Avatar

My laptop notes on the two recent conferences I attended in LA might be scary stuff for many people - artificial intelligence, immersive digital gaming, genetics and DNA manipulation, human enhancement technology, mind control, androids, robots, personal avatars . . .
Scary enough for me to attend, as mentioned in my previous blog entry. Another big conference buzz was the upcoming film “Avatar”.
So I went to see it when it opened.
I prepared to be subliminally programmed and blasted with more “Matrix” and “2012” conspiracy theory on mind control and The End of the World. I was sitting in the back row. Through it all, the number of people who had to take off their 3-D glasses, squirm out of their seat in a sold-out theater and sprint to the lobby was staggering. . . popcorn, the restroom, their texts . . . My view was constantly interrupted.
How do you explain this in Marin County, home of ILM (George Lucas) that created the digital imagery for this film? What was nervy to these people no other ILM production and story line seemed to deliver on an opening night? Most didn’t even wait for the credits, another big no-no for locals.
I checked out some movie reviews later. Several reviewers accused Avatar of being a re-purposed “Dancing With Wolves”.
Sure, the Na’vi on Pandora looked rather native, and the White-Guy-turned-treasonist hero could have been You-Know-Who, but to me, that just described a movie reviewer who had to get up for popcorn, the restroom, text . . .
Is that all they got out of it? That’s too benign, considering the behavior of the audience at the first public showing. Is it possible many reviewers and movie-goers are unaware of our amazing technological present and our even more amazing future? Is it time, after throwing away the TV to throw another one again and find out what's really happening?
The plot for this film is vanilla sci-fi and a good dose of operating reality so far on Planet Earth. There are giveaways like the "military industrial complex", conquering space, taking down alien civilizations, and like the hero in "Indiana Jones" grabbing The Big Goodie.
The simplicity of the White Guy's predicament is what allowed me to see everything else going on in this film. His spine, blasted to pieces in an unpopular war leaves him a paraplegic. The Military transports him to a rehab Mother Ship, but he’s now worthless as a fighting machine. They decide to use him as a disposable Avatar on planet Pandora to infiltrate the Na’vi and find their “unobtanium”. (the one funny morpheme in the film).
His brain is transported to this fantastical utopia Trekkie-style, and our hero has an “out-of-body” moment on Visit One. As his new Avatar-double, he discovers he’s not only super-human, he’s got his legs back.
They can’t control him. Knocking down the furniture and everything else, he escapes his orientation military camp in a state of euphoria, running his superhuman legs and heart out.
The film has a happy ending. He dumps his paralytic reality and chooses his Avatar reality (well, what would you do?). His Pandora Squeeze, who has been assigned to him as a guide by the clueless Na’vi, demonstrates in her spare time how to do just about everything fun, including mastery of a wildly fantastic horse and a spactacularly raptor-esque bird, reminiscent of the strategic creation in the animated "Ants".
Of course this is all sci-fi. Maybe. After these conferences, I’m not so sure.
Still searching for a clue, I opened my file on brain science a week later to write a piece on Avatar. I found a torn-out article from MensVogue I bought in an airport a few years ago written by D.T. Max, a Harvard graduate and book reviewer. The title “Wired for Victory. Can a bunch of electrodes and a computer screen help you swim faster?” got my attention.
Now I’m reading it again. This sounds like the White Guy/Avatar. Max mentions “the zone” and biofeedback performed on athletes like Katy. Connected to biofeedback, she is described by her evaluator as “looking at nothing and everything”, “emptying out her brain”, and “a suspension of doubt” that results in her optimal athletic performance.
Aha. The White Guy/Avatar.
Max, at the end of his article, mentions a Morgan Stanley manager who, after biofeedback had a tennis game performance “that soared”. And after biofeedback, Max, a swimmer, was in the pool on a lap swim when he felt “a familiar light joyousness” in his body. When the pain of his messed up shoulder came up, he envisioned “speeding waves of alpha” carrying him along. Enjoying his liberating mindlessness, “I felt I was no longer alone. A dolphin was leading me. My body began undulating like a brain wave. I followed my friend with pleasure. He was always ahead of me.”
Max was describing his instant “knowingness” how to swim like a dolphin. He forgot his shoulder, the pool, time . . .
“Every so often, I would hear a distinct “ding” in my brain. The positive audio reinforcement that rewards open concentration during neurofeedback. I got out of the water. The dolphin was gone. I looked at my watch. I had broken my previous best and my shoulder hurt like hell.”
Our White Guy hated returning to the Military Mothership planning its assault on Pandora. He needed a wheelchair. He hurt like hell. Only on Pandora could he best his human self every time.
I didn’t get at all this film was another “Dancing With Wolves”. I think the reviewers totally missed the point, and maybe half the audience.
The White Guy was in The Zone, and his brain transported him there. With a little help from science.