Ten Things Video Games Can Teach Us

WOULD YOU KILL ONE PERSON TO SAVE FIVE OTHERS?If you could upload all of your memories into a machine, would that machine be you? Is it possible we're all already artificial intelligences, living inside a simulation? What can you lose before you're no longer yourself?These sound like philosophical questions, but they're actually posed by popular, modern video games. Philosophy often uses thought experiments to consider ideas that we can't test in real life, and books, films and games can make these thought experiments far more accessible. Given their interactive nature, video games can be especially effective ways to explore these ideas.Drawing on interviews with both game creators and professional philosophers, this book explores ten key philosophical questions - such as, 'What can we actually know?' and 'What does it mean to be a good or dutiful person?' -- through discussion of relevant video games, from BioShock to Ultima.