Ready player one

Morrow wrote in his autobiography that he’d left GSS because … he felt that the OASIS had evolved into something horrible. “It had become a self-imposed prison for humanity,” he wrote. “A pleasant place for the world to hide from its problems while human civilization slowly collapses, primarily due to neglect.” (p. 120) 

 

(Halliday speaking) “I created the OASIS because I never felt at home in the real world. I didn’t know how to connect with people there. I was afraid, for all of my life. Right up until I knew it was ending. That was when I realized, as terrifying and painful as reality can be, it’s also the only place where you can find true happiness. Because reality is real.” (p. 364) 

-Ready player One, Ernest Cline

I have a feeling this is going to be a long post so before you start reading, sit back, breathe, relax.

This blog's song will be "Beast" by Nico Vega, it is a really great song.

 At the beginning of this blog's entry we have to different perspectives, the first is from Morrow, Halliday's best friend, which states that he left GSS because it became something horrible, it looks like he was talking about a horrible drug, on the other hand, we have Halliday's quote about OASIS, which seems like he was talking about some great medicine to make our existence a little bit more tolerable.

What are they both talking about?

In essence, they're talking about the drug of simulation. The hype of another reality, where everyone chooses his own reality.

What makes reality?

Ready player one is a beautiful novel by Ernest Cline, it is actually his first novel, and it just makes you feel like you haven't really lived until you read that book.
It is easy to read, with an interesting plot, Ready player one makes you think about the concept of reality.

Who am I? Am I the one on those Instagram photos and Facebook posts which seems to be having the best time of his life or the guy behind the screen, losing time on social media while my code compiles?

To make it all just more complicated, Ready player one has a lot of 80's references, I mean the main plot is to search for Hallidays treasure hidden between a simulated futuristic world and a simulation of 80's music, movies and cartoons. And if that doesn't make your mind melt, nothing will.

There is just so much to talk about the book right now I'm going to focus on some questions.

Do I agree on any of Halliday's/Morrow's statements?
Well, I guess it really depends on my mood, both are right in a certain way, however, right now, I'm more on Halliday's perspective, videogames are mainly something to distract us from our reality. And if we have the power of adopting a really that fits us better than this bunch of atoms we call "real world", we should, makes you think of Morpheus when he tells Neo "If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain." on "The Matrix"

Do I think there are similarities between OASIS and the current IT world?

If my Facebook/Instagram reference wasn't straightforward enough, of course I do.

Most people spend more time using computers that interacting with the real world, and that doesn't mean it's a bad thing. Tonight I could be watching the stars or walking through the streets of this polluted city, instead, I choose to sit behind a computer, play some videogames, read a Wikipedia article about exoplanets, see a live concert from my favorite band, tweet about my existential crisis and connect with a girl on other country that can't sleep and thinks that the reptilians exist, talk with my best friend on Chicago and see a movie. I don't see any of that as a bad thing. I may be living in my own version of OASIS, and I like it.

Do I think it’s possible, technologically speaking, to have something similar to the OASIS by the years 2040 or 2050?

Of course, Second Life was just the start of simulated worlds, with cheaper, better technology like the Oculus Rift, virtual reality will become the next big thing in less than 20 years.
There is already a cool project called "The Apollo 11 virtual reality experience" which will make you experience on virtual reality the Apollo 11 moon landing on a virtual reality device. And this is just the start.

 http://immersivevreducation.com/the-apollo-11-experience/

If you haven't seen them already, this is what most resembles the virtual reality headsets on Ready Player One: https://www.oculus.com/en-us/

What do I think are the possible risks of something like OASIS?
The first thing I can think of is already happening, people are living more on simulated worlds than the real world, however, it makes you wonder, if everyone believes on the simulated reality more than the "real" world. Doesn't it make it real, after all, 2+2=4 is just a social convention we were all taught to believe. 1984, not a real quote, but a reference.

Wololo.

War Games

Today I will talk about the movie "War Games"

If you haven't seen the movie, you should, that's it, really simple. It is a great movie

End of this blog's entry.

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Just kidding, the movie is about a teenager which is very good at making jokes and hacking computer systems, that while searching for some game files in the times where computers where connected by telephone lines (Yep, those cranky noises you heard on the old times where you couldn't make phone calls while connected to the internet unless you had two telephone lines) connects to a military supercomputer. In the middle of a cold war between the United States and Russia, his supercomputer was designed to simulate nuclear wars and choose the best case scenario in the case of a nuclear war (is it really a best case scenario?). The curious thing about it is that the computer, which had some artificial intelligence, was taught using games, so the file directory on the computer lists some common games along some disturbing games, like Thermonuclear war.

The kid, still thinking he was hacking some pc on a game company, chooses to play "Thermonuclear war" (he was just trying to impress "The girl"). Once the game started, things got really bad, thought he didn't know it. The thing is that some time before that, the military decided that they couldn't afford human error in the case of a nuclear war, so the supercomputer was connected to the nuclear missile facilites, with the power to launch them anytime it thought necessary, and the computer couldn't tell if it was still simulating a war or it was a real war. So once the game started, things could get really bad soon.

And since the military had connected the supercomputer to their sensors, they couldn't recognize that it was just a game un a supercomputer. They thought the kid was a spy working for the russians AND they were surely being attacked soon, so they started getting more aggressive, which made the russians get more aggressive, and well, you've all seen a recursive function go bad, right? It became something like that.

They couldn't even turn down the supercomputer because the systems would think that it was because of a nuclear attack and would attack back.

At the end the kid wins the trust of the military with help of the supercomputer programmer, a really cool guy that convinces everyone using common sense the low probability of a random attack like that, then they teach the computer using tic-tac-toe futility. Games that can't be won, the computer rejects the game of a Thermonuclear war using the amazing quote "A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?".

Even though the movie was released more than 30 years ago it really talks about some important IT related things.
- Can a computer have common sense?
- Most humans don't, do you really think a computer can replace human common sense?

-Oh, but Siri makes fun jokes...
- You are a Lua programmer, right? (You thought I wouln't make a Lua joke this time? Think again).

- Can a computer replicate the human thought process?

- "The Computer is incredibly fast, accurate and stupid. Man is unbelievably slow, inaccurate and brilliant. The marriage of the two is a challenge and an opportunity beyond imagination."
 Walesh, 1989 
No, it wasn't Albert Einstein.

Thats all for now my fellow reader(s)
Wololo.