Trendsetters try and guess what will be en vogue in our lives - a colour palette, a silhouette, or even a type of food or drink. Analysts examining data, specialize instead in forecasting trends and outcomes based on historical data and predictive modeling techniques, using statistical models and algorithms to estimate future scenarios and make informed predictions.
Yet most of us are no Tiresias, but more like Madame Sosostris, clairvoyants more akin to charlatans than to experts of ritual divination. Yet, recently, we have witnessed a rather bizarre situation in which a real event was almost anticipated by a video game.
At the time of writing this post, search operations are continuing for the Titan sub. The 6.7-metre research and survey submersible that can carry a crew of five (a pilot and four other people), operated by OceanGate, that lost communications in the north Atlantic on Sunday while on a dive to the wreck of the Titanic.
The main purpose of the submarine, that employs Elon Musk's Starlink satellite technology to communicate, is designed to explore the wreckage of the Titanic, which lies about 3,800 metres down on the ocean floor and is surrounded by debris from the disaster occurred more than a century ago.
According to reports, the submarine, that has a 96-hour bottled oxygen supply that has by now come to an end, carries tourists that paid $250,000 per person for the experience. Among the passengers there are OceanGate's CEO Stockton Rush and Hamish Harding, a British billionaire and adventure enthusiast.
In a video by CBS Sunday Morning uloaded on YouTube six months ago that went viral yesterday, a journalist claimed that many parts of the vehicle looked "improvised". The video shows indeed that the sub is fitted with a light "from CamperWorld" and it is operated with a $30 Logitech F710 wireless PC game controller from 2010. Reading a disclaimer by the company warning that the vehicle has not been approved by any regulatory body, the journalist highlights that the expedition could result in "physical inury, disability, emotional trauma or death".
Experts are still trying to guess what happened (contact was lost 1 hour 45 minutes into the Titan's trip, suggesting the crew may have been close to, or at the bottom) and, while the U.S. Coast Guard launched a complex operation to rescue it, details about former OceanGate employees raising concerns about the safety of the submarine started emerging.
David Lochridge, the company's former director of marine operations, claimed in a court filing he was wrongfully terminated in 2018 for raising concerns about the safety and testing of the Titan. Another issue that caused concerns is the fact that the entire sub is bolted shut from the outside, so even if the vessel surfaces, the occupants cannot escape without outside assistance and could suffocate within the capsule.
This story sparked the interest of the gaming community as, in some ways, the title "Iron Lung" (2022) predicted it. Developed by David Szymanski, this short horror game allows users to pilot a tiny submarine through an ocean of blood on an alien moon.
Apart from the post-apocalyptic setting and the ocean of blood, there is another difference between the submarine in the "Iron Lung" and the Titan sub: in the former there is enough space to stand up; in the latter you have to sit cross-legged (let's not comment about the risk of blood clots and thrombosis as this would be adding insult to injury…).
Szymanski became concerned about the dark coincidence when "Iron Lung" started trending on Twitter because of the Titan sub.
On Twitter he stated: "I definitely see the dark humor in this whole Titanic sub thing, it's just... like, I made Iron Lung the most nightmarish thing I could think of, and knowing real people are in that situation right now is pretty horrific, even if it was their own bad decisions." The videogame developed added in another message, "Like all the jokes I've been seeing are hilarious but also good lord nobody should have to die like that."
The game developer also posted a screen showing that the sales of the game had even gone up after the submarine went lost; "this feels so wrong," he commented.
In the meantime, people started posting their thoughts about the coincidence, commenting about human stupidity, but also highlighting the difference - spending $6 for a horror video game or $250,000 for a deadly experience in real life.
So, did the creator of "Iron Lung" possess the ability to predict the future? Well, it was certainly an eerie coincidence. In the end, the game concept draws inspiration from popular adventures where the objective is to escape from various forms of danger, such as confined spaces, apocalyptic scenarios, or major catastrophes.
Yet, in the history of gaming there is another title that famously "predicted" the future: unlicensed shoot 'em up game "Hong Kong 97". Released in Japan in 1995 and designed by the Japanese game journalist Kowloon Kurosawa, who claimed it was a satire of the video game industry, the videogame opened with a short cutscene which places the story around the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997. Considered as one of the worst video games ever made (it garnered a cult following right for this reason in Japan, Thailand and Taiwan…), it anticipated the British government handing over Hong Kong in 1997.
You may argue that this event was already timed as, in 1984, leaders from Britain and China officially ratified an agreement endorsing the transfer of the colony in 1997 (as already established by the 1898 Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory granting the lease of the island for 99 years until 1997). But, most disturbingly the video game predicted the death of Deng Xiaoping, leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC), in the same year.
There are more recent games that seem to have predicted the future, including games about pandemics or viruses causing major emergencies ("Plague Inc", 2012, inspired by the 2011 film "Contagion" and the 2008 Adobe Flash game "Pandemic 2") and threatening the existence of humans.
So, while it may be a stretch to claim that video games can definitively forecast the future, they undeniably hold the potential to provide valuable insights and spark our imagination. After all, video game creators have a finger on the pulse of culture, just like fashion designers, and often mirror what goes on in our society, reflecting its values, fears, and aspirations.
Our lives are influenced by conjectures, ideas and concepts also borrowed from films: the "canon event" theory taken from "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" (consisting in reframing unfortunate experiences as essential to one's personal story that must occur and cannot be prevented), gained popularity on social media platforms like TikTok, where it was transformed into a satirical but philosophical message of acceptance and personal growth (some commentators used the "canon event" theory to explain the disappearance of the Titan...). Similarly, the ideas, plots, and trends found in video games can be applicable to our lives.
Video games that primarily focus on escaping from monsters serve as reflections and adaptations of our subconscious fears and anxieties; games in which we strategize wars and reshape world boundaries, engaging with complex geopolitical scenarios and simulating military tactics, allow players to gain insights into the dynamics of power, resource allocation, and the intricacies of global politics, while taking into consideration the effects of real-world conflicts. Additionally, complex simulations and city-building games mirror various aspects of reality, such as economic systems, social dynamics, and environmental factors, offering inspiration for building a better society.
In conclusion, the potential of video games extends beyond entertainment and escapism, so we should maybe consider creating a video game where players earn points for displaying humanity and performing random acts of charity (abilities we are forgetting...), such as a game in which players could learn how to coordinate rescue operations for boats carrying migrants in the Mediterranean. In fact maybe such a game could urge us all to exhibit in real life the same attentiveness and compassion demonstrated in trying to rescue the Titan and its reckless crew of millionaires.
This post was written in collaboration with Gaming Consultant Roberto Battista
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