snaaake
THEMETALGEARSOLIDFRANCHISE
HASALWAYSBEENA LITTLE...
WEIRD.FROMCYBERNETICNINJAS
TOAUTOMATEDCAMOUFLAGE
TOIMMENSEWALKINGTANKS,
FRANCHISEDIRECTORHIDEOKOJIMA
HASNEVERSHIEDAWAYFROMTHE
BIZARRE.BUTTHEMOSTINTERESTING
BITOFKOJIMASSTRANGENESS IS THE
DYSTOPIANFUTUREHIS
SERIESDEPICTS.
Eachentryin theMetalGearSolid
franchise(well,exceptforMGS3)makes
a seriesofboldpredictionsofthestate
oftheworldin theearlyyearsofthe21st
century.Butaswedivetowards202,we
findourselveslivingin a worldsortof
similartotheonein Kojima’sgame.At
thispoint,we’vemetthatfuturein the
realworld.How does Kojima’s predictions
stackup?GENETICMANIPULATIONOFSOLDIERS
WILLBEADVANCEDENOUGHTOSEE
WIDESPREADUSE
The prediction:The generic guardsyouencounterin MetalGearSolidare
geneticallymodifiedtoencourage
alertnessandaggression.Asif thatisnt
enough,themaincharacterandhis
principalantagonistarebothclonesof
themythicalBigBoss.Clearly,Kojima
predicteda societythathada handleon
geneticengineeringandcloning.
Thereality:Givena bitofwiggleroom,
I sayKojimagotthisoneright.Genetic
engineeringandgenetherapyaremore
commonlyusedin medicinethanwar,but
thetechnologyis essentiallythesame.
Therehasntbeenanythingresembling
theextensivehumancloningdepictedin
MGS,butthemainobstaclesareethical,
nottechnological.Weprobablycould
engineerhumanclones– we simply
choosenottodoso.TERRORISTATTACKSCAUSE
WIDESPREADDESTRUCTIONINNEW
YORKCITY
Theprediction:MetalGearSolid2 is
perhapsthemostprescientofKojima’s
games – it’s chock full of predictionsthatalmostcametrue.Considerthis:
thecentrallocationin MGS2,a cleanup
facilitynearNewYork,wasbuiltin
reactiontoa massiveterroristattackon
thecity.Ohboy.
Thereality:Scarilyaccurate,actually.
It wouldbeeasytosaythatMGS2was
madein reactiontoSeptember11,2001,
butMGS2wasallbutfinishedbythen– it
wasreleasedonly 62 dayslater(game
developmenttakesmoretimethanthat).
Thenatureoftheattack– a crashing
vehicleruininglowerManhattan– wasso
similartotheactualtragedythatnearly
allimageryoftheevent was expunged
fromthegame.THEGOVERNMENTWILLSECRETLY
MONITORANDCENSORGLOBALWEB
TRAFFIC
Theprediction:Thecentralstorylinefor
MetalGearSolid2 involvesa powerful
artificialintelligencedesignedforthesole
purposeofmonitoringandsurveillance.
Specifically,thisAImonitorsandcensors
web traffic in an effort to control andHOW WELL DID METAL GEAR SOLID
PREDICT THE FUTURE OF WARFARE?
Gazing into the future...Addie Burke