Avatar and Beyond: Holographic Technology in American Culture

Ever since the movie Star Wars featured a three-dimensional projection of Princess Leia, the world has been fascinated with holographic technology (1). More recently, however, director James Cameron has taken the concept of holograph projection to new heights with his 2009 film Avatar (2). Whereas the holograph in Star Wars was a mere black and white recording projected from a lens in R2D2’s head, those featured in Avatar are full-scale emanations that can be used to navigate unfamiliar terrains without coming to harm. The characters in Star Wars could only record and transmit holograms of themselves to others. The characters in Avatar, however, can fully occupy these transmissions through neural connectivity. Although contemporary science is nowhere near to developing Avatar-like projection technology, researchers have been able to construct less advanced holographic transmitters that have important applications for contemporary society (3). 

Avatar uses the holograph concept to speculate on how humans might someday navigate hostile environments. In the film, a paraplegic former Marine named Jake Sully uses holographic technology to overcome his physical limitations and move about the distant planet of Pandora. Assuming the form of the local Na’Vi, Sully battles fierce land creatures, rides dragons and even develops relationships. The major point of Avatar is speculative and theoretical in nature. Humans may one day possess the technology to inhabit distant worlds in virtual or holographic form, but having that ability might also raise ethical considerations that should be considered beforehand. The film also makes the point that all technology can be used for good or for evil, depending on the user’s intentions. The same invention that frees Sully from his wheelchair, for example, is also used to exploit a native community and strip the planet of its natural resources (2). 

The time to start thinking about these problems, however, is right now. Already, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a three-dimensional projector that is meant to serve as a first step in the direction of holographic technology. According to author David Szondy, the moving holographs are truly three-dimensional. As viewers move around the projector, their view of the images shifts from front to back, maintaining a 3-D appearance the whole time (3). In other words, the technology first featured in Star Wars now exists. What remains now is for researchers to determine how to virtually connect human consciousness with that technology. That development is likely many years in the future, however (3). 

Szondy’s article does call to mind many of the issues raised in Avatar, however. First, this new holographic technology will enable humans to examine objects and explore environments in three-dimensional settings. A rotating 3D image of distant terrain or a dangerous object will soon provide users with more information than simply looking at a standard photograph can (3). Second, these new holograph projections will likely enhance communications the way they appear to do in such films as Avatar.  After all, web-based technologies will enable 3D holographs to interact with one another in real time, while users sit at their terminals or are occupied in some other way. 

For modern-day Americans, the age of interactive holographs is fast approaching (3). While the projector is not yet available to consumers, researchers have already begun speculating on the many applications it will have. According to Szondy, for instance, it is likely to be used in “collaborative design and medical imaging as well as in entertainment” (3). It is also likely to be used for communications purposes and for spatially mapping distant planets, much like the Mars Rover does by transmitting photographs back to NASA. All of these uses offer the human race a chance to move into frontiers. The question remains, however. What will we do when we get there?

References

1. Lucas, G. Star Wars [DVD]. Los Angeles, CA: 20th Century Fox; 1977.

2. Cameron, J. Avatar [DVD]. Los Angeles, CA: 20th Century Fox; 2009. 

3. Szondy, D. MIT develops glasses-free 3D projector as a practical alternative to “holographic video.” Gizmag. 18 May, 2014. Available at: <http://bit.ly/1kMZTmo>.

Accessed April 5, 2015.