1.7M views · May 24, 2013 · 12:40 · 3 HN recommenders · 7 mentions · discussed 2020–2025
The final codec conversation from Metal Gear Solid 2, in which the AI 'Colonel' explains that the Patriots filter out junk information and curate truth for humanity. It plays as a dark meditation on information overload, manipulation and shared reality.
Why Hacker News points people here: Commenters point to it whenever AI-generated content, propaganda or internet garbage comes up, since Kojima seemed to predict it in 2001.
“You should play Metal Gear Solid 2, or at least watch the last codec call[1].”HN comment, 2025
“You should play Metal Gear Solid 2, or at least watch the last codec call[1].”
Final codec call applies strikingly to the present day.
You should play Metal Gear Solid 2, or at least watch the last codec call[1]. See how much you can apply what it talks about to the current year. This game came out a month after 9/11. [1]: this video
“Have you ever played Metal Gear Solid 2 (2001)?”
MGS2 foresaw information overload.
> The information age gave us information overload, something I don't think anyone predicted. Have you ever played Metal Gear Solid 2 (2001)? this video
“It's really brilliant to use a video game to deliver the message of the effectiveness of propaganda.”
Colonel's ending dialogue on AI-driven manipulation and propaganda.
The real prescient threat in that movie was the predictive AI algorithm that tracked individual behaviors and identified potential threats to the regime. In the movie they had a big airship with guns that would kill them on sight, but a more realistic threat is the AI deciding to feed them individualized propaganda to curtail their behavior. This is the villain's plot in Metal Gear Solid 2, which is another great story. This got me thinking about MGS2 again and rewatching the colonel's dialogue at the end of the game: this video > Your persona, experiences, triumphs, and defeats are nothing but byproducts. The real objective was ensuring that we could generate and manipulate them. It's really brilliant to use a video game to deliver the message of the effectiveness of propaganda. 'Game design' as a concept is just about manipulation and hijacking dopamine responses. I don't think another medium can as effectively demonstrate how systems can manipulate people's behavior.
MGS2 codec conversation on shared reality.
I could not disagree more! I've seen this demand for One Shared Reality Of Facts from all sorts of groups who will never be able to agree on one. I've watched our attempts set many well-intentioned humans at many other well-intentioned (and otherwise) humans' (and otherwise's) throats, yelling at each other because THEY'RE WRONG when they describe personally experiencing a reality that sounds at times completely alien to mine. It seems to be a path toward fragmentation and alienation and not a path toward unity. I do not wish to speak for anyone else here, of course, but the concepts of "true" and "false" don't really map on to my physical human dimension of reality very well at all, if I think about it! Observing something as "true" is just observing it. Maybe other peoples' thought patterns run differently? Serious question here for you all, my wonderful fellow HN readers: I don't really walk around in what I perceive as reality thinking "that's false, and that, and that over there too". Exactly the opposite! Everything I observe is true, because I observe it. I don't even think about perceiving reality at all. Everything that Is, just Is. This isn't meant to be coy or cutely condescending — I've legitimately just never thought about thinking very much before now. My concept of the "necessary-shared-binding-force-between-things", if you will, has thus moved away from constantly bikeshedding "truth" and toward the simple observation that all things that Exist exist and all t
“the ending of the video game Metal Gear Solid 2 predicted this way back in 2001”
MGS2 ending anticipated AI-generated information overload.
Friendly reminder that the ending of the video game Metal Gear Solid 2 predicted this way back in 2001 this video
“Kojima was playing with the idea back in 2001”
Kojima explored this AI idea in 2001.
Kojima was playing with the idea back in 2001: this video It's probably a trope from even older sci-fi, though I don't know which.
“The whole conversation was markedly prescient for 2001 but not appreciated at the time.”
Prescient 2001 conversation about memetic evolution and consciousness.
Metal Gear Solid 2 makes this point about how "over the past 200 years, a kind of consciousness formed layer by layer in the crucible of the White House" through memetic evolution. The whole conversation was markedly prescient for 2001 but not appreciated at the time. this video
