The Pop Culturer

Ram M Kripa's blog for thoughts/rants on pop culture and the world around us

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Thoughts on Einstein’s Cosmos by Michio Kaku and Interstellar

It seems ironic that Michio Kaku, one of the most prominent futurists of our time, would choose to write a book about the past. Einstein, arguably the greatest mind of the 20th Century, has had several biographers over the years. Suffice it to say that is no ordinary, run of the mill biography (breathes a sigh of relief ;-)). This book is actually about explaining and fundamentally breaking down each and every one of Einstein’s discoveries. The biographical aspect serves as little more than a framework within which to elucidate complex physical phenomena. It gives the book structure and a clear progression and flow between each of Einstein’s great breakthroughs in modern Physics.

The ideas that come to my mind immediately, when I think about the book, are the concepts of curved space-time fabric, the possible existence of higher dimensions of space (than the usual three) and the Multiversal constancy of gravity, to name a few.

The concept of wormholes, that link two points in space time by folds in the “fabric”, is something I first encountered in the 2014 Oscar award winning sci-fi film, Interstellar. The film was praised for its scientific accuracy, even called the “gold standard” for science fiction movies by none other than Michio Kaku himself.

What is interesting is the distortion of time and space that the astronauts experience throughout the film.

They experience time distortion according to the gravity of the planets and the black hole they are orbiting, throughout the film. The climax, which occurs inside a black hole is a delight to watch. Time depicted as a dimension of space inside the black hole. The lead character finds himself behind his daughter’s bookshelf, communicating using the books to simulate morse code.

Einstein’s equations do allow for a fourth dimension of space, that exists only in either very specific places or on the nanoscale. The time as a dimension of space is one possible, and very intriguing solution.

[popculturer]

Interstellar

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Net Neutrality, The Internet and Ready Player One

Sir Tim Berners Lee, the man who invented the internet, once displayed, in front of a live audience at the 2012 olympics, “This is for Everyone”. It’s not a stretch to assume he was referring to the internet.

With all that’s going on in the world, like hatred, apathy, racism, discrimination, the internet always found a way to unite people. I think this is because the internet is a platform that makes everyone equal. On the internet, no one is anything more than a user id and maybe a profile picture. It is a place where people bond over the most random things, like dark chocolate, superheroes, or even something as crazy as the colour maroon. This particular feature of the internet works so well because there is no discrimination between the websites linked to the fandoms of chocolate, comics or colours.

However, humans being humans, we have found a way to subvert this medium for personal gains and profit. This “anything for a dollar” attitude started with advertisements on the sides of screens. Now, they have started popping up and covering the whole screen. Where does it stop?

The latest cutting edge technology, Virtual Reality, is supposed to offer a fully immersive experience. How long will it be before that is also filled to the brim with advertisements?

I was watching Ready Player One the other day and could not help but think, ‘In the real word, it’s the conglomerates like the IOI who win, succeeding in their mission of micro-monetizing every aspect of consumer interaction on the internet’.

In fact, we don’t need to be in the OASIS to experience the problems faced by characters in ready player one. The internet is our OASIS. We have our own identity, character and interactions. The same problems that plague the OASIS, like trolls, bullies, corporatization and obsession all exist in the real world, right now, on the internet.

Unlike the OASIS, however, no one person can control the internet and miraculously rid it of all evils. Movie logic does not work in the real world. In conclusion, I believe that, at its heart, Ready Player One tackles the issue of Net Neutrality and how a platform can be corrupted for monetary gain.

[popculturer]

First to the Key, First to the Egg!

[popculturer]

CREATIVE CONTROL CASE 2- THE DC COMICS ANIMATED UNIVERSE

The DCAU started in 1992 with the release of the timeless classic, Batman the animated series. The showrunners were Bruce Timm and Paul Dini, mostly. At that time, BTAS was mostly kid friendly and even when it handled dark themes, it maintained a balance between light and dark, which I now think is mostly to fit the TV-Y7 Rating.

Nowadays, the DCAU is in shambles. I just watched Batman and Harley Quinn. It feels like an MCU movie. I’m sorry and I don’t mean to offend the creators of the show I watched and loved as a 5-10 year old, but it had to be said. All of the telltale signs of a Marvel Movie were there. Underdeveloped villains, a joke a minute, unlikely pairings for the sake of sexual tension (cough-blackwidow-cough-hulk-cough), and no members of the superhero team even though the fate of the world is at stake.

But I digress. Let’s forget about Batman and Harley Quinn. Let’s just talk about the regression of the Bruce Timm’s content as a whole. Batman the Animated series- He was probably reined in by the Y7 Rating and Paul Dini. Total masterpiece. 

The New Batman Adventures: Here things start getting a little messed up. Vague allusions to Bruce and Barbara being together (”over the edge”). Night wing handled pretty poorly considering that he seems to hit on just about every female character in the series but it’s nothing too bad.

Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman: Things get pretty weird when Bruce is confirmed to be in a relationship with Barbara who is confirmed to be a college student. “Chase Me”, the silent film, DCAU’s equivalent of a post credits scene, shows him with Catwoman, somehow. Pretty weird.

Batman Beyond: Things get super weird, bordering on the edge of insanity. Bruce apparently has a kid with Barbara while Barbara and Dick (Nightwing) are together. But, the kid dies due to a mugging and abortion takes place. No major harm done. But still incredibly creepy. Bruce has white hair and Babs is in her 30s. You’re lying if you say it’s not weird. 

Batman The Killing Joke: Bruce Timm, possibly high, goes COMPLETELY INSANE for this movie, making Batgirl, Barbara, throw herself at Bruce. It doesn’t help that Bruce ignores her after this but then has to save her after she is tortured by the Joker. Shit-for-brains movie.

My point is that the creative control of the DCAU, especially the Batman side should not lie completely with Bruce Timm.

Or Maybe he just works better within the confines of a PG-13/ TV-Y7 Rating to make his work more palatable.

Thanks for reading Guys!

[popculturer]

CREATIVE CONTROL CASE 1- STAR TREK

Star Trek the Original series was great. It just was. There is not going to be anyone denying that Mr. Roddenberry had struck gold with Star Trek the original series. The problem lies in what happened after the original series had faded out of the collective public consciousness. The never-ending cycle of reboots, spin-offs and cash-ins made Star Trek return with a new cast, a new generation, aptly titled “Star Trek : The next Generation”(1987-94). Yet, oddly enough,  this series abided by the same rules set by Roddenberry in the 70’s. These rules included abstention from serialization of stories, conflict between crew members and religious themes. This might have suited the 70’s audience but this was the late 80’s and early 90’s. This resulted in variation in quality. Though the quality of TNG is subjective, general critic consensus holds that it was not as good as the original series. Such rules had a place and time. There is no shame in them becoming outdated. If you want proof that these rules were the problem, just take a look at the critical reception and overall storytelling quality of Star Trek: Deep Space 9. It flouted these rules with gay abandon and won praise in return. This doesn’t mean that Roddenberry wasn’t a visionary. It means that he should have trusted the showrunners more. He should have given them creative control.

Here’s hoping Star Trek: Discovery is good 

[popculturer]

CREATIVE CONTROL

So, for my first series, I’m going to discuss a relatively tenuous topic- Creative control.

Creative control comes in many contexts but here, I’m going to be focusing specifically on the issue of whether creative control of certain properties should lie with the original creators or not.

Basically, creative control in the pop culture context is what the direction of a company is to the business world. There is a concept in the business world called the Founder’s Syndrome or Founderitis. It basically means that a founder/ co-founder of a company maintains undue influence over the creative direction of a company. We see this in the world of comics, television and films too. Let’s take a few case studies to explore the pros and cons of creative control and who it should reside with.