"It's
just a video game!" I hear you say. Well, sure, it is. And "Star
Trek" was just a television show, too.
Except that
it wasn't. The starship Enterprise sailed an impressive track from weekly
entertainment to cult program, to lucrative franchise, to archetypical
embodiment of our dreams for the future.
Spore may follow in its wake. The new
title from powerhouse video game developer Electronic Arts, hitting the shelves
and download sites this week, is an example of art imitating science. The game
is the brainchild of Will Wright, the fellow who designed such hot
entertainment properties as Sim City and Sim Earth. These games allowed players
to do what Julius Caesar had in mind: namely, run a city or build an empire
(without the danger of being knifed in the Forum).
In Spore,
you create life forms that compete for survival in a sort of "DNA
economy," and seek to extend their influence from a single planet to the
galactic realm. One of its more appealing functions — building complex critters
that appear in the game — is accomplished in Spore's Creature Creator. This
software accessory gives you the parts and power to quickly design your own
aliens, starting with a basic body form and adding appendages, facial features and
various skin textures and colors. Even serious scientists can quickly become
enamored of this interactive Mr. Alien Potato Head. Here at the SETI Institute, Frank Drake, Jill Tarter and
this author have enthusiastically cobbled together our own pet sentients. Will
Wright says that his conception of Spore was significantly inspired by the
astrobiology work we are doing here (more below).
This is all
good fun, and preliminary indications suggest that EA's creation could soon be the
rage of young gamers everywhere. But Spore may, like "Star
Trek," have significant spin-offs.
That's
because something seems to happen to kids between the ages of 8 and 12. Many of
them develop a compelling interest in some subject — be it dinosaurs, history,
art, astronomy or even human culture. These interests are durable. If you ask
biologists how long they've been interested in biology, they'll tell you
"forever," but they usually mean since they were 11 (or thereabouts).
Why this
happens is unclear. Maybe nature has found that having "experts"
among the population has survival value for the species. That could be just pop
physiology claptrap, but irrespective of the actual reason, prepubescent kids
are like potting soil, waiting for something exciting to grow.
I asked
Frank Drake how he became interested in science. "As a kid, I bicycled to Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry every week," he said. "It was just
endlessly interesting, and before long I was building Tesla coils and crystal
sets."
A small toy
hooked SETI Institute astrobiologist Mark Showalter: "When I was ten, I
got a small prism as a present. Breaking up sunlight into a spectrum ... that
turned me on to science."
Peter
Backus, a SETI colleague, credits his father for his fascination with the
cosmos. "He would take me on fishing trips, and point out the
constellations."
For me, it
was movies: sci-fi films that were cheesier than an extra-large pizza
margherita. There wasn't much real science in these potboilers, but that was
beside the point. They hooked me emotionally. That was the key. Facts, methods,
the relevant mathematics ... all that stuff I could learn later.
When you're
young, it's the inspiration that counts — the emotional appeal.
Spore may be just a video game to most
adults — another hi-tech distraction for the kids. Maybe parents will be happy
that it doesn't involve wasting bad guys or stealing cars. But its true import
might only become apparent down the road. Twenty years from now, if you ask the
folks in the labs, the domes and the field sites how they got there, they just
might answer, "Well, it was because of a game I played as a kid ... "
About Spore's
creator
Will Wright
has frequently visited the SETI Institute, and says he drew inspiration for the
new game from its various research programs. In particular, the Institute's Carl
Sagan Center has over 60 scientists investigating such topics as the
possibility of life on Mars (both now and in the past), other solar system
habitats such as the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and how life got started on
Earth.
Because of
the close relationship of the SETI Institute and Spore's visionary creator, the
Institute is offering a special "green membership" to those wishing
to become part of its research efforts by joining TeamSETI. Additional
information on membership can be found here.
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