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The Science of Avatar
Jamie noted a bit on
The Science of Avatar running on Ain't it Cool, written by a professor of astrophysics who has worked on searching for planets and SETI. I believe I might be the last person on earth who hasn't seen it; here's hoping I can find 3 free hours over the holidays.
Agreed, and he said this:
I do have one minor complaint, that given their networking abilities, the Na’vi should not be so technologically inferior to the humans.
That ignores the reason humans first started developing significant technology; the agricultural revolution. That was the point when we extracted ourselves from nature and took over control of food. That's what allowed us to create advanced settlements and the rest is (pre-)history, as they say.
See the philosophical novel Ishmael for the basis of this argument.
Given the "living in harmony with nature" theme in the movie, one could hardly expect the Na'vi to have done the same.
Hey mate, spare a sig?
The plot isn't bad, it's just nothing new. When taken as a whole, the movie is wonderful.
Everyone seems to be making the ASSUMPTION the the Na'vi are preindustrial.
1. The Na'vi can link directly to many other animals that are happy to serve them, and and the Na'vi in return care for them.
2. Planet wide network for storage, upload and download of information, long term store, processing, and on demand local grid processing, including the ability to do a total upload of a person.
3. Unobtainium, a planet wide "natural" super conductor that allows for floating mountains.
4. Eywa, the operating system put in place to regulate everything, including guiding the Na'vi to stay in harmony with everything else.
It seems to me that the Na'vi went though their own singularity, and what we see as primitive is the biotechnology leftovers from a older culture, but they have set themselves and their decedents with a ideal environment, the ability to live, have kids, grow old, then upload when the time is right. Use large off-planet element nuclear synthesis to create the unobtainium, (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_stability ), and setup the biosphere and the infosphere for long term in habitation by ignorant people. In a head to head comparison of Na'vi vs humans, the Na'vi are superior in almost everyway.
Medicine - Eywa takes care of that much better.
Education - A direct mental link for sharing of information.
Physical form - not much is explained beyond carbon fiber in the skeleton, but onscreen of what Jake goes though is beyond what a normal human can handle.
Information storage, processing & retrieval mostly superior, with the exception of speed given the late start the other animals had in the battle.
Long term care of their wold and sustainability - Although the world seems genetically engineered for the Na'vi,over time some drift has occurred as not all animals retain their friendliness, but in times of crises, can revert back.
Given that this is part 1 of 3, and the hints on screen and referenced to, this is my suspicion. Most people have problems thinking about the singularity as it is so encompassing, enabling, and yet compressing. The Na'vi are just one result of who remains after a biological singularity.