Being Human

I really enjoyed the bit of film we were able to watch on Richard Dawkins, and was particularly enthused about the computer programs that he used to demonstrate the mechanisms of evolution.

The last program that he shared, in which he was evolving a simple creature over generations, reminded me of a new computer game that is causing a rather large buzz in the video gaming community.

It is called Spore. The game is the brain child of Will Wright, a person well known for his innovation in the industry.

It is essentially a much more complex version of Richard Dawkins' program, in that it is a "game" of evolution. You start out as a single celled organism and evolve depending upon how you use what you are originally given. The game moves from single celled organism right up to a social society that engages in space exploration, with many stops inbetween (obviously).

In the June issue of Computer Gaming World magazine, they asked Wright what his biggest hope was for the game.

"I want it to change their self-perception of how creative they are or can be. And I hope it makes them think about the nature of life and ponder some of the philosophical questions around life."

I wonder whether people playing this game will get a bit of a boost of understanding about evolution? While it isn't a highly technical look at the process, I think it could help kids to understand how small adaptations over time can lead to big changes. It is also interesting seeing complex "evolutionary" algorithms try to imitate life.

Then again, it does put someone behind the creation of objects and lifeforms in the game. Even when the computer takes over life forms and runs them through the evolutionary process (since critters and objects from other players will be sort of cross-pollinated with the worlds of others and then computer controlled), there was a jump start at the beginning by someone with intention. So, perhaps it will reinforce that all things start with intention (and that intention is on the part of an intelligent being). Who knows?

At any rate, it was fun to see Will Wright borrow an idea from Richard Dawkins and run with it.

It is also a good example of the revolution in gaming, which is not strictly technology based. Games are being re-thought and re-designed to address what human beings really respond to and percieve as important, like a sense of ownership and identity moving through the world and socializing. Many game developers are recognizing that user generated content is often more plentiful than what they can put out as a studio. So rather than simply think about how to create a story, they try to make the mechanics behind a game allow for user-created content and endless pathways that the user can take to make their own story.

I thought that this game would be of interest to folks due to the conversations in class surrounding technology and development, and the film that we all watched last night.

The world of gaming is actually making a lot of interesting comments about human perception. For example, in the October issue of Computer Gaming World there was a major discussion about so-called AI in gaming. One of the most interesting comments about percieving intelligence in others was stated by Mikko Mononen (Senior Tech Designer, Crytek Crysis).

"Creating the illusion of life. Imagine a watch. The watch may function even without its case and hands, but it's rather useless as a timepiece. A simplistic version adds the minute and hour hands and 12 dots to mark the hours. A more detailed and interesting implementation could add more markers, another hand to show the seconds, another for hundredths, maybe even the days of the month. These things don't reinvent the watch, but they do increase the level of the detail and feedback to the user. AI actions without feedback are perceived as chaos by the player, just springs unwinding and gears rotating. A simple behavior with proper feedback can look believable, intelligent, and complex, but a complex behavior without enough feedback looks chaotic and random."

If you are interested in this sort of thing, here is Will Wright's very long (and often quite funny) presentation on it.