The Video Game Paradox

The Video Game Paradox

My purpose is not to set a moralistic debate about this subject. Last night I saw The "Video Games Awards 2011". This Oscar-like colorful and theatrical ceremony showed an excerpt of a Tom Clancy game in which an elder from goverment is thrown from a building with a jacket of explosives and his body blown on pieces before reached the soil. I have to say that after the applauses of the public I found this scene disturbing and wished to switch to any Itchy and Stratchy sketch to put some criticism on it.

Yes, I was disturbed. How can I explain it If I used to be one of the viewers with almost hilarius sense watching many bloody movies like Kill Bill, Hostel I and II, Texas Chain Massacre, etc. How can I explain it if I used to enjoy smashing the head of my enemies playing that old PC games like Quake  or Doom.

I grew with an misconception that any violence comes from the entertainment industry is different from the one that came from Academic sources like Edgar Allan Poe novels, Ancient Greece heroic tales like The Iliad and even the Bible when David The King celebrated the massacre of newborns from the enemy.

The violence formula on entertaiment is unavoidable and the irony is that companies like Ubisoft, E.A., Swordfish and others probably has a enormous payroll of grateful dads and moms for having a secure job on this time of uncertainty.

If I would be a dad I will not encourage my daugther/son for having a game console but also I will not stop them for experience it and them having their own conclusions.

I don't have conclusive word about it. I have for sure that like war, religion and  many others human affairs, this subject suposes a Paradox.

THE PROMETHEUS CREW SURNAMES

THE PROMETHEUS CREW SURNAMES

Given the changing Geopolitics protagonized by the BRICS (Brazil,Russia,India and China) would be accurate to state that in the near future the predominant surnames changes also. Besides Vickers and Shaw among others we could have surnames like DoSantos, Prasaad, Yuchenko or Li):

To support my "hypothesis" check the articles below:

1) Asian space race is heating up, US policy expert warns

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45585940/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/asian-space-race-heating-us-policy-expert-warns/#.TwkCsd5TaU8

2) Brazil overtakes UK as sixth biggest economy as Britain falls behind a South American nation for the first time

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2078596/Brazil-overtakes-UK-sixth-biggest-economy-Britain-falls-South-American-nation-time.html

THE COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES OF WEYLAND CORPORATION

THE COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES OF WEYLAND CORPORATION

According to a removed entry of wikipedia about the definition of Weyland Corporation  it stated that its main activities are "Terraforming, Electronics and Bioweapons".

What kind of corporations currently run this activties or would be proyected to be? OMHO this is the list:

1) Terraformilng/Civil Engineering -> Bechtel, Halliburton.
2) Electronics                            -> L3, CSC
3) Bioweapons                          ->(hard to say, probably Northrop or Lockeed.
(most of the above list were the top Iraq war contractors)

To give an idea of this...

Northrop Grummand Laser Defense Systems & Products
http://www.as.northropgrumman.com/by_capability/directedenergy/laserdefense/index.html

Other examples?

WEYLAND CORP. AND BIOWEAPONS

WEYLAND CORP. AND BIOWEAPONS

- "Think about the possibilties" is the most common used term by many scientist in movies. Bioweapons is one the focus on the research on the Xenophorms in the Alien/AVP Franchise. But what is the actual status of this "discipline". Terrifying on my opinion if you just Google the word "biowarfare".

When you comprehend how deadly and despreciable this form or war is you also can understand how sinister Welyand is also.

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

http://youtu.be/LHoPRIxLKYk

ALIEN FRANCHISE AND GENETICS

ALIEN FRANCHISE AND GENETICS

On Alien Ressurection the key point is the genetic manipuliation that allowed the "Rebirth" of Ripley. On Alien3  The prisoners of the refinery were sent there as criminals due his genetic information. And of course in Prometheus is the central topic.

Such possibilities are now present. IBM claimed to be the first corporation on avoid the discrimination of their personnel based on their genetic information.

IBM supports genetic antidiscrimination bill

http://news.cnet.com/IBM-supports-genetic-antidiscrimination-bill/2100-1028_3-6155073.html

"Pioneering Genetic Privacy"
http://www.ibm.com/ibm100/us/en/icons/geneticprivacy/

ALIEN FRANCHISE AND ANDROIDS

ALIEN FRANCHISE AND ANDROIDS

Artificial Intelligence is present on your cellphone or your Word processor, Robots are some automated process with some degree of autonomous decision like some inventions from the Ancient Greece⁽¹⁾ or many machines from the XIX Century Industrial Revolution. So Ash in Alien, Bishop in Aliens, Call in Alien Resurrection or David in Prometheus could be more accurately labeled as Androids⁽²⁾. Their involvment  in the plot is so intrinsic so the only discussion left is about their fleeting trustworthiness.

Countless movies depicted the involvment of Androids in the human affairs but on my own opinion the most complete (and terrifying) recent imaginary exercise about the involvment of the Androids in the society is the short animated The Second Renaissance I y II⁽³⁾

The Second Renaissance I  

http://youtu.be/qHD--2uKM4E 

The Second Renaissance II

http://youtu.be/O2oVQto99So

References:
⁽¹⁾ Ancient Greece Inventions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_technology
⁽²⁾ Android
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(robot)

⁽³⁾ The Second Renaissance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_Renaissance#The_Second_Renaissance

ALIEN FRANCHISE AND POLITICS

ALIEN FRANCHISE AND POLITICS


In the Alien Universe with the involvment of just one almighty corporation merger, dissovlment  and  later conformation of the United System Military no much is left to say about politics but about often unhuman and greedy corporate policies(3). Nevertheless in the face of the encounter of new alien races (in which many other franchises apparently already surpassed this milestone like Star Trek) a new and controversial academic discipline eventually would support them, the Exopolitics(1).
Centralization of power is an unavoidable fact in the human kind history. On Alien 4 Weyland and Yutani dissolved and now the political power is in charge of the The United Systems Military. What on my opinion have here is a futuristic proyection of the military branch of the United Nations(2) or for NATO.

References:

(1) EXOPOLITICS 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exopolitics#Exopolitics
(2) UNITED NATIONS MILITARY STAFF COMMITTEEhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Military_Staff_Committee

(3) Weyland Corp directive Screen Cap

ALIEN FRANCHISE AND HOLLYWOOD

ALIEN FRANCHISE AND HOLLYWOOD

Walt Disney toured latinamerica in the end of 1930s to overcome the growing influence of Nazis on that region(1). Altough India is the greatest producer of movies by volume(2) Hollywood always  exerted an enormous influence in many spheres of the history (3).  

Keeping that in mind, the probable arisen debate from Prometheus is not for underestimate. Perhaps the most heated one would be around the Origins of Human Kind(4).

Another aspect of Prometheus is their apparent inability of post commercial producs as a way of financiation (at least not directly) due his far future plot(5). Other movies were allowed to do so like Minority Report with Nokia and Lexus, Blade Runner with Coca-Cola, I Robot with Audi, to name few. Nevertheless his success is almost secured by his own quality.

(1) L.A. Times. When Walt Disney Visited LatinAmerica

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/sep/09/entertainment/et-classic-hollywood9

(2) Cinema on India

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

(3) “Let's remember that Hollywood is the most powerful force in the world, besides the U.S. military” (Herald Tribune, March 20, 1997, p.6).-- Oliver Shell."

(4) Antropogenesis

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

(5) Product Placement.

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

ALIEN FRANCHISE AND EXTRATERRESTRIAL SIGNALS

 ALIEN FRANCHISE AND EXTRATERRESTRIAL SIGNALS

In Alien (1979) movie The first contact of the Nostromo ship with the Delirict was through a binary decoded signal.In Prometheus probably they will do so in the same way.  Decodification of radio signals is just one of the several methods used by SETI related institutions(1).

The revelation of a binary code is the central subject of an allegedly UFO encounter in the Rendlesham Forest, England (2).

Being such encounter true or false it resembles much the plot of the movie "Knowing"(3) in which 50 years before a binary coded text is writen and nowadays revealed with the coordinates of future cataclysms among others an airplane crash and  the subway derailing.

References

(1) SETI (Search for Extraterrestial Intelligence)

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

(2) Rendlesham Forest incident

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

(3) Knowing (Film 2009) by Alex Proyas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowing_(film)