Nightfall

It's hard for me to believe this science fiction short story. I mean, a planet that does not experience nightfall except once in every 2, 049 years? That's incredible! I can't imagine living on that planet. On our planet Earth, there is always a nightfall, which takes place when the sun sets at west. And that's the normal thing for us. We experience it everyday and we could not imagine if there's a sudden change on that routine.
However, in Nightfall, a story written by Isaac Asimov, there is a planet called Lagash which has six suns that keeps the whole planet continuously illuminated and total darkness is unknown. I wonder where that planet is or does it even exist? As far as we know, there is only one planet that is capable of life and that's Earth. However, there is a confusion to it because of the sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) which only means that there is still life living on another planets. Anyways, that is not yet proven. It still remains as a mystery that we are still trying to find out. For now, I would say that the story is pure fiction.
When a group of scientists from Saro University begin to make a series of related discoveries that the planet would soon experience nightfall, they are afraid that the world would be destroyed in a darkness with the appearance of stars that unleash a torrent of fire. Since the people of Lagash has never experienced universal darkness, the scientists conclude that the darkness would result to worldwide panic and people would be traumatized and would go insane from fear and claustrophobia. When the nightfall occurs, the scientists and the rest of the planet are surprised by the sight of previously-invisible stars outside the six-star system filling the sky. And that's how the story ends.
The story also touched the Book of Revelations, in which we can read of how the Earth would end or what we call Armageddon. They are thinking that the nightfall is the way in which God would end the Earth. It is possible, isn't it? Anyways, I find the story interesting. As I was researching about this story, I have learned that this story gained several awards. It was even adapted into a novel and was a major motion picture on 1988. Thus, Isaac Asimov deserves a two-thumbs up for a fantastic story.

S1M0NE (Movie Review)

People’s minds are really so advance. I have already read and watched several science fiction books and films. I could hardly believe some but I admit that they are fabulous. Like the sci-fi film shown to us in our IT 101 class entitled S1m0ne, I was really hooked by the movie. It is hard for me to believe it but I know soon, through humans’ great capacity of thinking, it could be possible. Technological advancement is continuous, so for now, let us think that everything is possible. As what Simone, the central character in the movie, said: “Never stop believing.”
Let me discuss something about the movie. Simone is Director Viktor Taransky's synthetic actress. She is a computer-generated woman, a feature of a program his friend Hank Aleno gives him. Taransky uses her in his movies and fortunately, she gives a fantastic performance. The whole world is really amazed by her. She becomes so famous and gains a lot of fans across the world. She even wins the Academy Award for Best Actress.
However, the problem comes; the world soon starts to ask if who Simone is. Taransky can’t show her in person, because she is not real. She just appears in interviews in the television but not live. Then, two people challenge him to showcase Simone live. Through a hologram, she appears on the stage, like a real, genuine person. This makes her more popular.
Nevertheless, the time comes that Taransky gets sick of maintaining his lies, gets sick of the attention Simone needs, and thus having to come up with the fake interviews and attend press conferences. So he decides to destroy her. He involves her in a zoophilia film entitled I Am Pig and makes her appear in an interview where she is so messy. But, his plans fail. People continue to love her. So he comes up with the last option: using a computer virus to erase the program.
Having accused that he killed Simone, Taransky is arrested and taken to the police station. There he admits that Simone is just a computer program, that she is not real. But they could hardly believe what he is saying. Fortunately, Taransky’s daughter discovers a virus floppy disk in the computer in his studio and revives Simone. He is then freed. The movie ends showing an interview of Simone with Taransky sitting on a sofa while Simone is holding her baby.
I think this movie would give an idea to the movie industries to make a program like Simulation One. But I think it would be unacceptable. What would happen to the movie actors and actresses? And of course it’s hard to idolize an imaginary person. Although we have favorite cartoon characters, real people are still incomparable.
Overall, this sci-fi film is awesome. I would give two thumbs up to it!