Our “Science of Avatar” Panel Coming to San Diego Comic-Con 2023

We are excited to be returning to San Diego Comic-Con! Since 2014, Dent the Future has been working with the editorial team at SDCC originating science and tech-focused editorial programming. 2023 will again have us on the main stages at SDCC (July 19–23).

One of our scheduled panels for 2023 is titled The Science of Avatar: The Way of Water. We hope you can join us.

A key reason the latest Avatar movie has been such a critical and commercial success is the painstaking attention that has been paid to creating what Nerdist called “a refreshingly grounded marriage between science and the human imagination.” At Comic-Con, we will delve into that marriage.

Dent will be bringing several renowned scientists, adventurers, technologists, and those pushing the boundaries of human evolution to San Diego for an hour of compelling conversation and presentations. Just a few of the topics to be covered include:

• How humans will likely soon be able to communicate with whales

• How the actors in the film developed their “mammalian dive reflex,” and some, such as Kate Winslet, were able to spend as much as 6 minutes immersed without breathing

• The reality of a five year space voyage from Earth at near light speed to a distant moon

• How the Sama tribe of Indonesia inspired the Metkayina clan depicted in the film, and how they have evolved to become sea-dwellers

We will also hear a first-hand account of a real-life whale encounter almost identical to inter-species interactions portrayed in the film.

Our Published Session in the SDCC Directory:

The session information can be found live here.

The Science of Avatar: The Way of Water

Nerdist called Avatar: The Way of Water “a refreshingly grounded marriage between science and the human imagination”—and it’s easy to see why. Michelle Courtney (human Mars architecture team, NASA) will instruct on the realities of a five-year space voyage to Pandora. Dr. John Hildebrand (distinguished professor, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego) will discuss the possibilities of human-whale communication, and attendees will learn from Kirk Krack (marine unit trainer and consultant for the film) how he trained the actors to harness their "mammalian dive reflex" so they could manage to hold their breath underwater for up to six minutes. Dr. Nathan Lents (professor of biology, John Jay College) will cover the parallels between Pandora’s Metkayina clan and the Earth-bound Sama tribe of Indonesia, and Gaelin Rosenwaks (explorer and marine scientist) will reveal her real-life whale encounters that mirror the inter-species interactions portrayed in the film. Moderated by Steve Broback (co-founder, Dent the Future).

Friday July 21, 2023 6:00pm - 7:00pm PDT • Room 25ABC

Our Panelists Will Include: