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Ender's Game Influences US Army Training
PortWineBoy writes "Although we've been bombarded in the last few weeks with techno tales of the U.S. Army, I found this
story in the NY Times (FRRYYY) to be quite interesting. The director of the Army's simulation technology center said that Ender's game influenced how and what they will build for future training." Begin Mazer Rackham Analogies...
Xenocide in Ender's case.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Like so
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
Not really. He found the remaining hive queen on a colony planet in a spot that looked like the Giant's Drink from the Fantasy Game in Battle School and wrote the book, the Hive Queen, under the name 'Speaker for the Dead' that eventually convinced everyone that xenocide was wrong and the buggers were actually 'ramen', or basically friendly creatures. After many years of searching, he finally allowed the buggers to live again on the colony planet of Lusitania, so no harm was done.. :o
Only at the end. What made Ender a really successful tactician was his ability to think wwwaaaayyyyyyy outside the norm (for them at the time) for strategy. He displayed it right away when he was heading to the station and automatically re-oriented himself when gravity went away. In the zero-g battle room, he was so successful because he threw everyone off by being so innovative.
In the end, xenocide was a result of his actions, but not his intentions. That's what the rest of the books were about!
Jim Harry
Get a Grip... and read the article. For one thing, yes in "Enders game" there was confusion and the "enemy" was destroyed, when in essance they were supposidly peaceful. However, they attack Earth first, unknowingly, and assumed we weren't a true life-form. Earth defended itself the best way they could...
This xenocide correlation bullshit is just assanine, that's not what the article is saying. It actually says very little about "ender's game", but... the point is using High-Tech Simulations to train Army and MARINES. The post says Army when a big part of the article is talking about Marine sims too.
As a former Army Captain... Sims work, and save you tax money. Our Military is the best fighting force in the world... and the most compassionate and ethical. Simulations also help soldiers learn how to deal with media, civilians and wounded enemy. That's why we are the best.
I am currently at Quantico's Officer Candidate School (in TBS phase) and we haven't read Ender's Game yet. If we do read it, it's likely for one of our upcoming Leadership Classes.
HU-RAH!
I also agree with another poster that the application of the 3D fighting space is not a challenge for any of us. We have so much time conducting these training scenarios that doing the actual fighting is second nature. (though we continue to study, train, and expand our knowledge of theater tactics) The reason we are here now, is to be leaders of men.
Or even better, simply add
199.239.136.212 www.nytimes.com
199.239.136.212 nytimes.com
to your hosts file to fix the "problem" for all normal nytimes.com URLs. The only negative side effect is that the front page no longer works.
Check out http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/ for more hosts file goodness.
http://www.usna.edu/Library/Marineread.htm
The main focus of the book for me was that Ender's primary character trait was the ability to get people to want to do as he asked them to do (OK, ordered - it took place in a military setting). As they did so, they learned that their abilities were more than they'd ever imagined. The conclusion of the book is a warning that Nuremburg was real, and that everyone is responsible for his own actions. And yes, that war is not a game.
Think, write, think, edit, think...then post.
what?! where do you get this information from?! think oil?! you actually think the money made from oil goes to iraqi citizens and not to Saddam's weapons programs? if Iraqi people made so much money, then home come the UN had to set up a food for oil program? a quick look at the A world fact book revels that the GDP per captia is about $2,100 in Iraq and 36,300 in the US, its not even close! why dont you make an effort and think before you post something blatently false next time.
and what does newer construction have to do with anything? are you going to tear down entire cities and rebuild them every 50 years to make them newer?
Sun is Warm, Grass is Green
What an enormous chunk of hubris.
After WW2 America had enormous goodwill in the minds of many nations. That stayed even after Vietnam (though a little faded). But now no-one trusts America. Which is really sad, and scary too. After the Cold War there was no fundamental reason for the West to stay together, in fact I remember Gorbachev saying to a reporter that the days of the West were numbered because they [Russia] had removed the main reason for it to hold together. But it didn't have to be sabotaged the way it was! The next 10 years could be very dangerous for us all because of Bush. I fear this far more than the 9/11 attacks. There is no fundamental reason why in 10 years the EU / Russia / China could not be pointing nukes at the US and banning imports from the US. The USA now needs the world more than the world needs the USA , it isn't the 1950s anymore.
Just my 2 cents.
Bitter and proud of it.
zulux wrote:
> War is not evil.
Well, there is the concept of a just war, where war was/is considered acceptable under certain special circumstances. But even a just war is a last resort when all else fails, and with today's communication technology and organizations like the UN, there are a whole lot of other things for a civilized nation to try before going to war.
> War can be waged for liberty,
It can be, if it is yourself you are liberating (American Revolutionary War). However, if you try to liberate another nation against the will of its people, you have violated a principle of liberty called "sovereignty", and are no longer going to war for liberty's sake, but to conquer.
"World Book" gives a slang definition for "liberate": "to rob or plunder, especially in wartime." This is the definition Iraq learned for the word when the British showed up the first time to "liberate" them.
> self-defense
Perfectly acceptable when nasty conquerors show up at your doorstep and start bombing the heck out of your beautiful capital city. But in these modern times, you might want to look up UN resolution 377 (Unite for Peace). Under that resolution, if the poor invaded country can get either seven Security Council members (no veto allowed) or a simple majority of the General Assembly to agree to it, the UN can form a posse and ride to the rescue. Of course, the naughty invader runs around trying to bully and bribe their way into "no" votes, but the resolution has been used successfully ten times in the UN's history. Iraq is working on number eleven, and our tax money is going into yet more bribes.
> or to stop a genocide.
Saving lives, always a great cause. Just be careful not to kill more of the victimized group than the genocidal maniac was planning to. Otherwise, there isn't much point...
> War is a tool, a nasty sharp tool. It's what you use it for
> that make your endevor evil or, perhaps, good.
Tanks, bombs, and bullets are nasty sharp tools. War is the action of sending thousands of your people out armed to the teeth to kill their people until they surrender and let you have your way. Actions generally have moral values attached to them. Mass murder coupled with mass property damage (the end result of war) is generally considered very evil. In certain very special circumstances (the just war theory) humanity has pretty much agreed to overlook the evil of the action because of the intended result is necessary and unable to be gotten without going to war.
Except for the just war exception to the rule, war is utterly evil, and is close kin to tyranny, genocide, and terrorism, sharing the same tools. To the Air Force pilot, he seems to be delivering a "package" with his plane, and releasing it with video game like controls. To the civilian it hits by accident, it is like being inside the World Trade Center towers on the morning of September 11, 2001: terror, agony, a very ugly death, grief and rage on the part of the surviving loved ones. One's country better have a seriously good reason to inflict this on another country.
That's why it is so important to go the last mile, then fifty further miles, using diplomacy to solve the problem peacefully. Well, it is for the rest of us; for genocidal maniacs who get off on pictures of mutilated dead people, of course war is going to be a favorite pastime (btw, such people are sick as well as evil).
"The path of peace is yours to discover for eternity."
Japanese version of "Mothra" (1961)
(Orson Scott Card's joke, not mine.)
TANSTAAFI: There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free iPod.
Actually, they left the choice up to him whether he wanted to take an action that was that extreme. I remember that clearly. He got pissed and decided to end it fast.