Dolls Check In But They Don't Check Out, Mostly

I am addicted to podcasts. I like to think of them as pre-recorded radio shows I can listen to when I feel like it. It should come as no surprise then that I listen to videogame, tech and sci-fi podcasts. One of the sci-fi podcasts I really enjoy, with a simple premise, is “Tuning In To SciFi TV”. The name sums it up.

The three hosts, Wendy, Brent and Kevin, discuss the week’s Sci-Fi offerings on TV. I don’t get many chances at work to geek out about the latest episode of anything very often, but listening to them I get to hear what conversations I could have had. To support the community they also have contests and such. Up until last Friday they offered up a free copy of “Inside Joss’ Dollhouse: From Alpha To Rossum.” On a whim I entered and wrote a brief essay about which part of the Dollhouse world I found most interesting. I managed to win with the following…

“… the social implication of storing personalities on a hard drive. The Dollhouse created some restrictive rules of how this was to be applied, but every once in a while they lifted that restriction and the true brilliance of the show came forward. In the first season they showed us a form of immortality at the expense of others. The two Epitaph episodes showed what happens when all the rules drop. It's worth playing with the idea in your mind; if anyone can store their personality/soul in a hard drive for later use, then how does this change the equation of humanity. Each episode poked at that just a little, but a few times they ran with it, and it was brilliant.

Since this is a distinct possibility in the future, why not start thinking of it now. It's a different way of "becoming" someone else, not quite like The Game or Avatar, where you get to be "you" in that person for just a bit. In Dollhouse's case it’s more of an afterlife. Star Trek: The Next Generation inadvertently tapped into this idea with the Holodeck, when Geordi wanted Dr. Leah Brahms to help him fix a problem. Unfortunately, Star Trek couldn't go as far as Dollhouse with the idea, but Caprica can. It's actually the same idea as the Holodeck. Using recordings, and some fancy future algorithms of people with psych profiles and shopping histories, it’s all bundled into a single pattern that equals a person on enough levels that matter. That is the part of Dollhouse I like the most; when you transfer someone to a hard drive are they even human anymore, or can they be something even better, like Echo (uh, and not a Cylon).”

My musings meander a bit, and at some point I need to post something about the Enterprise-D’s ability to create life. In essence, though, Dollhouse can be a strangely uncomfortable show to watch because it’s tackling a tough issue that has barely moved out of Science Fiction yet. Dollhouse displays it prominently with a sexy attitude, which it slowly strips away to show the ugliness of uncontrolled super-science.

I currently have two gaming obsessions, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and Halo: Reach. The latter has finally bit me hard and I need to play it every day. The campaign is interesting enough but I have fallen for the allure of Daily/Weekly Challenges. Bungie creates new incentive to keep play Halo with four new things to do every day (and one new thing every week) to earn Credits (or XP as I like to think of it). All variations on a theme, but I need little convincing to keep coming back. I almost want Credits more than achievements, which is the usually driving factor for me to play many different games, and not playing one title into Oblivion. Gears of War II had me at Horde Mode. If more games start doing this I may have to figure out how to go about my day with less sleep.

Guitar Hero is a good enough game. All I want are songs to play for achievements and that’s what I got. I keep up my plastic guitar skill set and remember what good music used to sound like. I think I need a new drum kit, my Rock Band 1 drums are looking archaic. The game loads songs much faster but the narrative sometimes slows the action. There is a great moment I played through this weekend where you have to play the seven-piece Rush “Song Experience” of 2112. An epic song narrated by Rush themselves. Crazy.

However, before I back-up the Terabytes of information in my head, the price of Solid-State Drives needs to come down a bit. I’m not trusting my brain to a series of spinning platter. Oh, and Zombie mode is stupid in a Halo game.