Loading World: (Re)Creating Life, Nature and Cosmos in Evolutionary Computer Games

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Loading World: (Re)Creating Life, Nature and Cosmos in Evolutionary Computer Games Loading World: (re)Creating Life, Nature and Cosmos in Evolutionary Computer Games William Gavin Mackie Goldsmith's College, University of London PhD Media and Comm unications William Gavin Mackie Loading World 1 I, William Gavin Mackie, declare that this thesis and the work presented in it are my own and have been generated by me as the result of my own original research. Signed: Dated: William Gavin Mackie Loading World 2 Abstract As a generalised field of study, artificial life has produced specific meanings and narratives about what it means to be alive: structured around the concepts of code, information, evolution, connectionism, emergence and cybernetics that connect silicon and carbon life together. Evolutionary computer games and popular programs have introduced the general player and user to advanced artificial life creations, with games based on the nurturing and breeding of silicon creatures placed within new digital natures conceived as computational regimes. Considered is the question of how it has become possible to talk of silicon entities as being alive, and to explore their relationship with carbon life as presented within evolutionary computer games. Similarities between digital and material proposed within computational regimes are also investigated. Playing computer games is developed as a productive practice that constructs meanings, stories and narratives within play. Tracing spiritual and scientific myths and narratives of construction, creation and change, reveals how common stories about life, nature and cosmos are employed in the building of bonds between silicon and carbon. Evolutionary computer games are presented as actively promoting themselves as artificial life products creating links with the life and biological sciences. Meaning produced within play is shown to naturalise and normalise specific definitions of life steeped in neo·Darwinian evolutionism and cybernetics, and how our digital creations have become perfected examples of the essence of this life. Whether this conceptualisation of life, nature and cosmos works within computational regimes is questioned and discussed. Reflecting similar arguments contesting the neo·Darwinian evolutionary perspective within biology, the assumptions employed within this framework are investigated and challenged. Utilising Bruno Latour's program of political ecology and his concepts of proposition and habit. An alternative framework is suggested to examine artificial life, utilising Bruno Latour's program of political ecology, his concepts of proposition and habit, and our relation with these entities. William Gavin Mackie Loading World 3 William Gavin Mackie Loading World 4 Table of Contents Abstract 3 Chapter 1 7 Playing with Life, Nature and Cosmos: An Introduction Chapter 2 32 Computer Games, Technoculture and Technoscience Chapter 3 54 Finding Space in Gamespace Chapter 4 79 Games and a Game's Culture Chapter 5 109 Artificial Life: The Technoscience of Life Itself Chapter 6 138 (re)Creating Nature, Worlds and Life: Considering Myth and Spirituality Chapter 7 162 A Genealogy: The Evolution of Evolutionary Computer Games Chapter 8 193 Creatures: Playing with Life, Nature and Cosmos Chapter 9 224 'Does it Work': A Conclusion References 248 William Gavin Mackie Loading World 5 William Gavin Mackie Loading World 6 Chapter 1 Playing with Life, Nature and Cosmos: An Introduction William Gavin Mackie Loading World 7 'Loading World' ... ... the window announces as Creatures begins for the first time on my PC. Immediately I am presented with this new 'world' - the planet/place of Albia - a digital artificial life ecosystem ready to host new silicon life forms called Noms, the creatures it is my new duty to raise and breed. The Robinson Crusoe landscape of Albia - ready-made thatched dwellings and caves, tropical beaches, blue ocean and thriving 'natural' ecosystem of plants and insects - is matched by the high-tech devices scattered around the planet­ learning computers, transporters, incubators and such. Albia seems to be the perfect harmony of nature-technology deserving of the task at hand- to "actually create life on your PC" as the game box proclaims, the genesis of life within the technology of the computer and through the technoscience of artificial life. As a bit of a sceptic, I proceed with a slight touch of cynicism towards the birth of my first Nom. From the six Nom eggs available from the hatchery, three male and three female, I pick a male and place it in the incubator and wait. The incubator whirls and whizzes away, the egg comes to life (so to say), and within a minute or two, the incubator's door swings open and my first Nom pops out in its amazing Oisney-esque splendour and almost overbearing cuteness. The first task at hand is to give my new charge a name - still the cynic, he receives the simple designation 'It' as I complete his birth certificate (upon reflection 'Adam' may have been more suitable for the mythical journey at hand). Now, based in the artificial life technology that It is, he must learn everything from the bottom-up in a process of emergence. Luckily, I have been given some tools to help him along his way. In Albia I am extended by a floating hand that I control with my computer mouse. Attracted to movement, It finds my hand of great interest and follows me around. This is useful"':" as I type the names of objects into the keyboard that I am pointing to whilst It watches me, he attempts to repeat the words. He progresses from simple burblings to the production of whole words. My own cynicism begins to break down as It says 'Gavin' for the first time - along with new 'life' a new parent has been born - myself. After a process of learning aided by the 'learning William Gavin Mackie Loading World 8 computers' which display basic directions and commands, and are acted out by a humanoid stick figure with their matching word, It and I seem to be able to communicate on at least a rudimentary level, although deterred by It's seeming lack of concentration and want to explore on his own. My responsibility to It is to protect him from the dangers of Albia - poisonous plants; the depths of water where he cannot swim; the nasty disease ridden Grendels who enjoy nothing more than slapping a Nom around and spreading sick- while allowing him to explore and enjoy a fruitful Albian life. Far from a game of parental pet keeping, one of the goals of Creatures is to breed (and engineer) new Noms, improving the Nom line. For this, It needs a female friend, so I am back to the hatchery to start the process over again with Eve (by this point, the mythic connotations of what I am playing through were not lost). Not before long, It and Eve are enjoying life together, growing through adolescence and into adulthood. With physical maturity (Noms develop throughout their whole life- both in their digital metabolism and their on·screen appearance), also comes sexual maturity, and soon I am hearing the 'blop' of Nom sex and Eve is soon pregnant. Noms lay eggs, and after gestation Eve is depositing hers and carrying on with her life. Soon the first 'natural' birth on my Albia occurs, and some time after that, through a combination of natural births and the occasional trip back to the hatchery, there is a lively population of Noms living Nom life on my screen. With a number of Noms present, however, my job becomes more difficult - not only because of the increased numbers to track and maintain, but also because the Noms lose interest in my hand figure, preferring each others' company to mine. Noms come across as wilful and independent little creatures; my challenge soon becomes adapting myself to Nom life rather than them adopting mine. With Nom life comes Nom death. If developing 'relationships' with the Noms in the game and watching Nom liveliness only softened my cynicism to the game, then attempting to prevent and then witnessing my first Nom death squashed it. Noms, in all their big-eyed overly innocent charm, are touching. And so life on Albia goes on, Noms living and multiplying under my (somewhat) careful eye - they enjoy the pleasures and dangers that Albia presents, and I tinker with Health Kits and Science Kits and keep them healthy and happy. This is certainly one level to which Creatures can be played - taking part in the day-to-day life on Albia in an overseeing role. Through investigation, I find that Creatures can be played in many other ways that take the game to new levels. Noms can be selectively bred for desired traits. If this is unsuccessful (or time consuming) players can genetically engineer new Noms with a variety of never before seen traits (memoms with fish tails that live and William Gavin Mackie Loading World 9 breathe in the ocean or Noms of unusual colourings or costumes - including Star Trek Noms in Federation uniforms). Any Nom can be traded over the Intemet and Creatures boasts a multitude of sites aboutthe game, offering Noms for 'adoption', a practice I am soon enjoying. These expanded ways of playing the game are supported through the official Creatures website, where players can leam more about the game, link their personal Creatures sites, and find out more about Nom genetics and life, including artificial life and the links between silicon and carbon- based biologies that artificial life proposes. These ties are evident in the manner(s) in which Creatures is played. Before the computer algorithms that make up Noms' 'genetic code' were released by the game developers, players initiated the "Nom Genome Project" (analogous to the human version from which it finds its namesake) to hack and discover what this code was. Players selectively breed and genetically engineer Noms, including transgenic engineering with Grendels and other Albian creatures, to introduce traits into the Nom line that are not 'naturally' present.
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