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Amadeo Gonzalez
Professor Lacey
English 113 3
13 Mar 2015
Interstellar #change
Space has captured the interest and curiosity of the human species because of its vast
uncertainty and its great unknown variables. Ancient civilizations have studied the stars and the
night sky. These civilizations observations were limited by the biological instruments they were
born with. They only had their eyes to look up into the night. Thus they only had a brief view of
our solar system yet alone the universe, but now in the twenty first century humans have been to
space and our understanding of the universe has increased, our visual and sensorial technology
has improved. Telescopes allow us to see millions of miles into space and our sensors allow
scientist to detect and measure different materials in the universe. We even have an idea of what
other planets close and far from earth are made of. There is also currently a man-made object on
the planet Mars that is being controlled remotely from planet Earth; yet, we are still limited by
our understanding of the universe and our technological capabilities. Hollywood has also found
interest in space and its mystery, like in the movie Interstellar. This movie explores the wonders
and uncertainty of space, and with the help of special effects they made it look all too realistic,
and believable. This movie has beautiful visuals and complex science, but how accurate is the
representation of space and space exploration in Interstellar? Will we someday have to find a
new world to inhabit that is millions of miles out of our solar system because the world we live
in may someday become uninhabitable? Are conditions in space accurately portrayed in

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Interstellar, and will space travel ever be available to the general public? Will movies like
Interstellar bring to light what might happen to this world if we do not start taking more
responsibility over the world we share with every living organism? The media does little to
inform the general population of the possibilities of a global shortage of food, water, and
environmental resources. Movies like Interstellar can help fill these information gaps to have a
better more informed general population.
Interstellar has won 17 awards and was nominated for 75 according to IMDB. Among
these 17 awards are AFI Awards, USA 2015 movie of the year, and Heartland Film 2014 Truly
Moving Picture Award. This shows that Interstellar has not just grabbed the attention of the
general population, but also from respected critics and Hollywood film professionals. These
awards do not just give credit to the movies quality, but also to its impact ability. As Review:
Interstellar Shows The Wonder Of Worlds Beyond an article by Richard Corliss states
Interstellar contemplates nothing less than our planets place and fate in the vast cosmos.
Trying to reconcile the infinite and the intimate. Interstellar stars Matthew McConaughey as
Cooper a former NASA pilot, John Lithgow as Donald; Coopers father-in-law, Michael Caine as
Professor Brand a NASA scientist tasted with finding a way to transport mankind out of planet
earth, and into another world, Mackenzie Foy as ten year old Murphy and Ellen Burstyn as
elderly Murphy which is Coopers daughter, and Anne Hathaway as Amelia Brand a NASA pilot,
biologist, and Professor Brands daughter. These characters are mankinds last hope for survival.
They represent the will power to survival, the love a parent has for his or her children, the
importance of science, the selfless acts that go unnoticed, the courage it takes to understand ones
self and ones fears, and the pillars that hold the survival of Earths species. Interstellar gives us
a brief insight of what the future of planet Earth may have in toll.

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Interstellar takes place in future Earth where the worlds agriculture is hanging by a
thread because most of the worlds crops have been infected with a terminal virus, which makes
cultivating them impossible. With crops being scarce; the world suffers a severe economic
decline because the workforce has shifted from corporate and industrial job to an agricultural
based workforce that is trying to grow crops to feed the world. Although in todays world, some
people from every country go to sleep hungry due to a lack of resources that would allow them to
acquire food. Our world and its thriving countries do not suffer from a lack of food. There is
enough food on this world to feed every mouth on it, but too much food goes to waste instead of
going to a family or an individual in need of it. Getting food to space is also difficult as Richard
Berendzen points in an interview conducted by Jascha Hoffman for the article Q&A: The SciFi Adviser If were going to explore space using humans, we have to learn to live off the
Universe. It is hugely expensive to ship water to the Moon. Learning to survive off the Universe
starts with leaning to survive on Earth. Interstellar does not show much of the struggles of the
everyday family, but it does show the struggles of Cooper and his family as they try to grow their
crops in a nutrient depleted world.
Cooper is a farmer; he owns a farm with his father-in-law Donald, his son, and his
daughter Murphy. They struggle year round with lack of rain fall and their dying harvest. In a
cover story The Art Of Science by Time Magazines, Jeffrey Kluger, explains why the characters
from Interstellar describing the unfertile lands sound so convincing and genuine. As he states, if
it sounds eerily like those actors know exactly what they're talking about, it's because they do
and most of them aren't actors. They're survivors of the real 1930s Dust Bowl who were
originally interviewed by Ken Burns for his 2012 documentary on those plague years. The
shortage of crop in Interstellar has happened on earth, but the movie does not accurately portray

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all the panic and suffering that actually took place. This movie does not portray people starving
like what happened in the 1930s. Although a Dust Bowl is not currently happening in California,
there is a drought currently taking place that goes unnoticed because water still comes out of our
faucets. However, this drought will affect our crops and the monetary price we pay for them. It
will also affect the nutrition of low income children because their parents might not be able to
afford the increased rates. Murphy is like most children in todays world; full of joy and
curiosity.
As Interstellar establishes the everyday lives of people Murphy begins to notice a
supernatural phenomenon that is taking place inside her home which she believes is the work of
a ghost. Murphy tries to convince her family of this ghost, but no one takes her serious until a
dust storm hits the town. Murphy had forgotten to close her window, which led to a huge mess. A
binary message written with gravitational waves convinces Cooper there is something
supernatural going on. This binary message was in the form of thin and thick lines of sand that
was formed by an increased level of gravity where the lines formed; therefore, causing sand to
consolidate more on those areas. Using binary message as a form of communication is useful
because it is easy to decipher. The binary message was a set of coordinates which Cooper
decided to follow alone, but Murphy snuck into the truck and convinces her father to let her tag
along.
The set of coordinates lead to the top secret location of the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA) headquarters. Upon arrival Cooper and Murphy get detained and
separated, which causes Cooper to demand his daughter back. Not knowing where he ended up,
Cooper believes his life and the life of his daughter are in danger. Professor Brand, Amelia, and a

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group of other scientist calmly explain to Cooper that he is in the last NASA facility on earth,
and that the supernatural phenomenon Murphy has been experiencing was not a ghost, but rather
an unidentified intelligence sending mankind help. As food became scarce, the government cut
various funds. One of them being funding for NASA. Although there are still NASA mission and
NASA funding taking place in our current world, there are, however, talks of cutting NASA
funding in order to reallocate that funding to more pressing matters like schools and education.
The reasoning behind this cut is to use the funds provided by tax payers that are going to NASA
and use them on planet Earth, instead of studying other planets or solar system. Studying other
planets help us better understand our planet which is a benefit that is not often seen because
research of space is rarely seen by the general public. Understanding why other planets are not
habitable can help us better identify key factors that will lead planet Earth on a path of becoming
uninhabitable. Some of these factors are greenhouse gasses that get released by just about every
piece of machinery we use as well as some beauty and cleaning products. Deforestation is
another factor that is not helping our planets sustainability. Planet Earth may not be the only
planet in the universe with living organisms that are connected with each other in what we call
the circle of life. Interstellar explores that possibility by introducing interplanetary aid, this is the
macro scale of humanitarian relieve efforts. If a more advance species did exist would they help
us evolve or would they destroy us? The movie Interstellar does not spend much time explaining
the help that is being provided by this higher intelligence.
Although Professor Brand does not explain why Cooper was chosen. Professor Brand
does believes this higher intelligence has sent Cooper, so he could be part of NASAs mission to
find another habitable world for mankind to live in. Professor Brand and the group of scientist
reveal to Cooper that there is a wormhole created by unknown intelligent being-Aliens-that leads

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to other possibly inhabitable worlds. With planet Earths crops on a decline, Cooper and the
NASA scientist fear that Earth only has a few decades of life sustainability left. The keystone
figure that kept most of Interstellar scientifically accurate was Kip Thorne, the celebrated
theoretical physicist from Caltech who literally wrote the booknumerous books, actuallyon
much of the cosmology referenced in the movie (Kluger). He was signed by the movies
director Christopher Nolan as a consultant. As Jeffrey Kluger wrote in the article What
Interstellar got right and wrong about science Nolan enlisted Caltech cosmologist Kip Thorne
as the films technical adviser, and Thorne kept a whip hand on the production, ensuring that the
storyline hewed as closely as possible to the head-crackingly complex physics that govern the
universe. Complex physics is not needed to understand how multifaceted the universe is. Just
examine the effects space has on the human body as Jeffrey Kluger points out in the cover story
Mission Twinpossible from Time Magazine Eyes without gravity, fluids shift upward, putting
pressure on the optic nerve and eyeball. This may lead to a loss of visual acuity. The eyes are
not the only body part that suffers but also the skin as the Mission Twinpossible cover story once
again points out Skin thins and loses elasticity. It may also become more sensitive. Wounds may
take longer to heal, and infections may be more common. With these risks and more, astronauts
still carrier out missions and scientific research to help us better understand the universe thus is
why Professor Brand looked to space for the salvation of the human species.
Professor Brand and the other scientist revealed NASA's "Lazarus missions" to Cooper.
These missions were launched with the intent to gather information from the possibly inhabitable
worlds that would be reached via wormhole. Some information has been sent back to NASA
from some of the astronauts that went on this mission. Other astronauts information has stopped
transmitting, which lead Professor Brand and the other scientist to believe that the astronauts in

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those planets were no longer alive. The planets closes to earth are Miller, Edmunds, and Mann,
which orbit a black hole named Gargantua; these planets were named after the astronauts that
went to gather data.
Professor Brand convinces Cooper that the survival of the human race depends on him
joining the mission and piloting the spacecraft Endurance. NASAs objectives for this mission
consist of gathering the data from the planets, Miller, Edmunds, Mann, to determine which
planet is the most habitable. If one planet is deemed habitable, Professor Brand promises Cooper
that mankind will be sent to that planet via space station; therefore, being reunited with his
children. Cooper accepts the mission and leaves Murphy devastated. Cooper is accompanied by
biologist Amelia, scientists Romilly, Doyle, and two artificially intelligent robots TARS and
CASE. TARS and CASE help pilot the spacecraft along with providing humor and
companionship. TARS and CASE have a simplistic looking-build; they look like four rectangular
prisms that make up one bigger rectangular prism. That can voluntarily move any four parts.
Although the mechanics seem simple, the software is complex and self-teaching. TARS and
CASE have programmable personality features like humor, trust, and honesty. The user can
change the robots humor levels as well as trust and honesty levels. For example, there is a scene
in the movie where Cooper changes the humor setting on TARS because the robot was getting a
little carried away with the joke. The robots humanity setting are portrayed so accurately in
Interstellar that it is hard to image TARS and CASE being artificially created. Thinking of them
as implanted humans inside machines is almost more believable because of the way they interact
with the other characters.

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The race to create artificial intelligence has long been on its way. Advances in technology
have made our daily life more intractable with technology. For example our smartphones can
now monitor our heart rate with a Bluetooth wrist band. Our homes are becoming more
technology based. That technology allows us to communicate with our homes from our phones
all while not physically being there. TARS and CASE are a lot more advanced than any of our
smartphone or even computers. These artificially intelligent machines are able to interact with
the characters with no delay. They use voice recognition to differentiate between the character
and they interact with them differently as well. The most advance form of personal computer
analysis we currently have goes to advertisement. Adverting and ecommerce companies use
software that tracks our internet habits and predicts what kinds of merchandise we might like.
These techniques used by companies are highly controversial, but what if computers were able to
track our feelings and interactions with other humans. Would these computers help use better
ourselves or maybe even help us evaluate potential spouses? Will they withhold information
from us in order to better our lifes? This is what TARS does in the movie Interstellar.
TARS keeps a secret from Amelia Brand in one of the final scenes from Interstellar.
Cooper, Brand, and, TARS are trying to escape a black hole, in order to do that Cooper tells
Brand that they need to release TARS in order to lighten the space craft. Cooper does not tell
Brand that he will also be leaving the space craft in a smaller vessel. TARS knew this but did not
inform Brand because TARS knew if he did; it, would only cause unnecessary conflict between
Cooper and Brand. Those capabilities of artificial intelligence frighten people and scientist.
Having machines that can choose what to tell us and what to withhold is scary, but the way
TARS is portrayed in Interstellar is what we hope artificial intelligence can be, a trust worthy
machine.

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Developing artificial intelligence that is self-sufficient is important for the study of space
because they would not be limited by the complexity of the human psyche. Having artificial
intelligence that can assess dangers in real time would save us years of research, and would
eliminate the potential losses of human lives due to the unknown variables of space. If we sent an
artificially intelligent machine to planet Mars instead of a machine that needs a human to operate
it. Would allow the machine to wonder and explore Mars freely and rapidly. An AI machine
would calculate its own dangers and limitation, which would eliminate any human uncertainty or
error. As Christopher Nolan said in an interview by Jeff Jensen in the article End without infinity
is but a new beginning. You have an intellectual commitment to duty, you know you are doing
the right thing, but you have your emotional response to these things, too. How do you weigh
them? These felt like interesting questions, and I wanted the audience to ask them consciously.
Connecting ones self with the universe can come at a devastating price. That price being the
acceptance from society. Humans are social creatures and a sense of acceptance is need for a
healthy mindset. A healthy mind allows us to have positive experiences, which gives our lives
enjoyment. Where does the line of acceptance and morality meet? In order to bring the line or
lines that divide our natural instincts; to be part, and be accepted by a community closer to our
moral compass that allows us to accept and be satisfied with every decision we make requires
knowledge, wisdom, compaction, and unfortunately time. Our technology has been advancing
much faster than our society. With gender inequality and other unalienable rights still and issue
in this world. A social revolution will come into play as history has proven time and time again
with issues like slavery, and the progress of civil rights. These issues took way too long to be
resolved in the United States of America. Why should we wait for a social revolution to be
forced upon us? We all have the power to make things happen sooner rather than later.

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Movies like Interstellar; that, use accurate science and portray it in a realistic fashion
will be the main contributors of a major social revolution. Movies are able to intrigue, inform,
and best of all enlighten the people that can actually make a change happen, which is each and
every one of us. Astronomy will become a powerful tool for story telling as Bill Andrews points
out in his article Hollywood Astronomy space and its mysteries will surely remain a source of
fascination and wonder regardless of how much we learn about the subject. And, being such a
fertile ground for new notions and unexpected mysteries, it's only natural that our species
regularly adopts the setting of space, and the science of astronomy, to tell some of its stories.
These stories will have a bigger impact as movies because movies are far more entertaining,
memorable, and convincing then any politician or activist. They are also much easier to
understand because they provide more visual and audible information. They also do not require
the viewer to be an expert in any field. As Brian Truitt points out in the article Interstellar'
doesn't require science degree it isn't necessary to be a walking encyclopedia on wormholes,
theoretical physics and the fifth dimension to dig Interstellar. Movies are the common day
equivalent of parables, which have been used for thousands of years for social change. Every
religion has stories they tell their followers to teach them moral and ethical values to better man
kind. Movies like Interstellar have the power to bring light to corporate corruption and greed;
lifestyle changes that can prolong live and bring forth happiness, and can demonstrate the
benefits of social interaction and compassion.

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Works Cited
Andrews, Bill. "Hollywood Astronomy." Astronomy 39.5 (2011): 52-55. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 26 Jan. 2015.
Brian, Truitt, Interstellar' doesn't require science degree. USA Today n.d.: Academic Search
Premier. Web. 13 Feb. 2015
Corliss, Richard. "Review: Interstellar Shows The Wonder Of Worlds Beyond." Time.Com
(2014): 1. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Feb. 2015.
Hoffman, Jascha. "Q&A: The Sci-Fi Adviser." Nature 475.7356 (2011): 295. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 26 Jan. 2015.
Jensen, Jeff. "END WITHOUT INFINITY IS BUT A NEW BEGINNING Dejan Stojanovi,
The Sun Watches The Sun. (Cover Story)."Entertainment Weekly 1334 (2014): 20-28.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Feb. 2015.
Kluger, Jeffrey. "Mission Twinpossible. (Cover Story)." Time 184.26/27 (2014): 34-38.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 12 Mar. 2015.
Kluger, Jeffrey. "The Art Of Science. (Cover Story)." Time 184.18 (2014): 42-48. Academic
Search Premier. Web. 13 Feb. 2015.
Kluger, Jeffrey. "What Interstellar Got Right And Wrong About Science." Time.Com (2014):
N.PAG. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Feb. 2015.