Channels, Fall 2016

Alford • Choosing to Choose Page 56 outcomes of the game, chess players engage in a unique form of dialogue that is often entirely new to both players. The creators of The Stanley Parable may have scripted each ending, but the process of discovery is still entirely new to the player each time. Games like The Stanley Parable encourage human expression. In one sense, the player is telling the story they choose as they express their cooperation or non-cooperation with the narrator. Technology in this case is serving human expression, not stifling it. This returns technology to its rightful place: as instruments for human benefit. Moreover, the creation of a video game that challenges the precepts of technology deconstructs the role of the designer. The writers and creators of The Stanley Parable understood that players could not make choices completely and that they themselves could. But the writers designed the mechanics of the game around allowing their game play to serve as expression for the player. This same choice could be available to Western society more broadly. If the West wishes to return to a time of expression and choice, its citizens must begin the process of taking back the technology. Through computer literacy and creative storytelling, ordinary people can design their own interfaces and choose for themselves how they will use technology and live their lives. Technology could be designed to assist humans in creativity rather than replace the need for human creativity all together. When everyone can code and software is available for everyone to adapt and use, the power of corporate developers and engineers will decrease. True liberation in The Stanley Parable is not found inside the game. It is found in the game designers who created a game that challenged their industry and encouraged player expression. Conclusion Although computers and networking exacerbated the problems this paper describes, they also provide the solution. The structure of computer coding allows for nearly unlimited creativity that is not inherently fettered by media or corporate interests. No one person owns the internet. Western culture must reassert its own empowerment through computer literacy, a sharing of open source code, and a renewed interest in its ability to decide for itself how it shall live. Humans were created to create. After the introduction of technique, human building no longer functioned for better dwelling. Building became the goal. However, with the right priorities, society could return to a time when it built industry to improve quality of life rather than allow technicians and their interfaces to control life. The human being-in-the-world is constantly changing, and it is up to humans to change the trajectory of how they use technology. Right now, society is trending toward an orientation of technology as existence when its proper role is assistant to existence. But nothing is inevitable so long as people are aware and willing to work to change both their personal and communal orientation toward technology.