SRINIZINE

For starters, Project Natal means hands-free gaming. From Wikipedia, “Project Natal is the code name for a controller-free gaming and entertainment experience by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 video game platform. Based on an add-on peripheral for the Xbox 360 console, Project Natal enables users to control and interact with the Xbox 360 without the need to touch a game controller, through gestures, spoken commands, or presented objects and images.”

See the video below, and you know what it means.

Sure, Project Natal is an exciting development. Just as invention of television was exciting a few decades back and invention of wheel was exciting sometime back.

But where does this take us to in the future? If the game controller can be controlled through spoken commands, then it’s quite possible in the future that the game controller can be controlled through brain waves. I can visualise the gamer sitting on a couch in front of a video monitor playing a game… he thinks, “move left” and his avatar in the game moves left, he imagines his hand be raised, and his avatar raises his hand. I can see the future gamers play full virtual world games just by sitting in front of the console and thinking out the movements.

Let’s take it further… if your brainwaves can control a device, then it’s quite possible that a device can control your brain waves. Throw away the video console, just fit an electronic device onto your head, close your eyes, sit back, and enjoy the game right inside your mind. So, is ‘The Matrix’ becoming a reality?

Well, my point is, all these inventions, television, gaming, virtual realities… these are intended at creating some kind of sensation and excitement in the human mind. You may not be able to race a real Formula 1 car, but you can just buy a F1 simulation game and race alongside the Schumis. We are moving towards a future where an experience in the virtual world will excite you more than the same experience in the real world. You’ll be able to live a whole life in the virtual world! If excitement and sensation is all that you want irrespective of whether you get that from the real world or a virtual world, then why depend on an external device to excite you. After all, you go through the same kind of experiences in your dreams every night. Why not try lucid dreaming? Why depend on an external device to hypnotize you, why not self-hypnotize yourself?

By the way, my intention is not to criticize technological development. I am as much excited by hands-free gaming as anybody else, it’s truly amazing how much the human mind is capable of. Just that I sometimes tend to think we’ve been trying to control the outside for too long… it’s time we need to start looking at the inside lot more.