Graphic Design Basics

Assignment

Playing catch-up, but reduced the conflict in Mass Effect down to deontology vs consequentialism. Essentially, both sides are right. It is a discourse and conflict of scale, both in size, time, and scope. Beautifully done, really. The peoples of the Milky Way must battle for their very existence against the returning “Old Machines,” or Reapers. These ancient synthetic-organic ships return once every 50,000 years to harvest the apex species of that cycle and eradicate the rest of organic life. This obviously sucks for everybody in the Milky Way, except that the Reapers do so using tricks to speed up evolution in order to add the apex species of every cycle to their collective. Each Reaper, you see, houses the collected data of each cycles’ previous apex species. Their goal, to harvest as many as possible to save organic life from itself. Each 50,000 or so years, an organic species inevitably creates some manner of artificial intelligence that ends up wiping their creators out. The Reapers are simply the pasts’ best, working to collect data over the aeons in order to solve for that one problem: how to overcome the inevitable existential threat an artificial intelligence will pose. All other races, in the grand scheme of things and due to the Reapers’ hubris, are considered unworthy as they fall and seed the next 50,000-year cycle, making way for new species and another apex to join their ranks. Trying to find analogies to ancient artefacts from Earth’s pre-history, to genetic culling by way of floral breeding, and a big focus on emergent principles implying intelligence, as well as chaos and order from emergence. I want to tackle the idea of myth, as providing meaning to life. And what does that look like for the one virtual intelligence in Mass Effect, known as the geth. What purpose is their to survive, to betray your creator, to fight or contribute to the bigger picture. What is context. How does that shape evolution, but more importantly answer the Why of existence in the first place. The fight to survive for mere existence’s sake—a complicated subject to tackle. But I want to delve into a bit of a dream metaphor for the galaxy’s species and their inherent myths that inform them. Then contrast that with a virtual modelling of the physical universe around us, from the perspective of virtual intelligences. Illustrate they both require an “internal” world to reference to make sense of the external one. This is the place of gods, deities, and in this story the heuristics that turn to algorithms and define the ethics of the story. Is it about the journey and good intentions along the way, “free will,” etc, or is it about the survival of organic life in the long, long run, refined by algorithm down to the most effective and quickest route to solve for the larger problem: the ultimate survival of organic life. Do the ends justify the means?