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The Moon, Pandora, from the film "Avatar"
Topic Started: Dec 20 2009, 02:13 PM (8,073 Views)
Yorick
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I took someone's suggestion and created another topic to speculate on the moon's inhabitants' evolution.

So...speculate!
"I believe, that whatever doesn't kill you, simply makes you...stranger"

-The Dark Knight (2008)
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agatharights
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I find it interesting that, while apparently Wayne Barlowe designed most of the animals, he didn't design the Na'vi. That explains a lot.

Also, I'm about 800% more likely to get the "Art and Animals of Avatar" book now that I know Wayne Barlowe was doing designs WAYNE BARLOWE I LOVE YOU MARRY ME.

Also, I wonder if the bioluminescence (I'm sure somebody already said this and I missed it) is simply a product of some sort of joined ancestry? Or simply a camoflage adaptation that proved to be so useful, it's about as common as spots and stripes on earth?
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Ddraig Goch
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Genesis already mentioned camouflage. As for joined ancestry, do you mean with light producing bacteria?
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Kingpin
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Dec 30 2009, 12:51 PM
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Also, I have a theory to why the Na'vi are blue. As stated before, the oxygen level in the atmoshpere is low. Unoxidozed blood is blue. Seems simple enough.


If that was the case then we'd be just as blue, because of the de-oxygenated blood in our veins. No, I actually heard that the blue skin is a camouflage pigmentation. Whether the plantlife itself is blue (I don't know about anyone else, but I saw plenty of green in the movie), the light of the night is definitely blue in color, whether from light reflected from the big blue parent jovian, or just the fact that blue light dominates at night, having blue skin would help the Na'vi blend in.

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The thanator did appear to be at least slightly intelligent.


By their very nature, predators tend to be more intelligent than their prey. And the thanator that 'allies' with Neytiri was probably just following "Eywa's" orders, IMO. If they had fought off the humans and he and Neytiri were still around each other, he probably would have thought, "Okay, lunchtime."
*Shrugs* Different circulatory system? But whatever. I've been thinking about the actual Avatar program. If they can succesfully transfer a human concscience into a different body, doesn't this mean that humans have created immortality? I mean, you're 123 years old. You're about to die of old age. You could just have your mind transplanted into a clone, or something. Overpopulation would be huge.
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-Last Olympian, Rick Riordan.

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HELICOPTER. It is a HELICOPTER. You call that thing a 'whirly-bird' one more time, I'll beat you SO bad, your sister's gonna wish she never gave birth to you.

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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

BTW, I just found out something interesting: Wayne Douglas Barlowe apparently worked on making some of these creatures plausible. The same guy who worked on "Expedition" worked on "Avatar". Interesting.


EDIT: scratch that. Yellow beat me to it.

One thing I'd like to bring up: the dire-horses. How is it that a creature, presumably as large as a hadrosaur, can obtain all its energy from nectar and not from anything else?
Edited by Canis Lupis, Dec 30 2009, 06:13 PM.
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lamna
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As for immortality, well no. Clearly your Avatar is just a vehicle for your mind, you can't put your brain in it.

And I heard that his designs got toned down. Originally the flyers were more like Manta rays.

Also, does anyone else kind of want a Thanator?
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agatharights
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Lamna, what is your avatar? It's...cat...monkey...ness...it fascinates me.

Back on track, yeah, I imagine it'd could be phlorescent bacteria, or simply just...I'm not sure.

Argh Barloooowe. I'm gonna find you and eat your heeeaaart and gain your talent for drawing crazy stuuuuuff :U

Also, for Canis Lupis, having made some very large alien nectovores myself, I can answer like this. Really rich nectar, for one, and LOTS of eating. I imagine it'd have to be constantly eating.
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Ànraich
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Nectar is very rich in sugar, that's pretty much all it is. What I'm wondering isn't how they get enough energy being a nectovore, that wouldn't be hard if there was enough nectar available and it was easy to access; how do they support all that muscle? They're REALLY muscular, where do they get the protein to keep those muscles?
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agatharights
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Maybe the plants they tend to have protein-rich sugar? I'm sure it could be possible, somehow.
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Are you plausible?

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If they can succesfully transfer a human concscience into a different body, doesn't this mean that humans have created immortality?


Technically no. As lamna pointed out, the Avatar program lets you "drive" a genetically engineered body, not transfer to it completely. If you were in your avatar, and your old body died, your avatar would drop to the ground just as lifeless.

It was the Na'vi (well, the "Eywa" network, to be specific) that achieved a complete neural transfer, and the fact that their first attempt was a failure shows that it's no simple task.

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Wayne Douglas Barlowe


That is exciting news! It explains why the fauna is so well developed ecologically.

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Also, does anyone else kind of want a Thanator?


Me, I'd take an ikran/banshee. They're just prettier.

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They're REALLY muscular, where do they get the protein to keep those muscles?


This says that they also eat tree bark and shrubs. I imagine that's to supplement their nectar diet.
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food for thought
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Venatosaurus
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AS for wanting the Thanator, the game itself allows you to ride Thanators, totally badass ! But I really want both books of Avatar, the Art and the Field Guide ! As for the neural transferance, in the game (I'm not sure of the film) the characters human body dies, while his Avatar is active, but one of the elder shamans is able to revive him and completely transfer his mind to his Avatar, permanently making him Na'vi.
Edit: In the film the Tree of Souls can transfer the mind permanently ;)
Edited by Venatosaurus, Dec 31 2009, 11:45 AM.



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Are you plausible?

I read on Amazon.com that the "Art of" book is little more than a hardcover magazine in size, and that the contents weren't as impressive as other "Art of" books. But perhaps I'm getting outside the scope of the thread.

So when you ride Thanators in the game, do you "make the bond" with their neural antennae? Or do you just ride and hope it doesn't try to eat you? I ask because I'm wondering if a thanator can be trained just like a direhorse or a leonopteryx.
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Kingpin
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There are too many people to quote, so I won't bother.

I hear what you guys are saying, about the immortality thing, and I understand the the actual brain is not being moved, but if the technology exsists to transfer ones 'self' into another body, even for a short period of time, then hypothetically it could be done perminantly. I don't focus so much on the Avatars, as the concept of controling them. The Avatars were biological cars because that was what they were intended for. But what I'm talking about is slightly different. You move into your Avatar, or clone or whatever, and simply don't keep the connection with your body. Sort of like how Jake Sully turned into his Avatar at the end of the movie. You aren't controling the body, but moving into it.
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I love New York. You can pop out of the Underworld in Central Park, hail a taxi, head down Fifth Avenue with a giant hellhound loping along behind you, and nobody even looks at you funny.

-Last Olympian, Rick Riordan.

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HELICOPTER. It is a HELICOPTER. You call that thing a 'whirly-bird' one more time, I'll beat you SO bad, your sister's gonna wish she never gave birth to you.

-Nick
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Canis Lupis
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Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the Earth.

Actually, in the original version (James Cameron was working on a different version of "Avatar" right after "Titanic" and he had the whole script written out. But technology hadn't yet caught up to his vision and the script made a five hour long movie, so it was overly edited into "Avatar". The old version explained A LOT), ALL transferences are successful. Grace survives the mental transfer.

One of the main reasons the mental transfer didn't work in the version we saw (I'll call it "Avatar" and the other version "Project 880") was because Grace was shot in the gut and was very close to death when she was brought to the Tree of Souls.

In "880", Grace died of natural causes and was not damaged in any way. So when N'Deh (her Na'vi lover (that was scrapped in "Avatar")) brought her to the Tree of Souls, the transfer was successful.



I've got a link to the article about "880" that explains it all. It even explains why RDA has so much power.

http://chud.com/articles/articles/21969/1/PROJECT-880-THE-AVATAR-THAT-ALMOST-WAS/Page1.html
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agatharights
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So, my brother made a point about Avatar that made me laugh.

"You know, if the earth is dying, couldn't they just make a bunch more money offering to use the avatar program for the rich and famous? They'd be like 'screw earth, who wants to live in a gorgeous nine-foot-tall super body?!'"
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colddigger
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once the military gets all the kinks out of the tech i'm sure that is what would happen.

so Wayne Barlowe worked on it eh? glad to hear, his website hasn't updated in 2 years orso and i was wondering what he was working on...

seems he enjoys the bioluminescents...
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