Project Hail Mary is in theaters—but do the linguistics work?

“I think math would help, but I don’t think it would get them terribly far because they need the notion of objects. They need the notion of the semiotic function, that things stand for other things.” She paused pensively, then went on. “And once they’ve got that, that there are discrete objects and we both think of the same things as discrete objects, then we can talk about counting those objects and now we’re off and running.”

Whole-object notion is another oft-overlooked component here—often referred to as the “gavagai problem.”

“You’re pointing to a rabbit, and you say, ‘gavagai!’” said Dr. Birner. “Well, does that mean ‘rabbit?’ Does that mean ‘fur?’ Does that mean ‘ears?’ Does that mean, ‘hey look?’”

“Quine’s notion is that we default to a whole object. Well, does what counts as a whole object for me count as a whole object for you? Does every conceivable culture have discrete borders on objects?”

The author speaks on human-Eridian similarities

Fortunately for Grace and Rocky, humans and Eridians do have all these things in common because in the universe of Project Hail Mary, the species share a common ancestor.

“Within the fictional context of this story,” explained Andy Weir to Ars in an interview, “the natural evolution of life began on planet Adrian in the Tau Ceti system. Then what we can call primordial Astrophage, like an ancestor of Astrophage, caused a panspermia event. It just kind of emanated out from the system and ended up seeding just a few planets.”

Author Andy Weir on the Hail Mary bridge set during filming (Weir was a producer on the movie).

Credit:
Jonathan Olley / Amazon MGM Studios

“That panspermia event was about four and a half billion years ago. It seeded Earth with life. It seeded 40 Eridani—or rather, Erid with life, and maybe others as well. That means everything within a certain radius of Tau Ceti has a decent chance of having been infected with life, and all of that life is related. That’s why Eridian cells and Astrophage and human cells all have mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell, and ribosomes, and DNA or RNA, and so on.”