Do You Think That Technology Used In Avatar Will Look Obsolete In The Next 20 Years?

[rasomaso]

So I'm laying here on my bed at 6:25 am and I'm waiting for my new battlefield video to finish rendering, with headphones on my head and typing this on a PS3. A true geek.

In a little time I have here, I was thinking how the technology keeps advancing as well as human fantasy about it. There are two facts about sci-fi movies in general, they seem to imagine technological advancements much sooner than they'll have a chance to happen, and also the design of daily gadgets and electronics is always kinda... old school? Remember the control panels in the old Star Trek? Or maybe the vision of Skynet in 1999 (I think lol).

So I wonder, if our kids will see Avatar and think "hmm that still looks cool" or "did they actually think it's gonna look like that?"

[Stanley_9875]

Thats the thing, this is so real, I dont know how much farther it can advance... 4-D in homes???

[Drewan]

Well--The screens will look old school very soon--oled screens will be here within the next couple of years, so the clear screen is Much sooner....as for the choppers, well the explanation for them is the magnetic fields disrupt circuits in "modern" equipment so that works--same goes for the weapons---beam weapons & disrupters "won't" work on Pandora.......

Maglev is just a pipe dream with current tech, but should be common soon (next 50 years or so) & the space-born stuff is probably on the right track as far as timeline......The shuttle looks like a combo of heat engine tech with maybe anti-grav or anti-matter drive? (looks like not much area is allotted for drive systems---mostly a space to ground "truck")

So all in all the base is the least "advanced" in my mind......

[ISV Venture Star]

I make allowances for this kind of thing because if you change the tech level too much you will change the whole feel and aesthetic of the film, which is something I love.

A tech purist might say that by the time humanity has enough energy available to accelerate something as massive as the ISV Venture Star to 0.7c they will be as gods to us, as far beyond 21st century tech as we are beyond our neolithic ancestors. They might be like Clarke's starchildren. Perhaps so, but that won't fit into Avatar thematically.


Oops, I typed g rather than c! Corrected.

[Tsawke`Iheyu]

As all the "techy" predictions in the movies came to life, like the iPad, the earplugs and small headphones, the radar etc, so will the technology in AVATAR will come to life, but better than what we saw in the movie. I guess in few years we will have OLED displays and glass holograms at the same price with the iPhones today.

[ISV Venture Star]

I remember being amazed at the displays seen in Minority Report. They don't seem all that advanced now we're in 2010!

[Tsawke`Iheyu]

Originally Posted by ISV Venture Star

I remember being amazed at the displays seen in Minority Report. They don't seem all that advanced now we're in 2010!

Yep, the same thing is in the movie 2012 when that iranian governor or whatever, he was holding an iPad. We now have iPads. So about I, Robot which I found a very interesting concept on technology of the cars, and the hologram which could be accessible to everyone in a nearer than we think future.

And to not go off-topic, the ISV Venture Star could be also a great concept of far distance travelling in the outer space, who knows, maybe one day we will travel to Pandora .

[rasomaso]

hah yeah, don't you love the audi from I, robot?

[Fosus]

After 20 years movies may not be made anymore at all. There are probably new ways to experience them.

[Patrice Maire]

One of the coolest effects I saw was in Ironman with the holograph display you could take from the desktop and move to another spot, same thing with the screens in Avatar. That is entirely possible really soon if it isn't out there already.

I am going to interject here as (possibly) the oldest person on the board with my own personal timeline of technology advances.
I saw the birth of the computer age in the late 60's, experienced the use of remote teletype connecting to a master computer in high school and was in Silicon Valley when Apple Computers was born.
My first home computer was an Apple 512k in 1984, I remember the odd feeling of coordinating my hand and eyes to use the mouse. (I was an adult then by the way) Now I have an iMac flat screen with 2GB and an ipod Touch in 2010.

When I was much younger, there was a movie technique that was cutting edge at the time called 'Cinerama' it was the equivalent of what IMAX is now without the 3D.
I was at the Spokane Expo in 1974 when they showcased the FIRST Imax screen in the U.S. Pavilion. When the Expo ended the screen was shipped to San Jose, CA to be housed in the first Imax theater at Great America amusement park.

I was a child when we first stepped on the moon, the computers they used took up the amount of space that most movie theaters use now and had the same computing power of a Nintendo 64. We put a man on the moon with less computing power than most hand held calculators.

There used to be public telephones on every street corner in the city, it used to cost a dime to make a phone call.
I remember seeing videophones demonstrated at Disneyland and thought... 'that is science fiction, it isn't going to happen.' The other day I had a video chat with my older brother on our imac computers and it didn't cost us a dime.

Will we ever get to another planet? Not in my lifetime, possibly in my great grandchildren's lifetime. (and with the advances in medicine..who knows? I might still be here.)
The problem with space technology is it relies on a helluva lot more money and bureaucracy than information technology and there's all sorts of physics to overcome.
Science fiction movies and stories aren't necessarily a predictor of what will happen but the leading edge of what is happening now.

Sorry for my rambling, sometimes all this catches up to my brain and I have to just sit back and marvel at where we are today.

I will be turning 52 in a week.
What will happen in another 50 years?

[txen]

Well you got me by about four years there Patrice. I too saw the things you describe.

The thing about the SF movies is that some stuff comes to pass while others never come. For example where is my flying car. I was promised a flying car by 2000. Where is it? In some other areas we have surpassed what was only in SF movies of the past. In Avatar I think that the first thing to go will be the people. We were told the year was 2154, but the characters in the movie were very familiar to me. They were from out time. As far as the tech goes the displays are a no brainer.

Some things I think that we have better today than what was shown in the film. One big item is inertial navigation. That's what we used before the era of GPS. It's not cheap or easy, but it does the job. Ever hear of a laser guided bomb, or a remotely piloted aircraft? Where were these? Now I know that the tech was subordinate to telling a story and I don't have a problem with it. Movies are not about technology, they are telling a story about people, their relationships, their growth, and triumphs. The rest is just a setting.

[redpaintednavi]

Originally Posted by txen

Well you got me by about four years there Patrice. I too saw the things you describe.

The thing about the SF movies is that some stuff comes to pass while others never come. For example where is my flying car. I was promised a flying car by 2000. Where is it?

According to Moller they are on the way (although he has said that for quite a while now). But at least there is a prototype. By the way, the flying machines of the Moller corporation are called volantors and they were the source of inspiration for the flying machines in Avatar:



http://www.moller.com/

[Layzie]

I'm not sure. I have wondered the same thing. Maybe not. It looks so real as it is.

[Neytiri.]

I doubt it will be obsolete but I think they will improve upon it. It's one of the best methods to animate a movie now days. I"m sure we will see some huge technological improvements in all aspects of the world within 30 years.

[Human No More]

I doubt it.

Future technology CAN still look fresh 20 years on - Star Trek TNG springs to mind

The difference is this: 'future' tech that's really just a more advanced version of current tech will look obsolete (primarily ancient scifi films), 'future' tech which is based on a new concept will remain futuristic.