Contact (novel)
E180565
Contact is a 1985 science fiction novel by Carl Sagan that explores humanity’s first contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence through the experiences of radio astronomer Ellie Arroway.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Contact (novel) canonical | 10 |
| novel "Contact" | 3 |
| Contact (1985 novel) | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1588000 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Contact (novel) Context triple: [Palmer Joss, firstAppearance, Contact (novel)]
-
A.
The Dial
The Dial was a 19th-century American literary and philosophical magazine that served as the chief periodical voice of the Transcendentalist movement, publishing works by figures like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
-
B.
Appointment with Life
"Appointment with Life" is a classic Egyptian film starring Faten Hamama, recognized as one of the significant works in mid-20th-century Arabic cinema.
-
C.
A Call from Heaven
"A Call from Heaven" is a 17th-century religious work by Puritan minister Increase Mather that exhorts readers to piety and spiritual preparation for death and the afterlife.
-
D.
La voix
"La voix" is an operatic pop song performed by Swedish mezzo-soprano Malena Ernman as Sweden’s entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009.
-
E.
Gates of Eden
"Gates of Eden" is a surreal, poetic song by Bob Dylan that explores themes of illusion, truth, and spiritual searching.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Contact (novel) Target entity description: Contact is a 1985 science fiction novel by Carl Sagan that explores humanity’s first contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence through the experiences of radio astronomer Ellie Arroway.
-
A.
The Dial
The Dial was a 19th-century American literary and philosophical magazine that served as the chief periodical voice of the Transcendentalist movement, publishing works by figures like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
-
B.
Appointment with Life
"Appointment with Life" is a classic Egyptian film starring Faten Hamama, recognized as one of the significant works in mid-20th-century Arabic cinema.
-
C.
A Call from Heaven
"A Call from Heaven" is a 17th-century religious work by Puritan minister Increase Mather that exhorts readers to piety and spiritual preparation for death and the afterlife.
-
D.
La voix
"La voix" is an operatic pop song performed by Swedish mezzo-soprano Malena Ernman as Sweden’s entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009.
-
E.
Gates of Eden
"Gates of Eden" is a surreal, poetic song by Bob Dylan that explores themes of illusion, truth, and spiritual searching.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf | science fiction novel ⓘ |
| adaptedInto | Contact (1997 film) ⓘ |
| author | Carl Sagan ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| filmAdaptationDirector | Robert Zemeckis ⓘ |
| filmAdaptationStar |
Jodie Foster
ⓘ
Matthew McConaughey ⓘ |
| genre |
hard science fiction
ⓘ
science fiction ⓘ |
| hasAdaptation | Contact (1997 film) ⓘ |
| hasCharacter |
David Drumlin
ⓘ
Der Heer ⓘ Ellie Arroway ⓘ Palmer Joss ⓘ Rachel Constantine ⓘ S. R. Hadden ⓘ |
| hasInfluenceOn |
popular discourse on science and religion
ⓘ
public perception of SETI ⓘ |
| hasTheme |
global cooperation and conflict
ⓘ
humanity’s place in the universe ⓘ personal loss and motivation in science ⓘ role of evidence in belief ⓘ search for extraterrestrial intelligence ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainCharacter | Ellie Arroway ⓘ |
| mediaType | print ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | third-person narrative ⓘ |
| notableFor |
detailed depiction of SETI practices
ⓘ
exploration of the conflict between science and religion ⓘ integration of real scientific concepts ⓘ |
| protagonistOccupation | radio astronomer ⓘ |
| publicationDate | 1985 ⓘ |
| publisher | Simon & Schuster ⓘ |
| setting |
Australia
ⓘ
Hokkaido ⓘ Japan ⓘ New Mexico ⓘ Puerto Rico ⓘ United States ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
space ⓘ |
| structure | divided into multiple parts ⓘ |
| subject |
SETI
ⓘ
faith and evidence ⓘ first contact with extraterrestrial intelligence ⓘ politics of scientific discovery ⓘ radio astronomy ⓘ science and religion ⓘ |
| timePeriodOfSetting | late 20th century ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Contact (novel) Description of subject: Contact is a 1985 science fiction novel by Carl Sagan that explores humanity’s first contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence through the experiences of radio astronomer Ellie Arroway.
Referenced by (14)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject linked to:
Sagan family
linked to: Contact (novel)
subject linked to:
film "Contact"
linked to: Contact (novel)