Another Movie Thread - Because We Love Them So

[kandrathe]

Also, if it was possible to grow brain dead clones and drive them remotely, then why didn't everyone have an "Avatar" whether or not they be Na'vi? Wouldn't that be safer than risking your actual body, or perhaps we just need to buy into the whole premise that military grunts flown a kazillion miles to Pandora are expendable?

Well, the lack of "clones for everybody" was pretty reasonably explained. Right at the start, they say that Jake's clone was meant for his twin brother, who had died in an accident or some such. The clone was expensive enough (and took enough time to produce), that it was worth it to try to teach an undereducated, washed-up military grunt to drive it instead of discard it.

I was thinking each person would be grown their own brain dead human clone, or if not too much trouble Na'vi. In the evolution of modern warfare, it seems the size of forces decreases and the value of both personnel and equipment increases. Colonel yahoo is marching around the forest in a billion dollar mechanized suit, but he's expendable? Moving so many people and so much material and equipment toward establishing a beach head on Pandora must have cost much. If the brain dead body out on the front line can be replaced, at least they don't lose the investment in training. The clone would take time, yes, but the cost would be in space used, nutrients and a slight amount of power to run the growth tanks.

I can also see a shift in attitudes toward ecological destruction if you assume that Pandora isn't the only other planet we've discovered with life on it. If you can find a habitable planet in every other star system, and getting to them is easy, trashing one for it's valuable minerals doesn't seem so wasteful. I wouldn't want to see it happen, but I could see how people would change their perception of the value of any one planet.

Good argument. I would contest however that rationally, an individual who has survived ecological destruction on their home planet would grow to value (if not cherish) life everywhere and not casually destroy it, even on a thousand other planets.

Imagine the value of a potato or a carrot, if it where the only living plant matter you ever saw. Then, consider landing on Pandora -- while dangerous, it would be a vision of wonder to anyone who's only ever seen a devastated ecosystem or spacecraft.