Avatar the movie
I saw Avatar opening night and was completely blown away. I highly recommend it.
I thought you folks might find this editorial interesting, as I did, because it discusses somewhat briefly some of the things I see going around in these forums:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/opinion/21douthat1.html?th&emc=th
Ryan
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Biological Computers -Can They Sidestep the Laws of Physics?
In recent years Moore's Law, the idea the computing power will double every eighteen months, has seem less an amazing sign of progress and more an immense brick wall we're speeding towards - with recent advances like one-atom transistors, there simply isn't much further to go. This has driven research in other directions that wouldn't have appealed back when regular chips could just get better and better. 3D chips, optical computing, quantum systems and even biological computers.
If the thought of doing complex mathematical problems makes you sick to your stomach, you might be able to help the solve the equations after all. Scientists from Davidson College and Missouri Western State University have reprogrammed E. Coli bacteria, normally found doing their own thing in your stomach, to solve a mathematical problem in a cunning sidestep from classical computing - giving a whole new dimension to the term 'gut feeling'.
You like your brain? Yeah, evolution can come up with some pretty damn fine results when it wants to. The idea of a bacterial computer puts the evolutionary process to work solving mathematical problems. The terms of the problem are encoded in the genetic sequence of some harmless E. Coli bacteria (only a small minority of E. Coli cause all food the poisoning you hear about). They're also equipped with an antibiotic-resistance gene, but that gene is set only to activate when the genetic sequence is in the correct order - that is, when the problem is solved. So when you place millions of these bacteria in a weak antibiotic solution solving the problem becomes a battle for survival.
Not that you'll ever be able to upgrade your hardware just by horking your stomach contents into it. These bacterial computers are a fundamentally different system to silicon transistor number-crunchers, and can never match the latter's instruction execution rate. Rather they would excel in problems where we don't have a clue what instructions to give, complex problems we don't know the best way to calculate can be evolved to an answer instead.
I love the idea of biological computers.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
Actually I noticed lots of religious themes in the movie, mostly Panentheistic themes such as "Energy is borrowed from the spirits" or something of that effect, also the spirit tree and the way they view life/death were give aways.
That's not an appeal to authority bozo. Ad verecundiam occurs when citing someone who is not an expert, not disinterested, unrepresentative of expert opinion or unnecessarily cited.
http://www.fallacyfiles.org/authorit.html
http://logic.guruconsulting.org/tag/defective-induction/
http://freethoughtpedia.com/wiki/Logical_Fallacies_by_Todangst#Appeal_to_False_Authority
Beyond that it's suggesting something is true because an expert says so, not simply pointing out that no one shares your vapid opinion, except maybe Vastet.
There are twists of time and space, of vision and reality, which only a dreamer can divine
H.P. Lovecraft
What do you know about it you're only a former Pantheist.
There are twists of time and space, of vision and reality, which only a dreamer can divine
H.P. Lovecraft
Actually I think the hints that it was a tribal religion were somewhat misleading, as you say. But I suspect a lot of people on here might have a problem with my suspicion that we could have any sort of connection with the planet at all.
I'll go further and suggest that while religion is inflexibly dogmatic, it's Hollywood's great gift that it can recycle these concepts over and over and refine them. That is, it can present us with ever changing philosophies that can so easily adapt to the times in which we live.
Sadly to admit, I don't know the play. But I just need to know, if I sit on your lap during my birthday party, will you touch me where my bathing suit covers?
Please?
First spanking and now this? The plot slickens...
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
Except if you meet the analogy of a communication network head on, it becomes less like praying to the trees to heal your loved one and more like consulting a network of doctors on the internet with real time robotic interface to provide you with medical expertise. I concede that that might be a bit of a stretch with this film, but I maintain it could easily be interpreted that way if you so chose.
Especially if you note that the special communication with their animals and the trees requires actual physical interconnection. And it seems the trees actually communicate with each other via their root systems, and they 'study' other creatures with the help of their floating seed thingies. All very physical.
Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality
"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris
The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology
For that kinda clowning, call this fellow.
With all the discussion, now I REALLY want to see this movie
Slowly building a blog at ~
http://obsidianwords.wordpress.com/
Or maybe I'm the shill.
Crap, I forget.
Was a stupid movie. I wasted my time watching it. Was worse than 2012 and that was just random explosions for almost 2 hours.
Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
No animal shall wear clothes.
No animal shall sleep in a bed.
No animal shall drink alcohol.
No animal shall kill any other animal.
All animals are equal.
LOL @ "slickens"
I can get something perverted out of just about any thread, it's a talent really.
Exactly. More of an alternate type of biology than something mystical.
Definitely try to see it in the theater in 3D. If you end up not liking the plot for some reason, the 3D special effects are still pretty astonishing to look at.
We saw it in 2 - my husband says that is just as well. He has a little fear of heights and in 3D he may have lost lunch down the back of the person in front of him. Just a warning.
As for the movie and/or religion and/or environmentalism, et cetera, et cetera. I truly enjoyed the movie - it was visually beautiful, a complexly realized ecosystem, a satisfying if clichéd emotional and intellectual journey. <spoiler, perhaps> There were hints of Sherri Tepper (Grass, et al), Elizabeth Scarborough and Anne McCaffery (Powers That Be, et al), some dragons from films like "Dragonheart" or perhaps Anne McCaffery's Dragonflight, and a whole lot of Greek comedy in the classical sense. Religion? No worse than Arthur C. Clarke or Robert Heinlein. Environmentalism? My first exposure to sci-fi environmental disasters was Andre Norton's Star Man's Son 2250 A.D. Racist? That one is tougher to address - my friend who is of mixed race did not think it was racist. I thought maybe too many of the actors were white bread, but it seemed more of an oversight of the casting department than deliberate selection. Try Robert E. Howard for real white bread. Anti-military? Naw - just the cuckoo sergeant. And we all have met people who get a little tunnel visioned - just read through this blog! Having been a Marine wife for 11 years of my life, I thought the military responses were exceedingly realistic. Oo-Rah!
I have obviously been reading sci-fi way too much to be truly surprised by any plot twist. Just save your critical thinking for another time. It was a fun movie and I liked it MUCH better than 2012. (I kept singing "Along came Jones" during the disaster scenes in 2012.)
--I feel so much better since I quit trying to believe.
-- I feel so much better since I stopped trying to believe.
"We are entitled to our own opinions. We're not entitled to our own facts"- Al Franken
"If death isn't sweet oblivion, I will be severely disappointed" - Ruth M.