Saturday, April 15, 2017

It Could Just Be Radiation

I have to admit, I do admire the Star Wars franchise. I like watching the movies and the TV shows when they're available on Netflix (hint hint, Netflix, I want to see the second season of Rebels), and the whole concept is rather fascinating. But since I'm human, there are some things I don't like.

I always found something weird about the Force. What was the Force and where did it come from? Why did the users of the Force practically worship it? Then my parents practically dropped the bomb on me when they said that they had read somewhere (yes, somewhere) that the mechanics of the Force had been based on (if I remember correctly) Buddhism or Hinduism. As a Christian, I could literally hear the record scratch as soon as that news left their mouths, and I knew from that day on I would never be able to fully enjoy the Star Wars universe again.

But since I'm a writer, my mind instantly began to whirr. Alternative possibilities to the existence of the Force whipped through my head, especially after I watched "first" three movies (The Phantom Menace [I], Attack of the Clones [II], Revenge of the Sith [III]), where they explained the microbes known as 'midichlorians' were what connected Jedi, Sith, and Force-sensitives to the Force.

I know that a lot of fans complain that the "first" trilogy kinda ruined things thanks to the whole midichlorian, young Anakin, and rise of the Empire thing – it had all been backwards, and that irked people. It didn't rise to people's expectations. But the whole midichlorian diagnosis kinda (haha...eh) supports my theory that the Force is some sort of radiation.

There is a ton of lore that I have no idea about (thanks to always being strapped for cash), but going by what the movies portray, you could easily say that the Force is nothing more than background radiation caused by the uniqueness of the galaxy (or all galaxies) and the people that live within it. Put a kind of superhero spin on it. Not everyone can tap into this radiation, because that's determined by how many midichlorians one has in their body. So, superpowers!

The radiation theory can support the saying that believers in the Force often spout whenever someone is curious about it: "it moves through every living thing". According to an article from the Hong Kong Observatory's website, the human body emits electromagnetic radiation.

Electromagnetic radiation is a kind of radiation that includes visible light, radio waves, gamma waves, and x-rays, in which electric fields and magnetic fields vary simultaneously.

Each planet, in order to support life, needs some sort of magnetic field in order to keep itself from being fried by its parent star. The magnetic field is made of electromagnetic radiation. Everything seems to emit some sort of electromagnetic radiation, so it is logical to conclude that the Force is made of electromagnetic radiation.

Electromagnetic radiation comes from every living thing.

So... SCIENCE!

Eheh... despite this and the fact the nature of the Force is distinctly mystical in canon, me as a person can always view it through science-coated glasses.

Star Wars is an exemplar example of a space opera (epic space opera as Wikipedia calls it), one of my favourite genres, and I love the stories. The aspects of the Force has not stopped me from loving the stories or falling in love with the characters. It hasn't stopped my Dad (who was the one who raised the fact of the background of the Force) from liking the Stormtroopers (if it's Star Wars, he gets it with Stormtroopers on it), or my Mom from loving the Ewoks.

I just wanted to point out what I think is an interesting scientific explanation for the Force. I probably just Star Trek-ified the whole thing ("it's magic for the locales, but it's science to us" kind of thing), but science is fun, right?

Right?

And, honestly, having radiation-induced superpowers sounds super cool.

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Sources for electromagnetic radiation explanation:

Lee Shuk-ming, Olivia. "Radiation emitted by Human Body - Thermal Radiation." Radiation. September 2010. Accessed April 15, 2017. http://www.hko.gov.hk/education/edu02rga/radiation/radiation_02-e.htm.

"Electromagnetic radiation." Wikipedia. Accessed April 15, 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_radiation.

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