Hw 18

How can the use of technology help us experience things when it can only provide fake simulation?

Technology is growing faster and spreading further each day and bringing along all its perks. Many people would consider the technologies growth to be extremely expensive for such worthless materials and that one day it will take over our society by brainwashing us into submission much like the characters in Feed by M.T. Anderson. Or we become so use to how convenient the internet brings us that we become indulge by the internet and become slothful just like the people in Wall-E. All of these do seem like a fair fate by how kids look today, they play games, watch television, text with their friends almost 24/7. And when you look at the adults, they have a little more self control, work comes first, unless they have a family, then comes personal pleasures, or free time. Adults learn to push their own needs aside for others, and most adults learn that kids should be spending more time on education than anything else. So where’d that huge transaction come from? I think that adult learn to make use of their childhood experience with and not only found what they would like to do in the future but made use of the digital representations for careers. But aside from wither digital representations are good for you or not, certain digital representations help you experience things. Not only do they help you experience things but they offer new perspectives and points of view and help you realize many things about your life.

A yes or no question is asked by someone who limits your answers and expect the people to pick one of the choices. But life isn’t simple a yes or no, and nowadays people in gaming industry realize this. Games such as Fallout 3 is not your everyday game where you are given a task and given specific orders on how to carry out this task. No, Fallout 3 is a game about players growth, it’s a game that teaches players that they have more choices in their hands then they realize. In fact, you can probably complete a task in about seven different ways, including the choices of not doing the task at all. Fallout 3 is not your Mario game where you can just run through the course without having to look back. The game will make you realize what you have done and will either reward you or make you regret your decision depending on how you see the situation. “Another important statistic tracked in the game is karma. Each player has a total amount of karma which can be affected by the decisions and actions made in the game. Positive karma actions include freeing captives and helping others. Negative karma actions include killing good characters and stealing. Beyond acting as flavour for the game's events, karma can have tangible effects to the player, primarily affecting the game's ending. Other effects include altered dialogue with NPCs, or unique reactions from other characters” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout_3). The character you play as, you don’t turn into the character, the character is a mirror version of you and becomes your action throughout the game. If your bad, every simulated character will think your bad. The developers of Fallout 3 tried to make the game so real, you actual believe you’re talking to someone while you’re playing or that the person you have killed actual have some sort of history and that makes them real. This game not only teaches you the values and consequences of your choices and action but also forces you to think about other options because you ultimately tell the story.

Virtual reality training, a simulated reality in where you play a certain time, setting, and task, is the best way to achieve any firsthand experience. Many VR training are programmed to give you a fake reality in order for you to experience things that might be too dangerous or too resourceful. This sounds like a video game, but VR training isn’t about killing, looting or saving a princess. Most VR training, serious ones, are designed give you firsthand experience of the kind of job you wish to apply such as becoming a coal miner, a pilot, and a police officer. VR training are not specifically for jobs, some VR trainings can train you to become a parent, drive a car, train a dog, and how to survive an occurring disaster. But the company that funded a lot of time and money on VR training is the military. With so much to prepare for, they have a simulation for every possible scenario that the soldiers might encounter. They have been using VR training for a long time, and continues to use them up to this day with constant upgrades to their program. “The military simulation and virtual training market has seen dramatic growth in the last decade and it is expected to grow steadily over the next ten years. Increasing concerns over training costs, time and risk of life have forced military forces around the world to adapt technologies such as computer-based simulators and computer wargames in military training. Most importantly, simulation and virtual training have so far proved to be not only cost-effective but also an effective way to train military staff in a wide range of activities. Those functions range from weapons training to flying and even medical training. Both combat and non-combat applications for military simulations and gaming technologies with increase significantly during the period 2008-2018, concludes this brand-new in-depth defense market report - The Military Simulation and Virtual Training Market 2008-2018” (http://www.marketresearch.com/product/display.asp?productid=1896405). With military guns and explosives costing millions of dollars to use just once, testing them would be a huge waste. Accidents occur when training with guns or even operating a machinery such as a tank, or jets. With VR training, soldiers get the same feeling as they would in a real training, they adapt to what they see on the screen and gets use to VR training that they won’t be a nervous or scared when they have to do it for real. The military’s VR training is for multiple scenarios from flying a jet, operating a tank, fighting in a combat zone, and medical assistant. The military puts their trust in VR training and hopes to keep their soldiers safe and trained to their best for any situations. VR training is the best approach to gaining experiences without having to worry about what you are doing.

More people everyday are becoming ignorant, lacking knowledge or training. Ignorant is basically overly assuming. They think they know someone and tells them to do what they “know” is right, that their way is better. This may sound like your parents and some of your friends but most likely your parents have more given experience. Movies nowadays are trying to reflect our society’s ignorance and try to demonstrate a more versatile mind. One of these great movies that reflect our society’s ignorance is the movie Thank You for Smoking. During our time, adults think of smoking, as shown in advertisements, that smoking kills, is for the criminals and rejects of society. They also think that the people who makes tobaccos are murderers with no sympathy of human life. Most people, thinking like that, would find themselves against cigarettes because they don’t know what to believe. Most ignorant people would rather rid of cigarettes without the thought of people who buys them regularly and such sense are portrayed in the movie. This scene from the movie is a debate about wither or not a picture of a skull should be labeled on cigarette. Nick being the spokesman for tobacco companies.

Senator Dupree: Mr. Naylor, there's no need for theatrics.
Nick Naylor: I'm sorry. I just don't see the point in a warning label for something people already know.
Senator Dupree: The warning symbol is a reminder, a reminder of the dangers of smoking cigarettes.
Nick Naylor: Well, if we want to remind people of danger why don't we slap a skull and crossbones on all Boeing airplanes, Senator Lothridge. And all Fords, Senator Dupree.
Senator Ortolan Finistirre: That is ridiculous. The death toll from airline and automobile accidents doesn't even skim the surface cigarettes. They don't even compare.
Nick Naylor: Oh, this from a Senator who calls Vermont home.
Senator Ortolan Finistirre: I don't follow you, Mr. Naylor.
Nick Naylor: Well, the real demonstrated #1 killer in America is cholesterol. And here comes Senator Finistirre whose fine state is, I regret to say, clogging the nation's arteries with Vermont Cheddar Cheese. If we want to talk numbers, how about the millions of people dying of heart attacks? Perhaps Vermont Cheddar should come with a skull and crossbones.
Senator Ortolan Finistirre: That is lu - . The great state of Vermont will not apologize for its cheese!
Senator Lothridge: Mr. Naylor, we are here to discuss cigarettes - not planes, not cars - cigarettes. Now as we discussed earlier these warning labels are not for those who know but rather for those who don't know. What about the children?
Nick Naylor: Gentlemen, it's called education. It doesn't come off the side of a cigarette carton. it comes from our teachers, and more importantly our parents. It is the job of every parent to warn their children of all the dangers of the world, including cigarettes, so that one day when they get older they can choose for themselves. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427944/quotes)

As shown in the text, Nick offers many different perspectives of other dangers in America. Nick believes that if cigarettes were to be labeled a skull, why not other dangers too, such as the death rate of cholesterol with 15,000 deaths per year versus the death rate of cigarettes 12,000-13,000 people a year. A person that is not ignorant can see that the tobacco company does not force upon the use to drugs to people nor kids. A person that is not ignorant knows to look up fact for themselves and see if these information’s are true or not then they would find out that there is no evidence of a connection between lung cancer and cigarettes. They’d also figure out for themselves that it’s the parents job to take it upon themselves to teach their kids about the hazards of smoking. Thank You for Smoking is a movie that helps us understand, and helps our ignorant thoughts, that smoking is a choice made by people not for people and that the tobacco companies are nothing more than people trying to get rich like many other companies.

I can connect these fake simulations with my life seeing as I have spend a lot of time on it. From virtual games such as shooting and driving to drawing and looking into other perspectives, I have enjoyed my time with them and they have peaked my interest in many other things. From virtual driving, I learned to drive manually with clutch, break and gas pedal. From online drawing or adobe Photoshop that shading and lighting is a way to turn a flat picture to 3D. And though watching television shows and movies, I not only learned many insights but one movie inspired me to read the authors books as oppose to watching his film.

The book by Feed has a very different view point than I do. M.T. Anderson, author of the book, feels that our world will become the ignorant, stupid society and the greatest downfall of not only America but all of Earth. Through the story you play a teenager and how his thoughts are in common with the thoughts of teenagers today. But his book was made in 2002, and many environmental are being dealt with. Hybrids are increasingly become popular and manufactured more because they are much more cleaner for the environment then regulars do. And because of what hybrids offer and because of the multiple amount of PSA about the environment, more and more people today are buying hybrids for just that reason. Then there are colleges raising SAT scores because there are so many people applying shows that not everyone is as dumb as they seem. SAT scores is very important because they decided wither you’re able to deal with the college your about to go to or not. In the 20^th century, the SAT requirement were not that high. Most Ivy league schools had low standards since not a lot of people apply to college. But today, more and more people go to colleges, thus they had to increase their SAT scores, but if we were as dumb as we were portrayed in Feed, how are people still applying and being accepted college? Parents of today act differently than the parents in the Feed. Parents today are still against the overuse of the internet while in Feed they act like kids. If Feed is suppose to be an allegory, I don’t see any resemblance other than teenagers obsessing over the internet.

Everyday people are on the internet because of how reliable and useful it is. It is also a way to help the environment by not wasting so much paper. Think that if the number of text a day is the equivalent to the number of paper letters sent in paper envelops a day, we would lose all the worlds forest in less than a year. So the internet is a good thing, it’s much better at finding jobs, while newspapers are usually for local jobs, the internet receive job offerings to people in a global scale. There are now summer programs that help you experience almost any job you want in a virtual reality. Internet also brings up a whole new level of information. The internet is a world wide web, with access to almost everything, even to people minds. So now, not alone can you learn things from your parents and teachers point of view, but you can look at other peoples point of view from different continents and states. The internet is also for the curious people as well, if you want a specific answer or interest, just Google it. If you want to find a specific job or work with a specific company, go to their website. If you want to download something for free, just find a torrent for it. The internet is the best resource for almost anything, and even movies producers go online. They read reviews on how to improve their next production from viewers, they find interesting points and make movies out of them, etc. Movies today seem to reflect the our ignorance and teaches us to know what we are talking bout before we talk about it. The internet is very important to our society and other society as well because we are all connected when we use it, and we all rely on its information and experience.

The internet and several movies help us as people involve to becoming a more fit and friendly society. They give us experience and insights about life, and how people might think, they give us ideas of what we want to become in the future by giving us choices to pick. I personally don’t think that the internet is all that bad or that kids will grow up obsessing about chatting with their friends as much as they did when they were younger become if you do too much of something it will lose its lust eventually. So I think that there is no problem with the internet other than taking time away from you as a kid but when you’re a kid you don’t have a lot of things to do anyways.

Sites:

http://www.marketresearch.com/product/display.asp?productid=1896405

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout_3

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427944/quotes

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-gordon/there-is-no-proof-that-ci_b_167157.html