Metodo

International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

202667

Calling Gaia

world brains and global memory

Stephan Besser

pp. 70-75

Abstract

"See the world we come from. There is no green there. They killed their mother. And they are gonna do the same here". This is earthling Jake Sully speaking to Eywa, the Gaia-like goddess and balancing force of the ecosystem of the planetoid Pandora. At a dramatic narrative juncture of the film Avatar (James Cameron 2009), Jake calls on Eywa to intervene in the battle between the Na"vi, the tall and blue-skinned native inhabitants of Pandora, and the military forces of the Resources Development Agency (RDA) from Earth that colonize the planet. Having just learned from a fellow resistance fighter that the fibre-optic lianas of the so-called Tree of Voices provide a "direct line to Eywa", Jake connects his native avatar's neural queue to one of the threads and starts to talk. He urges Eywa to access the memories of his deceased colleague Dr. Grace Augustine in order to get an impression of the destruction that humans have inflicted upon the ecosystem of their own planet. Against all odds, the distress call is answered. From the depths of Pandora's jungles Eywa sends herds of dinosaur-like creatures that launch a counter attack and run over the RDA war machine. The ecosystem strikes back and the invaders are sent home to Earth.

Publication details

Published in:

Groes Sebastian (2016) Memory in the twenty-first century: new critical perspectives from the arts, humanities, and sciences. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.

Pages: 70-75

DOI: 10.1057/9781137520586_9

Full citation:

Besser Stephan (2016) „Calling Gaia: world brains and global memory“, In: S. Groes (ed.), Memory in the twenty-first century, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 70–75.