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.

Comments

I haven't seen it

[A Friendly Troll]

I haven't seen it because all of my friends have torrented the damn movie, some even watched horrible cam rips with a foreign language and no subs.

Nobody wants to go to the cinema any more.

Fuck you, torrents.

Re:I haven't seen it

[TheKidWho]

That's unfortunate, while the story is ho-hum the 3D visual effects are simply amazing.

Re:I haven't seen it

[sammyF70]

so in short it should have been called "Jurassic Smurfs"?

Re:I haven't seen it

[dcherryholmes]

Dances With Thundersmurfs

Re:I haven't seen it

[CodeBuster]

Enjoy the crowds of obnoxious people, screaming babies, filthy floors, cramped seats, blocked views, terrible traffic, and insufficient parking.

This can be a problem yes, but one thing that Avatar has going for it is the Imax 3D angle which generally costs at least $16 US dollars per seat and more like $20+ if one gets popcorn and soda. While some might say that price is a rip-off, it does have the rather nice side effect of discouraging some of the more low-brow elements of the general public (especially during a recession). So, if I were going to see it at the theater I would chose the more expensive Imax 3D option at least one week after release. This reduces substantially the probability of encountering the unpleasant elements enumerated by the parent.

Re:I haven't seen it

[djdevon3]

It's been 3 years since I've gone to a movie theater and I actually went to see Avatar yesterday. It was worth it. Yes, Avatar is actually that amazing. If your loser friends don't want to pay money to see the greatest movie ever made on the big screen that's their f***ing problem.

Re:TFA is full of flaws itself

[sackvillian]

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.

Re:Ava-who?

[TiberiusMonkey]

The plot isn't bad, it's just nothing new. When taken as a whole, the movie is wonderful.

Re:You aren't missing anything

[TiberiusMonkey]

er... Unobtanium is a word that's been used for sometime now, like before I was born. Knowing the word already and then hearing it in the film I felt that either the character was making fun of how amazing this metal was, or that James Cameron was poking fun of the "made up material/substance" we so often see in sci-fi to explain things. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtainium

Re:Ava-who?

[TheKidWho]

"I didn't watch it and I don't like the idea of it, so anyone who does like it is obviously a moron and is a sign of things to come for our society. Why can't people be intelligent like me and like some obscure movie by some obscure director???"

BooHoo, get off your high horse. The movie is visual excellence, nothing compares to it in that department.

Pre or POST industrial

[Lvdata]

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.