We are in a series looking at the games in the Deus Ex universe. If you never played them or are a little rusty on the plot details, head on over to Wikipedia. If you haven’t played and still want to, beware of spoilers.
In this series we’re addressing the question presented in all of these games- How do we fix human imperfection? In this post we’ll talk about the role of technology in our lives as presented in Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
Technology is a big subject these days since it is playing such a huge role in our culture. Information is constantly expanding and high tech gadgets become more and more engrained in our everyday lives. But we’re still far from the kind of advanced, reality-augmenting, sci-fi things seen in Deus Ex….
…so maybe it’s not so far off after all.
In Adam Jensen’s near-future adventures in Human Revolution, technology has become both pervasive and highly controversial. They have reached the point where technology is being literally connected to human brain and body tissue. This makes for some great gameplay dynamics for sure, but what would that realistically mean for our society? The game attempts to address these questions as the fictional world is on the edge of a new stage of human development that is closely tied to the power of technology.
The fictional world of Deus Ex brings up all sorts of existential questions. What does it mean for humanity to augment the physical body with artificial materials? What are our bodies? Are we bodies, or souls in bodies, or minds, or some mix? If we change the make up of our bodies, how will that change our identity? Will it redefine what it means to be human? Can we augment ourselves so much that we’re not even human anymore?
But nobody is questioning how awesome it would be to have robot arms.
The underlying assumption in all of these questions is that technology has the potential to improve us in some way. In fact, some of the game’s major characters belief that augmentation is a necessary part of our progression as a species and it would be foolish to ignore the possibilities. But still we’re faced with the fact that we are somehow less without this technology and therefore we need it.
The problem is that if we’re less than adequate without technology, are we really capable of making technology less flawed than ourselves? Can something imperfect make something that is perfect. Can we fix ourselves? Technology presents one possible answer to the problem of fixing human imperfection. But technology fails, it becomes obsolete. Even if we could make a perfect machine that would fix our imperfection, it would become superior and take control of humanity. This is why there are so many machine apocalypse stories. Machines that we make would probably rule over us better than we rule over ourselves.
The global struggles depicted in Human Revolution indicate that we need to figure out what to do with technology. I’d like to say that we still have control over it, but there are already cases of people becoming addicted to virtual worlds and getting injured because of texting while walking.
This does not meant that technology is inherently evil. Technology falls in the same general category as sex, money, food, etc.- it is a neutral entity that can be used for good or ill. Even today people are quick to label something neutral, such as the internet, as evil simply because it has been used for something evil such as music piracy or pornography. But let’s not throw the robot baby out with the digital bathwater. Wisdom calls for moderation and careful consideration with every step down the silicon road. Technology can either be used to better our society, or it can be allowed to run rampant even to the point of altering our identity as a people. Only time will tell what kind of augmentations humanity will choose to implement.
In the meantime, humanity is still flawed. Regardless of how our bodies and minds will be altered, we are still incomplete spiritually. Jesus has made available tools and adjustments by which we can be augmented to become who he intended us to be. Allowing God to transform our identity may not give us robotic limbs or augmented-reality vision, but it will empower us beyond our fallen humanity.
Human Revolution continues the tradition of a multiple-choice ending. We’ll break these down in the next post.
Reclaimer 105 
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