Thursday 30 August, 2018

Now I see where we can really start to apply ethical arguments to this game. My last session began with the backstory of the game being laid out in front of me. The robots I tear through were sent by robots in an attempt to colonize or dominate, earth. As a result, the survivors of the attack needed to retreat to the moon, and in an attempt to regain our planet humans made the robots that the player plays as. Now that we know the motivations of my character I can ethically support my killing of these alien drones until I had an odd encounter. I came across a single robot that was vocalizing fear, and when pursued I discovered a large swarm of robots that seemed to be trying to, put bluntly, fornicate. After I dispatched enough of them they formed together and gave birth, I think, to a robot that acted and looked like my character. This made me question my own character and whether or not I should have instantly killed it. When trying to think about the societal influences that this game could have, my first instinct is how some people think that technology is advancing too fast. Countless movies and shows have been made about technology taking over the population, with examples such as Terminator, I Robot, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Great job Elias! You bring up some really interesting points. For instance, in your second log you talk about how it's hard to ethically back either side without knowing their emotions or motivations. In your third log, however, it sounds like you learned the motivations of one side, but saw emotions from the other. If one side of a robot conflict is logically justified and the other is emotionally justified, how do you ethically decide which one to support? Is motivation equal to emotion? What happens if both sides seem justified on both fronts?