Human Technology: Year 2154

[Banefull]

Just out of curiosity, what does everyone think of the technological level of the humans as portrayed in the movie? The concept of the ISV strikes me as being just about right for a spaceship employed by humanity in a hundred and fifty years. As for everything else, the few shots we see of Earth in the CE do not reveal much. At best we can only infer as to what kinds of tech the human possess back on Earth. While most of their tech seems rather behind, we still have to take into account that setting up and logistically supplying a base light years away from earth is no easy task or small accomplishment. The other wild card on the table for evaluating the human's technological progress is the condition of the Earth itself. If the natural environment ever did become that depleted, I would expect that economic growth on a global scale would slow, stagnate, or even reverse itself in some instances.

So what does everyone think of the human's technology. Is is just right, too much, or too little?

[Human No More]

It seems realistic to me, especially the displays, computers and handheld ones. There's certainly nothing implausible, and with the state of Earth, I'd imagine that things have stagnated in many places - anyway, if you look back a few decades, the form of technology today has remained the same and only the capabilities have greatly increased, and if you go back more than a few decades then most of it didn't exist beforehand. There's no reasoning that in 143 years that things will necessarily be physically different, as what works works, just that their actual capabilities will be greater. On the other hand, there are some entirely new things (the avatar tanks, for example, and the quantum entanglement communications), which seem reasonable given the distance into the future.

[Fosus]

I don't believe we'll make it that far.

[Human No More]

That's very true... the way things are currently going, it's unclear whether humans will even survive that long. If threy do though, then stagnation at some point is plausible, especially if there is some kind of resource crisis (oil, most likely) and attempts to mitigate it with technology don't succeed to the level they would need to, or else a limit that is impossible to surpass without a completely new approach is reached (for example, the physical limitations of silicon as a material for CPU dies, which is already a concern, if not a practical problem for a while).

[Advent]

Certainly depends on the upcoming events of our near future. If we conserve our environment, if we deplete it, outcomes of WWIII, global warming, economics, scientific progress etc.

[Ashen Key]

I'm mostly happy with the level of the tech - but actually, I still find it really hard to believe that Jake couldn't get his spine fixed. They can create the Avatars, successfully clone animals, and yet they can't fix cheaply fix the spine of a special forces soldier, with all his hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of training they poured into him?

Hrm.

[Advent]

Originally Posted by Ashen Key

I'm mostly happy with the level of the tech - but actually, I still find it really hard to believe that Jake couldn't get his spine fixed. They can create the Avatars, successfully clone animals, and yet they can't fix cheaply fix the spine of a special forces soldier, with all his hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of training they poured into him?

Hrm.

I agree with this as well. You'd think, with the massive economic boom in that time (mainly because of unobtanium), and reasoning that technology would have risen by about 140 years from now, a spine wouldn't be that expensive to fix. Or even replace.

[Icu]

I think we'll make it farther (assuming we make it without nuclear war or what have you).

Just look at the past 30 years or so. 143 is SOO much longer than that.

[Raptor]

It really depends on what we're looking. I think there is plenty of room for improvement in terms of electronics and software. Look at how much the iPhone has progressed, and how much higher the CPU clock speed has improved in only a few years. I mean, Windows XP is looking long in the tooth, and it was introduced in 2003. In terms of hardware, you never know. We still use the good old Ma Deuce for our HMG, but on the other hand, the difference between a 1991 automobile and a 2011 automobile is tremendous.

Keep in mind that many of our state-of-the-art technologies are only affecting the people who can afford it. In the opinion of this poolee, the future of human technology is a big open question. We do have a lot of potential. There may be a point that technology needs wait to let the rest of the world to catch up before going any further. On the other hand, it may be sadly true that the technological gap between "classes" will only increase in the future.

I myself agree with what Dr. Carl Sagan has to say about our future.

[Banefull]

Originally Posted by Ashen Key

I'm mostly happy with the level of the tech - but actually, I still find it really hard to believe that Jake couldn't get his spine fixed. They can create the Avatars, successfully clone animals, and yet they can't fix cheaply fix the spine of a special forces soldier, with all his hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of training they poured into him?

Hrm.

Rising health care costs, they are out of control

[Human No More]

Originally Posted by Ashen Key

I'm mostly happy with the level of the tech - but actually, I still find it really hard to believe that Jake couldn't get his spine fixed. They can create the Avatars, successfully clone animals, and yet they can't fix cheaply fix the spine of a special forces soldier, with all his hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of training they poured into him?

Hrm.

There are people today in 'first world' countries without free healthcare who can't afford medical treatment too. Earth in Avatar is massively overpopulated, almost out of natural resources and has continual war and terrorism. Of course free healthcare won't be a priority.

[Ashen Key]

Originally Posted by Human No More

There are people today in 'first world' countries without free healthcare who can't afford medical treatment too. Earth in Avatar is massively overpopulated, almost out of natural resources and has continual war and terrorism. Of course free healthcare won't be a priority.

Iiiii wasn't talking 'free', exactly, although I would argue with a population of twenty billion, Earth has had inexpensive health care in a lot of countries for quite some time. I was more talking about the VA, and a cost-benefit rationale - they already do some AMAZING things to put soldiers back together, and somehow in the future their insurance doesn't cover the cost of a spinal cord fix? Particularly of someone who, as I've said, they've already pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars of training into? (as First Recon, Jake is Marine Special Forces) I....have a hard time buying that. I can sorta make it work in my head, but it's a stretch.

[Banefull]

Originally Posted by Ashen Key

Iiiii wasn't talking 'free', exactly, although I would argue with a population of twenty billion, Earth has had inexpensive health care in a lot of countries for quite some time. I was more talking about the VA, and a cost-benefit rationale - they already do some AMAZING things to put soldiers back together, and somehow in the future their insurance doesn't cover the cost of a spinal cord fix? Particularly of someone who, as I've said, they've already pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars of training into? (as First Recon, Jake is Marine Special Forces) I....have a hard time buying that. I can sorta make it work in my head, but it's a stretch.

Though in the US, healthcare costs are absolutely insane.



In the future, I would imagine that everyone better hope they have good health insurance. Combine that with potential cuts to government benefits and Jake's situation seems likely.

[Ashen Key]

[QUOTE=Banefull;139949]Though in the US, healthcare costs are absolutely insane.

I know! But I also have a hard time believing that is going to uniformly continue for the next 130 years or so. Not without the US collapsing, and the RDA is - apparently - an American based company. If things got too bad, they'd pack up and go somewhere else, and we'd be hearing all the characters sound Chinese or Australian or something.

And....well, clearly, I think, the 'seems likely' is a Your Mileage May Vary thing. As I said, I CAN justify it, but it bugs me. So, YMMV

[Banefull]

Even if they stop growing and level off immediately today, adjusted for inflation, an operation would still be very hard to pay for entirely on your own if you haven't been paying into health insurance.