Arrival, and Ted Chiang's Story of Your Life

Seeing the Past, Present, and Future Simultaneously

Louise Banks discovers that her daughter will eventually die from an incurable disease (in the movie) or a climbing accident (in the novella). Yet she chooses not to avoid this fate, but to live through it exactly as it is. It’s a bit more complex than simply saying, “I will accept my predetermined destiny.”

Fermat’s Principle of Least Time

Light always takes the path that requires the least amount of time to reach its destination.

(Side note: this was my first time using Procreate!)

When light travels from the air to a destination underwater, it doesn’t just bend passively because of the refractive indices of air and water. Instead, before it even departs, light already knows where it will end up, choosing on its own the fastest path to that destination. It almost makes light feel like a conscious being.

Ways of Viewing the Universe: Causal vs. Teleological Worldviews

We are used to interpreting events chronologically and causally. When a force is applied to an object, the object changes direction. Cause, then effect.

The Heptapods, however, live life as a process of fulfilling a journey, already knowing the ending before it even begins.

Saying “my destiny turned out this way because of my past actions” is a fundamentally different way of thinking from “I already know my destiny, but I am choosing to walk this path.” And yet these two worldviews do not contradict each other. They can describe the exact same phenomenon.

Louise’s life works the same way. Her life is a single set of events. We can read it as “her choices caused her life to turn out this way,” or, like the Heptapods, as “she knew the ending and performed the path.” The events don’t change at all. Only the way of telling them does.

From a Linguistic Perspective

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: the language we use determines the way we think.

The Heptapod language: a complete separation of spoken and written language. Rather than arranging elements one by one to form a sentence, their sentences are circular. The beginning and the end connect, and every component is drawn and completed at the same time. This means the writer already knows the beginning and the end of the sentence before they even start writing. Their language and their thinking are non-linear, untethered by time.

Performative utterances: at a wedding, all the guests know the couple is getting married, but the union is only fulfilled when the words “I now pronounce you husband and wife” are actually spoken aloud. The Heptapods’ language is like a recitation. It’s like performing given lines and actions in a play.

As Louise internalizes the Heptapod language, she becomes fully aware of her tragic future. Yet instead of trying to escape it, she chooses to perform it, step by step.

The story poses a fascinating question: “What if the experience of knowing the future creates a sense of urgency, an obligation to act exactly as you know you will?”

A Quick Observation on Numbers

• The number of UFOs that landed on Earth in the movie: 12
• The age when Hannah dies: 12
• The number of deaths in the mass suicide reported in the news: 12² = 144 (mind-blowing…)

Professor Kim Sang-wook’s interpretation: there are no inherently meaningful numbers. The numbers that carry meaning all came from the sky. 12 is a number derived from the cycles of the Moon, the Earth, and the Sun.

Final Thoughts

I honestly thought sci-fi wasn’t for me, but I’ve belatedly discovered Ted Chiang. Now I finally understand the saying, “If you want to see the future of humanity, read SF.”

I’m currently making my way through the rest of his short stories.