Avatar - Reel or UnReal Episode 9
Reel or UnReal Logo appears
Episode 9 appears
Introduction – Orbax begins speaking. Orbax is middle aged, bald with a ponytail at the back. A long curling moustache and a goatee. He is wearing a 3-piece grey plaid suit. He is situated in a Physics lab at the University of Guelph and speaks directly into the camera.
[Orbax]- For the last ten years, we've been waiting on pins and needles for the latest Avatar movie to come out and it's here!
Video clip from the Film Avatar: The Way of Water appears on screen, with an inset of the movie poster and text asking, “Will advances in bioengineering allow us to create half-alien half-human hybrids that we can control remotely?”
[Orbax]- Avatar: The Way of Water has finally given us an excuse to examine the science behind the world of Avatar.
Video switch to a close-up of Orbax wearing goggles and twisting his moustache, then a text bubble over most of the screen, saying, “The connected consciousness- planet to the people.”
[Orbax]- What about Pandora?
Video switches to a film clip of Avatar characters navigating small floating islands of earth.
[Orbax]- What about the collective consciousness of the Earth?
Video switches to a still of the earth surrounded by consecutively larger shapes of a human head.
Video switches back to Orbax in the Lab, with a container of mushrooms and figure of a character from the film on the table in front of him.
[Orbax]- Most people don't realize this, but we live in a world of interconnected creatures,
Video switches to a film clip of a character in the film swimming with a creature underwater.
[Orbax]- but they're not animals.
Video switches to a map of Australia, and then a close-up of the plant in the water.
[Orbax]- In Shark Bay, Australia, there's a giant interconnected flowering plant that stretches 180 km and covers 200 km2 in area.
Video switches back to Orbax in the lab, and then an aerial map of Pando and an animated illustration of the forest network
[Orbax]- Pando, the trembling giant is a 7000 year old clonal colony of quaking aspen trees with one interconnected root system, occupying 108 acres and weighing in at over 6 million kg.
Video switches back to Orbax in the lab, and then to a scene of the forest and a map of Oregon with insets of various mushrooms
[Orbax]- The largest organism on the face of the earth is lurking right now, unbidden in the forests of Oregon.
They weigh anywhere from 7000 to 30,000 tons, anywhere from 1900 and 9600 years old.
And actually covers an area of 8.8 kilometers squared, or 2200 acres.
It's the Honey fungus!
Video switches back to Orbax in the lab, showing the container of mushrooms with a film figure on it, then to a film clip of a character in an underwater landscape
[Orbax]- It's a species of pathogenic fungus, right here among us.
But there definitely is some kind of connected life on this planet.
Video switch to a close-up of Orbax wearing goggles and twisting his moustache, then a text bubble over most of the screen, saying, “Can you upload consciousness?” Then transitions back to Orbax in the lab.
[Orbax]- In the movie Avatar, we upload a human consciousness into an organic... avatar.
Inset of a film clip of one of the characters in the hospital with monitors attached to them, waking up.
[Orbax]- So the question is how do you upload a consciousness?
Video switches to a film clip of a character riding a sea creature like surfing, and then transitions to an x-ray of a skull with electrodes indicated.
[Orbax]- We can take neural interfaces called Deep Brain Stimulation;
Video switches to a diagram of the electrodes and wires involved in deep brain stimulation
[Orbax]- electrodes that go directly into the brain to monitor brain waves and the electrical impulses that occur within the brain itself.
Video switches back to Orbax in the lab
[Orbax]- The hope is that by doing this, we can actually map the human brain pattern.
And by doing so, map human consciousness itself.
Video switches to a colourful 3D representation of consciousness, and then back to Orbax in the lab
[Orbax]- We are quite a far away away from uploading a human consciousness.
Unreal!
Video switch to a close-up of Orbax wearing goggles and twisting his moustache, then a text bubble over most of the screen, saying, “What’s the reality of a robotic host?” Then transitions to a film clip of one of the Avatar characters up close with face in shadow and switches to a character riding a flying creature and finally transitions back to Orbax in the Lab.
[Orbax]- In Avatar, we upload our consciousness into these organic hosts.
Well, somehow you need to create this Frankenstein without a consciousness that's still alive and we're a long ways away from that.
Video switches to an up close pan of a 3D printer, printing something in a petri dish, then to a monkey using a computer, then to close up chip with fibres and finally back to Orbax in the lab.
[Orbax]- However, we've been taking massive strides with things like 3D printing cells and even entire organs.
What's the reality of a robot host?
Well, Neuralink have been used to control robotics for quite some time.
Monkeys can control robots walking projected by Wi-Fi across the world and have actually been able to function and use robotic arms.
So the reality of robot hosts for neural linkage is there.
Video switches to a video clip and then Reel or Unreal logo appears, followed by the University of Guelph logo and tag, “Improve Life.”