MovieChat Forums > Avatar (2009) Discussion > Illogical premise

Illogical premise

posted 6 years ago by Aries (873)
8 replies | jump to latest

So the whole movie is based on the "Avatar technology", but how exactly does it work? Sam W lies in a bed made of soft gel that supposedly transmits his consciousness to the avatar body temporarily.

How exactly is this possible? Does the avatar body have some kind of receiver or encoded chip in which his conscious resides? It has to be unlimited in range, since he travels far from where his actual body is resting in most scenes. Does the soft gel matrix transmit a signal of some kind or how does it work?

Has this been explained anywhere?

[–] chilone (18328) 6 years ago

Pretty sure it's not "possible". In our world, anyway. That's what makes science FICTION so wonderful. :)

[–] PaladinNJ (21781) 6 years ago

Not canon but my read on it is:
Look at the pod as a transmitter and the Avatar is a receiver. But instead of radio waves it transmits thought patterns.

[–] JohnnyDoe (1950) 6 years ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain%E2%80%93computer_interface

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

Illogical statement.

Yes chips , telemtry , whatever you want.
Its not an "illogical premise" because they didnt explain the technicailities of it.

Watch that Bruce Willis film (surrogates?) where they do the same thing , maybe you'll get an explanation there

[–] Aries (873) 6 years ago

Your answer doesn't address my question, it's just an argumentative reply and a cop out. I only wanted to know if it was explained how the consciousness transfer takes place between the gel bed and the Avatar body.

The movie talks about how the person's DNA has to match the avatar to make them compatible, but goes no further. Yes, it's Sci-fi and it can be left unexplained etc., but I thought maybe it was discussed somewhere like in a "Making of" type video or book or whatever.

[–] degree7 (821) 5 years ago

The movie would have been more interesting if the characters were surgically altered to become Navii somehow, or their transplanted consciousness was permanent. The constant switching back and forth made it too videogamey.

[–] Costumer (1834) 5 years ago

That would be difficult to justify as the Na'vi are shown to be much taller than humans, perhaps 8 to 9 feet tall. You would also need to design working tails and the connection fibers.

Any means to transfer the minds from human to Na'vi bodies is not going to be explainable in terms of current science. That is not necessarily an issue nor does it really require some sort of technobabble explanation. All we need to know is the technology works and the story proceeds from there.

[–] degree7 (821) 5 years ago

Any means to transfer the minds from human to Na'vi bodies is not going to be explainable in terms of current science.

Actually, science has shown the ability for computers to control the nervous systems of animals through surgical implantation. And then using an electronic device like a tablet to control their movements.

Any means to transfer the minds from human to Na'vi bodies is not going to be explainable in terms of current science

But it was explainable in terms of the fantasy setting, when their consciousness is permanently transferred to the Navi bodies. Tbh, they should have just done away with the whole “Avatar program” nonsense and just had Jake’s consciousness transported through the Navi’s own neural network into another body at the start or midway through the film. Would have added to the drama.

Another problem I had was that the Navi were too.... human. At one point Cameron wanted them to have four arms and four legs, but decided against it because (ironically) he thought the technology wouldn’t allow it.