Avatar is about capitalism

FuglyDuck

gotta make headway before you start backsliding...

otherwise it's just going the wrong way.

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Paved paradise, put up a parking lot.

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Dune is a universe where computers are severely limited. The ability to synthesize organic chemicals may be limited by that alone.

IIRC, the Tleilaxu do figure out how to produce spice artificially in their Axlotl tanks, but those are another example of Dune getting weirder and more disturbing as it goes.

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"It's human nature," okay bud and what about all the groups in history that prove otherwise? You're just washing history with capitalist mindsets.

مهما طال الليل

It is also about settler colonialism. There are natural gas fields off the coast of Gaza.

qyron

But they do eventually manage, don't they?

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Sorta. By then, the rules on thinking machines have been somewhat relaxed, but people still don't like being around computers. There are machines that can navigate FTL safely without relying on spice. The Bene Gesserit are still dependent on it, though, and they don't like how it binds them to either the Tleilaxu or surviving sandworms.

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isn't wood a hard to find resource?

Maven (famous)

One time I unmatched someone from a dating app because the second avatar movie was coming out and they said that it was weird of me to say that the alien people were supposed to represent Native Americans because "they're just blue aliens why would you compare them to real life?"

Apparently media literacy makes you a weirdo?

qyron

That depends. Although massive deforestation throughout the planet, tree farms are a thing. So...

But haul wood over who knows what expanses of space? It would be cheaper to build greenhouses on barren planets and moons. The biggest challenge would probably be to prevent the oxygen in those enclosed habitats to eat away the building materials.

I remember following the advances on an experiment, during the 90's, where a team of scientists designed and built a fully self contained habitat, with only plants inside. I think the objective was to measure if the plants could/would survive in very limited resources conditions.
Well, the plants survived. After an initial shock, the plants self regulated and the habitat stabilized into a fully enclosed ecosystem.
Things became weird when the oxygen levels rose to a point where the ciment of the walls started to come apart. They had to hastily coat the walls with very thick rubber paint to prevent more damage.

qyron

Doesn't invalidate the point made: at some point, a previously irreplaceable resource was synthesized and mass produced.

I still have to find the time and motivation to read the entire Dune but if at some point they start mass producing the stuff that literally held them prisoners, as there is no going back once spice is first taken, they are literally a civilization of drug addicts, willingly.

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Oh! The bit where they fire dozens of rockets at a giant tree was also an allegory?!

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I saw the film in a theater with someone who wanted to impress upon me that someone pointed out to her how alike it was to what happened to indigenous peoples in the Americas (someone else had pointed that out to her, so she assumed I wouldn't get it on my own). I was like, if you think that's a novel observation, you really need to be hit in the face with concepts to understand things. It couldn't have been more obvious.

But maybe that highlights how much some people just aren't observant or introspective or whatever else. It would explain a lot.

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Yes it definitely makes you weird. Turn the brain off and consume the media like a good little sheep (/s if it wasn't obvious)

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Difference being the colonists of our world left perfectly habitable areas. In avatar the earth isn't habitable to most and so the colonists are actually kind of sympathetic. The real bad guys never have to leave earth but because it's Cameron it falls on the poors to play the bad guys

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The word you're looking for is imperialism, and that's definitely not unavoidable human nature

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You know the point I'm making though: there are indeed precious resources that can't be mined from asteroids. It is not inconceivable that there are organic compounds out there with unique properties that can't simply be made in a lab (e.g. ancient wood properties compared to new forest) and exist in a state that is economical for easy extraction.

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Avatar is just recycled CGI Fern Gully anyway

qyron

It's not inconceivable but I will insist on the point that technology is the right tool to solve such issues.

It was inconceivable a few decades ago - even a couple of years ago! - several medical advances that are today used routinely.

It is a fun theoretical discussion to entertain but we would reach no real conclusion.

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Thx. Thought I missed something