Ender’s Game is Already a Reality for the U.S. Military
spectrum.ieee.org
spectrum.ieee.org
"I almost think it’s passé at this point ... Ender’s Game is happening. It’s already done."
The technology is not what I remembered Ender's Game for.
Children are being tricked into unknowingly fighting wars for the US military? Really?
Additional spoilers for you:
* Vader is Luke's father
* Frodo makes it to Mt Doom
* Rosebud was the sled
Not everybody has read the book (or heard of it), but may have been exposed to marketing for the movie and be interested in watching it (or reading the book first). I think it's fair to show a spoiler warning for a movie that came out just this month.
Want to know how I know this?
http://joyhog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Enders-Game-pos...
"This is not a game."
Right there, on the poster, is literally the "twist".
They wrote the movie assuming you read the book. Sorry, but this isn't a spoiler.
So, you know, whatever, but yeah I think it's a spoiler.
* Jesus dies, but gets better.
But seriously, Frodo getting to Mount Doom is not a spoiler because it's expected. Vader being Luke's father is unavoidable in popular culture because people quote it all the time.
Ender's Game on the other hand has a huge twist and is obscure enough that it can remain hidden. It went unspoilt for me for probably 25 years, and it's not like the book was unknown to me during that time (I probably heard of it in 1993, but only read it in 2008).
The problem with good, accurate simulations in the defense department, is that higher-ups who do not like the results that come out of them will have them killed politically. This is what happened to JWARS. (This is also what happened to the war game where a 3rd rate power sank a US aircraft carrier. http://wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/3793 )
I recall reading a story where someone kept winning against the US side in a war game, and instead of changing tactics, the guys running the US side just kept adding more and more restrictions to what the opposite team was allowed to do, until they finally lost. (Wish I had a link to the story. [EDIT: jmhobbs has it, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6770236)
Huh, kind of like Ender's Game, except for the loss part.
I just finished watching a documentary about a German "aggressor" squadron that inherited a bunch of Mig-29s through the reunification of Germany. When they take part in exercises, they generally have lots of restrictions placed on them. (To make sure the students can "complete" a full course of scenarios.)
Who would have guessed that a small band of Islamic fundamentalists would
- overstay their (legal) visas
- do some flight training
- hijack commercial aircraft to use as giant suicide bombs
In hindsight, it looks logical, but on Sept 10, 2001, who was thinking of this?
I'm guessing, however, this was not part of mainstream military doctrine or scenario planning.
raise the heavy rifle in my hands... an exact replica of an M16
Sure, it's not a 9.5 pound WWII era M1 "Get Off My Lawn" Garand, or the 12.5 pounds almost a machine rifle the Swiss adopted in the last '50s, but it could sure go on a diet, especially with all the stuff people want and need to hand off of it, like quality optics. For less than a pound more I could get a FN SCAR in 7.62 NATO, and its got a much fancier standard stock and plenty of accessory rails; not counting sling attachment points, it's pretty close to being a semi-auto Scout Rifle.