I think you may like this article by Brian Mockenhaupt (The Atlantic) I recently bumped into. It is about simulation and war, and the application of Urbansim for military strategy in Iraq:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/201001/military-simulate
And while reading it, I wonder who has the right to simulate, and what the aims of simulation can be. Is this all a game? Do local people have instruments to simulate tactics of resistance, apart from resist on a daily, very earthly basis?
Federica
> Dear Yasminers
>
> I thought this might be interesting to add to the simulation
> discussion before it ends.
>
> The PBS Frontline "Digital Nation" By Rachel Dretzin and Douglas
> Rushkoff.
> http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/
>
> In chapter 8, 01:06:55 min into the chapter, the filmmakers introduce
> an interesting topic: the "Drones" (http://bit.ly/95F2Kk) .
>
> Based out side Las Vegas, US air force pilots fly Drones that execute
> missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
> 75,000 miles away from the battlefield, they wear uniforms, to remind
> them they are fighting a 'real' war.
>
> Here technology rewrites the rule of the game, where the risks are
> all one way, the pilot gets to shoot without getting shot at.
> This is a different reality where soldiers are dealing out risk
> without excepting risk.
> This detachment to risk, to real life danger is somehow disturbing.
> At the end of the day these pilots go back home to their families,
> and back to "war" the next morning.
>
> While physically located in the US their are effecting lives of
> others in a distant place.
> This theater simulation, while engaging with reality, is not unique
> to the US air force. Wars are changing and the consequences will
> resonate.
>
> Are new technologies recontextualizing all the theories we discuss here?
> Reshaping (and re-shaking) the world we live in?
> When the simulacra, the "representational" universe, could in fact
> effect something or somebody in the real world.
>
> In this example the body doesnt experience danger only the mind.
> How does this effect our survival mechanism? - this might be a
> question for the scientist here.
> or how would it effect the notion of presence?
> Will our mind learn to adopt to this new state? and how?
>
> The artist here would agree that none verbal experiences can effect
> physically, emotionally and intellectually. A great work of art can
> communicate divine experiences though sounds, visuals etc. Empathy,
> and more scientifically mirror neurons, can simulate in us an
> experience as if it was us experiencing it.
>
> How would that effect mirror neurons, for example, would they have
> different function in the future? Will our brain develop differently
> due to our growing virtual experiences?
>
> Best,
> Nurit Bar-Shai
>
>
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