Jade empire, and the future of morals

“No more video games for today, you’ll rot your brain out. Go read a book, you might learn something.” Like myself many people are all too familiar with this phrase or one like it. Whether you have heard it from your mother, seen it on a sitcom or said it yourself, you are probably aware of this perception. It is not unfounded, there are many games out there that do not stretch ones thinking and provides no mental growth. However, I would argue that all video games teach the player something, though it may only teach them to press a button and deaden their minds. Some games however, can teach us arithmetic skills such as math blasters, or typing skills like keyman. You might say “yes but those are for children, those games are not benefiting my teenager, or an adult for that matter.” This is not untrue, but there are still other games out there that encourage mental growth. They are just in disguise. No adult and certainly no teenager is going to buy a game from the “Learning Software” section. The intelligent games must camouflage themselves. There are many games that challenge your creative processing through puzzles. You may be aware of this already from playing games like myst or portal. But the most surprising aspect of gamer learning is morality. In recent years select video games have begun to challenge peoples morality. Providing them with the opportunity to make the selfish or evil choices if they so please. One of the earliest games to implement I dichotomy system, is Jade Empire.

       
     Today there are a number of games with the “good/evil” meter, such as the fable series, which as the game progresses allows the character to develop in to a monk/sage persona or a demonic entity and even grow horns. Fable however, does not teach the player anything new about morals, yet reinforces socio-typical black and white views of good and evil. Jade Empire was apart of that first wave of games with the moral dichotomy, and was the one of those games that I had ever played. While it does have the morality meter, depicting what seems to be good and evil, it does not hold to the same typical view of right in wrong (though the story does imply it at times). Also unlike some of the other games with this trait, it actually addresses the philosophies behind it. In the beginning of the game you can discuss this with one of your teachers at the school, master smiling mountain. He describes it not as your typical black and white view of good and evil, but of two paths with different sets of values. “Martial skill is a pathway to great power and that holds certain risk it is not just good over evil; few things in life are that simple. The common way to say it is. “Do you follow the way of the open palm or the closed fist?”  You come to understand that the way is based in thought. It is not entirely what your actions are but the intentionality behind them. When asked about the way of the open palm he says. “A term for the “high path” or perhaps the way of restraint and harmony. Many aspire to it, but few achieve it. It is a path of resisting tyranny.  Of course, the source of that tyranny varies. It is just as dangerous coming from without as within.” Typical of Eastern philosophy there can be a cryptic nature to what they say. He does however go into more detail. “Tyranny from external sources is easy to find and fight. Defending those who cannot defend themselves is a reasonable example. But when your abilities are so much greater than those around you. There is a temptation to set everything right by might alone. That is tyranny from within.” Contrary to our western views of light and dark, this follows a more yen and yang approach, expressing that the evil really only comes from extremism and imbalance. However, you may be very patriotic and have the warrior spirit and say that sometimes you have to fight, and that conflict cannot be avoided. “True” he replies “but that can become a convenient excuse. Eventually, you may decide that even direct violence is too inefficient for someone of your strength. It is a small leap from there to enforcing your will so that the crime never takes place. Suddenly, you are the oppressor, when all you wanted to do was make things right. This way of the open palm is not without its hidden dangers, despite the best of intentions.” As you can see the game provides a different approach to the moral system. Though the mechanics of the game encourage an extremist approach to the game, such as bonus abilities and such offered to the players as they progress towards one end of the scale to the other; the philosophies of the game promotes balance. The juxtaposition of story and verbal quest guiding the player to the middle ground, while the game itself rewarding the opposite is an extensive discussion in and of itself.

            You may however, be thinking that you understand how the open palm could be taken to far in be destructive. But how could the dark side be anything but evil. The game though actually provides an interesting view that actually seems reasonable when explained. When asked smiling mountain is very informative with his responses. “It is the low path, the way of aggression and discord. A misunderstood path often misused by those who wish to justify a thuggish nature. It is not as simple as crushing your enemies, Or as mindless as terrorizing the weak. It is a mindset born of impatience, of imposing your will.” when asked what is it if its not evil has replies “An evil man might ignore a plea for help because he does not care. But that shows a disconnection with the world. That is not part of the way. A man on the low path might ignore that plea, but he would do so because that person should demonstrate they are fit to survive on their own.” One could easily wonder what the difference is, either in the end someone is still hurt. “The difference is in the details. That same man might help if the odds are unreasonable. He might also do it to incur favor. There is thought in his actions. He is not a mindless killer, but he may let strength decide what course is best. That is why it is a dangerous path. It can so easily be misinterpreted.” According to the story of the game, there is no right and wrong just two different viewpoints that promotes different ideals. Open palm values protecting others and social harmony while the closed fist is a value in strength and discord viewing the other as promoting weakness and bureaucracy. Neither could exist without the other. In fact it is an imbalance in favor of the high path that initially, which sets the entire storyline in motion.

            The Story of Jade Empire is highly based in eastern mythology and theology, though one gets the impression that it is catered to a western consumer audience. The primary issue the game revolves around the perversion of the natural order and poses some very serious issues humanity will face in the near future. Though it does this through an ancient Chinese eyeglass. The basic plot of the game has you running off to both save your Master Sun Li and the Water Dragon (the goddess of rebirth and shepherd of the dead) from the Emperor Sun Hai, whom you later find out, is your master’s brother. The Emperor has stolen the water dragon power and now has power over death. As horrible as it seems it was done in the name of good. Though not specifically pointed out by the game, a little understanding of the history of world civilization informs you that the empire had grown to big due to the success of establish society. Like most early empires they grew so big they used up all their resources. When Jade Empire faces being wiped out due to a colossal drought, the Emperor seeks to save his people from suffering and destruction. This can be seen as humanity trying to gain control of its own destiny and play god so to speak. Sun Hai kills the goddess (though you come to find out not physically. If her body was to die, her spirit would be free and her godhood would be restored) and steals her power to save his people, all in order to help those too weak to help themselves.

             This plot reflects the issues that humanity is going to face in the near future. Though not attained through metaphysical means but via technology. In his book, the singularity is near: when humans transcend biology Ray Kurzweil gives his prediction, along with extensive expert evidence, of what humanity will face when we reach, what many leading experts in the field of information technology and computer science have come to refer to as The Singularity. “Singularity is a future period where technological change will be so rapid, and its impact so profound, that every aspect of human live will be irreversibly transformed… our computers are not going to be in our pocket. They are going to be in our bodies and we are going to be a hybrid if biological and non-biological intelligence.” Says Ray Kurzweil. He then goes on to explain, “If you go back 500 years not much happens in a century, but now of days a lot happens in 6 months. Technology feeds on itself and gets faster and faster. In about 40 years the pace of change is going to be so astonishingly quick that you wont be able to follow it unless you enhance your own intelligence by merging with the intelligent technology we are creating. So that is such a profound transformation that we have borrowed this metaphor from physics and call that a singularity.”

            Rays predictions of this inevitable event presents humans with a utopian view of the future in which we are in control of our own destiny. Humans break free from the cruelties that nature imposes on us, conquering disease, physical and intellectual hardships. We will no longer be limited by our weak physical bodies (and I mean plural because we will have multiple) and even our brains can be upgraded. The game however presents this as a perversion of nature and very dystopian. It is too much power for humans to handle responsibly. In the game this control of human destiny is a result of human inability to accept death both physically and sociologically. The empire will not succumb to the drought, natures way of starting new and giving someone else a chance. Based on reincarnation, with the dead unable to be reborn it stops the cycle of life, preventing new life from arising. In the singularity it is very similar, humans trying to extend their turn on this earth. Though not based in reincarnation, new life would be at a halt. If no one died, then at some point we would have to regulate reproduction thus freezing nature and its progression.

            While seemingly warning against the tampering of nature, I will seek to prove in this article, through an in-depth look at the game, that Jade Empire exposes the demand for a dissolution of the common morals, that survival and the evolutionary process impose on humanity as we approach the singularity.

In order to understand the moral implications of a post-singularity society through the perspective of jade empire, we must first examine the sociological and socio-intellectual implications that the singularity will have on the world, as we know it. Clearly with such drastic changes that will be talking place as we draw closer, will alter what defines us as an individual, society and even species. Ray Kurzweil says “If you wonder what will remain unequivocally human in such a world, it’s simply this quality: ours is a species that inherently seeks to extend its physical and mental reach beyond current limitation.” Basically our entire world will be based upon the need to ever expand, just as in Mckenzie Wark section on katamari demacy and topology, we will be stuck the endless game for King of All Cosmos. Except this time we are not just digitizing the world but the entire universe. Just as in the Epoch 6 “in the aftermath of the Singularity, intelligence, derived from its biological origins in human brains and its technological origins in human ingenuity, will begin to saturate the matter and energy in its midst. It will achieve this by reorganizing matter and energy to provide an optimal level of computation to spread out from its origin on Earth”. With a world driven by the need to expand, which is how you could say humans existence in the biological has been so far, yet far surpassing the ability of the bio-human, where then would there be a place for the bio-human? Ray later answers this, though with weak resolution, by saying “I would expect the intelligence that arises from the Singularity to have great respect for their biological heritage” his fictional virtual assistant George from 2048 adds “Absolutely, it’s more then respect, it’s… reverence.” While it may seem nice to have computers do everything for you, bio-humanity will have lost all power and be confined to the realm or culture and heritage. Though just as with 1^st generation immigrants, once they establish their family in America, unless they change their system of living, they are doomed to be only as useful as a grandparent that the kids can run up to and as “what was it like in the old country?” yet requires everyone else to take care of them and intermediate with the world around them. Humans will be forced to choice between pride in ones heritage and pride in ones dominance.

One of the main potential problems that arise, as we draw closer to the singularity, is the split in the sociological viewpoints. “This issue is going to dominate global politics this century, this is the issue that is going to color the century.”  “Eventually everyone is going to ask… are we, us a species across the planets… are we going to let these machines become smarter then us”. This is a question that we are inevitably going to ask ourselves. The problem is we are not going answer it easily. I believe it to be common knowledge that humans disagree. You can ask anyone on the street if humans are capable of universally agreeing on anything, and your answer will probably be a colorful “No Way” there is going to be disagreement especially when dealing with an issue of this magnitude. We as a species are going to have trouble allowing ourselves to become inferior, particularly to something we created. This holds true to the analogy in the game as well. The soldiers of the Imperial army are being replaced with clay golems. These mindless drones, though powered by magic not electricity, are for all intensive purposes robots. The only option a human has is to join the lotus assassins, which are solders who have been taken over by the dark powers and are a new hybrid. But in order for this to happen they must become indoctrinated and stripped of their will and identities. Though they develop some usefulness thanks to their transformation, the assassins still have to struggle for attention and relevancy amongst themselves and with the golems. Then arises the issue of human augmentation. While some people are going to willingly embrace it, others are going to find it a perversion of nature and are weary of tampering with nature, especially when we are tampering with our-selves. Dr. William b hurlbut says, “we could do a lot of foolish things trying to alter humans to try and improve them, and the net result of that might be tragedy.” And many people agree, evolution has brought us to, what seems like a very nice level of balance. He later goes on to say “the human mind is very in tuned to a range of environments, a range of talents, and a range of possibilities, to upset that balance by exaggerating some feature is going to cost us something. We shouldn’t just arrogantly think we can transcend the wisdom of millions of years of human experience.”

            We are given a glimpse into the sociological implications of human augmentation in the game Deus Ex: human revolution. The prequel to the original Deus Ex takes place in the year 2027 and paints an extremely realistic and believable picture of humanities transition into cybernetics. Many people are divided on the issue of upgrading human ability. With some groups known as the “purists” fighting hard for the preservation of biological humanity, and large biotech corporations on the other side trying to transform humanity, there is a fair deal of strife. While some open conflicts arise such as purists taking over sarif industries and gangs divided into augmented and purely human, the majority of issues are subtle. Many issues such as prejudice are clearly visible throughout the game. In one side quest you even deal with escorts being forced into being augmented against their will because many clients prefer it. These are all very real possibilities, and in all likelihood predictions, of the future surrounding human augmentation.

            Ray however, provides an interesting perspective that many other people are going to take. “We are fundamentally information,” he says “at the core of every one of our 10 trillion cells are genes, and genes are sequences of data and they evolved thousands of years ago, some of them millions of years ago. We have this old software that is really not entirely relevant to the modern age we live in. we are now understanding the implications of those programs and we are learning to change them to overcome problems.”

            Probably the biggest contributing factor in the changing moral system is the death of god. In Friedrich Nietzsche, The Parable of the Madman, a madman goes to the market place and proclaims loudly “We have killed [God]---you and I. All of us are his murderers.” He continues on in this rant explaining how the world has changed and lost its meaning. “Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space?” It is a common interpretation that Nietzsche trying to convey that the old time views of an all-powerful god as slipping away due to our modern understandings. In our endless pursuit to know everything and use that knowledge as a means of control, we leave no room for God. As we more and more continue to define what God isn’t, we are left with an every shrinking possibility of what or where God is. In the end however, he discovers that he has come too early “Deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than most distant stars--- and yet they have done it themselves.”  Though we have not completely reached that point it has already begun, we have not fully realized it or seen the true implications yet. One could argue that he views god as analogue as Wark describes it in Gamer Theory, “a relation of continuous variation”. God is everything that is not completely definable. This issue arises that we are digitizing everything, making those ever intricate lines defining exactly what what/where everything is and isn’t.

            However, I would say Nietzsche’s prediction was wrong. Not that he was incorrect in the point he was trying to make, but rather incomplete. We are not simple killing god and leaving a void of emptiness in his place; we are replacing god with a better, more perfect god, technology. “There is more computing power in a grain of sugar when its nano-teched… then our human brain by a factor of a billion… so that these machines if ‘we’ humanity, if we decide to build them, we are building gods” says Hugo de Garis. You see in topical and topographical space “god” exists in the space surrounding, and the shadows between what is measured. God provides people with security of the unknown and uncontrollable. The concept of god arises from peoples need to have an explanation for things they cannot explain or have control over.  Essentially to the insecure mind god is an outward manifestation of everything they fear, and thus need a benevolent entity they create in order to convince themselves that everything is perfect because they cannot psychologically take care of themselves or create their own meaning in life. As, the topological begins to fill in the cracks and expands to cover everything. The socio-psychological need for god begins to disappear and many people begin to replace the role of god, the force guiding them through the uncertainty, with the digital which instead eliminates uncertainty altogether. Thus we are creating god so that we are able to kill the god we created to deal with our own insecurities.

            In the game Sun Hai and Sun Li both gain their power by stealing the water dragons. It is only through crippling this god that they are able to establish control and save the empire. Just before the final battle you discover what exactly was required to end the drought. They captured the water dragon and literally cut her down the middle and pull all her flesh back fully exposing her ribs and organs just hanging out there. They keep her barely alive and harvest her essence because she literally bleeds water. They don’t actually kill her, because then her spirit would be free and she could be reborn. The only way to truly kill a god is to destroy its godhood. She is a slave. In the singularity as we create gods and become them ourselves we kill the very concept of god by attaining godhood. God is enslaved to us, if we are in complete control of our lives and destiny then there is no longer this higher power or guiding force outside of ourselves.

            One of the problems is when I say “we” I mean those who recognize the need for god has disappeared and can move forward. There are going to be people who have so bound themselves to this notion of god that they to give that up would be to much strain on their mental state that would rather blind themselves then allow themselves to work through that insecurity. They are going not going to allow god to be destroyed and are going to actively oppose this abomination. There are also going to be people who are going to oppose this advancement for more logical reasons. “These inventions may end up causing the worst wars humanity has ever had.” We are all familiar with the terminator scenario, which many people on both sides see as a very real possibility. “These machines might for whatever reason whip out humanity, there is always that risk… we could never be sure, I’m predicting that there will be a major war in late 21^st century between to human groups. So one group they will argue the only way to be sure that the risk is zero that they are never built in the first place. But the second group for them it will be almost like a religion to build them, because they will be god like. So you’ve got the source of bitter conflict between two human groups. And with late 21^st century weapons you are talk about a major war that will kill not millions, but billions.” Many people are have enough foresight to see this very likely conflict and are thus weary of pushing the idea forward.

            However this is where the issue of human morals comes into play. We are a dying species; we are a cancer of this earth and have dug ourselves into a massive hole. We have nearly depleted the earth’s resources and face massive overpopulation problems. In Jade Empire the nation is faced with its own demise due to a massive drought. The time of the nation has run its course and the celestial bureaucracy requires its removal so that other life can be given a chance. In jade empire, to restore balance is to allow the empire to wither and many people to die painfully from the drought. In the game Fighting to for “good” in order to restore balance, is fighting for the death of the empire. In our modern society we are on the brink of destruction, and the natural order requires the death of society. It seeks our elimination or our devolution back into primitive beasts. One might argue that we broke the balance of nature when we formed society in the first place. Once we shifted from hunter-gathers living in balance with our resources, to settled agriculturalists, we began to take control of nature, growing rapidly and depleting the world’s resources. Mr. Smith in the Matrix gives a good description when he says, “You are not mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you do not. You move to an area and you multiply until every natural resource is consumed. And the only way you can survive is to move to another area. There is another organism on this planet that does this… A virus. You human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet.” It is too late for us we are doomed. Yet there is one hope, technology. While technology you could argue is what got us hear in the first place, it is really humanities misuse of that power that caused it. If we create better intelligence, then our creation will teach us how to both create better technologies and use what we have created in the best way possible. However, those who seek to retain the old moral system have no choice but to oppose this new change. Yet just as in jade empire, that ultimately results in our destruction. So do die with dignity or evolve and adapt?

            Even though he did not include it in his parable of the madman, I believe Frederich Nietzsche did have the foresight to see humanity reaching a splitting point between those willing to take the leap forward, and those who are going to fight this change no matter the cost. In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, he says, “I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him? All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this great flood and even go back to the beasts rather then overcome man? What is the ape to man? A laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. And man shall be just that for the overman; a laughingstock or a painful embarrassment” many people have so much pride in themselves as the dominate species that they are unwilling to have something surpass us. Others are wrapped up in defending the possibility of God that they cannot accept any different. Nietzsche tries to persuade people to abandon these thoughts and go beyond themselves. He later says “Once one said God when one looked upon distant seas; but now I have taught you to say: Overman… Could you create a god? Then do not speak to me of any gods. But you could well create the overman. Perhaps not you yourselves, my brothers. But into fathers and forefathers of the overman you could re-create yourselves: and let this be your best creation.” Even in the late 1800s he saw where society was headed and set things in motion so that people will have been pondering this long before the day arises. We need to get ready for that day is coming. “Eventually we are going to transcend humanity” says AI engineer Ben goertzel. “Eventually we are going to go beyond the whole way of thinking, feeling, existing and relating that constitutes humanity.” In order to transcend humanity though, we must be willing to transcend our common moral system and join god. “Companions, the creator seeks, not corpses, not herds and believers. Fellow creators, the creator seeks – those who write new values on new tables. Companions the creator seeks” - Nietzsche. As you can see to be god means to create, and in order to do that one must have a different set of values and morals.

            The game three endings, one for the open palm and one for the closed fist, as well as a secret ending which I will get to in a minute. If you follow the way of the open palm, in the end you both defeat your master Sun Li and set free the water dragon (well kill her so she can be reborn, but you get the point) restoring the natural order of things. In the end everyone cheers you on. It doesn’t acknowledge the fact that in order to appease the celestial bureaucracy’s need for balance, you are essentially dooming the entire nation to a slow and miserable death from drought. The good nature doesn’t take into account all the pain and suffering you are inflicting. Though heart warming, it represents on of the very real possibilities of the Singularity. The naturalist who are going to oppose our technological advancements when the times comes to give up our traditional morals and sociology, are going to experience the good ending. To fight the transcendence of biology is truly to fight for suffering and death. One could look at it as the preservation of humanity. Though we die, we remain fully human

If you follow the closed fist philosophy, in the end you also defeat master Li, however, you continue to enslave the water dragon. The final scene has you tossing the body of Sun Li at the feet of a mass of lotus assassins who in turn bow to you. In this ending you replace Sun Li as god king. You have both killed the god that existed, and the god that you help establish (though not intentionally), and thus take on the role of god to fill the void. The empire lives on in glory, but you have given up your humanity to play god. This ending could be related to the actual singularity where humans merge with machines. Master Li represents the AI we create (in that because of your quest he becomes god). In the end you created a god (AI) to destroy a god (by creating a being with all the qualities of god [all-knowing, all-present], you destroy the unattainability and mystery of god. thus destroying the very concept of god), which you then destroy and take its power (by integrating with machines we gain all the abilities of machines but are ourselves the one’s in control) thus establishing a new natural order in which you are god. There is a trade off however. In order to receive godhood, you must give up humanity and all of its wonderful flaws. As I also pointed out, there is going to be opposition, but this way does not meet the demands for survival, and to try and prevent that is to join it and die as well. Sometimes as god in order to control you must step back and let strength play out, as it will.

There is a secret alternate ending in the game that is not easily discovered. To unlock this ending you must surrender to master Li and let him kill you so that he may defeat the natural order and save the empire. In return he immortalizes you through legend. He makes you a historical figure credited with leading the empire to its glorious eternal state. He builds monuments to you that will never be forgotten because the empire will never end. You get all the glory of immortality yet you are allowed to retain your humanity. This ending is represented in the singularity as if we created AI but did not advance ourselves and surrendered to the far superior machines. We still are immortalized by being the creators of god and god’s power is really an extension of our intelligence by making god in our own image (AI is modeled after our deconstruction of the human mind), yet we ourselves can remain fully human. The human race will either die out and forever be remembered as the fathers of the eternal race, or remain as cultural icon as I explained earlier. Yet just as in Jade Empire in order to reach that point, we still have to accept the changing of morals that survival demands, though we may choice to fade away with the old system.

            In conclusion, humanity faces some major changes in the near future. These changes require us to change as well, by enhancing ourselves or creating our replacement, in order to survive. The singularity also requires us to kill god and replace him either with our established creation or ourselves. Jade Empire provides us with possible outcome scenarios, as well as the moral influences and implications of each outcome. In the end, if humanity is going to survive we must let go of our old moral system almost entirely, or die with it. So in the end what it really comes down to is whether we become god, or simply replace him with a god of our creation.

           

Works Cited

Kurzweil, Ray. The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Nietzsche, Friedrich, and Thomas Common. The Gay Science. Mineola, NY: Dover Publ., 2006. Print.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. 1961. Print.

Transcendent Man the Life and Ideas of Ray Kurzweil. Perf. Ray Kurzweil, Ben Goertzel, Hugo De Garis, and Dr. William B Hurlbut. Ptolemaic Productions, 2010. Digital File.

Wark, McKenzie. Gamer Theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2007. Print.