Time Travel in The 4400
Jul. 19th, 2011 03:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wolven7It's always interesting to see how shows which paly around with time deal with the problems of predetermination and free will. In The 4400, the character of Jordan Collier is a man who has literally been to the future and back (1), and who works to change what he saw there. This suggests that, in this series, time and the events therein are mutable. This isn't just speculation. They have very clearly shown that actions by and attitudes of those in the "present" can and will change the "future" (2), and that the actions if those sent to our "past" can change what we know and experience of our "present" (3). Time and Events are not Fixed Points. the entire narrative of the show is predicated on this being a Fact. And yet...
The character of Maia Skouris (née Rutledge) is a little girl with precognitive abilities; she sees the future, and whatever she sees, absent the intervention of others, becomes reality. Some things seen in predictions are more mutable than others; some are physical facts (weather, &c.), while others are about the actions and attitudes of human beings. It is this latter category which is the most interesting, becasue if a person can change their future-- and we've shown that they can-- and they are given the information about a particular event, then just having that knowledge changes the nature of the future event. In some casesm the person or persons involved wouldn't have ever been in the situation, had they not been told about it (This is a form of what's known as the "Predetermination Paradox." But you know that, already), while in others, their actons can and do change the nature of the timeline.
Now, with all of this being said, shouldn't those working toward what they consider to be a better future, be of a fundamentally optimistic mentality? I say this because, if everything can change everything, and all it takes is resolve and action to change potential futures, and we know for a fact the nature of some of those futures, then all we have to do is find a way to to inform others of the nature of the catastrophe, and then use their understanding to change it.
And we can carp on for hours about analogies to climate change and peak oilm but the fact of the matter is, if there were an Apocalyptic Event wherein people from various points in the past all came back at once, and they were all the same ages as they were when they disappeared, and they all had strange abilities, and then were revealed to have been taken to the fucking future?! And brought back specifically to end the status quo which leads to a world-shattering catastrophe? I think more people would hear them out. Not everyone, mind you-- there would still be "4400 Change Deniers," because people are different, and some people do explicitly want an elite few to control all of the world's resources-- but enough people to change the tenor and nature of the conversation; to make people question their underlying assumptions about so-called human nature and otherness and long-term thinking and planning.
In a way, The 4400 can be cast as a war, not between good and evil, but between those who believe that people can grow and change and should be allowed to do so-- to become better than they are-- and those who believe that people are a cattle, fit only to be shuffled around and manipulated to suit the ends of the powerful. This latter group believes that this has always been the case, and that it always should and will be the case; People Don't Change. And even if they do, what good does it do them? But Jordan Collier has direct evidence that this latter mentality is wrong, as dp Diana Skouris and Tom Baldwin, but they are all often portrayed as approaching people as if there is no changing them. They behave as if Isabel, or the Nova Group, or whomever else they deem to be a "bad guy" always will be bad guys. When maybe, as we see in some of Maia's preditions, they're only "bad" because they are thought to and told that they will be such. Perhaps if Jordan hadn't cast out Isabel, he could have swayed her to produce the Promicin serum with him, rather than having to steal it after she felt forced to work with Ryland. And maybe if NTAC hadn't regarded the Nova Group as unrepentant terrorists, they could have come to understand their grievances, and worked to change the world's attitudes and behaviours.
Again, the show The 4400 is fundamentally based on the premise that people can change and that the future isn't set in stone. This says to me that this show believes that we can all be better than we were and are, and we can all share this world with those we deem "other," and we can all do more with it. Every aspect of the show and the characters within it are at their best when they are engaged in the idea that things can and will change for the better, if they simply work at it. When they don't-- when they hold grudges or otherwise allow their present feelings to get in the way of what they know to be physical and metaphysical Fact ("The Future Can Change And I Can Change It")-- then they just seem... naïve.
I really wish this show had gotten it's fifth and final season...
1: Episodes 3.10, 3.11, 3.12,
2: Shawn's gift from Claudio Borghi in "The Starzl Mutation" (3.10)
3: Episodes 3.4 and 3.5, "Gone."
The character of Maia Skouris (née Rutledge) is a little girl with precognitive abilities; she sees the future, and whatever she sees, absent the intervention of others, becomes reality. Some things seen in predictions are more mutable than others; some are physical facts (weather, &c.), while others are about the actions and attitudes of human beings. It is this latter category which is the most interesting, becasue if a person can change their future-- and we've shown that they can-- and they are given the information about a particular event, then just having that knowledge changes the nature of the future event. In some casesm the person or persons involved wouldn't have ever been in the situation, had they not been told about it (This is a form of what's known as the "Predetermination Paradox." But you know that, already), while in others, their actons can and do change the nature of the timeline.
Now, with all of this being said, shouldn't those working toward what they consider to be a better future, be of a fundamentally optimistic mentality? I say this because, if everything can change everything, and all it takes is resolve and action to change potential futures, and we know for a fact the nature of some of those futures, then all we have to do is find a way to to inform others of the nature of the catastrophe, and then use their understanding to change it.
And we can carp on for hours about analogies to climate change and peak oilm but the fact of the matter is, if there were an Apocalyptic Event wherein people from various points in the past all came back at once, and they were all the same ages as they were when they disappeared, and they all had strange abilities, and then were revealed to have been taken to the fucking future?! And brought back specifically to end the status quo which leads to a world-shattering catastrophe? I think more people would hear them out. Not everyone, mind you-- there would still be "4400 Change Deniers," because people are different, and some people do explicitly want an elite few to control all of the world's resources-- but enough people to change the tenor and nature of the conversation; to make people question their underlying assumptions about so-called human nature and otherness and long-term thinking and planning.
In a way, The 4400 can be cast as a war, not between good and evil, but between those who believe that people can grow and change and should be allowed to do so-- to become better than they are-- and those who believe that people are a cattle, fit only to be shuffled around and manipulated to suit the ends of the powerful. This latter group believes that this has always been the case, and that it always should and will be the case; People Don't Change. And even if they do, what good does it do them? But Jordan Collier has direct evidence that this latter mentality is wrong, as dp Diana Skouris and Tom Baldwin, but they are all often portrayed as approaching people as if there is no changing them. They behave as if Isabel, or the Nova Group, or whomever else they deem to be a "bad guy" always will be bad guys. When maybe, as we see in some of Maia's preditions, they're only "bad" because they are thought to and told that they will be such. Perhaps if Jordan hadn't cast out Isabel, he could have swayed her to produce the Promicin serum with him, rather than having to steal it after she felt forced to work with Ryland. And maybe if NTAC hadn't regarded the Nova Group as unrepentant terrorists, they could have come to understand their grievances, and worked to change the world's attitudes and behaviours.
Again, the show The 4400 is fundamentally based on the premise that people can change and that the future isn't set in stone. This says to me that this show believes that we can all be better than we were and are, and we can all share this world with those we deem "other," and we can all do more with it. Every aspect of the show and the characters within it are at their best when they are engaged in the idea that things can and will change for the better, if they simply work at it. When they don't-- when they hold grudges or otherwise allow their present feelings to get in the way of what they know to be physical and metaphysical Fact ("The Future Can Change And I Can Change It")-- then they just seem... naïve.
I really wish this show had gotten it's fifth and final season...
1: Episodes 3.10, 3.11, 3.12,
2: Shawn's gift from Claudio Borghi in "The Starzl Mutation" (3.10)
3: Episodes 3.4 and 3.5, "Gone."
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no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 08:13 am (UTC)I need readers to proof an occult cyberpunk thriller. In?
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 05:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 01:35 am (UTC)I'll find out in about two days. I'm suspecting novel, but I can never be sure until after. These things never announce themselves for me, they just arrive on their own terms and to hell with what I think about it. If novel it will be by installments.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 04:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 05:42 am (UTC)Shall I send you the first fully completed part (chapter/ette), and you can decide? Or would you rather wait til I have a better idea of how long it will be?
no subject
Date: 2011-07-23 04:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 04:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 05:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 08:27 pm (UTC)Dear god.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 09:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 11:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 12:21 am (UTC)