Sunshine

I just watched the trailer for the new Danny Boyle (whom I like) movie Sunshine. The plot takes place fifty years into the future when our Sun is on it's last legs (or nuclear reactions). A group of daring, rag-tag kids is sent on a mission to get the Sun burning again before it's too late. Now, I concede that I have no idea how they plan on ending this movie, but the concept bugs the hell out of me. I have explored the thematic concept of the assured end of human life on this planet via the Sun expiring. There is nothing we can do in this case. Perhaps that is what the movie explores. To be fair, I can't say, but the fact remains that we will most certainly perish when that case arises. Hurl the entirety of the Earth's nuclear arsenal at it, and the Sun will keep on dying. Humans have no hand in cosmic events. We are at the mercy of the universe. No amount of Hollywood determination or ingenuity is going to be able to convince the universe that we can live in it. The Sun will one day expire, and if we haven't already, or whatever form of life is still around at that point, we will expire with it. I'm not telling you to be scared or sad. I'm saying that human spirit has limits. And I'm saying that we have a very unrealistic view about just what those limits may be.