#61 War Game- Philip K. Dick
It’s holiday shopping time and the new toys from an advanced
extra-terrestrial world have to be tested. The Ganymedean products contain
potentially dangerous technology and cannot be released until we know they are
safe for children.
There is a suit that tricks the brain into seeing made-up
realities, there is an alien version of Monopoly (monopoly is always just
monopoly they posit), and there is a war game.
The war game has highly adaptable soldiers trying to take a Citadel. As the structure defends itself, The toy
soldiers fight back, but ultimately loses:
“It has to, psychologically speaking, it symbolizes the external
reality. The dozen soldiers, of course, represent to the child his own efforts
to cope. By participating in the storming of the citadel, the child undergoes a
sense of adequacy in dealing with the harsh world. Eventually he prevails, but
only after a painstaking period of effort and patience…at least that’s what the
instruction book says.”
The test team is worried that the soldiers might: “…make a
ninety degree turn and start firing at the nearest human being.”
Their concerns increase as it appears that the game could be
programed to slowly make a bomb, or some kind of Ganymedean Trojan Horse. In the end the true danger may be just under
our nose and could be in the most tame and ubiquitous item.
No comments:
Post a Comment