Video Games

Video games are available in many forms. You have the console games; from Microsoft's Xbox, to Sony's playstation, and even Nintendo. And there's also the computer games for PC, Macintosh, and Linux. What do video games have to do with intelligent technology? They may seem like pure entertainment, but they are used in many intelligent ways.

Nintendo has released a game called Brain Age for it's Nintendo DS which basically challenges you to utilize that muscle in between your ears. The goal is to improve your "brain age" by solving puzzles and performing other tasks, and can be a fun way to exercise your mental abilities. This kind of technology allows people to, themselves, become more intelligent, rather than being an intelligent technology. Kind of like having a tool that improves the builder, so that the builder can make better tools.

Video games are also a big influence in other industries. Many pilots train in a virtual reality flight simulators that are, in essence, a very realistic video game. Granted the goals are much different for the gamers than the pilots. Also, professional race car drivers could use simulated racing "games" to practice driving techniques that could be hazardous. Many, especially dangerous, kinds of training can be represented in a virtual way.

Artificial intelligence in games allows the player to interact with the game in a more unique way, which changes according to many different conditions. This can improve the "usefullness" of a game, in that the goal is entertainment. Applied to general computer use, artificial intelligence should allow for the same unique user experience and improved usefullness. But in this case, the goal would be more than entertainment. Such technologies are beginning to emerge, but are not so evident in our daily lives.

So if you believe that video games are a waste of time, ask some professionals in non-entertainment idustries what they think. You might be surprised at how "intelligent" some technologies are thanks to video games' impact.