The Game Guy:
The “Who Need’s it?” Edition
By Mark H. Walker
Just
a Piece of Plastic
Question: How do you tell a male from a female turtle?
Answer: The male’s the one with the remote.
A few years back someone
slapped a remote in my hand. It seemed like a good idea at the time.
The girl I was using to fetch beer and change channels was taking
up too much of my time. I was ready for a switch, and although the
remote wouldn’t fetch beer it did flip from the Colt game -the BALTIMORE
Colt game– to the Madonna video as I stood at my refrigerator swilling
Bud. But something inside me whispered, “This isn’t right, this
isn’t healthy.”
So I moved my chair closer
to the refrigerator.
Nevertheless, I knew that
the TV remote was a good thing. So too were faster computers, VHS
players, tape decks, and then CD-ROMs. In fact technology brought
so much good that I became Pavlov’s dog. Whenever someone would ring
the technology bell, I’d salivate. And Bill Gates grinned.
He wasn’t alone. An entire
generation of technosapiens (Def Leppard’s word, not mine) has blossomed,
cell phones on ears, MP3 players on hips. It’s a good thing. Yeah,
cell phone impaired drivers do kill the occasional pedestrian, but
it’s a small sacrifice. Look at what we have. There are FAX machines
to speed hard copy transactions, email to instantaneously communicate,
and videoconferencing that enables businesses to do more each day
than they used to do in a week. At least until a stressed worker pulls
an M-16 on their co-workers. That slows stuff down a bit.
We’re at the beginning
of a digital decade, claims Mr. Gates. By 2010 we’ll be able to carry
all our files with us wherever we go, have music in our pocket, instant
access to email -which, by the way, will give your bosses instant
access to you, and operate our computers remotely. I mean like from
across the room (as if you can’t walk ten feet to the screen?). It
reminds me of a game I once played. A game called Mission Critical.
It’s a great game. A game
that foresaw an Earth fractured into two camps: Those who sought technology
at any price, and those who asked the simple question, “When
is enough, enough?” As I write this scientists are attempting
to build the first human. A technology that we have had, with a much
more enjoyable methodology, since the beginning of time. Yet, since
the cloning technology exits, the dogs will use it.
The challenge of our children’s
life will not be assimilating new technology, but rather questioning
it. Pavlov’s dog was, after all, a dog. We are not. Well, at least
no one’s ever called me that to my face. Yet, I smell a bit of the
lab on our skin. See the new gadget, want the new gadget? Drool for
the new gadget? Isn’t it just plastic?
© Mark H. Walker,
LLC 2001
Mark H. Walker is a veteran interactive entertainment
journalist who has written over 40 books including his recently released
Myth III and Wizardry 8 strategy guides.
