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The Ars guide to time travel in the movies
Since antiquity, humans have envisioned various means of time travel into the future or the past. The concept has since become a staple of modern science fiction. In particular, the number of films that make use of time travel has increased significantly over the decades, while the real-world science has evolved right alongside them, moving from simple Newtonian mechanics and general relativity to quantum mechanics and the notion of a multiverse or more exotic alternatives like string theory.
But not all time-travel movies are created equal. Some make for fantastic entertainment but the time travel makes no scientific or logical sense, while others might err in the opposite direction, sacrificing good storytelling in the interests of technical accuracy. What we really need is a handy guide to help us navigate this increasingly crowded field to ensure we get the best of both worlds, so to speak. The Ars Guide to Time Travel in the Movies is here to help us all make better, more informed decisions when it comes to choosing our time travel movie fare.
This is not meant to be an exhaustive list; rather, we selected films that represented many diverse approaches to time travel across multiple subgenres and decades. We then evaluated each one—grading on a curve—with regard to its overall entertainment value and scientific logic, with the final combined score determining a film's spot on the overall ranking. For the "science" part of our scoring system, we specifically took three factors into account. First and foremost, does the time travel make logical sense? Second, is the physical mechanism of time travel somewhat realistic? And third, does the film use time travel in narratively interesting ways? So a movie like Looper, which makes absolutely no sense if you think about it too hard, gets points for weaving time paradoxes thoroughly into the fabric of the story.
How Sam Altman Returned to OpenAI
On Friday, Sam Altman was pushed out of the hot A.I. start-up he ran. But an intense pressure campaign and negotiations brought him back.
Best Black Friday Robot Vacuum Deals
The robots are coming ... for your floors. If all you want for Christmas are clean carpets, check out some of the bargains you can grab this Black Friday on the best robot vacuums and mops you can buy.
From simple suckers like the Roborock's Q5 Pro that will best pet hair, to the all-singing, all-mopping DreameBot L20 Ultra, the prices are falling as hard as these robots can suck up dirt.
Here's my pick of the best deals out there this holiday shopping week.
Analysis of False or Misleading Claims on Social Media
An analysis of 30 posts on X from large accounts with false or misleading claims on the Israel-Hamas war found 200 ads from 86 brands and others below 24 posts.
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