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Comment by _8jmg | Hacker News Reader

The movie addresses this. Since the entire point of the heptapods visit is to force humans to learn their language, it makes sense that they would force humanity to "work it out."

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Why would it make sense? There's nothing supporting the idea that if we "work it out" we will understand better, faster, or some other kind of -er. It's certainly an easy way out, but I at least find it unsatisfying.

That's a fair criticism, though I would assume that since the heptapods can see the future, there's some rationale for specifically wanting "Louise" to learn the language first instead of just distributing a copy of "Heptapod for dummies."

Yeah I tried to go that route but acting upon knowledge of the future is a narrative slippery slope. It's valid for a story setup I think, but not for explaining details. The movie acts like memories of the future are not fully under one's control and, with that imperfect knowledge, you can't expect humans or aliens to make perfect plans or optimal choices. But when memories come right when needed to solve situations like Chang's ultimatum, well, no more suspension of disbelief for me.

I got the sense that the memories of the future being beyond Louise's control was due to her novice level command of heptapod. The heptapods seem to know events 3000 years in advance, so it seems they can plan well. Also, they seemed undisturbed by Abbot's death which leads me to believe they were also aware that would happen.

Which is also something interesting to consider. Death is probably less bothersome if your perception of time is non-linear.

Actually there is, in the (stated in the movie) supposition that what you can think about is bounded by the language you think with. Corr.: learn a different langauge, change how your brain processes your experience. So learning Heptapod changes your sensation of time, because time is a fundamental component of the language. Note how her future experiences become more detailed, less fragmented, and more focussed on "current" context, as she learns more about thinking in Heptapod. Not just revealing it to us, the audience: showing its progressive revelations to her. And then she writes the book on it, for the rest of us. And thus closes the loop.

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