Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Cockroaches and WoW

I have many ideas, most of which aren't to interesting to the average person. Every once in a while, I come up with something so fascinating (in my opinion), I wish I could share it with the world. Well, now I can!

As I was taking an evening walk a couple months back, I had an unusual thought: "Why doesn't a scientist hook up a roach's brain to a virtual avatar? He could wire the bug's mobility processors to the motion of its avatar and its senses directly into the game. That would be an interesting enough experiment, but what if he hooked up the bug to a massively multiplayer online game such as World of Warcraft? In theory, he wire the bug's brain to give it pleasure if it did something good for its player, like damaging another player, and pain if it did something bad, like taking damage.

This bug could become the best WoW player in the world, because it would play non-stop, with an insatiable urge to succeed. Its sole purpose in life would be to win the game, and it would keep trying and learning until it did. Of course, I don't have the means or the experience to accomplish something like this, but it is a very interest hypothetical, in my opinion.