DISE

Apparently, DISE which stands for Deployable Instrumentation Systems Europe, is a high tech monitoring and training system that brings realism and combat similarity to soldiers and units wherever they may be to enhance their war-fighting skills. So now it would seem that US, Romanian and Bulgarian armies are using war style killing games in order to train for real-life combat. I thought this was an interesting development, could this lead to a person's background in gaming being taken into consideration upon application to the army? Surely if a man has grown up with ten years of 'first person shooter' practice under his belt, he'd be a good candidate for combat? If maybe a little trigger happy…

This train of thought leads me to thinking about what happens to these almost fully trained gamers/soldiers that are growing up and not enlisting. Is there now a generation of accountants, lawyers and builders that are essentially world-class snipers? Is the general public therefore, much more war-ready simply due to the pseudo-experience they subconsciously develop during their 'gaming' years? Perhaps I can sleep better at night knowing my boyfriend is a certified war hero, if only in the online world.

If video games can be used to help train people for war, one must eventually consider if the same type of technology could ever help people train towards the eventuation of peace. When will a tech-savvy NGO investigate these possibilities and begin training the next generation to become worldwide negotiators rather then killers?

As interesting a development this DISE may be, it is a little unnerving. If humans can actually be trained for the real-life via simulation, then have our increased road death statistics been indirectly related to the increase of games such as Grand Theft Auto? How much experience is being instilled into gamers that accidently gets transferred to real life? A scary thought.

Madeleine Simpson (2nd Post)