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self_made_human  amaratvaṃ prāpnuhi, athavā yatamāno mṛtyum āpnuhi  3mo ago (open.substack.com)   1649 thread views

Avatar's Dirty Secret: Nature Is Just Fancy Infrastructure

open.substack.com

What if Avatar isn't actually about environmentalism vs. technology, but about recognizing superintelligent infrastructure when you see it? A deep dive into why Pandora's "natural" ecosystem looks suspiciously like a planetary-scale AI preserve, complete with biological USB-C ports, room-temperature superconductors growing wild, and a species of "noble savages" who are actually post-singularity retirees cosplaying as hunter-gatherers.

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I've come to think of Avatar mostly as a passion project for James Cameron. He likes the blue aliens and the dumb 90s environmentalist message, and he's already made a bajillion dollars and has the credibility to do whatever he wants, so he's just doing what he likes.

I don't particularly like it myself, and I don't think it makes much sense or bears up to scrutiny, but he likes it, and that's all that matters. Probably this all resonates with something deeply personal and relevant to Cameron as an individual in a way that doesn't land for anyone else.

Well, there are worse things for an eccentric and wealthy director to do in the final phase of his career. Good for you, James. I sincerely hope he's enjoying yourself.

Its a hell of a vehicle to create tense action scenes showcasing cool-looking scifi military materiel vs. equally cool-looking fantasy creatures.

And from a writing perspective, coming up with clever-yet-plausible ways for the technologically inferior faction to win over the industrialized and heavily armed invaders (that isn't just Zerg rush tactics) is a fun exercise.

Its a hell of a vehicle to create tense action scenes showcasing cool-looking scifi military materiel vs. equally cool-looking fantasy creatures.

Now I wonder what a movie adaptation of Leviathan would look like... Hey, wait a minute, there is an anime adaptation! I did not know this; I'll have to check it out.

My favorite entry in this particular genre has to be the Anime Miniseries Blue Sub No. 6, where you have advanced submarines duking it out with mutated whales and weird hybrid creatures.

And the morality occupies a bit more a gray area than Cameron dares portray.

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