Ender’s Game: Our Future?

THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE BOOK ENDER’S GAME!!!

In class, Stubbs talked about the military’s involvement in the video game world, and how they have spent much time and money on simulations. Now, they are looking into recruiting gamers to control drones, due to their high level of skills in spacial perception, hand movement control, etc. Stubbs also mentioned the book Ender’s Game, which I read in high school, and how they may be a similar future to what this is heading towards. In order to discuss this, let me explain or refresh your memory about what exactly happens in the book.

Ender’s Game

In the book, Ender, a 10 year old boy, is promoted to Command School, training to be a commander in earth’s army against the “evil alien buggers”, who had apparently killed many humans in the past. He, and a group of other children, all trained through different activities, gaining skills in combat and strategy, preparing them for war against the buggers.

We find out at the end of the book that the game involving battle ship strategies, was an actual battle that they were leading. So, when they had thought they lost a game, they actually lost a battle and lives.

Ender goes in for his final game test, before any of this is revealed, and decided that the only way to win is to break the rules, sacrificing the ships he has position closer to the planet, believing that this would kill the enemy, as well as gain him expulsion from the school based on his cruelty. Now Ender would have never made that decision if he had known that he was controlling the lives of earth soldiers, nor would he have done so knowing that he would also be wiping out an entire species. He just did it because he was tired of all these simulators that his admiral was forcing him to do.

Stubbs made a point that it was scary that our young are now being recruited for similar tasks (obviously not because of an evil alien army, but still). So my question is, would this be our future?

My thoughts:

No. No, this wouldn’t happen, and not just because I don’t believe in aliens. (“Gasp! Wha.. No she didn’t…” Yes I did, move on). The idea that a government would recruit children so young to fight their battle for them is a little silly, and cruel. The trauma that they would inflict on these children when making them kill would be enough to shut down the program immediately, or better yet, receive a rejection of approval from the department. I also don’t think children are their target, seeing as you have to be 18 to enlist, I am sure this would be the same for such a program.

Now, deceiving the players into thinking it was a game could have strong consequences. If they recruited a bunch of gamers to play a “simulator”, I can see a few things going down. Mainly, I can see the information leaking that the gamers are actually controlling the army and being lied to about killing people. This could cause a revolution or civil war, especially if people found out that the government was lying to them. Or it may cause riots, but a lot of them. We in America tend not to extend grace when deceived about something in the government.

The second scenario that is going through my head right now is that they would bring in a bunch of gamers, again, telling them this was a simulator, and the gamers would mess up on purpose to see how it ends. Obviously, if this were anything like Ender’s Game, they could kill everyone in that army, causing the generals and commander to freak out at them, while they have no idea what is going on. (Does that all make sense?)

Well, I’d love to know your ideas about this topic. Could there be a future like Ender’s Game, or is that to0 fanciful? And how would you do if you were asked to fly a drone for the army because of your gaming skills?

 

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5 Responses to Ender’s Game: Our Future?

  1. Frank Liang says:

    In my opinion, I don’t think kids will be taking part in battles and such like in Ender’s Game. I think it’s just much too risky for everyone and doesn’t really make sense to use strategies that a kid uses over a general who has experience. However, I do think it’s possible for military to train the kids when they’re young.

    I saw a documentary a long time ago, where they were talking about air force training and they had a simulation part where someone would go into the simulation, and be in a dogfight. They mentioned that they let kids try it out, and some of their scores would be above average, and this is usually due to them having an easy time adapting to different controls as well as being able to hone in on their coordination. If they train from when they’re around 12 to 18 that’s already six years of experience under their belt. The problem with this is that it’s just a simulation, and real world factors don’t come into effect as much, such as the toll on the body. The solution to this could come in the form of drones, where a kid is able to pilot the plane from a computer that’s located in a safe place. Other than this scenario, I don’t really think they will allow kids to partake in real fights.

  2. asl5257 says:

    After hearing your summary of Ender’s Game, I really want to read the books now. I also thought you brought up a lot of good points. Looking at our present day drones and clunky VR environments, it’s hard to imagine any sort of future like Ender’s Game. An army of gamers is an entertaining thought, though. It seems like something right out of the X-Files, but I was surprised to see that the book was written in 1985! I guess the author can get away with not fully considering the trolls that plague today’s games.

    Space battles aside, I don’t see using gamers as operators completely out of question. I mean, drone racing is a thing: https://thedroneracingleague.com/
    Using a controller, not unlike a game controller, competitors need split second reactions to pilot real world drones, using a screen as an interface. There may come a time in the future where those skills are needed. Who knows?

  3. sif5226 says:

    I agree with you that it is unlikely that this will ever happen outside of fiction, but for slightly different reasons. For starters, I do believe in aliens (yeah I don’t see it possible that we are the only living planet). While you pointed out the moral reasons as to why this is not going to happen, I believe there are also many practical reasons. I believe that using children would be impractical versus using an averaged age person. While the child may have some advantages, I still think that someone who has more experience will likely be a better option.

  4. Joseph O'neill says:

    Ender’s Game is one of my favorite stories, yet I agree that I can’t see the government giving young kids the power to destroy armies. However, I do think there are some ways the book could potentially connect to a more realistic future. For one thing, I think it is definitely possible that as our weapons get more and more sophisticated and a larger number of creative minds becomes more powerful than a huge army of foot soldiers, there is an increased chance that the government will try to find the most intelligent, talented people and recruit them early. That being said, I don’t know how many parents would actually want their kids to be involved in the military or military schools at a young age, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be demand for talented youth that can grow into successful members of future militaries.

    I definitely don’t think kids will be a part of the military like in Ender’s Game, but like I said I think there is more potential for them to be recruited and groomed for military success than in the past. This is just primarily because the advances in technology and the way wars are being fought nowadays mean that there is more of a need than ever for creative, intelligent minds in the armed forces sorta like in the book.

  5. dfz5022 says:

    Hi Morgan,

    I am compelled to agree that it isn’t the most obvious idea to have this going on in real life, children being recruited to kill, this is not plausible in today’s society and seems barbaric. I would imagine, however, that if the government in question wasn’t our government but a more oppressive regime in the style of 1984 they could conceivably make a move like this. Especially when you consider the child armies like the estimated 17,000 children in the Sudanese army who are taken from a young age and know nothing but war.

    In addition, this is were the case then gamers would be the best victims for this kind of operation. As mentioned in class their reflexes would be sought after and they could potentially be the best trained for using certain systems. As far as your argument that they would “lose the game” in order to see what happens, I would imagine the government could get around this by putting it under the guise of something similar to our modern major gaming competitions. If you can trick kids into thinking this is the last match in a highly competitive competition and make their training materials similar to the point where they cannot tell the difference, then I think you have a recipe for perfect brainwashed soldiers.

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