Jade Empire vs. The Singularity is near
ok so for those of you who havent played jade empire (spoiler alert) here is what its all about. long story short you are the last "spirit monk" which are the guardians of the temple of the water dragon. the emperor attacked the temple when you were a baby and killed everyone in order to enslave the water dragon, forcing her to end the great drought (which was designed by the celestial bureaucracy to wipe out the empire like many previous ones in order to complete the circle of life and restore balance) threatening the land. but the water dragon is also the goddess who shepherds the dead to the "great wheel" where they are judged and then reborn back into the mortal world. by enslaving her the dead dont know the way and are forced to wander the earth until they go mad and start attacking the living. the emperor also has control over death as well because of this. there are a couple different endings, some of which are a conquering of the natural order, preeminently breaking the cycle giving humans control of their destiny.
now The Singularity is near (when humans transcend biology), is predictions of the future of man and machine from someone who bill gates claims is "the best person i know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence." it brings up issues of immortality, cyborgs and genetic modifications. i just got the book and am starting to read it, but i saw a documentary already about it called the transcendental man. if you havent seen it i HIGHLY recommend it. extremely interesting, and alot shorter then the book. but for those of you who are familiar with it (Rooney, I know you are and I expect your insight) or happen to watch the film, which you totally should right now, id like some thoughts.
Evan, do you think these could be compatible even though in jade empire they achieve these means through magic, as opposed to technology. also should i bring the death of god into the mix or is that spreading myself too thin?
Arthur C. Clarke said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
ReplyDeletelike the game has 3 possible endings, all of which are prospective outcomes of what could happen with the tampering of the natural order. one could argue that the singularity, whether good, bad or somewhere in the middle is something in the middle is where everything is headed at the moment. at some point people are going to fight both for and against it. he talks about GNR as the different directions it could go. being 3 technologies genetics, nano technology, and robotics. essentially do we manipulate the human genome, become cyborgs, or make AI and hope to stay friendly with them when they surpass us. I may try and correlate these to the 3 endings as being the 3 extremes of what could possibly happen, as sort of a triangular balancing act. i still need to do more research so if anyone knows of any sources i might find interesting to incorporate let me know.
ReplyDeleteby the way i just found out that the documentary (transcendental man) is free on hulu, so there is no excuse not to watch it. do it for the betterment of your eternal soul
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