I'm hooked on a new TV show and want to mention it: "Carol & The End Of The World" (Netflix, 2023).
The show is written with uncommon intelligence. It subtly criticizes Western culture and our ideas about life and death -- especially those on "the meaning of life." The show is also emotionally appealing; the main character, Carol, is easy to sympathize with.
I was super-excited to see a reference in the show's dialogue to famous physicist Eugene Wigner, someone everyone ought to know. Hugely influential (he, along with Einstein, convinced FDR to create the Manhattan Project) Wigner, in his later years (he lived to 92), considered the philosophy of mathematics. He concluded that human understanding of nature, advanced by mathematics, is a "mystery" with both gifts and potential surprises. Our understanding of reality is founded on our biological abilities -- and dependent on them. Living creatures with other abilities (e.g., animals on our planet; extraterrestrial life-forms) may have different, more accurate grasps on reality. (See, "An Immense World.")
Human knowledge is not necessarily complete or true in an absolute sense. It's just the best our species has come up with. We should, and epistemologically need to respect the intelligence of other living creatures; theirs may surpass our own.
We all know octopuses are super intelligent! And I know that cats are always secretly plotting our demise!
ReplyDeleteI will look out for this series! Kezzie x
The TV show is extraordinary. And, given what you say, the book I mention ("An Immense World") is equally worthy of attention. The book is about how animals sense the world. Many can perceive things invisible to us, like Earth's magnetic waves. (It's how birds orient themselves.)
DeleteWill loook out for it.xx
DeleteOoh, I will check this out on Netflix, Ally, thanks for the recommendation!
ReplyDeleteThe show is admittedly odd but that's okay. I think you'll like it.
DeleteI just put that on my to-watch list, I guess it just got moved up on priority!
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