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The Technology of Mata Nui
 Sunday, April 7th, 2002 at 4:02am by Kelly, BZPower Co-Owner
This dichotomy is abundant within the universe that LEGO created for Bionicle. Rather than being out of place, though, the technology they have chosen to portray fits well with the Bionicle theme, and it�s only upon closer reflection that one begins to wonder how the Tohunga, Turaga, and Toa acquired such anachronistic items as a telescope with digital readouts.
Let's eliminate discussion of Kanohi right away. Those can be considered "magic," or as Arthur C. Clarke so aptly describes in his third law, "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." But everything else on the island is fair game for this question. The Mata Nui Online Game especially is filled with these little technological oddities. A few things immediately spring out as not quite fitting into a hunter/gatherer culture:
Most of the islanders' use of technology seems to be steam or (especially) hydraulic power. Both of these were pre-20th century technologies and therefore may be considered "primitive" to our 21st-century sensibilities. Makuta seems partial to more sophisticated gear: for example, the top-sliding doors leading into and out of Mangaia, his sanctum sanctorum. Unless he had a couple of Rahi manning the ropes behind the scenes, the use of sensors or other electronics is implied. Even more direct evidence is shown by the manas and their control towers, which exploded into a shower of sparks and circuit boards under the tender attention of Akamai and Wairuha's archaic (yet highly effective) edged weapons.
Throughout the storyline there are little pointers to high tech. Take a peek at both the Mahiki and Komau: are those circuit lines? The pattern behind Wairuha and Akamai combining looks suspiciously like a circuit board pattern. So we return to the question of Where did these little trinkets come from? There are at least three possible explanations. Choose the one you like the most and run with it.
Digital telescopes and lava pumps notwithstanding, Bionicle manages to successfully integrate enough technology into a nontechnological setting. Got an opinion? Share it in the BZCommunity thread about this story. |
On a primitive island in an endless ocean, the inhabitants of Mata Nui carry torches for light, live in one-room huts, build their abodes from stone or plants or ice, and by all accounts live relatively simple, pastoral lives when not fighting Rahi or Bohrok. So where did they get advanced technology for hydraulic pumps, elevators, drilling equipment, and other high-tech gadgetry?
Although the storyline indicates the islanders are "primitive" (meaning a lack of digital wristwatches, as Douglas Adams might say), they do have access to items that are out of place. How, exactly, did they come by these items? How are they explained?
There are more examples, but these are what the island�s inhabitants appear to use in their day-to-day lives. Most of the rest can be attributed to "supernatural" intervention by Makuta or Mata Nui, such as the Toa�s canisters (which appear to be precisely machined... Mata Nui must have one heck of a machine shop somewhere); the gates of Mangaia, which open automatically; the transportation of the Toa to the surface from Mangaia ("Beam me up, Vakama!"); the electronic towers of the Manas; etc.
