by Aaron Charles, 19th June 2001

The latest A.I. trailer, reportedly displaying the words "THIS IS NOT A GAME" in the closing credits, has me concerned about our involvement in this game. I've been toying with the idea lately, with all the ideological specs going on, that this movie and the game is a little closer to home than a lot of us realized, expected, or are willing to accept. I've been at this very close to the game's first discovery, and the more we gather and learn about this fictitious world, the more uneasy I become. As we while away the hours exploring the game universe, the world is busy behind closed doors, rushing to create the first functional AI entity. Who's to say that this endless pursuit may not lead to a reality strangely familiar, yet more startling than we at first believed?

There have been a lot of sci-fi movies/novels/series in the last 50 years that have two fairly distinct views of the future of mankind: one that depicts us overcoming our basest carnality and impulses and striving to become a successful and advanced society; the other, the more popular it seems, depicts a world where humanity is in a constant state of regression, becoming more and more like the apes from which we supposedly evolved, the world we inhabit destroyed by our very hands, while seeking out each other in blood thirst.

Many of the technological concepts from these stories have now found outlets in our world, transforming science fiction into science fact, either through simple everyday household objects or scientific research for the future. For instance, while matter teleportation may be impossible if not scientifically improbable (at least in the very near future), there is a scientific basis for this concept and even today science labs around the world are hard at work investigating ways to bring this possibility to life. (Some would say we're merely awaiting the advent of better technology to make it feasible.) This has been found to be true for quite a few things; much of the technology from NASA's space program has now been commercialized for general consumption by the public.

I have watched this trend for some time, as I am a big fan of the science fiction genre, and one thing that strikes me is that this movie in particular seems to bear a strange and familiar tone to our present condition. It's apparent that the movie will try to explore moral and ethical subject matter and draw a disquieting parallel between the fictional world onscreen and the real world of today. While it is true that many films are produced purely for entertainment purposes or from some childhood fantasy of a director or screenwriter, there are some (perhaps, as many) that seek to demonstrate some aspect of mankind in a parable-style rendering designed to enlighten and educate the intended audience. And, needless to say, I find it alarming how real this movie depicts a likely future for humans.

For one, the staggering possibilities that await us from the successful creation of a self-aware AI could change the world as we know it. To simplify the things that we do by putting machines to work doing the stuff we can't or don't want to. It's unfathomable. But what is truly profound are the implications that this movie and the underlying game have introduced. True, this is far from uncharted territory (Terminator, for example). But to imagine that, eventually, humanity could become so technologically advanced as to find commercial applications for a self-aware, self-contained, self-replicating, freethinking, Evolving Intelligence that soon we would outlive our usefulness on this planet, just as the game has demonstrated, is astounding, yet frighteningly close-at-hand. Something to think about.

In closing, I have, like many of us now, become enthralled in this game. I have enjoyed every discovery that opens up this world to us and makes it more real. The storyline is compelling. The puzzles are mind bending. The design is truly a work of art, if not technically, then definitely from a stylistic, conceptual level, with the creation of dozens of functional, active websites portraying businesses, corporations, personal web pages, and universities; the list goes on. This game has personality. Much like many of the characters we have met, each displaying a uniquely realistic outlook on life and the world of the 22nd century in which they live. We love certain characters, we hate others. And it is ever-evolving, changing to fit the unknown strategy of some higher power, and accommodating the thirst of it's players, going so far as to include them, both digitally and physically, in this fictional world. We have yet to see what is in store for us down the road.

But we shouldn't lose sight of the fundamental repercussions evident from the storyline. This game may not see an end in the traditional sense. I'm disturbed to think that, one day, possibly sooner than we think, this game world may become more real than we ever imagined. And the more I watch and listen and wait, the closer we seem to come to that frightening, and inevitable, outcome. …Wiped out by our very creations…

Aaron Charles can be reached at aaroncharles@hotmail.com