On Wednesday, July 29, from 8:00-9:00 PM ET, Ohio State's Department of Astronomy, Department of Linguistics, and Center for Cosmology and AstroParticlePhysics (CCAPP) are sponsoring an online panel discussion of the 2016 film Arrival, based on Ted Chiang's science fiction novella "Story of Your Life".
Arrival, directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and Forrest Whitaker, is an emotionally gripping film about alien visitors that deals with deep issues of physics, the nature of time, and the structure of language. To participate in this event, watch Arrivalat home –it’s available on many platforms including Amazon, Google Play, YouTube, and Apple TV–and register for the July 29 webinar for free by clicking THIS LINK. Registration is required in order to attend.
Panelists: Dr. David Weinberg, Ohio State Department of Astronomy, cosmologist and astrophysicist, Dr. Micha Elsner, Ohio State Department of Linguistics, computational linguist, Dr. Julia Papke, Ohio State Department of Linguistics, linguistics and ancient languages, Dr. Richard Samuels, Ohio State Department of Philosophy, philosophy of cognition
Moderator: Anna Voelker, Ohio State Department of Astronomy and CCAPP
Does time always flow in one direction? What is the relation between time and causation? How does our experience of time structure our language, and how might language structure our experience of time? How is time wired into the physical world? How could we learn to communicate with beings whose way of thinking is radically different from our own?Arrival engages all of these questions, and many more. We encourage you to bring your own questions to the webinar and be ready for a lively discussion.
To get even more out of this event, read the novella “Story of Your Life,” which is published in the collection Stories of Your Life and Others, by Ted Chiang, copyright 2002, available inprint and Kindle editions from Vintage Books. “Story of Your Life” won the 2000 Nebula Award for best novella, and all of the stories in this collection sparkle with brilliant ideas.
This webinar will be hosted on Zoom and will include ASL interpreting and live CART captioning.