| Woodsprite |
06-06-2010 10:09 PM |
I wrote extensively about this here. :)
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Originally Posted by rasomaso
(Post 53714)
I was getting impression that all the "voodoo" was actually real and "measurable in the biology of the forest", as said by Grace. The entity, Eywa, is a consciousness created from all the trees and animals that connect to it, so the deity is not really something supernatural. When Grace is uploaded, I undestand that she is transfered into this network, but when Na'vi die, how do they get in there? Do they make tsahaylu with the tree of souls before dying so they can too be uploaded? It's kind of weird that even though it wants to seem so real, there is still something supernatural going on. I'm confused whether Eywa is meant to be a goddess or entity.
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I believe (and am convinced) it's an entity. I don't believe all Na'vi live in the sense of "living" within Eywa, their brains as they existed at death just continue on, though they aren't actually conscious. To quote (similar to what you said),
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The voices and communication between the Na'vi and their ancestors can only occur when a link-up between the Na'vi queues and the Tree of Souls (and other trees like it) is made. These vines were said to contain "memories" of the ancestors, not the ancestors themselves. The fact that they could "communicate" with them could be that the naturally occurring response given by the loved one could be what they hear when speaking with them, like the technology depicted in "Superman" and the sequels, where Jor-El has pre-programmed responses to any question, dialogue, or reaction given by his son.
The voices heard from the vines could be like sound bite recordings on any personal computer, only these voices could just be downloaded data from the brains of those who've passed on.
But there are other examples of true "intelligence" occupying the trees. It's true, most of the Na'vi probably die normally like we do, in any situation, whether it be old age, disease, murder, a wound, etc. But some Na'vi (important ones) may die at the foot of a sacred area, where they could have a similar "hook-up" from vine sources, like Grace and Jake had at the Tree of Souls. In some rare cases, Na'vi souls or psyches can be ingested into Eywa, thus making it possible for some Na'vi to virtually live forever, since their minds are supported through this global system of synaptic connections, regulated and controlled through the Tree of Souls (which I'm assuming there's only one that exists). A few have already said "Grace is alive", meaning her mind still functions in the Eywa system.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rasomaso
(Post 53714)
On the final battle, Eywa as all of you know, sends all animals against the RDA attack to help the Na'vi, but how exactly does she do that? We've seen only two place where Na'vi can access the network of Eywa, and that is tree of souls and trees of voices. One would think that even animals would need to connect to receive the message, but that would mean either lots of other trees of voices or line-up of animals around ToV waiting for their turn on tsahaylu and daily traffic jams on the logs across surrounding water. Is this another supernatural thingy then?
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Grace says that all forms of plant life, whether they be "sacred" places or just any other location, are all connected. The animal life, no doubt, has a link to this system, and can access it as well as the Na'vi. It may be possible to link to anything on Pandora indirectly, like when one is sleeping or resting. The roots of the trees and plants on Pandora have "10š˛ connections", meaning if your queue is lying on the ground with the tendrils exposed to any source of plant life, you'd be accessing Eywa, directly or indirectly. To quote again,
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The fact that "Eywa" heard him might mean exactly that, but not necessarily because Eywa is an actual deity. If Eywa is rather just an extremely biologically advanced plant that can think like humans (possibly read minds when hooked to), then the "hearing of prayers" could just be an reaction of what information it has received. Since everything on Pandora is connected by way of an internal linkage system, including its inhabiting animal life, then this system can be notified and possibly commanded to preserve itself from death. In an article by Erkki Haukioja entitled "Plant defenses and population flucuations of forest defoliators: mechanism-based scenarios" talking about birch tree defense,
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"Plant defenses against herbivorous insects can be traced to three broad classes of plant compounds, and to the mechanisms which produce variations in their concentrations (Haukioja 2005)... The most recent explanation, still unfamiliar to many field ecologists, is that plants share few broad-scale but versatile defense cascades which orchestrate defenses, including the toxicity of secondary compounds, against numerous biotic and abiotic challenges."
--Page 314
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Sounds a bit technical, but in so many words, birch trees possess a defense system where once one of the trees is attacked (preyed upon) by an insect, a chemical compound is released from the birch that the other birches pick up. This "warning scent" causes the other trees to "toughen up" their defenses with a toxin that'll ward off other insects. Two words: self-preservation. This is exactly what the Tree of Souls might've done. The difference is that this tree had connections to all other forms of life on Pandora, so a "warning" might've been sent to all about how the humans were about to destroy them. That's how the ikrans and angtsėk knew when and what to attack. Again two words: self-preservation.
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:) |
