Pandora's box of love... or computer of love.

Pandora, a land of wonder and creatures unlike that of Earth's, but still very similar. There are even bipedal beings that walk the planet that live as tree dwellers. These beings are known as the Na'vi. They walk, run, and speak as humans do, but they are warriors from a more primeval world. In the 2009 film Avatar, where we find out about the technological advances of the human race in the year 2154, these indigenous people are the center of attention, as well as the power source their village is located on.  

In this film we meet Jake Sully, a paraplegic ex-Marine whose outlook on life is grim. He's been recruited into the Avatar program because his twin brother, who was previously part of the program, died while in the field. Jake had no idea what his brother had been doing in this facility, however, it didn’t take him long to enjoy his newfound freedom. This program gave him the ability to walk again, not in his own body, but the body of an Avatar that looked just like the Na'vi. He could run, jump, and feel soil beneath is feet. Once he began to actually meet the real Na'vi, however, things took a wild turn. He began to fall in love with the chief's daughter.  

What does this have to do with what watched and discussed in class, you ask? Well it's simple, there is a linearity between Jake falling in love with Neytiri, the Na'vi chief's daughter, and Theodore falling in love with Samantha, his operating system. Jake is technically not real in Neytiri's world, he's an automaton of sorts, it's not really his body even though he can feel and sense everything. Samantha really isn't a physical form, but she is a mental one. She learns from Theodore's wants and needs how a real person would act, so she seems very real to Theodore. Neytiri knows from the start that Jake is part of the program because she's already met others like him, just like Theodore knows Samantha is a computer program. 

Love is a strange concept. Obviously, in the case of Theodore and Samantha, it doesn’t have to be physical. In the case of Jake and Neytiri, it's about learning and freedom. Honestly, the concept of falling in love with a robot or computer isn't that far off. Robots are becoming more and more human every day. They have personalities, human-like bodies, and (I'm not sure if this is real or not) can have sex. There are many movies that explain this concept, and I wouldn’t doubt that someone would fall in love with a computer. Even in the book "The Most Human Human," Christian talks about Dr. Robert Epstein who fell in love with "Ivana" who was actually a computer program, like Samantha in Her. He also talks about Claude Shannon and his wife Mary Elizabeth, he was a human and she was a computer. It's possible and it's real.