Jie chu wei lai = - Gatti Ninja

VITI reviewed Contacto by Carl Sagan

La radioastronomía es divertida

4 stars

Content warning Un poco del contenido, pero nada serio.

Lo primero de todo es que resulta un libro más accesible de lo que pensaba, sin llegar a hacer divulgación total, Sagan ha sabido darle un atractivo inmenso a la radioastronomía, a capturar señales de radio.

Plantea interesantes cuestiones, religión, escepticismo, papel de la ciencia en el mundo, política y gobiernos, actitude las masas y la prensa. Y cómo podría estar preparada la humanidad ante el descubrimiento de que no estamos solos en los universos.

Toda la primera parte del libro me ha tenido absorbido, la segunda un poco menos porque no se puede mantener ese envite todo el rato, y la parte final pues me ha parecido un poco descorazonadora.

Hay ciertos personajes secundarios que se quedan bastante diluidos, al haber ciertos saltos temporales, algunas actitudes de esos personajes quedan un poco confusas.

La química entre Vaygay y Ellie me gusta mucho, soy fan de esas conversaciones topicazas URSS vs. USA en guerra fría.

Sorprende desde el principio sobre todo en un alegato sobre la desigualdad y trato condescendiente de la mujer en la ciencia, sin tapujos y directa. Junto con otra crítica clarísima a la endogamia universitaria y su paternalismo. También hay una fantásticas cuestiones religiosas que asumo que siguen creando ampollas a ciertos sectores fundamentalistas.

Noisy Deadlines reviewed Contact by Carl Sagan

Review of 'Contact' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

I am a huge fan of Carl Sagan and somehow I haven't read this book before. I have seen the movie probably in the beginning of 2000 but I really didn't remember the details of the story so I decided to finally read the book and forget the movie.

I love the idea of this book! And, of course, Dr. Ellie Arroway, the scientist genius that built her way up to being the director of “Project Argus”, a radio telescope institute for research into SETI (“search for extraterrestrial intelligence”). The mix of real scientific research and science fiction is done brilliantly, making us wonder why we haven't received any signal from space yet? It is very plausible. Of course, SETI is a real program that still exists but we haven't any search results after more than 50 years.

Although the book was written in the 80's, with a Cold War …

I am a huge fan of Carl Sagan and somehow I haven't read this book before. I have seen the movie probably in the beginning of 2000 but I really didn't remember the details of the story so I decided to finally read the book and forget the movie.

I love the idea of this book! And, of course, Dr. Ellie Arroway, the scientist genius that built her way up to being the director of “Project Argus”, a radio telescope institute for research into SETI (“search for extraterrestrial intelligence”). The mix of real scientific research and science fiction is done brilliantly, making us wonder why we haven't received any signal from space yet? It is very plausible. Of course, SETI is a real program that still exists but we haven't any search results after more than 50 years.

Although the book was written in the 80's, with a Cold War political background, the religious, political and scientific ethics discussions are amazing. It raises questions about the purpose of humanity, the dangers (and fears) of contacting an alien species, the importance and the flaws of religion, the utopic search for peace and so on.

Another point that amazed me is that Ellie is a feminist brilliant scientist written by a man in the 80's. I identified myself with her because she is a girl that pursued her interests into a field usually dominated by men. If we look at sci-fi written around this period it's very uncommon to have a female protagonist like her.

Alex

rated it

Sept. 6, 2017