Models · branch
Games as models
A good game is a compressed world. Civ, Kerbal, Mass Effect: toys that teach structure.
This hangs on Computation, Stages of civilization.
See on the treeIn the same 2015 AMA, Elon declined to name a single favorite game. Shooters with a story (BioShock, Fallout, Mass Effect) and also Civ and Warcraft. Kerbal Space Program, separately: “awesome.” These are not celebrity flavor. They are the models he has said he actually used.
Kerbal compresses orbital mechanics until a child can fail at them. Civilization compresses staged knowledge until a child can feel a prerequisite. That is the semantic tree, playable.
The later simulation argument only has force if games can tend toward indistinguishability. This node is the modest version: they already tend toward teachability.
Hard to pick a favorite. I tend to like shooters with a story, like Bioshock, Fallout, or Mass Effect, but also a big fan of Civ and Warcraft.
Hangs on
What hangs from here
Sources
- Musk, Elon. “I am Elon Musk, CEO/CTO of a rocket company, AMA.” Reddit, January 5, 2015.
Note
5 January 2015 AMA. Favorite games include Civilization, Warcraft, BioShock, Fallout, Mass Effect; Kerbal is “awesome.” The semantic-tree sentence is cited as Reddit AMA (tree). The AI-safety sentence is cited as Reddit AMA (AI).
- GamesBeat. “SpaceX, Tesla founder Elon Musk loves Kerbal Space Program, Mass Effect, and Civilization.” VentureBeat, January 6, 2015.
Note
Places the semantic-tree remark beside Civilization’s tech tree: you cannot research Literature before Writing.