Revolutionary

Being the conservative that I am, this post is not about anything political orientated, socialist-alternative, new system against this terrible system known as capitalism. I feel like the word "revolutionary" always conjures up images about the socioeconomic system, or other injustices in the world - and some radical new school of though or movement that is going to overthrow the current norm to bring greater wellbeing for the most amount of people. I am going to rant about something else - technology.

Within the never-ending ideology battles between friends, one major theme is always agreed upon - that technology underpins changes in the social climate and that innovation underpins technology. Whether or not it is private or public influences that then influence innovation is something I will leave to open discussion for 4am car-in-an-empty-parking-lot debates. Technology is incredible, it doesn't take much for anyone nowadays to step back for a second and be in awe about all the incredible wireless, computerised world we live in today. Of course, every now and then there is something that strikes out beyond that and really makes me personally go "wow" but such are rare events. I guess by similar logic, since technology is already so incredible nowadays, it is quite difficult for products nowadays to induce the same effect they once did - think of Apple and their upgrades to their products that are "innovative", "the next big thing", but really just add an extra row of icons and a extra $500 to their RRP. Contrast that with their iPhone release back in the day that really made people go "wow" and also mainstreamed, and accelerated the smart phones market (particularly multi-touch screens) to the position it stands today. Back to the product that made me go "wow" - it was simply a gun controller that simulated the recoil expected in a real-life gun and yet it really stood out to be as being quite amazing.

I have always been a big fan of First Person Shooter games spending my summer's days out of the sun and into the dark damp depths of the local internet cafe eating nothing but fish and chips/pies and playing Counter-Strike (1.5 and 1.6 at this time) against other chumps on the Local Area Network. Other days were spent at home with my oldest friend coming over to find these bonus hidden objects called skulls on Halo 2, a shooting game on XBOX (10 year anniversary soon by the way). As such, I felt like this innovation really spoke to me on wavelength my inner youth misses. The idea of a real life gun instead of a game controller was really prevalent in my childhood in the form of Time Crisis at the local arcade but the recoil vibration always was broken, and the gun always felt so inaccurate against the screen. How technology has changed though, with this latest gun simulating the force with amazing accuracy from anything ranging from a hand pistol to a shot gun. They say combined with Occulus Rift, they intend to use it as a virtual reality training device for soldiers so they aren't so shocked when it comes down to firing the real thing in the duty of combat. Of course, it isn't surprising that gaming companies are also eager to get their hands to develop something similar for gaming purposes which is something that I would be personally excited for.

Of course, many people are already condemning this latest development but suggesting ideas like priming children to violent games have been the reason for all the horrendous crimes that we see (mainly in America) of children going on shooting rampages and other terrible violent crimes. I'd like to argue by saying that I grew up on a healthy dosage of violence ranging from less personal "commander" like games in the Real Time Strategy genre from Age of Empires stone ages to medieval ages to modern day battles; and more "personal" First Person Shooter games from Counter-Strike modern day to futuristic Halo; but I still turned out relatively sane and without any burning desire to go on a shooting rampage. The truth is I don't want to argue about whether or not children nowadays are even more so densensitised to violence (this part is probably definitely true due to the ease and access of information and news via the internet) and this in turn is causing more violence later in life. Rather conjure up the idea that technology never ceases to amaze me and that something like this gun simulator combined with virtual reality is bringing to reality those movie ideas seen in Science Fiction movies like "Gamer" and "Ender's Game" - that one day wars will be fought in the comfort of one's house, even possibly by a kid thinking they're playing a FPS or RTS game but in reality, real people or robots are being destroyed in some distant land. Yes, drones already exist that make this kind of already a reality. In any case, I feel this invention really is one step closer to what could be described this one young boy's fantasy - to shoot a real gun in a virtual game.

Clearly procrastinating from studying for finals in less than a week's time so bye.