Knowledge, Belief, and Intuition

Hello all, this is my first thread here. I'll be attempting to compile some of my thoughts on the subconscious and subjective elements in Prometheus and how that applies to knowledge and belief so I'll keep adding to it with the comments that follow. I created it to explore the possibilities of the relationship between the two in Prometheus, and how that may fuel some characters' actions because of their underlying psychologies and what can be described as a need to feel right, although not being right. Ego and personality based problem. It's not always so straight-forward because sometimes intuition is at play. A different form of belief that can lead one to the truth in some situations. Shaw's intuition is instrumental to her survival in the movie, though it may not appear so at first. She consciously and subconsciously combines aspects of both sides of her character (Scientist and believer) by allowing herself to choose what to believe (although she remains semi-logical). This combination allows the third element of intuition to be expressed consciously: Shaw instantly understands that if they created us there must be a creator of them because of a method of logical deduction + some things she may only subconsciously realize at this stage. In philosophy there are certain cases where the inverse of the truth has to be related to the premise of the statement if the statement is true. And this leads to other related premises that depend on the first being able to be thought of as true, if the premise is true. Sometimes the conclusion of one premise has to be true for the premises along the way to be also be true, and if the conclusion of any of those premises is false it negates the validity of the entire argument (but not the truthfulness of some of the individual pieces). Shaw is working backwards here through a form of inductive reasoning, a form b I really believe Ford or Vickers would not have made it through the story if placed in Shaw's shoes. I believe the Quiet Eye technology analyzes people's speech patterns for truthfulness, in a way, and observes the person for any signs of subtle personality disorders. But there's more to that story. The test being done to David in the David viral would be something similar and more so what I'll focus on. As we know Weyland had a huge ego. In my view all the themes about parents and children in this movie are related to the nature vs nurture debate in psychology, and much of Weyland's influence has rubbed off on the characters. There's a lot of data out there that indicates it's a mixture of cultural influences, upbringing, and genetic factors that contribute to a person's personality, as well as the choices they are likely to make. Weyland is King of the culture/company, and the "parent" of two of the members of the crew. A possible overlap can sometimes occur between knowledge and belief in some areas of study, and in application to human behaviour and cognitive/behavioral psychology. Archaeology is one such subject where people are supposed to recreate the truth from all of the available clues able to be dug up. The key is intuition, that sudden feeling that can sometimes instantly lead you to the right answer because you subconsciously already know it... Sometimes belief can lead to the quest for answers/data, and vice versa in Science. This is how hypotheses are formed from already existing pieces of evidence, and beliefs about what may be going on tested to find more data, forming new hypotheses about what may really be going on. The key is also finding the invalid hypotheses, rejecting them like a scientist would and altering the hypothesis around the evidence and rejected hypotheses as a scientist would. As the crew should be doing. As Shaw kind of does sometimes. In many of my comments I've attempted to show how there are many repeating themes in Prometheus. Ones that connect to the broader series, world mythologies/religion, psychology, Bladerunner, other movies and works of literature like Frankenstein or even American Beauty, how even a few archaeological principles can be applied. This movie is a mixture of things and there are unseen forces, and hidden and potential clues and references everywhere. For that reason I'll have to keep coming back here to compile my thoughts without getting into any of my own specific theories. The thing this has in common with American Beauty is that we can't fully understand David's perspective yet like Lester in American Beauty. It's because David doesn't give us a lot to go on even though he has a fair number of lines. On the surface it seems like he reveals the most, but the way he words things leaves things open to interpretation. I strongly believe David is portraying himself and his observations/analyses/ conclusions a certain way. Portraying his version of the truth, because the characters expect the truth and he may have to provide it to them. Occam's razor states the simplest explanation is the best answer. But the one fundamental flaw in this approach is revealed only when hypotheses start to become rejected. However, science and a certain degree of intuition can pick up where the true pieces of the old hypotheses left off. New theories are formed to account for the data, and inconsistencies... This is how we get closer to the truth in Prometheus. On the other hand, scientists can't allow true belief in their theories, instead it is only a form of intuition being used to drive the questions towards possibilities and to look for ways to test those new theories to gather more data. This is the instant intuitive epiphone that Shaw has when she realizes there must be a creator of the Engineers. She's not displaying her full thought process, but she knows, or strongly believes she knows almost instantly when Holloway challenges her beliefs (Shaw is still a little ego driven too and her flawed belief miraculously leads to her finding out the right thing). This is because in philosophy you can sometimes have a false premise that still leads to an accurate conclusion because the steps in between are valid and true. This leads Shaw to the right conclusion, but for the wrong reasons. Maybe someone who's studied philosophy a little more recently than I have can help add to this. Throughout the film Shaw is using a combination of deductive and inductive reasoning. When there's a lack of clues like in philosophy you sometimes have to engage in inductive reasoning and intuition. However, you can't use that alone it has to be combined with deductive reasoning, and Shaw's deductive reasoning is based on actual evidence and theories she's forming within her own mind. Maybe not as quickly as David, she hopes he can read it for her only because she needs to know and wants to know the answers to the big questions. She actually cares, unlike a lot of other characters in the story. Holloway gives up on reforming, or upgrading, or breaking down his theory to allow him to see other theories or even theories that complement his own when he thinks his beliefs have been rejected. He was totally expecting to meet something alive, and he didn't think "gods build in straight lines". So what was he expecting, a culture of immortal human-like beings?... I'll explain it through psychology. Correlation does not always equal causality. Two variables that are linked in some way may not have a direct cause and effect relationship on each other (we learned this from what we perceived of the trailers, ending up wrong when we initially thought it could be LV-426 and the derelict). There may actually be a third unseen variable, or other variables that are the true cause of both the variables that we have discovered some sort of link between. Sometimes two variables that appear to be the opposite of each other actually influence each other in such a way as to create a third variable which begins to affect both. Or a third separate unseen variable can even be causing the correlation between the two variables which are seen to have some sort of relation, but no causal relations to any of the variable. This is why experiments have to be conducted in certain ways that eliminate invalid hypotheses when they are proven false. Everyone makes mistakes but it's about not repeating mistakes. David is covering up all of the available data he could be offering up. This means he knows closer to the real truth than any other character is able to. Shaw is a cultural specialist so she can read people like how a psychologist would and apply that to general ways of human beings. Shaw may actually understand people a lot more than we think she does, and chooses not to let it show. In a way she is using David by not allowing him to let him know she knows he's lying (I'll get back to this later, I've covered it partially in past posts). It's about the hidden or the unseen aspects. The third in the trinity. The holy ghost that is not always apparent (represented in the film by holograms and hidden things at play like Weyland). In a way I view Prometheus as one big experiment. David's experiment. He was collecting data the entire time, but only worked out the "broad strokes". The thing is, Shaw is a lot smarter than she gives herself credit for and I'll come back to that later in the thread if people are interested. It relates to past experiences. Sometimes you subconsciously just know something because you already have the pieces in you. We also need as many people trying to reject theories as possible with new evidence we find. That's the thing with occam's razor, if there is still evidence that has not been uncovered then hypotheses, conclusions and even the observations can become skewed by a lack of data, initial impressions being held by the ego, or even emotion/belief. Sometimes putting a small amount of intuition towards something is rewarded. Sometimes faith is rewarded when we suddenly feel we know the solution and act on it. Shaw did not know what was in store for her when David told her she would be frozen, but she knew it was bad. She also knew instantly that she had a way to take the thing growing insider her out. She wastes no time and kicks into instinctual mode-- she boldly decides that being frozen is not the best option (we know this, she shouldn't). The company was most likely going to rip it out of her back on Earth, but you never know. Given the circumstances she responded logically although chaotically with violence she felt was necessary towards her survival. She quickly figures out how to make the male only device perform the c-sec and overcomes the hurdles placed in front of her. Logically and chaotically, and driven by instinct + her past experience and knowledge base. What she has access too. She was already familiar with the device so that helped. Anyways those are my thoughts to get this thread started, I'll be adding a little more it after.