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Kickle
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Registered: 12/16/06
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The Man From Earth
#14097968 - 03/10/11 01:41 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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So I just watched this movie on Netflix yesterday and thought it would be a pretty fun one to discuss. I'm not sure if anyone else has seen it, so i'll give a little background: The premise is that a neolithic era man has survived until the present day, never moving past the physical age of ~35 years. That means his neurons are not decaying, and the capacity to learn remains in tact. So for the last 14,000 years he has been learning.
Now, the movie revolves around discovering whether or not this guy is for real. So I thought it might be kind of interesting for the forum to do likewise. What kind of clues would you look for to see if this was for real of BS? Setting aside the impossibility of living 14,000 years, that is.
What would you expect his psychological constitution to be? What kind of memories would you expect? Would you expect his knowledge to be superior to anyone elses? How about his survival skills, like hunting and fishing?
This is just for the fun of a thought experiment, throw out whatever.
-------------------- Why shouldn't the truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense. -- Mark Twain
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Shroomerette
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Re: The Man From Earth [Re: Kickle]
#14098049 - 03/10/11 01:54 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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I've seen it! It's one of my favorite movies. I think that the things he says in the movie make lot of sense, especially about how you might expect him to be a super-genius since he's been alive for so long, but he's really just average because he can't really know more than the smartest person at the time.
One thing that crossed my mind when considering that though is how much knowledge was lost for so long, how frustrating it might have been for him to know things that nobody else knows or would believe. For example, the ancient greeks were more advanced technologically than europeans during the dark ages. I think it would have been hard for me to see people forget all of the advances that had been made in the past and suffer because of it.
I would expect him to have excellent survival skills, but other than that I think it would be really hard to tell any difference from the average modern person. I would also expect him to be fluent in tons of languages, probably even fluent in some dead languages (which would be hard to prove since nobody knows them anymore).
I loved how he made the christian lady have a breakdown when she started being convinced .
-------------------- Leaving the shroomery forever
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery



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You're correct, I do have excellent survival skills.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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Kickle
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Registered: 12/16/06
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Yeah it is worth a watch IMO. Covers a lot of the human superiority complex and highlights a lot of wisdom teachings. I thought the main character was really well developed in its subtle ways. Nothing overt but lots of hints. Even down to the aspect of wanting to share who he is despite knowing nothing good can really come of it. Emotionally you'd think he would have learned not to need to do that, but even after all this time he is still just a human.
-------------------- Why shouldn't the truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense. -- Mark Twain
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Icelander
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Re: The Man From Earth [Re: Kickle]
#14099309 - 03/10/11 05:19 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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I think The Man Who Fell to Earth is a much better movie.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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Kickle
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Re: The Man From Earth [Re: Icelander]
#14099618 - 03/10/11 06:09 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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What's it about?
-------------------- Why shouldn't the truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense. -- Mark Twain
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Icelander
The Minstrel in the Gallery



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Re: The Man From Earth [Re: Kickle]
#14099735 - 03/10/11 06:29 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074851/
It's quite a powerful movie imo. Bowies first and best.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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