According to the ever-technology-cautious creator of the Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding Hideo Kojima, while the internet ultimately provides a net positive to humanity, its potential for over reliance stands to absolutely wreck the ‘experience of life’.
RELATED: Hideo Kojima’s Genius Shines Again In ‘Death Stranding 2: On The Beach’ Photo Mode
Kojima offered his thoughts on the current state of human-internet relations during a recent interview given to Japanese video game news outlet Den Famico Gamer, his first since the release of his eponymous Kojima Productions’ new Death Stranding 2.
Asked at the top of the discussion if he could expand on his previous assertion that the world has become “too connected“, the eccentric director opined, “Rather than ‘being too connected,’ what I see as dangerous is the idea of ‘making a decision because you were guided to do so.’”
“It’s not that I’m denying technology,” he continued, per a machine translation of the interview provided by ChatGPT. “For example, AI on smartphones introduces all sorts of things to me, right? Even that, I personally find a bit unpleasant. Because I think that in human life, coincidence is necessary. You wake up in the morning, go to school or to work, and maybe go into a café you just happen to come across. Maybe you randomly meet someone I think that a series of those kinds of coincidences, and the accumulation of choices you make, is what forms your life. When we’re too connected online, I worry that we may be unknowingly guided, and end up living a predetermined kind of life.”
From there asked as to how he explored this discrepancy between modern society and the human experience in Death Stranding 2, Kojima explained, “At this point, I don’t feel like saying ‘live without the internet.’ It’s incredibly convenient, after all. I think we were only able to survive the pandemic because we had the internet. But still, I think becoming dependent on it is dangerous.”
“I believe what’s important is how we choose to use convenient technology,” he added. “My own answer — I’ve had one of the characters say it toward the end of the game, so please listen to that part. I think it’s okay for there to be many different ways of thinking, but I’d like people to think about my answer. It’s about the ‘choices’ we make — how we choose to live our lives using this technology.”
With his hosts noticing how he placed “importance on real, physical connections”, Kojima was ultimately pressed as to “what meaning do you think the physicality of the human body holds?”, to which he admitted, “That’s also a difficult question.”
“As long as human beings have bodies, I think we will move around as individuals,” he then opined. “And I believe that’s absolutely necessary. For example, just for everyone to gather here today, you all had to travel. Maybe it was by car, maybe by bus, maybe by train. Maybe it was just a simple round trip, but even in that time, you met people, saw various scenery.”
“Sure, you can go to Hawaii in the metaverse — but actually going there is completely different,” he concluded. “First, you go to the airport, get on a plane, and when you arrive, there are smells and a sense of temperature that you can only feel there. I believe that kind of adventure adds color to one’s life, and that it’s something we must not lose. I hope that answers your question…sorry.”
All in all, seems like a good time to revisit Raiden’s famous codec call with the Patriots’ AI recreations of Rosemary and Colonel Roy Campbell in Metal Gear Solid 2:
As of December 2023, Spencer is the Editor-in-Chief of Bounding Into Comics. A life-long anime fan, comic book reader, … More about Spencer Baculi
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