Mirror Mirror on a Moogle

History of technology has generally been the history of what drove that technology. The "Space Race" of the 60's brought HUGE technological advances. Scott Adams (the guy who draws "Dilbert" badly--his words) predicted that future advances will be driven by dateless men who want a replacement for women (lol... personally... not sure how I feel about that, but it still makes me giggle). Of course, medical applications are always comming into play; anyone remember that a powerful treatment for migraine headaches came someone getting botox injected to remove wrinkles.

Not sure how many people remember the history of the Virtual Reality technology. It has gotten very far, but how many people remember some of the old predictions about how "realistic" it would get (there was an X Files episode that made me very mad...). Douglas Engelbart, an engineer, took VR into the realm of training future and present pilots by giving them experience in a safe environment. Psychologists started using it to treat phobias like a frear of hights or fear of crouds and more.

SO..whats the point. The point is, the "virtual" reality is fake that feels real. The perceptions that people have about the reality they are percieving is what makes it real.

This is something I've thought about a lot in the past few weeks. Final Fantasy is a game that brings people together in a common safe place to...play a.. video game. Not much else to it. However, the people we meet are real people with real feelings and emotions, and the struggles we meet and conquer together leave their mark. For the good or for the bad. Because our perceptions are not that we're playing a video game against a computer, it is because we are standing together with real people who have inevidibly become our friends.

Yet.. how could we not make an emotional and intelectual connection with the people we meet online. The time we spend online is real. The excitement we feel in getting that rare drop is real. The dissapointment we experience in loosing 3,000+ experience points because someone did something stupid is real. The amazing special feeling of being selected out to recieve a special item by one person or a group is real. Is it any doubt that we start to feel good or bad feelings with these people?

We are only human (well.. I'm a cat, but lets not go there); only robots will not have emotions. Together, as people, we make promises, we make plans, we make alliances, we break alliances, we break plans, we break promises... we are... human. So is it any suprise that we feel real pain over "fake" things that happen online. Is a promise made on a game worth less than one in real life? Are we allowed to break our word just because it is "just a game" as it is said?

I think that human nature is the greatest of misteries for people to understand, and the biggest secrets of all of history's leaders. From Sun Tzu, Miyamoto Musashi, Carl von Clausewitz, and many others state clearly that human emotions is as important as food and shelter when dealing with any "tactical" situation (do not discount the idea just because they were military generals; their writings are staples among management training). However, I believe this is the one thing that is the most ignored--especially in cases when our own failings come into play.

lol.. why.. do I bring this up? Just random thoughts; I am constantly thinking about one thing or another, and this is just one. I will leave it with this last quote. I'll try to read another author, I'm a hopeless shakespeare lover... besides.. it applies...and I always loved Shyloc's speach.

"If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"

Good grief.. I'll try to find something funny tomorrow. FFXI has green penguins now..maybe I'll throw some in the air.