[ama5322]

Not sure what to think of this, as in sarcastic sense...?

It's not like we're discussing trite software, I was just discussing about the "plot device" here where the decoding of an arbitrary language with complex symbology is a central feature. Doesn't it feel "forced" to you in the same way action movies show absolutely unrealistic martial arts moves for the sake of entertainment, or watching most "hackers" in computer movies?

Wouldn't you agree that starting form the absolute basics would be a much sound/quicker way to come to a unambiguous shared vocabulary instead of just showing complex blots to another species and expecting them to decode it? It's also especially odd to me that the somehow the host civilization is doing the decoding part. Considering contact from a supposedly more advanced civilization, I would almost expect the opposite to be true, where the aliens would likely take most of the burden of establishing communication (and probably already did so by watching/listening).

But I get it.. I still enjoyed the movie (like I can still enjoy action movies or computer movies)...

[kelipso]

I get where you're coming from but the main thing in the story is that the aliens' perception of time was very different from that of humans; they could perceive their entire life at any given time. Given that, if the aliens could not imagine that humans only had this limited perception, the aliens would have thought the humans should already have known how their language worked...or something like that, miscommunication due to differences etc.