HW 22

Richard Y
A1

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

Technology is growing faster and 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. But 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 did that huge transaction come from? I think that adult learn to make use of their childhood experience with representations and not only found what they would like to do in the future but made use of the digital representation for careers. Digital representations are useful, it helps people experience things and it offers new perspective and points of view by making them realize things.

A yes or no question is asked by someone who limits ones answer and expects the them 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 isn’t an everyday game where one is given a task and a specific order 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, one can probably complete a task in about seven different ways, or more, including the choice of not doing the task at all. Fallout 3 is not like a Mario game where one can just run through the course without having to look back. The game will make one realize what they have done and will either reward them or make them regret their decision depending on how they see the outcome. “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). In Super Mario Bros., the player turns into Mario, the jumping Italian, but in Fallout 3, the main character of the game becomes the player. The developers of Fallout 3 tried to make the game as real as possible, so it feels like the computer generated person the player is talking to has a history and whatever the player do to the person feels real or seems real. This game teaches the players values and consequences of their choices and action while forcing them to think about what they have done.

Virtual reality training, a simulated reality in where one plays a certain time, setting, and task, is the best way to achieve any firsthand experience. Many VR training are programmed to gives one a fake reality in order for them 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 to give users firsthand experience of the kind of job they wish to apply such as becoming a coal miner, a pilot, and a police officer. Not all VR training are specifically for jobs, some VR trainings can train someone 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 they are doing.

More people everyday are becoming ignorant, lacking knowledge or training. Ignorant is basically overly assuming, thinking they know what is right, that their way is better. This may sound like someone’s parents and their friends but most likely their 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. People also think that the people who works for the company that makes tobaccos are murderers with no sympathy of human life. Most people, thinking like that, would find themselves against cigarettes but they don’t know the facts. Most ignorant people would rather get 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, the readers looks through the eyes of 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 one will be able to deal with the college of their choice or not. In the 20th 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.

Games and television are highly addictive but you can still learn a lot from it. One will learn from games that they have more options than they are given. They will learn how to figure out what appropriate choices to make and choices they shouldn’t make just by looking over give information, just like the skills needed if one took the SAT. Virtual training is a another representation for jobs that helps people train without the hazardous like coal mining. VR training can also train people on other skills such as a teenagers first time driving. VR training can give the them feel of driving first so that the instructor can observe and train on areas they need practice on. Television is important, not only for the PSA but for conversation skills. Sure the people in the television do not talk back but one can experience the same feelings the character have by just watching them. All these representations are good because they enable one to learn as they sit, like psychology. As one sit, they absorb techniques and skills they hear and see, and learn experiences from another source and perspective.

The internet and several movies help people involve to becoming a more fit and friendly society. It gives us experience and insight about life, and how people might think, they give people ideas of what they want to become in the future by giving people 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 because if someone does 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 someone as a kid but when as a kid they 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

http://www.travelmininghistory.com/danger.htm