Na Viro One-Page Reflection

Technology Preserving Life

             A substantial element of Cole's writing on Pasifikafuturism is the exemplification on the preservation and transferring of knowledge overtime, particularly illustrated through the deaths of her family on Earth and Turukawa. In doing so, Cole shows readers that the essence of a culture, environment, or person can be preserved externally and internally. So long as one conserves the memory of those aspects of life, whether it be through physical objects or verbal recollection, the most treasured parts of one's present life can live on eternally. 

This sentiment is observed throughout the entirety of "Na Viro", particularly when the Pacific Native characters used their indigenous language to refer to every-day objects or to greet one another. In the final chapters of this piece, the idea of preserving memories to last beyond the constructs of time is more explicit. Upon Tia's return to Earth from her extensive voyage in deep space, she finds that her family members that remained on Earth had passed away. Tia, though solemn, did not outwardly express her devastation. Although this was likely partially due to her anticipating this risk given that over 400 years had passed on Earth while she was gone, Tia had the power of her time's technology to fall back on as well. Although Bubu and her uncles were no longer with her in the physical world, they were accessible to her in the realm of technology. A hologram was made available to Tia where she could see and hear life-sized adaptations of her loved ones as if they were alive in her reality (Cole 330). Thus, Tia could still be enthralled in the essence of who her family members once were, whereas overtime her mind could distort how they used to sound and look. These digital captures are realistic and eternally protected in the cloud of technology, accessible to Tia at any time, no matter how advanced her world gets. 

Similar to how Tia's family was forever accessible to her through technology, Turukawa was able to live on in a different embod form since she transferred her essence to Tia. Although Turukawa admitted that she was not exactly the same as the version of the embod that Tia had connected with during her time in deep space, the essence of the embod that Tia loved was still present (Cole 328). In a way, Turukawa lived on and Tia did not have to lose her entirely. Although they can be delayed more effectively in Cole's depiction of the future, death and loss are inevitable, fundamental obstacles that humans face. However, Cole makes it clear that advancements in technology are relatively reliable sources of the salvation of such pains. Humans of the future do not have to surrender the delights of the present simply because the bounds of time demand them to. It is as if Cole is expressing that a major enemy of the future is not the threat of loss, rather it is the stability of technology. 

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