What James Cameron thinks about the theory that Avatar’s Eywa is a ‘benevolent Skynet’

James Cameron’s “Avatar” films have become such a global phenomenon in part because they are determined to show you something you’ve never seen before. Since 2009, Pandora has taken over some of the largest cinemas in the world, offering some of the most beautiful environments in contemporary science fiction cinema. We are immersed in this fictional planet where bioluminescent plant life, floating mountains and magnificent horse-birds are all treated with admiration. The Na’vi show reverence and respect to their majestic home and, more importantly, to Eywa. The spiritual essence of the Great Mother forms a connection with the ecosystems and living beings of Pandora that create a cycle of energy that flows into one another.

Discussions of Eywa being a crucial element in Pandora’s functioning are accompanied by fears that she could be seen as some sort of threat. After all, it seems that Varang (Oona Chaplin) in the upcoming “Fire and Ash” is against the Great Mother because she remained mysteriously absent when she was called to save her clan. When Cameron was asked a fan question about whether Eywa was the “Avatar” universe’s benevolent counterpart to Skynet’s “The Terminator” franchise, he offered a different perspective (via Empire):

“I think the Skynet allegory is true to a point, although Skynet was created by humans to fight wars, and Eywa evolved naturally. She is essentially a network in the mycelium of the forest. Each tree is essentially a neuron, and some perform input/output functions like the Tree of Souls and the Tree of Spirits underwater. Some are just storage, others are processing. And then the mycelium is a kind of network, or what I call the Eywa-net It is a global supercomputer network. It is not an artificial intelligence, but probably analogous in many functionalities to a computer network.

Eywa may be that deep-rooted force of Pandora, but the main difference between her and Skynet is that of creation and intention. Skynet is a computer system created by Cyberdyne Systems for the military. With it came the birth and inevitable consequences of artificial intelligence. Skynet eventually came to view humanity as a threat and thus plunged the world into an apocalyptic nuclear wasteland. Each “Terminator” deals in one way or another with the system that is choking out the remaining sects of the Human Resistance with weapons, skeleton soldiers and time travel technology. It shouldn’t have been surprising that a malicious AI would gain consciousness and wipe out the human population, given that it was designed as a form of destruction.

Eywa has a similar function in that it is a sort of database composed of the transmitted souls of the Na’vi. It does not seek to harm, but to establish connections. The main difference between Skynet and Eywa is that the latter is a natural resource of Pandora. Eywa is an environmental system that essentially acts as a fantasy parallel to how OUR ecosystems communicate. The Great Mother has seen how the Na’vi treat their planet and responds by creating an unbreakable bond. We know how the Earth’s environment has rapidly responded to the way we exploit it. All of Pandora’s energy is borrowed because Eywa carries all the children in her heart. He is a completely natural being that the evil RDA cannot truly understand, but recognizes Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) possessing enough of the mind of the Na’vi to fully become one. Time will tell if Eywa has more to offer than meets the eye.

The first two “Avatar” films are broadcast on Disney+. “Avatar: Fire and Ash” is now in theaters.