Starship Asterisk*

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=31367 wrote:
Roland Emmerich Finds Singularity
Sony has bought his new film

30 June 2011 | James White

<<Though he’s opted to put aside his destructive tendencies for Shakespeare-focused authorial conspiracy drama Anonymous, it didn’t take long for Roland Emmerich to start hankering after a bigger scale and – likely – more chaos. He’s recently been courted to direct the adaptation of video game classic Asteroids, but now he’s also set up an intriguing new project at Sony called Singularity.

It’s strictly a working title for now, and could change if Roland Joffe gets his similarly-named time-spanning drama up and running first. Both Sony and the director are staying coy on any real details, with Deadline only able to ferret out that it’s science fiction, appears to be pitched at blockbuster/tent pole scale and will feature a script co-written by Emmerich and 2012’s Harald Kloser.

So though they’re naturally being evasive at this early stage, the way is clear for us to indulge in a little hit-the-dictionary plot prediction!

The most obvious definition of the term is the posh science term for a black hole, or “a hypothetical point in space-time at which matter is infinitely compressed to infinitesimal volume.” Could Emmerich be coming up with a way to destroy not only the Earth but lots of other planets and stars too? We can almost hear the review headline writers clapping their hands with glee at the possible chance to write "It really sucks!” (which technically black holes don't precisely do).

But singularity can also refer to the point in time in which technological intelligence finally supersedes that of its human creators. Maybe he’s thinking about a tech menace to society?

We’ll find out soon enough: though he’s got other projects swimming about, including his long-planned take on Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, part of Sony’s deal for the pitch includes a planned US release date of May 17, 2013. Which means he’ll be getting to work on it sooner rather than later.

Before any of that, Anonymous will arrive on September 28.>>

Beyond wrote:Hey--that seemed to work better than the Pied Piper of Hamlin, as it also flushed out the sewers

• • The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning
  And ere three shrill notes the pipe uttered,
  You heard as if an army muttered;
  And the muttering grew to a grumbling;
  And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling;
  And out of the houses the rats came tumbling.
  Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats,
  Brown rats, black rats, gray rats, tawny rats,
  Grave old plodders, gay young friskers,
  Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins,
  Cocking tails and pricking whiskers,
  Families by tens and dozens,
  Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives--
  Followed the Piper for their lives.
  From street to street he piped advancing,
  And step for step they followed dancing,
  Until they came to the river Weser
  Wherein all plunged and perished!
  ‹Save one who, stout as Julius Caesar,
  Swam across and lived to carry
  (As the manuscript he cherished)
  To Rat-land home his commentary:
  Which was, "At the first shrill notes of the pipe,
  I heard a sound as of scraping tripe,
  And putting apples, wondrous ripe,
  Into a cider-press's gripe:
  And a moving away of pickle-tub-boards,
  And a leaving ajar of conserve-cupboards,
  And a drawing the corks of train-oil-flasks,
  And a breaking the hoops of butter-casks:
  And it seemed as if a voice
  (Sweeter far than by harp or by psaltery
  Is breathed) called out, 'Oh rats, rejoice!
  The world is grown to one vast dry-saltery!
  So munch on, crunch on, take your nuncheon,
  Breakfast, supper, dinner, luncheon!'
  And just as a bulky sugar-puncheon,
  All ready staved, like a great sun shone
  Glorious scarce an inch before me,
  Just as methought it said 'Come bore me!'
  -- I found the Weser rolling o'er me."

• Julius Caesar Act I, scene II

my mystification when the professor kept talking about "singularities" causing turbulence.

rstevenson wrote:Using "singularities" to mean "unique and often unforeseen events" in human affairs illustrates the danger of terminology creep, where someone in, say, the humanities likes the sound of a term used in a hard science (in a specifically defined way, of course), but then uses that term in a loosely defined or at least a re-defined way in their own discipline.