SPORE: Intelligent Design or Evolution

I’m getting my copy of Spore on Tuesday next week! Woot! One of the ironies behind this game has been what it is trying to promote. In a lot of his presentations, Will Wright (the creator) have referred to the game as an excellent method through which one can explore and be familiar with the scientific concepts such as evolution, planetary properties and their balance, and the science of deep space exploration/travel. Spore’s logo by itself does a good job of making the spiral galaxy a ‘familiar’ image.

However, the ironic part (which is pointed out happily by many a religious nut) is that although the cell gene collection thing represents evolution, the actions of the cell (and later the creature and creatures) are controlled by an intelligent being, which is the player. In other words, even if it was evolution doing the work, it was still guided by intelligent design.

What a load of bull. Anyways, I made some quick lists to support the idea that;

the game is pro-science / evolution:

• The game portrays the evolution of a single celled organism into a complex creature.
• The game portrays how the creature grows into intelligence and civilization (much like our history).
• The game respects many scientific principles (injecting CO2 into the atmosphere raises a planet’s atmosphere, etc).
• The creator of the game says he loves science and wants to use Spore as a means of promoting it.

the game is pro-intelligent design (no, it’s not a science no matter how many papers you write) :

• There is a ‘guiding intelligence’ that is controlling the being/beings (The player is God).
• There is a trailer which sounds very much like it’s promoting intelligent design.

the game is just a bloody game:

• Well if the game supports any kind of intelligent design, it probably supports polytheism/milliontheism more than  monotheism. The creatures/civilizations in the game were created by millions of different players, whose creations are seamlessly downloaded into your client as you’re playing. So many Gods om-G!

Therefore the conclusion is, what Spore truly represents is, are you ready for it – an alien conspiracy theory. Yep. A bunch of aliens powerful enough to affect things without actually being noticed by the creatures, manipulating everything for some sick purpose. They’re only as powerful as demigods, coz they can’t change the laws of space-time. They have only one power, to directly control the actions of their own species.

Oh wait that would make our CPU the proper God since it is creating and maintaining the universe, and running the AI of all the other creatures. But then again it connects to a server to donwload creatures so that would make the server some kind of God nexus… and since Maxis runs the server, they would be a multiple-staffed Godhead? Will Wright would be the equal but supreme member of the Godhead? OMG is model accurate for real life? Maybe a gaming company runs our universe! Nvm.

Can’t wait to play the game!

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