한국영상문화학회

Media philosopher Vilém Flusser once remarked that communication will take on the role that “philosophy previously played”. At the dawn of a hyperconnected society, in which humans communicate constantly with their surroundings via such mediums as the Internet of Things (IoT), we turn our attention to the case of the possible parralels drawn in the movie “Avatar”. The movie depicts a communication medium know as “que”, which facilitates the input and output of senses and communication. Drawing on the concept of the input and output of senses, it is the symoblism of connection itself which is one of the movie’s focal points. As an overview, the film is set in 2150 and depicts the attempts of Earthlings to mine ‘unobtainium’ on the planet Pandora - a rare mineral required to meet the Earth’s energy needs. The Na’vi, the native sapient humanoids of Pandora, resist this, with the largest deposit of the mineral sitting beneath their ancestoral home. More than this, the home of the Na’vi, known as the Hometree, is part of a larger biological neural network even more dense than the brain. Living things on Pandora, including Hometree, are connected through a sensory organ – the aforementioned “queue”. When connecting using this sensory organ, the Na’vi and the organisms of the planet can communicate, and exchange not only genetic information, but also ancestral memories and the souls of their ancestors. “Avatar” presents some parallels with the ways we experience sensory input and output at present, and can provide insights into considering the future of how the input and output of senses could come to be experienced in a hyperconnected society and beyond.