrid creatures, displaying a combination of human and alien features. From ufologists we know about two alien civilizations depicted in stone on Nuku Hiva: reptiles and gray aliens.
Anunnaki spaceships.
Myths and legendary evidence from ancient texts around the world contain many references to the existence of an extremely advanced alien civilization.
spaceships of the ancients
The Anunnaki, who visited Earth in ancient times, in all likelihood helped primitive people erect fascinating monuments that have survived for thousands of years.
Artifacts of Papua New Guinea.
In the 1960s, two brave explorers, a husband and wife, were guests of a mysterious Pygmy tribe in Papua New Guinea. As a sign of mutual respect, both sides exchanged gifts. The elders of the tribe gave the couple two inexplicable artifacts that the leaders, in principle, could not possess.
Nevertheless, intriguing artifacts speak for themselves: a bust with an elongated head, large eyes, with an appearance completely alien to Earth. Another relic was a bird - which was suspected of an aircraft.
Very ancient artifacts, located in a place where the inhabitants did not represent the technology for their manufacture, everything came to them supposedly from their ancestors!The elders claimed that stone rarities are part of their tribe, passed down through countless generations. The origin of the figurines is simply lost against the backdrop of the incomprehensible depths of time, and the change of tens of hundreds of generations.
So what are the versions regarding artifacts? Must be travelers from another dimension? Or maybe again a product of the human imagination? Perhaps everything is simpler, and a couple of stone idols? While no one is arguing, we will probably never know the answer.
The three-bladed disk is a lost technology of the ancients.
On the first floor of the Cairo Museum flaunts a mysterious artifact, the purpose of which remains unknown. A round plate with three sections curved towards the center was found in the tomb of Sabu, the son of pharaoh Ajib.
The find dates back over 5,000 years and is seen by many as evidence of advanced technology. ancient egypt. The function of the three-bladed disk is completely unknown, but scientists believe the object is a decorative overlay.
However, for many it is obvious that the Sabu disk is the result of a complex technological process, so its function should be more specific than the role of decor. Doesn't it look like a propeller?
The one-piece construction is made of hard stone, and the disc is incredibly thin, even for modern technologies. A symbol of faith in ancient aeronautics, which came from previous civilizations, is what adherents of the paleocontact idea see in this.
Combined with the idea that, even before the ancient Egyptians, the pyramids provided electricity (as it is now assured), this part of the unknown machine declares: we are not the first civilization to reach a certain technological level.
Remarkable artifacts, mostly ignored by mainstream science, affirm the old truth: there is nothing new under the Sun. Why, believing that we are not alone in the universe, ancient works of art cannot be evidence of aliens visiting the Earth?
Is it impossible that the ancient aliens made contact with the local population of the Earth, in one way or another influencing civilizations? It is also quite normal that people felt they owed something to the "heavenly gods", carving the images of those who came in stone figures, preserving the memory of the event for millennia.
