{OT] Just saw Avatar in 3D

[Ormur]

Didn't a lot of people say that the noble savages of Avatar were a myth. Maybe the depression stems precisely from there being no utopian jungle society like that of the Na'vi on Pandora in existence, ever. If it was merely dissatisfaction with modern life you could go to the Amazon or Papua New Guinea and probably get yourself killed, but you can't go to Pandora and join their tribe. The 3D and computer graphic make it seem more real and immersive than any previous escapist fantasy so people might feel a greater sense of loss. That's what virtual reality is, new experiences without any of the bad stuff. It'll be nice when people can pretend to be stone age hunter gatherers for fun.

I myself still have plenty of exotic locations to visit here on Earth before I'll have to pin for extraterrestrial environments.

[FlyingSnail]

Didn't a lot of people say that the noble savages of Avatar were a myth.

You do know it's science fiction not a documentary, right?

I did put some effort into answering this in an earlier post. If you want to read it...
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=35952&start=59


d;)

Seems my assumption of there being 2 ships was way out.
http://www.pandorapedia.com/doku.php/isv_venture_star
(350 metric tonnes @ 20 000 000 per Kg = 7 000 000 000 000 000 (seven quadrillion) dollars of unobtainium, per trip!)

[Ormur]

Didn't a lot of people say that the noble savages of Avatar were a myth.

You do know it's science fiction not a documentary, right?

I did put some effort into answering this in an earlier post. If you want to read it...
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=35952&start=59

I read it and I agreed with some of the things you said, I have don't object to the message of Avatar. I wasn't bashing Avatar for that at all, I know it's science fiction, therefore depicting a bunch of nobles savages is fine whether it's accurate or not. I don't object to FTL or magic in the SciFi and Fantasy I read either. I was merely saying that people might get depressed because they know there is nothing like the society of the Na'vi in existence, they can never live in the world they glimpsed watching the movie. If the Na'vi were accurate depictions of stone age tribes people wouldn't have to get depressed, they could just buy a plane ticket to Papua New Guinea or The Amazon and take on the part of Jake Sully.

[FlyingSnail]

Actually you could, well kind of. The bugs, snakes, spiders and large predators have already been mentioned.
Then there's loads of other stuff, like Fleas, Leaches, Bott fly larvae, Wuchereria bancrofti, Brugia malayi, and B. timori, (microscopic parasitic thread-worms that cause Elephantiasis) Hook worm, Ascaris, Guinea Worm, Echinococcus, Malaria, Bubonic Plague, Hansen's disease (Leprosy), Arthritis, Cancer, AIDS...
The list just goes on and on...

What if you broke a leg, or your back?
The nearest hospital might be 10 day's walk, and then only give basic med care.

But say this doesn't put you off, there's probably a language barrier, the natives might not accept you, poachers might kill you, the natives might kill you, and there's no guarantee a hot young native will fall in love with you.
Even if everything works out just fine, the western civilization you managed to escape, is sooner or later most likely going to come to your village, and ruin everything, with logging, poaching, slash and burn agriculture, building a highway, or a hydro electric dam, strip mining or whatever...

The Na'vi have one thing going for them above all else.
Without shipments from Pandora the supply of Unobtanium will finally run out on Earth.
Humans will either loose the ability to return to Pandora, or develop some other technology so will not need to return.

But worst of all is no internet, so ... NO FREEFALL
Even with Eywa's help, the Na'vi can't escape that!

d;)

[ARF!]

The Na'vi have one thing going for them above all else.
Without shipments from Pandora the supply of Unobtanium will finally run out on Earth.
Humans will either loose the ability to return to Pandora, or develop some other technology so will not need to return.

And now that we know (in the Avatar universe) that nature has already solved the problem of creating a room temperature superconductor, synthetic Handwavium™ will not be far off.

(In theory, metallic hydrogen, under sufficient pressure, should become an RTSC. And I recall a speculative article in Scientific American (back in the sixties) that suggested a carbon based polymer could be an RTSC.)

[FlyingSnail]

If wanted to learn to speak Na'vi,

http://forum.learnnavi.org/index.php

nari si, stum frapo 'awsiteng hu tanhì kämakto olo’ ayfo ye’rìn law nga hiyìk

d;)

[Every Zig]

If wanted to learn to speak Na'vi,

http://forum.learnnavi.org/index.php

nari si, stum frapo 'awsiteng hu tanhì kämakto olo’ ayfo ye’rìn law nga hiyìk

d;)

But if you just made that up, could any of us tell?

[Cerberus]

Maybe it was the shadow of "Dances with wolves" coming to me during the film, but no objection since I liked that film anyway. *shrug*

Anyway, I wonder how much of that portrayed in the film was just "borrowed" from actual indian cultures. I mean bits like the "I see you" expression and so.

[detrius]

Chalice Yao wrote in the SLUniverse Forums:

Actually I pretty much think the depression stems from more than just westernization. I presume alot of people realized that there simply is no going back for us. No careless (or rather with other cares), natural life, no living close to nature, no tribal closeness, no simply growing, being and dieing.

If those people feel so lost and want to get back to nature, just go to any developing country where you can be bitten by, attacked by and infected by nature in all its glory. If you want the true Avatar experience, watch the movie in a sauna filled with bugs.

You seem to be confusing "making an observation" with "agreeing with those people" here, man.

Chalice Yao wrote in the SLUniverse Forums:

We won't get away from a more and more hectic life, daily information floods, workstress, a more and more alienating and growing society, monolithic social structures and industry, individuals becoming part of mere statistics and nature being more and more filled with steel and metal. All in all the effects of the modern age making the planet virtually and physically smaller and smaller to the psyche.

How many of the people who feel so alienated by the developed world would last a week out in the wild? My family spends much of our free time outdoors and often we are the only people in the forest or on the river. Even on the popular hikes, all the eco-posers bail after the first half mile, then we have the trail to ourselves. We went to Canyonlands National Park last summer and there were four other cars in the parking lot. Some of the most amazing vistas you will ever see (better than any movie) and no one was there. The world is a huge wonderful place if you take the time and effort to explore it, but most people would rather whine and wallow in self pity.

Your weekend trips aren't equivalent to living in a society that coexists with nature to some degree instead of engaging in unbounded exploitation thereof. And you seem to have missed her point which was that those people came to realize that they aren't fit to survive in the wild by watching the movie, without having to visit a National Park.

[detrius]

But worst of all is no internet, so ... NO FREEFALL
Even with Eywa's help, the Na'vi can't escape that!

Except that Eywa is Pandora's internet.


All you'd need is an interface.

[FlyingSnail]

If wanted to learn to speak Na'vi,

http://forum.learnnavi.org/index.php

nari si, stum frapo 'awsiteng hu tanhì kämakto olo’ ayfo ye’rìn law nga hiyìk

d;)

But if you just made that up, could any of us tell?

I'm not saying if I did, or not!
There's only one way for you to find out. Use the link, open the resources, and translate it, or not if I made it up.
(Any one who still remembers Flying Snail (with a space) might remember that most of my old posts were well researched)

Nari = eye
si = and
but 'nari si' = 'watch out' or 'be careful'

Or have I just made that up also? (said playfully) - (tìkawng faheu)

But worst of all is no internet, so ... NO FREEFALL
Even with Eywa's help, the Na'vi can't escape that!

Except that Eywa is Pandora's internet.


All you'd need is an interface.

In an earlier post I did suggest that it might be possible to interface Eywa with the Hells Gate computer, and if Earth hasn't pulled the plug on FTL communication with Pandora then I guess you might well be able to get Freefall YAY! (might be a very slow connection tho ). I hadn't thought of that!

d;)

[nohbody]

In an earlier post I did suggest that it might be possible to interface Eywa with the Hells Gate computer, and if Earth hasn't pulled the plug on FTL communication with Pandora then I guess you might well be able to get Freefall YAY! (might be a very slow connection tho ). I hadn't thought of that!

Fortunately, FF isn't using a graphics-heavy page, so it wouldn't be that big a problem.

[FlyingSnail]

*SNIPPITY*
I have a problem with the whole "humans are buttheads" thing

I found this, sums it up nicely for me...

First - some US troops take an extremely rare and extremely expensive Lamborghini LM002.
Then fill it full of a whole pile of explosives.
[ B A N G ]
And voila, US troopers wooping with buttheaded delight and no more Lambo', frickin geniuses.
And Americans wonder why the whole world hates America?

Sorry if that sounded like a rant, it wasn't meant to (had a hard day, and had some really specially buttheaded public to deal with).
I don't hate America, well not really, just wish more Americans out there could be more like the ones who come here.


d:|

[Cerberus]

Here's a VERY different take on the moral issues behind Avatar

http://www.chinasmack.com/stories/avatar-movie-chinese-reactions-long-lines-shanghai/

Apparently Avatar is all about housing rights and forced evictions.

Aaand as someone feared on that site, Avatar has already been p<ulled off the screens in China > Which possibly has nothing to do with any political issue.

In fact they are still showing it on 3-D cinemas. There are about 600 of them in China, so if half the chinese population wants to see that film, the queues can be a *little* long

[wdag]

First - some US troops take an extremely rare and extremely expensive Lamborghini LM002.
Then fill it full of a whole pile of explosives.
[ B A N G ]
And voila, US troopers wooping with buttheaded delight and no more Lambo', frickin geniuses.
And Americans wonder why the whole world hates America?

Looking at other online photos of Uday Hussein's LM002, it was in pretty sad shape (dented and stripped for parts) before being blown to bits...