Virtual Reality Prepares Soldiers for Real War

[ephilution]

How to make trigger-happy virtual psychopaths out of unsuspecting naive high-school kids.
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Virtual Reality Prepares Soldiers for Real War
Young Warriors Say Video Shooter Games Helped Hone Their Skills

By Jose Antonio Vargas
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 14, 2006; Page A01

One blistering afternoon in Iraq, while fighting insurgents in the northern town of Mosul, Sgt. Sinque Swales opened fire with his .50-cal. That was only the second time, he says, that he ever shot an enemy. A human enemy.

"It felt like I was in a big video game. It didn't even faze me, shooting back. It was just natural instinct. Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! " remembers Swales, a fast-talking, deep-voiced, barrel-chested 29-year-old from Chesterfield, Va. He was a combat engineer in Iraq for nearly a year.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6021302437.html

[nochnoi dozor]

Maybe it can help hand-eye co-ordination skills but it can't teach you about fear. The fear of being killed, or seeing your friends killed. The man mentioned above should spend some time in intense psychiatric therapy if he thinks killing real people in a real world is the same as killing people in a video game.

[ephilution]

Quote:Maybe it can help hand-eye co-ordination skills but it can't teach you about fear. The fear of being killed, or seeing your friends killed. The man mentioned above should spend some time in intense psychiatric therapy if he thinks killing real people in a real world is the same as killing people in a video game.

You're taking it a step too far. Of course, killing in video games isn't the same as in real life. Even those brainwashed young grunts would understand that (provided they're able to think for two seconds). The aim of training cadets with the help of video games is to take away any moral restraints which would otherwise could interfere with the killing function of grunts. Basically, cadets are taught to take aim and fire without moral contemplation. It is becoming reflex like, you see. And this, the taking aim, fire and kill, without restraints is the defining characteristic of a psychopath who basically also kills without hesitation and problems of conscience. These video games stand to make the act of killing a trivial thing, no emotions involved per se.