Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Avatar and the Pandora Network - Futuristic Broadband

Before you conclude that this is just a shameless excuse for a geek to use his blog as a platform to rant on the latest sci-fi movie... ok, you might be partially right. But there's something to this notion. The creator(s) of the new movie Avatar had impressively imaginative minds--something lacking in films of recent. Not the least of their "inventions" was a biological broadband network of sorts, which served as the backbone to connect all life on the planet Pandora.

In effect, the fantasy world where the Na'vi people live is connected by a data network we only... well... fantasize about. The vegetation root systems interconnect to form a network backbone of impressive stature. In an early scene, we see the research crew measuring electronic transmissions through a root of a tree. Later, researcher Grace Augustine explains the significance of this find to the money-hungry corporate executive. The redundancy, reach, and shear bandwidth capabilities of the network which connects all of Pandora is beyond any human's capability to build with copper cable and fiber-optics.

Even more fascinating, however, was James Cameron's imaginitive method for how animal life forms connected to this network. Rather than with mechanical or artificial means, all animals--including the human-like Na'vi--are equipped with a special organ which serves as a universal "jack" of sorts to link into the planet's network. This bundle of nerves which grows out of all creatures' heads can link them into the planetary network, or create "peer-to-peer" connections between horse and rider, or other symbiotic relationships.

So, how does this all relate to the broadband of today? I find it fascinating to note how sci-fi has influenced reality over the past half-century. The creators of Star-Trek imagined a world where each person would have a personal wireless communication device. Now I can't buy a gallon of milk without seeing someone's blue-tooth in their ear like a peice of jewelry. Will James Cameron's personal cat5 jack ever catch on? Will the earth ever be covered with such a ubiquitous network? There is no doubt that the future of our communication lies in the data network that now covers our globe. Cameron's fantasy world, no doubt, reflects the awesome prospect of what that network could mean for our society, if indeed we can accomplish it.

Labels: Avatar, Broadband, James Cameron, Na'vi, Pandora