Video games with living beings

Vangelis

I wonder about the ethics of this. Some researchers have developed video games (biotic games) that you can play with single cell organisms. Ethically I guess because these beings don't have a brain or spinal chord maybe they don't really have any consciousness. But I'm not sure. Can anyone think of ethical reasons that this would be unwholesome? I guess is does open the floodgates and more complex lifeforms could be used in this way (anyone seen the movie The Gamer?) and they may feel pain or suffering. Anyway, check out the video:

mugzy

I don't know how I feel about this. It's a little scary. :hiding:

Jeffrey

Are they virtual organisms? Like spore?

DaltheJigsaw

Hmmm...
Wow?

shanyin

I didn't get it I think. I guess their manipulating tiny organisms somehow?

Seems kinda... stupid.

Pointless is a better word.

Vangelis

Yes, they're manipulating real organisms. There's an article about it here: http://www.science20.com/kaleidoscopic/blog/biotic_games_using_microorganisms_stimulate_public_involvement_science_and_improve_biological_research-75369?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Jeffrey

The graphics weren't cool enough for me :P. No guns swords or the like too.

Vangelis

Jeffrey, have you seen Gamer? In that movie, people play video games (even fps) by controlling other people. Is biotic gaming the first stage???

MindGate

Thats actually... cool. Little bit twisted, but cool none-the-less.

Epicurus

Wtf!

buddhajunkie

Well, at least the organisms weren't being killed or made to fight each other.

A key question is whether they were being induced to move using pain. Another question is whether their life spans decrease by being subject to the game.


But even if there were no pain, suffering or death involved, some might object to the idea of manipulation of living beings purely for fun. This might cultivate an exploitive mindset among the human game players.

MindGate

They don't have nervous systems that respond to pain. I'm pretty sure of that.

Mintyfresh0

Energy is Everything.
Life is energy.
Energy already powers video games.
In a way we are already controlling life to play normal video games.

Sure its not biological, but really whats the difference? As long as intelligent, sentient beings are not being used as pawns for entertainment I don't see a problem.

...with that said, this seems to be nothing more than a novelty. I don't think bio-gaming has the ability to be as complex or fun as electronic gaming. Though the idea of world of warcraft characters being truly alive sounds pretty awesome lol.

Jeffrey

They respond to stimulus. Define pain. Obviously a unicellar organism doesn't have a mind imho, but its a mystery what they are.

B5C

I'll stick killing zeros and ones.

Sabre

Well, you also kill a lot of tiny organisms when you are cooking your food, cleaning your toilet etc etc. Yeast, used to make bread is also a micro organism which doesn't survive. The list probably goes on and on.

I don't care about the things but I see how one could care about what it can do to the mind when you are influencing lifeforms this directly just for a game. But these scientist can do their thing. I don't mind. Maybe an actual useful technology comes out of it.