It’s a slightly click-baity title, but as we’re still generating more content for our magazines, this one included, why not?
My Sci-fi unpopular opinion is that 2001: A Space Odyssey is nothing but pretentious, LSD fueled nonsense. I’ve tried watching it multiple times and each time I have absolutely no patience for the pointless little scenes which contain little to no depth or meaningful plot, all coalescing towards that 15 minute “journey” through space and series of hallucinations or whatever that are supposed to be deep, shake you to your foundations, and make you re-think the whole human condition.
But it doesn’t. Because it’s just pretentious, LSD fueled nonsense. Planet of the Apes was released in the same year and is, on every level, a better Sci-fi movie. It offers mystery, a consistent and engaging plot, relatable characters you actually care about, and asks a lot more questions about the world and our place in it.
Problem: the basic Newtonian mechanics involve the subtle gravitational influence of absolutely everything in the universe, all of which is in constant motion. You can estimate where the Earth was/will be, but not calculate it with anything close to complete certainty.
For all we know, our galaxy was yanked 40 megameters to the left by a black hole passing by its core 26,741 years ago, so your estimate of Earth’s position 250 years ago is slightly off…and by “slightly” I mean your time machine deposits you in high Earth orbit. Oops.