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RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

AI: Evil or Avatar?

You don’t have to be a sci-fi wizard to remember Avatar. In 1974, biochemist James Lovelock posited a new
The 2009 fantasy blockbuster was equally entrancing paradigm known as the Gaia theory. Essentially, he
for trekkies and school teachers alike. In the epic said that organisms and their inorganic surroundings
science fiction film, writer and director James Cameron have evolved together into one living, self-regulating
envisioned a new world inhabited by an alien species complex system over time. The biota, or web of
known as the Na’vi, who lived in perfect harmony with interdependent organisms, have determined everything
their deity, Ewya, on an exoplanetary moon known as from global temperatures to ocean salinity ‒ anything
Pandora. All was well ‒ a perfect display of symbiosis that would ensure “life maintains conditions suitable for
between nature and its inhabitants ‒ until the human its own survival”. In short, life has been making a way
race had to show up. And once again, it was a case of for itself over countless centuries.
‘winner takes all’, where the collective force of human
greed was unleashed to tailspin perfect order into We might not be able to tap into the whisperings of
chaos. Ewya like the Na’vi did on Avatar. But, what if we could
tune into the undertones of the biota? Our technologies
Albeit fantastically far-fetched, there was something are advancing concurrently and exponentially,
deeply resonating about the movie. What made Avatar synthesizing billions of intelligent devices into a single
rack up two Academy Awards and USD2 billion was cloud-based ecosystem known as the Internet of
more than just great special effects and Sam Things (IoT). As our systems will get smarter, so too
Worthington’s acting. It was the sense that ‘this is us will our ability to understand their interconnectedness.
now ‒ and this could be us later.’ The plot was a familiar Imagine the transformative power we could unlock if we
one, with humanity as the classic villain, willing to could see the cumulative impact of a billion small
plunder paradise for temporal gain but to their ultimate actions in motion. Could IoT be the hero to save us
demise. from ourselves?

4 December 2017 - Digital Commerce & Customer Experience