Extraterrestrial environments Otherworldly places are ways of understanding ourselves and the world around us. Their representation in films lets us make suppositions about what it means to be human and how we conceive of our uniqueness. Filmmakers can let their imaginations paint scenarios of biological, social, and cultural forms that can illuminate aspects of our own lived worlds. Films about the extraterrestrial open up a space in which the here-and-now can be made strange or remade.

Terms anthropic principle Drake equation Fermi’s paradox Kardashev scale linguistics ontology panspermia rare Earth hypothesis semiotics taxonomy terraforming

Anthropic principle The universe needs to exist exactly as it is, or we would not be here to observe it. Thus the appearance of intelligent life was somewhat inevitable or preordained, or an outcome of an extremely improbably event.

Drake Equation

Fermi’s paradox There are 1 billion Earth-like planets and 100,000 intelligent civilizations based on the Drake equation But where are they? That is Fermi’s paradox: if there are so many, why is their so little evidence of their existence?

Kardashev scale A way of measuring an advanced civilization’s level of technological development based on amount of usable energy at its disposal and degree of space colonization

Linguistics Formal study of the structure of language, how we acquire it, and how it varies. Examples of what linguists might study: Morpheme – smallest unit of a language that has a meaning by itself Morphosyntax – how words are arranged together to form phrases

Semiotics The study of signs, codes and conventions Semiotic analysis seeks to explain how we make meaning from codes All meaning is encoded in that which creates the meaning.

Ontology Philosophical practice arising out of the desire to order and understand reality A specification of a conceptualization

Rare Earth Hypothesis Idea that the conditions to support life are rare in the universe

Idea that the conditions to support life are rare in the universe, but that once life evolves to specific degree, the probability of the evolution of higher forms of intelligence increases

Panspermia The theory that life on the earth originated from microorganisms or chemical precursors of life present in outer space and able to initiate life on reaching a suitable environment.

Terraforming

Taxonomy