Channels, Fall 2016

Channels • 2016 • Volume 1 • Number 1 Page 51 In choosing to play and engage in dialogue, people are able to combat the expected orders of technique. Play creates unpredictable information that can never be replicated by a computer. The formation of story and game are essential elements to challenging the monolithic power of the technocratic society. Consider how the development of collaborative play in children changes how they interface with each other and their environment. True imaginative play helps children develop empathy and decision-making skills. However, even child's play has been invaded by technology and interfaced entertainment. For Flusser, the exercise of dialogue in the telematic society is freedom because it allows people to exercise choice (p. 94). This freedom of play leads to creation that is not determined by what efficiency says is best. One way of encouraging this form of dialogue is through computer literacy. Technology is not going away, and technology itself is not actually the problem. The problem is that a few designers and engineers alone essentially control others’ possible choices and human potential. If everyone knew how to code, create, and design, humans could potentially take back the power of decision-making by creating their own programs. Open source projects already exist for precisely this reason. If children grew up learning how to build programs, they wouldn't have to answer to a corporation who designs their software; they would be able to build their own software. Collaborative efforts in software could reinstate both play and broader forms of dialogue to undermine technique through human choice. Flusser suggested this solution when he described the future factory. He argued that the authentic way of living with technology is to turn the factory into a school. When everything becomes automated, the human functions as a creator of programs (Flusser, 1999, p. 49). The factory of the future must be a place of dialogue and play, or else humans will simply become tools at the service of technicians — or worse, their technological creations. Video Games as Dialogue Communication media tends to move from gimmicky to intellectual given enough time. Silent movies were far from the masterpieces of cinema like Citizen Kane, The Passion, or Its a Wonderful Life . The silent movie could not hope to comment on the conditions of modernity in the way the In Bruges did. In a similar fashion, video games have long been seen as an empty entertainment medium. But Bioshock: Infinite was written by a highly awarded novelist. The game was a commentary on the frontier myth and American exceptionalism. Spec Ops: The Line condemned the representation of war and violence in video games through the mechanics in the game and the story in the game play. Video games have come a long way since the 1980's and are an important medium for reaching younger audiences. The act of playing a game invests the player into a story in a compelling way. It offers the player control over their own destiny in a story. Video games are also capable of telling stories with multiple endings based on the players’ decisions. The player has a stake in the outcome of their decisions, and they are therefore open to the message the game is communicating. This power of the game makes it a double edged sword. Games like Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty have desensitized many players to violence and death. But much like books or movies, it makes little sense to condemn a