homework 9

Andrew Bour
computing, information, and the future
10/4/09


Future of computer entertainment


The future of computer entertainment is very vast, and can range between something related to what we see around us today, to radical new ideas. Some of the most interesting things about the development of entertainment in computing is that radically new technology can appear out of nowhere. Take for example the Nintendo Wii, the motion sensing technology inside It was not on the consumer market, and the general public was amazed at the new method of gaming when it came out. Although the technology was not completely new, in the case of Microsoft's project NATAL we can see how that also wowed the populous by releasing a major jump in technological complexity in the form of motion sensing and lucid human interaction with machines.

Future ideas for computer entertainment do not have to be specifically what we can see being developed around us rite now. For example, you could talk about the short run future as the release of more advanced motion sensing technology, or you could look at the long term future, mind machine interfaces or any other idea.

We do know that more advanced motion sensing technology is being developed, and will most likely reach a very common point (outside of game consoles) by the mid decade of 201X. with the software that can analyze human and other movement becoming available for smaller developers to play with, the ability for the technology to spread into non console, and into markets like mobile phones becomes very easy.

Lets talk about cybernetic implants in the form of brain/electronic interaction for a minute. As the technology advances, and the ability to sense what a person is thinking or feeling with the implant, this opens up the ability for crime stopping. For example, if a country has this technology widespread in it's population, the police force could monitor thoughts to search for illegal activity. Ethical issues aside, this method could be used against certain types of crimes that would require little to no debate.

A great example of this is if a person is thinking about getting an illegal drug, the police could focus their attention on if the person actually does obtain that drug, and use it, along with the distributer of the drug. There is no debate on if the person wouldn't have committed the crime, because this technique can be used post-act and still be effective. You can catch the person selling the drug from the information provided by the buyer, or at least you could crack down on the individuals abusing the drug.

Now if we put ethics back into the issue, we can also see a downfall to this technology. Lets say that a person constantly dreams/thinks about killing his annoying boss or co-worker, he never has physically progressed on the action, but is always thinking about it. Should that person be arrested just because he is thinking of doing it? Without him actually committing the crime, it is impossible to determine if he actually would have committed the murder without police intervention.

(the detailed information about cyberimplants and the issue of mind reading for the use of police forces is related to the plot elements of minority report)

as our computers become more sophisticated, and our programmers also evolve their work complexity, we come closer to being able to create artificial intelligence. If we ever succeeded in creating artificial intelligence, it would most likely be before any laws would be put into place to manage them. It's all speculation, but there could possibly be a lot of problems with creating AI, if it can think and is self aware what rights does it have? Would we treat it just as another machine, or would we treat it like we do other human beings? Undoubtedly artificial intelligence could give us vast evolution in technology but at what cost? If we create something that has a higher level of thinking power then us, what will it think of it's creators? There are many horror stories about AI running amuck and destroying humanity seeing them as inferior, or some other bad thing, but what Is the possibility of such a thing actually happening.

(speculation on artificial intelligence in reference to ghost in the shell)