Re:Jeff Dean: Trends in Machine Learning [video]
by smoldesu on Monday February 19, 2024 @10:30PM
(#39437755)
You're not wrong, but I also think the problem predates video games. Films, novels and even religious texts all are scrutinized for changing people's perspective on life. Fiction has a longstanding hold on society, but it inherently coexists with the "harsh reality" of survival and resource competition. Introducing video games into the equation is like re-hashing the centuries old Alice in Wonderland debate.
Playing video games all day isn't an enriching or well-rounded use of time, but neither is throwing yourself into danger and risk all the time. The real world is a game of carefully-considered strategy, where our response to hypothetical situations informs our performance during real ones. Careful reflection on fiction can be a philosophically powerful tool, for good or bad.
The whole premise bothered me though.
I can remember a bike ride where I was experiencing the onset of heat stroke and had to make quick decisions to perhaps save my life.
I remembered decades ago lost in Michigan's upper peninsula with the wife, on apparently some logging road and the truck getting into deeper and deeper snow as we proceeded until I made the decision to instead turn around and go back the way we came lest we become stranded in the middle of nowhere.
I remember having to use my wits, make difficult decisions while hitchhiking from Anchorage, Alaska to the lower 48 when I was in my early twenties....
The actual world, the chance of actual death, strangers, serendipity ... no amount of VR or AI really compares.