The future of videogames

The future of videogames

It was 2026, when radical life extension finally became possible. Life expectancy was increasing by multiple years, every year. By 2031 it became impossible to calculate a meaningful number. Then, in 2034, the mystery of consciousness was somewhat solved. The neurons that generate consciousness can be isolated, and stored in complex machines that can keep these few cells indefinitely alive. The “brain in a vat” horror-scenario became theoretically possible, although most people preferred to live in the biological-technological hybrid machines that appeared as human beings as we used to know them, and were used by people to participate in daily life.

In 2067, humanity was shocked, by the first death of a conscious organism in five years, as nano-machines and robots were tasked with ensuring that nobody could ever die again. A horribly depressed 122 year old man had committed suicide through poisoning.

Although the media kept it secret to avoid copycats, it was revealed to scientists like me, tasked with solving the problem, that he was afraid that he would live forever and would never experience anything new or exciting again, being trapped in a universe that had nothing new to offer to him. He decided to kill himself while he still could, afraid that soon it would be impossible to kill himself, as the machines that are tasked with protecting humans would soon become so advanced that he could never get the chance.

And so, me and my team were given the task of ensuring this tragic case would be the last true death on our planet. We were part of the 0.2% of the human population that would be required to engage in actual work this year, as most work was done by machines, with the exception of work that requires the consideration of complex issues filled with ethical dilemmas such as ours. After all, we were still unsure about how far we are willing to go to prevent deaths.

We met for the first time this morning. As intelligent machines and other living organisms were not allowed to know about our conversation, we physically met on an isolated island, one of the last “reservations”, once created for those humans who were unwilling to enter modernity, like the hunter gatherer tribes found on the Andaman Islands.

Most of these reservations were being dismantled, as us modern humans felt we had a task to inform the people on these islands that they could be immortal and their deaths were avoidable. When told their deaths were avoidable, most inhabitants chose to sacrifice their hatred of modernity in exchange for practical immortality.

Today we had to be careful not to meet any of these “primitives”. Before leaving my office in civilization, I used my administrator privileges to turn off the machines tasked with keeping track of me, a privilege unavailable to most people to prevent tragic suicides like the one we had recently witnessed. After travelling by train to the harbor, and then by boat to this remote island devoid of civilization, I waited for the others to come meet me.

In a situation as bizarre and surreal as ours, it was easy to skip the type of normally obligatory small talk that most of us are all too familiar with. The first to speak was a male professor of ethics, who once ran as a libertarian candidate for office. “I think if people truly feel the desire to kill themselves, we should not allow ourselves to violate their rights in an effort to help them.” He was immediately interrupted by a female professor. “How can you say such a thing? Aren’t you aware that for decades it was normal to take people away from cults, isolate them if they were using drugs, or forcibly medicate them if they were self-injuring, all against their will?”

“She is right!” Another man added. “We have a moral obligation to stop people from making mistakes that we can reasonably expect them to regret after changing their minds. In earlier days, did we not stop our own children from taking actions they would later regret?” After much debate, the college professor agreed, that under certain circumstances, we are required to violate people’s rights, to take them into protection against themselves when they are clearly behaving irrational and against their own self-interest.

After all this debate about ethics we were unfortunately still not any closer to a solution. That is, until a psychologist intervened in the conversation. “The reason deaths still happen in our society is because despite the therapies we offer people and the pharmacological intervention we undertake, we can not avoid coming to the conclusion that human beings are not well adopted to a life without struggle, without novelty, and without mystery.” He argued.

A computer scientist began to smile and said: “If this is really the entire problem, I would argue that we have no problem at all. For centuries humans lacking in true goals have used games to keep themselves occupied.” He said. “Why do you think chess was ever invented? The problem of the leisured aristocrat is of all ages!” He added.

“You obviously don’t understand the issue I am arguing. The problem is not that people are simply bored. The problem is that they recognize that their lives have no more intrinsic value, and there is no real novelty in their lives, and no real goals that require real effort. Your video games and assorted entertainment products will not solve this crisis.” The psychologist responded, visibly annoyed.

The computer scientists was not impressed and continued on his tirade. “You do not understand the possibilities we have today. It is now perfectly possible to create an experience that feels perfectly real. Around the world, people are engaging every day in online video games that resemble medieval environments, industrial age environments, and some people even choose to relive the Second World War.” He responded.

“You say that such computer games can not solve our problem.” He continued. “You simply don’t think largely enough. What if we couple such a game with the ability to modify memories? People who enter the simulation are temporarily deprived of their ability to remember life before entering the simulation. We can even introduce a virtual concept of death to keep the game exciting! Imagine playing as a medieval European peasant and dying, before becoming a hunter-gatherer on the plains of 13^th century North America! People can play over and over again, without remembering their last game!”

He began to get visibly excited. “We can make people relive everything, as often as they want! They can have their first job interview, their first kiss, their first fight, their first broken bone, their first car, heck, they can even lose their virginity, again and again and again!” He added.

He became silent for a moment and then looked around him. Everyone was silent. “Well, what do you think guys?” He added, visibly unnerved. There was silence, until a man walked into their circle, who did not belong with them. He was one of the primitives, as was immediately apparent from his clothing. Everyone was stunned, and nobody said anything as he sat in the sand, opposite to the computer scientist and while staring into his eyes said: “I think we’re in such a game already. I’m really not interested in entering another.”