Na'vi and Free Will

[Shroom Man 777]

That's pretty trippy.

Although considering their beliefs system on burying their death, and the fact that Eywa stores the memories of their dead, perhaps some sort of bizarre "biological reincarnation" process could conceivably occur on Pandora. I mean, shit, it's not as if it's any less bizarro-weirdo and fantastic than everything else that we've seen.

[Junghalli]

Yeah, I wonder what benefit if any Eywa gets from giving the Na'Vi an afterlife. I'm skeptical that a giant planet-brain that doesn't live in a society of any kind would develop anything like our human concepts of morality and empathy, so I doubt that it does it just to be nice. I think it's likely it benefits from the arrangement somehow, but how?

What if Eywa is the parasite?

That parallels my theory on its nature. I think it's a plant that manipulates the behavior of animals to benefit itself. It tells animals to spread its seeds in an optimum pattern, it tells herbivores not to eat it, maybe it tells them to eat its competitors and/or parasites instead, and it generally "gardens" the ecosystem to maintain conditions favorable to itself. That's the most sensible way I can think of for how such a thing could have evolved.

I don't see any glowing seeds attached to the animals when they do their death-defying charge (tm) to save the planet. So somehow Eywa has a wireless interface to them.

Eywa might have done something like download pictures of humans and human vehicles into their minds along with a command of "head in X direction and if you see something that looks like this, attack it". Although chemical signalling is a definite possibility. I suspect Eywa probably originally used that to control animals before the neural link evolved.

It is never mentioned that the mount doesn't give feedback of any kind. Actually, they have to learn how to use the interface, and Neytiri even say that Jake has to ride the banshee quickly to "seal the bond", so it has something to do with mental dominance.

Yeah, I wonder how much of the Na'Vi's banshee domestication traditions are actual practical techniques and how much is just superstitious mumbo jumbo. What happens if you plug yourself into one of the ones that runs away from you? What happens if you try to domesticate more than one banshee at once?

Edit: I also wonder what might happen if you plug two Na'Vi into each other. Really, a neurobiologist on Pandora might be able to do lots of fascinating science just plugging different things into each other to see what happens.

[NecronLord]

Apparently a plug-in sex scene will be reinstated for DVD.

[Sarevok]

Apparently a plug-in sex scene will be reinstated for DVD.

Do the Navi have sex the same way as humans ? They can transmitt information with their hair USB with each other. So what if they can transmitt genetic information as well ? There would be no need to have sex organs like a human. Infact did any of the Navi have anything down there ? They were very scantily clad and yet nothing was seen in either males or females.

[Junghalli]

Do the Navi have sex the same way as humans ? They can transmitt information with their hair USB with each other. So what if they can transmitt genetic information as well ? There would be no need to have sex organs like a human. Infact did any of the Navi have anything down there ? They were very scantily clad and yet nothing was seen in either males or females.

It would put a different light on Grace's "if you keep playing with that thing you'll go blind" comment.

If their nervous systems are like ours I figure they probably exchange electrical impulses and/or neurotransmitters through the tentacle though, probably not DNA. I suspect they do have conventional sex organs. Also as I remember we got a brief glimpse of Sully and his Na'Vi girlfriend having sex and they seem to mate in a human-like manner.

[Zac Naloen]

That's pretty trippy.

Although considering their beliefs system on burying their death, and the fact that Eywa stores the memories of their dead, perhaps some sort of bizarre "biological reincarnation" process could conceivably occur on Pandora. I mean, shit, it's not as if it's any less bizarro-weirdo and fantastic than everything else that we've seen.

Perhaps it's the other way round and the only reason Eywa has become sentient/sapient is because of the Na'vi uploading their personalities at death?

[Lord of the Abyss]

That's pretty trippy.

Although considering their beliefs system on burying their death, and the fact that Eywa stores the memories of their dead, perhaps some sort of bizarre "biological reincarnation" process could conceivably occur on Pandora. I mean, shit, it's not as if it's any less bizarro-weirdo and fantastic than everything else that we've seen.

Perhaps it's the other way round and the only reason Eywa has become sentient/sapient is because of the Na'vi uploading their personalities at death?

I wouldn't be surprised. I immediately thought of the old Alan Dean Foster novel Midworld when I heard about the Na'vi, the world-mind, and an afterlife provided by trees; in that novel that was the motive for the world-mind to help the humans, so it was a natural thought for me.

As an aside, googling indicates a fair number of other people have noted that Midworld and Avatar share a few concepts; but the people trying to claim that Cameron "copied" Midworld aren't being at all fair. In most ways they are quite different. At most, he picked up a few ideas; just like every writer.