4 ms·

At risk of sounding obtuse, what is being satirized here? Or he’s just proposing an absurd scenario?

by tschwimmer 4y ago

netr0ute 4y ago
I don't know, but it sounds a lot like A Modest Proposal.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- godelski 4y ago
  A modest proposal was about the English's treatment of the Irish and how their conversations come off as barbaric while mascaraing as intellectualism. So he presents a solution to the Irish problem. This in tern is making fun of weebs that want SAO but forgot the premise of the show.
- davorak 4y ago
  A Modest Proposal was written to sway the readers to a line of thinking about a topic that was prevalent at the time. What prevalent issue and what line of thinking is Palmer's article about? Right now it seems more likely to me that Palmer had an idea, built it, shared it along with their interest in anime or SSO in particular, and is not making a moral argument about the state of the world and what we should do about it.
  - GauntletWizard 4y ago
    I imagine that if you travelled in Palmer Luckey's circles, you'd understand that the line of thinking is "The Metaverse is going to be so awesome!" It's really not, the reason that Metaverses have failed for 30 years straight is that there's not actually a lot of value in a place where "everyone can be whomever they want to be" because that's only skin deep and an awful lot of people fail to distinguish between how they present themselves and who they really are. To give an obvious example: the SCA, the society for creative anachronism, has a system of peerage; there are lords and ladies, dukes and dutchesses. That's all well and good, but a sizable minority confuses their play-world politics with their real world standing, and act like royalty while working as janitors.
    - davorak 4y ago
      > you'd understand that the line of thinking is "The Metaverse is going to be so awesome!" > It's really not That is an understandable message. My comment is only about how the analogy to A Modest Proposal is not apt. Not with my understanding of the article or any of explanations I am seeing so far in these comments.
superchroma 4y ago
He is, he's painting himself as a monster for a laugh.
godelski 4y ago
> what is being satirized here? All the people that ask him if he's building SAO. The joke here is he's taking them extremely literally, interpreting them as wanting the thing in the show accurately. Willful misinterpretation. But people are really asking for all the good parts and none of the bad parts. So he's actively making fun of them while reminding them the plot thesis of the show and how horrific it is. Look at all the people here who took the author's (pretty obvious) satire extremely literally too.
- davorak 4y ago
  > So he's actively making fun of them He is making fun of people who want the "good parts"? Super realistic, immersive VR? Or a brain to computer interface? The "bad parts" are not a consequence of the "good parts" in reality or the show to my understanding. So what is there to make fun of?
  - godelski 4y ago
    > So what is there to make fun of? The joke is about SAO, not VR
- kelnos 4y ago
  So he's making fun of people who are concerned about his ethics? When he's founded a company that makes military weaponry? Sorry, not funny.
- imtringued 4y ago
  From my perspective the VR game in SAO is a VR game like any other. There are no bad parts. The possibility of dying is not central to the original game experience. What people might want is accurate VR physics, good AI (speech recognition and synthesis), flawless full body tracking and a community of players all starting from zero at the same time. Those who want permadeath don't need real-life death, you could just delete their character like so many other games do.
mediumdeviation 4y ago
It’s the same format as ‘100 years ago people thought we would have flying cars by now’. 13 years ago a Japanese author thought that by 2022 we would have ‘full dive’ VR technology indistinguishable from reality (that also had a fatal design flaw of being able to kill its wearer). Today we’ve only managed to reproduce the fatal design flaw, not the amazing VR experience.
- dragontamer 4y ago
  I dunno about that. Japanese Sci-Fi / Anime tradition has weird things with regards to near-future dates. Such as the end of the world in 2000 (1st impact) then 2012 (Evangelion). Or British Mechas take over Japan to call it Area 11 (Code Geass), Or Sword Art Online happening in 2022. There's also that weird Eden of the East anime that took place in 2010 (when the anime was released in 2009), that predicted that cell phones can do everything in the next year. Sometimes, its more fun to imagine near-future Sci-Fi. I'd honestly put something like "Stargate SG-1" (from the 90s) akin to this style of SciFi. I don't think anyone was saying we'd have faster-than-light travel figured out from ancient alien artifacts in the 90s (despite the show taking place in the 90s).
  - buu700 4y ago
    British Mechas take over Japan to call it Area 11 (Code Geass) My understanding is that the main plot actually takes place in the 1960s, not the near future. The timeline is a little confusing because of the alt history/calendar aspect of the Geass universe.

At risk of sounding obtuse, what is being satirized here? Or he’s just proposing an absurd scenario?

netr0ute 4y ago

I don't know, but it sounds a lot like A Modest Proposal.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
godelski 4y ago
A modest proposal was about the English's treatment of the Irish and how their conversations come off as barbaric while mascaraing as intellectualism. So he presents a solution to the Irish problem. This in tern is making fun of weebs that want SAO but forgot the premise of the show.
davorak 4y ago
A Modest Proposal was written to sway the readers to a line of thinking about a topic that was prevalent at the time. What prevalent issue and what line of thinking is Palmer's article about? Right now it seems more likely to me that Palmer had an idea, built it, shared it along with their interest in anime or SSO in particular, and is not making a moral argument about the state of the world and what we should do about it.
- GauntletWizard 4y ago
  I imagine that if you travelled in Palmer Luckey's circles, you'd understand that the line of thinking is "The Metaverse is going to be so awesome!" It's really not, the reason that Metaverses have failed for 30 years straight is that there's not actually a lot of value in a place where "everyone can be whomever they want to be" because that's only skin deep and an awful lot of people fail to distinguish between how they present themselves and who they really are. To give an obvious example: the SCA, the society for creative anachronism, has a system of peerage; there are lords and ladies, dukes and dutchesses. That's all well and good, but a sizable minority confuses their play-world politics with their real world standing, and act like royalty while working as janitors.
  - davorak 4y ago
    > you'd understand that the line of thinking is "The Metaverse is going to be so awesome!" > It's really not That is an understandable message. My comment is only about how the analogy to A Modest Proposal is not apt. Not with my understanding of the article or any of explanations I am seeing so far in these comments.

superchroma 4y ago

He is, he's painting himself as a monster for a laugh.

godelski 4y ago

> what is being satirized here? All the people that ask him if he's building SAO. The joke here is he's taking them extremely literally, interpreting them as wanting the thing in the show accurately. Willful misinterpretation. But people are really asking for all the good parts and none of the bad parts. So he's actively making fun of them while reminding them the plot thesis of the show and how horrific it is. Look at all the people here who took the author's (pretty obvious) satire extremely literally too.

davorak 4y ago
> So he's actively making fun of them He is making fun of people who want the "good parts"? Super realistic, immersive VR? Or a brain to computer interface? The "bad parts" are not a consequence of the "good parts" in reality or the show to my understanding. So what is there to make fun of?
- godelski 4y ago
  > So what is there to make fun of? The joke is about SAO, not VR
kelnos 4y ago
So he's making fun of people who are concerned about his ethics? When he's founded a company that makes military weaponry? Sorry, not funny.
imtringued 4y ago
From my perspective the VR game in SAO is a VR game like any other. There are no bad parts. The possibility of dying is not central to the original game experience. What people might want is accurate VR physics, good AI (speech recognition and synthesis), flawless full body tracking and a community of players all starting from zero at the same time. Those who want permadeath don't need real-life death, you could just delete their character like so many other games do.

mediumdeviation 4y ago

It’s the same format as ‘100 years ago people thought we would have flying cars by now’. 13 years ago a Japanese author thought that by 2022 we would have ‘full dive’ VR technology indistinguishable from reality (that also had a fatal design flaw of being able to kill its wearer). Today we’ve only managed to reproduce the fatal design flaw, not the amazing VR experience.

dragontamer 4y ago
I dunno about that. Japanese Sci-Fi / Anime tradition has weird things with regards to near-future dates. Such as the end of the world in 2000 (1st impact) then 2012 (Evangelion). Or British Mechas take over Japan to call it Area 11 (Code Geass), Or Sword Art Online happening in 2022. There's also that weird Eden of the East anime that took place in 2010 (when the anime was released in 2009), that predicted that cell phones can do everything in the next year. Sometimes, its more fun to imagine near-future Sci-Fi. I'd honestly put something like "Stargate SG-1" (from the 90s) akin to this style of SciFi. I don't think anyone was saying we'd have faster-than-light travel figured out from ancient alien artifacts in the 90s (despite the show taking place in the 90s).
- buu700 4y ago
  British Mechas take over Japan to call it Area 11 (Code Geass) My understanding is that the main plot actually takes place in the 1960s, not the near future. The timeline is a little confusing because of the alt history/calendar aspect of the Geass universe.