Cosmicism in Video Games: Mankind's Place in the Universe.
And the question of ethics and purpose that they bring up.
posted over 12 years ago
Here's an interesting article (quite long) that discusses the video game trilogy Mass Effect, and explores the ethical questions that the video game brings up throughout its storyline.
Background: Mass Effect, like Star Trek, is thoroughgoingly atheistic in its metaphysical assumptions about the universe. The logic of this starting position inevitably turns to one of two realizations:
a) that there is no meaning to be found in the universe; mankind has no purpose
b) there is meaning to be found--but it's a cruel reality in which mankind can never attain it, because this meaning is so beyond our comprehension that we'll never realize the fulfillment of it.
The article references a number of novels and science fiction writers as the cultural fathers of this philosophy of "cosmicism." I find it very interesting to learn about, because, undoubtedly, if there was no Biblical God in charge of the universe, this would be the final resting place of metaphysical philosophy.
The Halo Trilogy has a similar theme, but the Mass Effect one is much more conspiratorial and terrifying, because your enemy is not a force of destruction first and an intelligence second, but first and foremost a super-intelligent construct that coldly calculated that this destruction is the right thing to do.
Somehow, finding yourself on the underside of THAT boot is a more nightmarish reality.
Please, read the article and let's discuss the ethics of Cosmicism and what the ultimate place of mankind would be in a universe in which he is not alone in the sense that there are other races, but in which he is alone in the sense that there is no God.
Background: Mass Effect, like Star Trek, is thoroughgoingly atheistic in its metaphysical assumptions about the universe. The logic of this starting position inevitably turns to one of two realizations:
a) that there is no meaning to be found in the universe; mankind has no purpose
b) there is meaning to be found--but it's a cruel reality in which mankind can never attain it, because this meaning is so beyond our comprehension that we'll never realize the fulfillment of it.
The article references a number of novels and science fiction writers as the cultural fathers of this philosophy of "cosmicism." I find it very interesting to learn about, because, undoubtedly, if there was no Biblical God in charge of the universe, this would be the final resting place of metaphysical philosophy.
The Halo Trilogy has a similar theme, but the Mass Effect one is much more conspiratorial and terrifying, because your enemy is not a force of destruction first and an intelligence second, but first and foremost a super-intelligent construct that coldly calculated that this destruction is the right thing to do.
Somehow, finding yourself on the underside of THAT boot is a more nightmarish reality.
Please, read the article and let's discuss the ethics of Cosmicism and what the ultimate place of mankind would be in a universe in which he is not alone in the sense that there are other races, but in which he is alone in the sense that there is no God.
