This blog post explores how the Na’vi’s physical form, senses, and consciousness depicted in the movie Avatar intersect with the technological evolution of future humanity. It investigates how far we can realistically accept the process of humans becoming more like the Na’vi.
The movie ‘Avatar’, released in 2009, tells the story of the intelligent lifeform known as the ‘Na’vi’ inhabiting the alien planet ‘Pandora’ and the Earthlings who arrive on this planet. Set approximately 150 years in the future, the film depicts humans possessing a highly advanced scientific civilization. However, physically, they are portrayed as infinitely fragile compared to the Na’vi, who have blue bodies, exceptional sensory abilities, and strong limbs. Will humanity truly be as fragile 150 years from now? Yuval Harari’s Sapiens depicts humans from a different dimension than today, exploring perspectives of biotechnology, cyborg engineering, and inorganic engineering. From the cyborg engineering perspective among these three, future humanity evolves into a species more akin to the ‘Navi’ in the film than to current Homo sapiens. The end of Homo sapiens will not come from alien ‘Nabis’ like in the movies, but when all humanity evolves into new ‘Nabis’. Homo sapiens will meet its end, or rather, its evolution. Now, let’s trace this evolution step by step.
The beginning of this evolution is easily accessible. It starts with eyeglasses, invented hundreds of years ago and now used by countless people around us. Eyeglasses improve symptoms like nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism, enhancing our vision. This tool originally aimed only to restore vision to normal levels, but humanity sought more. Thus, humanity invented the microscope to see things too small for the naked eye and the telescope to see distant objects beyond human vision. Eyeglasses, in the form of lenses, merged with electronic devices and continued to evolve for specific purposes. For instance, smartphone cameras became thinner and smaller, eventually shrinking to a size comparable to our pupils. Moreover, this progress isn’t limited to visual tools; it’s being applied to various sensory organs. For instance, hearing aids enable the hearing impaired to hear sounds again, while cochlear implants provide an even more precise auditory experience. In the future, such technologies will advance further, becoming perfectly integrated with the human body.
However, the devices discussed so far are merely ‘tools’ and cannot yet be called part of the body. For them to become part of the body, the final step is connecting to the nervous system. This difference can be likened to the difference between flying in an airplane and paragliding. Flying in an airplane involves imagining the sensation of soaring through the sky while feeling the sky outside the window and the sway of the seat. Paragliding, however, involves directly feeling the wind on your skin and seeing the small patches of ground passing beneath your feet, giving you the immediate sense that you are flying through the sky. Similarly, if the world captured by a camera were directly connected to our nerves, it would no longer be a matter of seeing through a tool, but of seeing directly with our own bodies. Research in this area is also underway, with results showing that connecting the nerves of visually impaired individuals to a camera enables them to distinguish direction and shape.
Research to enhance human muscle strength is also progressing. ‘Power suits’, which are worn like outer garments and incorporate robotic exoskeletons to augment muscle power, are being developed as solutions for various fields including military, logistics, and disaster response. We can also see these tools becoming miniaturized and integrated into the body. One example is the ‘Power Knee’ created by the Icelandic company Osur, which uses a motor inside the joint and sensors in the shoe to assist with climbing stairs or hills. Research is also underway to connect these muscle-enhancing assistive devices to nerves, similar to the approach with vision. At the Chicago Rehabilitation Institute, Jesse Sullivan, who lost both arms in an accident, was fitted with new prosthetic arms. These arms recognize electrical signals from Jesse’s brain, allowing him to move them as he intends, giving him arms connected to his nerves, albeit imperfectly. Furthermore, this technology is significantly improving the quality of life for humanity. It helps overcome various physical limitations and opens the possibility of transcending the boundaries of physical capability.
With such enhanced physical sensations and greater muscle strength improving our physical capabilities, are we getting closer to the ‘Butterfly Tribe’? Unfortunately, we are still merely exceptional Homo sapiens. The most significant characteristic distinguishing the alien lifeforms inhabiting the ‘Pandora’ planet from Earth’s lifeforms is their ability to connect their nerves to each other. By connecting nerves exposed on parts of their bodies, they share sensations, movements, and thoughts. This too could become possible in the future. If we can connect external information to the brain by linking a camera to it, and transmit brain information externally by controlling an artificial arm, then information from one brain could be connected to another. Through this method, a person’s thoughts, memories, and emotions could be transmitted to another without filtering. Yuval Harari stated that we would soon witness “the point where all concepts that gave meaning to our world—me, you, man, woman, love, hate—become completely irrelevant.” The advancement of such technology will not merely enhance physical capabilities but will also bring significant changes to humanity’s social and psychological structures. Personal identity and social relationships will be redefined in new ways, marking a major turning point for human civilization.
In the movie ‘Avatar,’ the protagonist, after enduring many hardships, ultimately gains the body of a ‘Na’vi.’ He abandons the fragile body of Homo sapiens and obtains a body with superior senses and strength, capable of neural communication. While the protagonist seems to have gained a superior body, 150 years into the future, humanity itself will have adopted the Na’vi form. We will become a species far surpassing the Na’vi, sharing not only senses and actions but thought and consciousness itself. As diverse technologies advance, humanity evolves physically and mentally, marking the end of Homo sapiens and embarking on a path of evolution into a new species. Ultimately, humanity will overcome its own limitations, continuously evolve, and transform into a form of existence entirely different from our current selves. This demonstrates human potential while offering profound insight into the future we are heading towards.
