Rumination Analysis on Deus Ex: Human Revolution

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[@cjware316]

I watch ALOT of KZbin analysis, discussions and just general in depth looks at games.. And goddamn if your not one of the best man, keep up the phenomenal work!

[@discasting]

As a fan of Deus Ex (this and the first game) and difficult philosophical dilemmas, here is my two cents from a sort of European perspective: The bioethical discussion of implications of gene editing and similar technology often misses one important notion probably because the discussion is often raised from the American perspective, society where health care is not free. That seems to often lead to assumption (also by notable thinkers such as Francis Fukuyama) that the only problem is inequality, and we'll be fine if we just ensure all the people can afford "the new normality" shaped by state-of-the-art technology. I am from Finland, which is often considered as "welfare society". Like all the Nordic countries we have free health care and high standard of living, but that also means that we are more "in control", particularly by the system, the government. And behind all systems there is always people who have more power than others, authorities who form and adjust the system according what they think is good, normal and best for everyone. I liked Gattaca in many way and it has some very good moments, but I couldn't give it so many stars as I wanted because it let the impression that everything would mostly fine if we only gave opportunity of gene editing everyone for free. And I don't think that would be the end of sociological and ethical problems. I argue that providing everyone possibility to reach the same "normality" with the help of technology is not real answer. There are many allegories that can show how that won't end the problems. Since you mentioned plastic surgery, lets start with that. This may sound absurd for American (and perhaps to some other nationalities as well), but I can imagine Finnish society where plastic surgery is actually free for everyone who wish to have it. It would require technology of the surgeries to develop to such level it is cost-effective to implement into Finnish health care system, although it is not about health at all. This can be defended with the value of equality: everyone should have same equal opportunity to reach the beauty standards of the society. However, this would effect what is considered as beautiful and increase Hobbesian "war of all against all", also strongly depicted (and satirized) in Verhoeven's Robocop. As the government provides surgeries for free, it also intensify cultural change. You cannot drop a technology and its application from a sky and expect it to react like in a vacuum. Sometimes consequences may be also unpredictable, and also negative. One must be able to say it without being blamed for being a neo-luddite or whatnot. For some fanatical transhumanists technology seems almost like a religion, which I find ironic, because many of those seem to consider religions redundant or harmful. Who knows, perhaps fanatical transhumanism is new modern religion of the 21st century? Glasses also provide interesting allegory. I also use glasses because of near-sightedness, but I know quite many who consider them "old fashioned", clumsy and annoying to use, and because of it had gone through laser surgery to get rid of them. This is interesting allegory because it has some elements of plastic surgery, but it can also be considered as corrective surgery like fixing a broken leg etc. I perfectly understand people who do this because glasses cause trouble in surfing or in some extreme sports, but that however, is not the most common reason to it. I don't know personally anyone who have such reason. What boggles me is the way these surgeries are advertised: they often claim to improve qualities that don't have much to do with eye-sight at all! For instance, one ad said how myopic laser surgery improves self-confidence to perform at presentations etc. Many people have natural stage fright or milder stress to perform, and the advertisers take advantage of these completely humane and normal insecurities in order to sell a product. So, would this be corrected if everyone would get the surgery for free? I don't think so. Because there is always some flaw, some insecurity, some delicate human element after this particular one is "fixed". Like Smith said in Matrix: "Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost." In my opinion Smith just pointed out how people will feel bad, sad, insufficient, insecure, all that, despite getting rid of all these things that bothers them, like glasses. Improvement may give a short boost of confidence and therefor happiness, but it will not last. And then there is room to make people buy something again. All in all, people do BUY the idea even if they don't pay for. Point being, that in "socialistic" (as the Americans tend to say) system with capitalistic social democracy (like Finland) still believes in the idea these products will save the day, even though the consumer isn't one who pays for it. And then third and final allegory. What if we could gene edit easily and cost effectively homosexuality? Lets say its epigenetic, so we can do something about it during pregnancy. So there will be a new breakthrough when cheap vaccine is developed which eliminates possibility to upcoming child to be gay when given to a pregnant woman. Then government provides this vaccine to all parents for free, who voluntarily want to ensure they'll have "a normal child". This can be defended such arguments that parents have "right to have grandchildren" which is less likely to happen if the child is gay. Some few parents may not choose the vaccine, but I think this would lead to considerable decline of homosexuality, if such vaccine would be introduced. And that decline would over the years (or decades) also affected to how homosexuality is perceived in society. Parents decision is often depicted to happen in a vacuum where it does not affect to society and other people, but that is not how the reality works. More parents choose the vaccine, more other parents think that is the right choice to do "because everyone else does it". The parents are empowered from their ability to choose, but at the same time government, society and authorities behind it gives this option to choose from, hence using power just like the man behind the curtain in Wizard of Oz. One of the main problems with technology is that while it undeniably solves problems, it also creates new ones. Finnish philosopher Georg Henrik von Wright called this as technological imperative. Each culture does not only create technology, but technology also changes culture. What was previously just a vague wish or dream becomes a necessity, need, and there we go - new sociological, political and ethical problems marching towards us from horizon. Despite this, in modern Western culture technology is still often represented almost in religiously, as a form of salvation of Western hubris, containing overwhelming promise for paradise once its implemented. One of the main reasons I love Deus Ex games and other works of art is that they elevate this darker side of technology. No wonder why David Cronenberg's Vidodrome is my favourite film. And I'm glad these themes have recently risen up even in high budget productions such asHBO's Westworld. Dr. Fords quote nails pretty well what von Wright tried to say when you paint it next to all orgies, carnage and "soul-searching" of the quests in Westworld: "We've managed to slip evolution's leash now, haven't we? We can cure any disease, keep even the weakest of us alive, and, you know, one fine day perhaps we shall even resurrect the dead. Call forth Lazarus from his cave. Do you know what that means? It means that we're done. That this is as good as we're going to get. It also means that you must indulge me the occasional mistake."

[@UtsukShah9]

Ossi Ojutkangas thank you for taking the pains to write this It was very interesting and insightful

[@PazuChill]

Fun fact: Adam Jensen's voice is actually the voice actor's natural voice. Kinda funny.

[@lilianahmartinez2773]

ZGoten in human revolution, he did make his voice a lot more rough and coarse than his natural voice, but in mankind divided, it was pretty much 100% natural

[@JulietteTux]

Omg I'm so glad I stumbled upon mention of this analysis somewhere in the YT comments, I've watched so many low effort echo-chamber HR-MD videos propped by gorgeous McCann music, this is the real fresh air and lots of connections to my thoughts and impressions. Thank you and cheers from Russia.

[@fathergregori6017]

love the robocop shoutout! truly one of the best movies ever. great analysis as always. keep it up!

[@Guyinthecbox]

I'm surprised you never brought up the allegorical references to Adam and Christ (Jensen and JC Denton respectively), in regards to "what is human?". Adam is the first "Augmented" human, in the sense that he is built from his very genetic code to be readily accepting of augments (interestingly built by the illuminati, which is symbolized by a large guiding hand a la The Creation of Adam painting). JC (ha-ha) on the other hand is the hypostatic nion of the new augmented man and divinity (or as close as it gets if and when he merges with Helios), not quite one or the other (much like Christ, based upon many interpretations anyways). I love the allegories in the game

[@Magneira]

This is why Deus Ex is so great, there is so many lore that even a 50 min can't cover, you have to play multiple times, talk to people and read to fully get the ideas the game has.

[@eff-google]

Great discussion - am excited to hear your thoughts on Mankind Divided

[@cjware316]

Invisible war was weird for me, because I remember playing it as a kid with my good friend.. Was just a demo and too young to care for the story, but to this day remember the physics were amazing for the time, we were shoving bodies into dumpsters and climbing through an apartment building, running into people in there apartments and it was quite the experience, little did I know it was actuality my 1st experience with Deus Ex.. And it was a great one looking back at it.. Even if I didnt know it was at the time, but Deus Ex now holds a special place in my heart.. Mostly because the Adam is exactly the age I will be in that time... Plus I enjoy there version of the future and in my opinion it is a very plausible one.. At least parts of it.. But I guess that could be said for alot of near future games..

[@BradleytheDavis]

deus ex human revolution is one of my about favorite games ever made. so I greatly appreciate this

[@laughingoctopus8556]

Well I'm definitely subscribing to you. This was incredibly in depth and left me wanting more, hope you discuss Mankind Divided and possibly The Fall, though The Fall is not a very deep game compared to the other major titles, like MD. You did vaguely touched on it during the Neuropozyne alternatives bit, so I guess that counts.

[@proidiot117]

To add my own opinion to the debate presented at the end: I would like to believe the side quest "Acquaintances Forgotten" gives an answer to what makes us continue to be human. Jensen can inspire Radford to continue living through the quote "Living through adversity is [part of] what makes us human. It's not flesh and blood, or even bone that defines us. I might be more machine than flesh, but I'm still alive. I'm still human." I certainly think this is part of the answer to the question. Once we can quantum solve problems and physically overcome near anything through augmentation we lose the ability to learn, as such lose our own humanity in the process. Now of course, this question is fairly complex and as such don't believe this is the only answer to the debate.

[@slippytrippy8122]

Awesome game, awesome discussion. I think you have a talent for talking with extreme detail yet at the same time you dont bore

[@matijerzykom]

I do agree with your statement on Darrow in a way. I honestly think it is both - I truly think he DOES fear what humanity can do with the augment system. But his jelousy adds oil to the fire, making him convinced enough to do what he does in the end. About humanity and it's nature.... I think the intro to Human Revolution captures a lot of real nature of the problem clearly. The rest of game just backs it up more and more. The intro to HR is one of my favourite intros of all time - I could count on one hand intros that hooked me up more, than this one and rarely in the same way. What really strikes and is mostly visible within the scene of Adam's reconstruction (I am really shocked you haven't talked about other characters, like Megan, or Adam himself, or Zhao Yun Ru, or Eliza Cassan) . I am talking about the constant shifting from surgery, to sexual images of Megan having sex with Adam. Because here is where the true nature of mechanical problem arises. Implants will make you stronger, will give you strength and enable you so much... but they take away your body. Even if given advanced sensors, they will not feel exactly like your body. Mechanical hand will not touch the body of your wife with the same delicate warmth. It will not be as soft and strong at the same time. And even if it will, it will not have your warm blood flow through it. It will always be alien, not matter what. And I think that is the issue. Maybe in the distant future artificial bodies will have the exact same properties as organic. Hell, we may actually get to level to produce new organic bodies like we produce machines. But till that point we are still in Uncanny Valley. Many - including me - would not give any power or strength at a cost of loosing ability to feel the world the same way. You can take off glasses... but you can't just take away implanted eyes and use your own for a change. That makes augments much more... problematic. The problem wth implants will basicly get down to the same problem as DNA experiments. If it starts as a way to cure disease, or make yoru body more capable, that is fine. But what if they use it to get into your mind? If they take your private thoughts, and do something with them? What if they mess with your head... What Darrow did in HR is a possible scenario, in a way. He just sent a specific signal into your brain, and it just made millions mad. It only shows how big of a threat augments are. Granted, it's not that we should never use them at all. They should however be approach with caution, with care. Not as a next step in evolution, but just as tools - and tools that can break, painfully. I will have to say, that I have hard time picking HR over original DX. Both seem equall overall. DX is basicly pure gold in terms of gameplay, atmosphere and style, but HR is much more deep, well written and presented. I guess it is one of few examples of tie within my Top 20 list.

[@TheRevanchists]

Arch, do you think after Mankind Divided they might Remake the original Deus Ex with these new development styles? Would you be excited for that?

[@scattysafari7742]

I think Deus Ex ;Hr is also heavily influenced by The Six Million Dollar Man. As a Gen Xer who knew NOTHING of the Deus Ex universe when I first played it, my first reaction to his augmentation by Sarif was 'A man barely alive. but we have the technology to build him!' I'd be curious if the team ever watched 6M$man.

[@tjcitrus7976]

Arch you're the man! Love your ruminations

[@cjware316]

Robocop's a great movie, people forget that it started alot of tropes and things that many films emulated after.

[@incognito8869]

First of all, cool gloves (or did you have new cybernetic arms installed?) ! I have to agree with you for the most part on the character progression and the way they handled "choice." While I loved the gameplay/combat (especially compared to the original), I wished that my choices made more of an impact on the 'ending' (from what I remember, it only changed the wording slightly based on how 'violent' you were in handling situations). Also, I liked it better when there was more limitation on character progression (choosing the augmentations and skills in the original) because it felt like in HR there was less replay value and less 'creativity' in how to approach different scenarios. Another thing that felt a bit disjointed was the boss battles (which I heard were "outsourced" to another developer). Anyway great hearing your thoughts as always! I hope you don't have a skul-gun installed by the next rumination!

[@AndyPanayiotou27]

Great rumination on one of my favorite games (in terms of setting). I am desperately craving for more transhumanist video games. More transhumanist fiction in general to be honest. I'm in the mindset that every technological advancement that is possible is inevitable. I also don't think you should try and stop it even if you could. For "necessary" augmentations not to be a problem, the only solutions I see is either the development of cornucopia technology or at least getting close enough to the point that it is reasonably affordable. I see it being integrated into a form of universal health care system where you can get a number of augmentations from a preset list and anything beyond that might be subsidised. I think, there will always be detractors and opposition but although their voices should be heard, it shouldn't stop a society from advancing any specific technology. A good example is the Hyperion Cantos book series (spoilers for anyone who cares). In the book humanity has split into two groups. One group is more recognisable to humans of today and has spread out to multiple systems with the help of AI. The other group lives between solar systems and have embraced genetic modification. So much so that each individual might be so unique that they might be considered a different species from their neighbour to an outside observer. The only common feature is the adaptability to zero gravity environments. In the books, the first group finds genetic modification wrong and the second is against the dependence on AI.

[@korrdxl]

And if you haven't played it yet, it's $5 on the Steam summer sale.

[@talideon]

When I saw this pop up on my stream, I have a wee smile on my face. :-)

[@1300l]

Funny how the episode Q Who from TNG show the borg as the ultimate user of all augs in the extreme

[@blackvial]

near or far-sighted? because without my glasses I am nearly blind myself

[@stephenramos2824]

Sad thing about never having a true ending is they could easily wait a year and use something like witch ending was most picked on the first playthrough... They have achievements and trophies so the data is out there.

[@Stukov961]

The only thing I liked better in Invisible War compared to the other two is the ability to chose your gender. (Which if I'm not mistaken was at one point supposed to be possible in the first one, but cut early on due to lack of time/resources) As for what makes us human; I'm of the belief, and have been for a long time, before I played any of the Deus Ex games, is that our bodies are simply an organic vehicle that the pilot happen to be hardwired into. To quote a TED talks about prosthetics I watched "humans aren't broken, our technology is". I would not be less human if I lost a limb, nor would getting a prosthetic to replace that lost limb make me less human. And as you yourself pointed out, we already use technology to make up shortcomings; glasses for those of us with poor vision, calculators to help with math, phones to communicate for distances longer than shouting range. With the first few steps of wearable tech having already happened we now have technology on us. I believe that integrating it into ourselves is both a logical future step, and inevitable.

[@magnenoalex2]

I believe in God so I just look to Jesus for my definition of humanity. Its not really a profound question for me.

[@artmanxp]

at the end about the gene moded and natural born like one of the gundom shows

[@forestcampbell8962]

Any chance of a deus ex mankind divided rumination?

[@talideon]

Even though the game was 'dumbed down' (I'd say 'streamlined', but that's me) my *one* major gameplay complaint was that those take-downs through walls ought to have been non-fatal. Other than that, I think most of the streamlining actually worked to its benefit. The game's real weakness was the boss battles. *sigh*

[@FrozenHollowFox]

Great rumination as always. What Darrow says.. is best described as projection. He's saying all that crap because he can't have it.

[@FrozenHollowFox]

Also regarding the If we are human question.. I'd say that's for every individual to decide. Me myself would say that being human is rather overrated. I'd willingly put my mind into a synthetic body.

[@Marshy50]

I have been a follower for a long time & I love your half-life 1&2 and Bioshock Ruminations. PLEASE PLEASE Ruminate on Bioshock Infinite. I wanted to hear your perspective for a long time. Thank you! :3

[@Lorerunner]

Bioshock Infinite has been requested for this year.

[@Marshy50]

AWESOME! Even if you don't like it like the first Bioshock I would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you once again :3

[@FooQuuxman]

Awesome.

[@frankmarckusky5630]

Thank you for this rumination,I'm hoping that you will do the original xcom in the future.

[@IamDootsdoot]

I have met people, face to face, who believe that all technology is bad. When asked what they think about their shoes and shirt, they often say "what do you mean?", I find it hard to empathize with these people. These people are, to me, what an amoeba thinks of dirt, an obstacle that needs to be circumvented. I do not understand how they can come to these conclusions on their own that technology is bad, when demonstrably, technology has saved billions of lives, and has allowed for us to be THE dominant species on Earth. it blows my mind. So when I played this game, and I wound up running into people who were anti-augmentations, I felt no remorse when I did a genocide run. I could not empathize with them, and all the more that they were anti-human so to speak, it made it easier. Even more so during the last level, I absolutely despised the genetic opposite of Jensen, as he took it so far as to not only ruin lives, he ruined the world whole sale. Completely insane, I don't care if he's moral, he genocided people over technology that he could not obtain himself. I had 0 empathy for the other side at that point. to me, I could not stand for it.

[@brothertobit2129]

You're an Aug who's whole body is a weapon who is going around killing people who disagree with augmentations with no remorse and you can't see why people would be against it?

[@talideon]

Your 'crab philosophy' is more commonly referred to as 'tall poppy syndrome': the tall poppy is the one to be cut down.

[@akalien101]

I think a good management can solve this dilemma. At first, prosthetic and genetics engineering or any invasive augmentation should be available for medical reasons only. Genetic engineered baby outside of medical reasons should be treated as a violation of one's body. Then, once a person is over 50 years old they should have freedom to access to any augmentation. This way, normal human population can be preserve while augmented human grow. With augmented human, we can finally commit long-term space exploration. We can expand humanity while still preserve our original form. It's a win-win.

[@akalien101]

I believe the question should be how reliable augmentation are, not how much is too far. If a person didn't commit any crime, does it matter if he have any superpower? Now if that superpower by itself cause harm to user or other, that would be problem.

[@permeus2nd]

in all fairness to the game the boss are a mistake the whole game was meant to be able to be done in stealth but they outsourced the boss battles and forget to tell them about the games style hence why we got bosses that dont fit with the rest of the game. i had one playthrough where its full stealth (i cheat in stuff for bosses as they dont count in my mind) so this one memory was infiltrating the gang's territory in detroit so i cant reach the gang members in the corner without them seeing me and starting a fight, so i go to the building next door and grab the vending machine and take it too the roof drop it off and jump down after it, i then spend the next 10 minutes or so slowly moving the vending machine towards them moving only a foot or so, as anything else and they see you carrying it, so the vending machine is now about 20 or so meters away from them and i go get the other vending machine and do the same i then start playing peekaboo with them luring them to me then hiding behind the second vending machine and then knocking them out as the decided im not there, i was having so much fun doing this i was laughing my socks off as it was just so silly.

[@cecasander]

Bit off-topic, but I dig the outfit, Arch!

[@evanjones4495]

Keep the deus ex stuff coming man

[@idleeidolon]

On the topic of "at what point to augments/improvements become the new standard", that's a question that's plagued athletic competitions for decades. Sure drugged mma competitors are frowned upon and seen as "unfair", but hasn't PRIDE FC, an environment with drugged up fighters, provided us with some of the best instances of combat sports?

[@lipeckih]

No love for the Omar here, I see. :D I'll add here that back when the game just released there was, arguably, a suggestion of what ending was the 'canon' one. The only ending that showed what was the floating shapes in the main menu were supposed to be was the 'flood every sonuvagun still alive in this installation and let the rest of the world sort this mess out' one. Obviously not relevant since Mankind Divided was announced, but I thought it prudent to mention it here. I'd argue that this game's narrative rapidly falls apart during the last one third or so, but yes, even there, in the less than good parts there is interesting stuff to show and to discuss. And that is more than could be said for a good number of games that had to be released in an incomplete state, I think. 'Will eventually become AI'? But there is already one in this game (the fact of its existence the narration blithely skips over)? Was it the wetware computational centre we are shown closer to the end? But Adam blows it all up and the thing still continues to function? I dunno, I am kind of missing something here, because I didn't get quite a few parallels you bring up here from the game myself. Have I missed some crucial details? Does that 'the making of' material cover it instead? Maybe because the three characters the game focuses its themes and plot points through in the end of it are so full of... uncertain facts and factors, (seeming, at least) contradictions, deliberate misdirection maybe? They are very much... human, I'd say, and open to interpretation. Still, here's my two cents on how they present their cases during the last stage: XXX - Taggart is a politician. He came off to me as ruthlessly calculating individual that just happened to see this political movement as an opportunity to further his personal career and chose to pursue it with his all. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't necessarily believe what he says in public. It is also worth noting that he meets Adam - an obviously moderately to heavily augmented person and a known associate of David Sarif - in a very much isolated location with insufficient security to prevent Adam brutally murdering him if Adam chooses to do so. I'd imagine that this fact might've influenced him to... choose his words more carefully than he'd otherwise would. - Sarif stands to directly benefit from spreading the augmentations around, so him pushing his line through every means he can would make sense even if he is does not hold that belief sincerely. Combined with the possibility of him fearing / suspecting / knowing for sure about Adam's attempts to dig into the circumstances of his downright life-altering operation and the colossal breach of trust, a downright betrayal you might even say, that happened there, I think that neither myself as the player or Adam from the in-universe stand point, have a reason to trust a single word that comes out of his mouth at that point in time. - Darrow... Adam uses the same reasoning to force him to relieve the codes without combat if you 'succeed' in the confrontation you mention here, if I remember right? And it makes sense. Assuming that the whole aimless, roaming rant beforehand is a rant and not a whole load of 'appeal to emotion' kind of argument designed to throw the opposition off track. This would fall squarely into the 'talking up the anagonist's credentials' category, I have to admit, but I am of opinion that the bastard took the truth of why this all happened to the grave. XXX As for the question of what would and would not be considered human, technically there is already a rather definitive answer to that. Namely, if someone couldn't sire a reproductively viable for an observable amount of generations offspring with someone from the greater whole of humanity, then they would be of a new, different species of humans. Personally, I'd say that the line would lie somewhere in the mind. In how people think, how their memory works, how the crowd behaviour triggers, how their innate drives - the biological directives, if you will - affect them, how their emotions function both mentally and chemically, etc, etc. If there is a significant change to that, then there'd be grounds to bring up the question of someone being 'a bit more different', I think.

[@evilgoku2465]

oh my god a rumination YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thank you arch

[@Infernal460]

29:04 Quiet please make it stop.

[@calimerohnir3311]

old men are the future!

[@callumblake4598]

Arch you said that you feel people are drawing an arbitrary line in the sand with augmentation. You often say you dislike extremes also, but aren't you also drawing arbitrary lines in the sand? What's considered extreme is pretty arbitrary too, varying from culture to the individual level. Do you think your dislike for radicalism/extremism could be similarly short sighted?

[@Lorerunner]

Not really no. I could go into why but it has to do with the idea that certain arguments break down to the point of meaningless after a certain level, thus meaning any sides in any given argument after that point become equally nonsense.

[@Adamwofford]

+Lorerunner hey you know Square Enix and some other company is going to have a conference about augmented humans and augmentation like Deus Ex, just want to know if what you think after the conference, trans humanism is coming and I it might become like you said, normalized

[@Lorerunner]

Let's be clear. Transhumanism is already here, it's just inaccessible to the vast majority of people, and pretty crude by sci fi's standards.

[@Adamwofford]

+Lorerunner true, in the animals ghost in the Shell, where you can body jump or have your mind hacked or have fake memories implanted, is it be a new start of humans evolving or stagnating?

[@Lorerunner]

Who knows, honestly?

[@clouds5]

On transhumanism(TL;DR ;) ). I think the key factor is time. When a radical new technology appears it takes society a few generations to adapt. And with each new technology that gets adapted into society the line gets pushed further back. Once it's ok to replace your eyeballs, why wouldn't it be ok to improve your hearing? But imagine a guy brought to our time from the.... 16th century. Lots of things that we use in everyday live would be totally over the line for him. The most recent tool or technology that has become widespread available to the public are probably mobile phones and mobile computers (smartphones). I'm 31 years old and my parents cannot really adapt to mobile computing technology. This has nothing to do with intelligence btw, it's just that their brains don't get how computer interfaces work. I more or less grew up with that kind of stuff, and I'm also a geek, so computers just make sense to me. Doesn't matter if it's a windows PC, a Mac, an android phone, a sound mixing computer, I get that stuff. Now my kids they will grew up with mobile computing from basically day one and learn how to use computers naturally. And here is where we have the regular generational conflict. The idea that a little kid, or baby even, already uses a computer and interacts with it and uses it as a tool absolutely frightens my parents, because they don't really understand the technology. They think it will be the end of humanity. But at the same time they praise the child when it uses older, more accepted tools or technology. A kid that can read a book at preschool age (books being the technology in this example) is a little genius. But a kid using their fingers to interact with a mobile phone to look at a photo of their parents is dangerous. Now I am obviously more ok with the fact that little kids use computers than my parents and my kids will be even more accepting, because with a few generations this kind of technology becomes, first accepted and then required, for a person to function in that society. Like using technology to travel, cook, build/repair, acquiring information etc. is required in society. (Btw I do think kids need guidance when using technology and a smartphone/tv is not a replacement for a parent!) I think augments will take a similar path. The thought that people have artificial and/or improved bodyparts is frightening for a lot of us. But imagine if your parents already had artificial eyeballs that improve their sight. And you would finally get yours at age 18 or whatever the same way you get your first car these days. It would be the most normal thing on earth.

[@petrusjnaude7279]

Regarding your discussion at the end. Some of those is kind of discussed in the Ghost in the Shell anime series (Stand Alone Complex). They posit the question of what defines you as human if your whole body - including your physical brain - has been replaced by cybernetics. It's something again, that doesn't really get answered in the show (I don't know about the manga).

[@OhManTFE]

00:25 Four hours? It's only 44 minutes.

[@u4n273]

Very good.

[@tayaxx]

I literally just fucking watched that movie about 2 minutes ago !!!

[@deathsdoor07]

The Illuminati sound more like Palpatine.

[@IQ2992]

YES!!!! love ruminations

[@JulietteTux]

28:30 I think the reason why only women are being accepted for the project is that womens' nature/way of thinking in general is more emotional, compassionate, intuitive and 'irrational', i.e. the right hemisphere in general, to put it in a very simple way, which is a bit hard to reproduce with computational means, if at all, while the computers' part is the left hemisphere, 'rational', math etc.

[@ifandbut]

There is no line that should be drawn. We should use all aviable technology to make ourselves stronger, faster, smarter, BETTER. The human form is a random collection of blind evolutionary quirks. If we have the ability to shape our selves in our own image, then we should take it. As far as the question of if someone is human? That should not mater. What maters is that they are sentient. All sentient life should be respected.

[@FirstnameLastname-py3bc]

AI soon will be sentient... so?..

[@discasting]

What is "better" is not question of fact but depends on moral values and worldview of each person you ask. So which one of them is ultimately right? This leads to the thees Deus Ex: Human Revolution also deals with: there is always someone behind who says what is good for you, me and everyone else. Unless we, the humanity, are enslaved into a single hive mind, there is endless debate about what is "better" or "good" life. Just like the Lorerunner said in video, this is one of these questions that don't have one ultimately right answer. And the game also paints pretty well that with your thinking we would go dangerous waters. For instance, it may sound a good idea to make ourselves "smarter" or "better" via genetic engineering, but even such thing as "smart" is not a simple concept. What do you think it means? There is no one single gene that affects "smartness", it is far more complicated concept. Are you sure you have the same understanding of the concept than the ones who will execute the actual application to make people "better" or more "smart"? There are many who think it is "smart" to blindly obey the authorities, the ones who have the greatest control in the society. Do as we told you to - thats what a smart person does! So the true application of this particular engineering could ultimately human characteristics give up their free will, submitting their will to the authorities in the name of "smartness". What originally was being "smart" eventually leads to quite immensive biopower - genetically engineered slavery. You mix up two very different things: technology and the people behind it. Even if you trust the technology itself, you must be very careful about each organisation and its motivations to use that power. History gives plentiful examples how this could go awry. I am not ask to be critical of the technology itself, because its just a tool. But I want to remind you that behind all technology there is always idea to do something certain way and to accomplish certain goals. Unless you do all technological advancements all by yourself (which I think you cannot when it comes to technology like gene editing) you should be absolutely certain that people behind it do it according the way you think, the way you want. How can you be so sure that someone respects your free will, and will not do what he/her think is best for you?

[@GeminibBorn]

Are you in a Musketeer Costume?

[@tonnoka]

So This game has false endings? not everyone agrees with your definition of Technology. I am not saying that I agree or disagree. On the flip side of people use technology to control, I kind of agree with that statement. A good example of that is the Amish, they keep at a certain technology level to control the people. Its kind of true that technology and amount you let the people have , or not have can control them. Human Augmentation - you mean how we can genetically modify your future offspring so that they can have specific genes is something that is already done today. So are you saying that Steroids are going to be more of a problem with Sports events and then become manditory? Isn't that evidence against them being Manditroy the fact that we are outlawing them for sports use? Danm it! you mentioned gene modification!

[@BradleytheDavis]

instant like

[@juanz888]

really enjd the game, the ending was not very good. nice video

[@CSM100MK2]

Jesus I wish you bothered with editing