1)             Jesse Schell in this video brings up a whole slew of different ways that gaming technology is going to affect our physical lives. The most plausible idea that he brings up, I believe, is when he talks about the games on cereal boxes in the beginning of the video. This seems the most plausible because touch screen and touch pad technology is significantly becoming a part of everyone’s daily life at very affordable prices. The first generation iPod Touch, which debuted in 2007, can be found on Amazon for as much as $50. Granted, this is nowhere near what Schell envisions as a three dollar cereal box with a touch screen, but it is a definitely evidence that touch screen technology, which was completely innovative 5 years ago, is becoming almost as disposable as a cereal box. I can imagine that in less than 10 years, kids will be playing Angry Birds featuring the Trix Rabbit while the eat their cereal in the morning before school.
            Though I find this idea plausible, one that idea that I find hard to believe that Schell brings up is the idea of a “REM sleep entertainment system”. Creating this sort of technology would first be very ambiguous (to say impossible is almost debatable) and would not be a very productive medium in this futuristic world of point systems. Primarily, we tend to get more non-rapid eye movement sleep (nREM), which is common during the first three stages of sleep, than rapid eye movement sleep (REM), which is common in the fourth and final stage of sleep. Though we can dream in either, it is more common to remember dreams in the REM sleep stage because they are more vivid (thus the idea of embedding visions of Pepsi cans seems the most plausible during this stage). With the knowledge that REM sleep is less common than non-REM sleep, not everyone is going to have dreams that are vivid and deep enough to remember and be influenced by commercialization. There are also the cases where commercialization in REM sleep would not be very appropriate (i.e. a nightmare) and would be futile. There are also the psychological complications involved in dreams, such as night terrors, which would again, make embedding advertisements in sleep would make it a very unwise “medium” to use.
  2)          I believe that as the future continues to unfold different forms media in addition to current forms of media, I think we are going to become less involved in reality, or the verbal and physical relationships around us, and more involved in the abstract and mental relationships we have with people in social networking sites and collaborative gaming networks. Personally, I feel that I have created stronger bonds with people that I have “friended” on Facebook versus just knowing in reality. For example, I have been able to connect even more with people I have met in real life and have added in my social network because we are able to find out more about each other through the data we have implanted in our profiles (i.e. TV shows we like, books we read, music we listen to). We can share more ideas through social networks because it offers the convenience of presenting ideas without having to physically be in contact with the people whom you are sharing the information. I feel that Jane McConigal brings up this idea when she talks about collaborative gaming. I also think back to Infosthetics’s Conflict History which presents all the wars and major conflicts on a single map from 2,000 years ago. I believe this use of present data can help people realize how we need to change on a global scale and analyze just how those conflicts in those areas has affected our entire civilization.

3) Collaborative gaming, as I was saying earlier, I feel will support the movement to stronger mental and abstract relationships with people rather than physical relationships. Jane McConigal talks about how in online games like World of Warcraft, there is collaboration with people from all walks of life all over the world. Because of this connection to a plethora of different individuals, people will learn to look beyond differences which we tend to see in the real world (religion, gender, sexuality, etc.) and look at what goals connect them together. I believe that people tend to find more what relates them to others than what separates them from others through gaming. This is where people will create more abstract relationships with people all around the world because they are not detached by geographical or linguistic barriers. I also think about online games that require creating a team and how this implicates these same ideals. You need to work together with people you physically may not know in order to complete a unifying goal.