The Truth In Fiction: Titans

By R. Leinweber

Tragedy befalls us all. No one escapes loss or death. Thankfully, over the course of a lifetime, tragedy does not occur on a regular basis. That is not what this post is about. This post is about the losses we have all experienced, some more than others. The losses that have slowly turned the majority of the world's population back into Davids. David's Goliath might have been no more than an unfortunate person with acromegaly; possibly being described as "larger than life". Metaphorically speaking, today's Goliaths are closer to the ancient Titans.

This is not the world I grew up in.  This is the world we have been warned about, particularly through fiction, one of the methods used to circumvent suppression of opinion and truth. It is sometimes difficult to separate fact from fiction, especially when the media employs the latter so readily.

I was too young when I read the prohibitive future envisioned by George Orwell in his novel 1984.  Too inexperienced to appreciate its meaning or understand the context.  The current list of "something is wrong" is long: mergers, dividends, recession, collapse, climate change, globalization, overpopulation, dumbification, newsspeak, technology that permits control, the illusion of freedom and choices, the future cost of cutting funding to sciences and the arts, profit margins and call centers.

Even George Orwell did not foresee the unimaginable evil of call centers.  Call centers that pay employees a dollar per day to accomplish one thing; keep your money, while wasting your time so that profit margins for lemons increase.

This is Kratos:

Kratos, for the uninitiated non-gamer, is the protagonist in the series God of War. The plot is very brief, the gratuitous violence is not. Kratos has been wronged by the Gods of Olympus and seeks revenge. On his journey to destroy Olympus, Kratos eliminates a number of monstrous nobodies and mythological creatures until he encounters the Titans.

This is Kratos fighting the Titan Cronos:

Right there. Between Cronos' fingernails is Kratos.

Actually, there is not much or any fighting when it comes to the Titans. Kratos spends most of his time with the Titans avoiding being blown away or squished. Orwell's Winston failed where Kratos succeeded:

1. YOU DO NOT TAKE ON THE TITANS.
2. You figure out the puzzle on how to get around them.
3. There is a metaphor here.

Pixar Worthy. If Pixar Had a Maniacal Uncle With A Dark Sense Of Humor. Alright, Possibly A Very Dark Sense Of Humor.

Cave Johnson is the CEO and founder of Aperture Science Laboratories, which manufactures a wide range of products from bullets, affectionately called "Resolution Pellets", lasers which are nothing more than "thermal discouragement beams", to robots. A month ago, Mr. Johnson began offering a series of  investment opportunities to its investors.




For further investment opportunities, such as investing in the future of robotics click here

In addition, Aperture Laboratories is always looking for test subjects for its new portal project.  The portal device is a new quantum hole tunneler which allows participants to contribute to society until they expire pass a series of test chambers.  Here is a brief introduction of what a test subject might experience. Please be advised that regulation requires that test subjects are woken form time to time, while waiting for their turn to access the test chambers.



Corporations are the way of the future and science is always used for the benefit of mankind.

On the surface Portal 2 appears to be a puzzle solving game, but what is it really teaching our young and impressionable "children"?

1. Corporations do not always have your best interests at heart.
2. Don't trust everyone who offers you cake as a reward.
3. Science is fun, including physics.
4. Staring at art is invigorating.
5. How science is used is important.
6. Trust your instincts, that voice of authority might turn out to be nefarious or misleading or just evil.
7. Don't buy (into) everything someone is trying to sell you.
8. If science goes incredibly wrong, chances are it was caused by human error or megalomania.
9. Number nine would reveal a spoiler.
10. As would number ten.

Valuable lessons.

Cave Johnson voiced by actor J.K. Simmons.
Wheatley voiced by Stephen Merchant (actor on the original British version of The Office)

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Are you still here? You could watch Robot Cooperation or get off the computer. Go on, get outside, enjoy the outdoors, read a book or whatever else it is you do when you're in the real physical world.
Cave Johnson, we're done here.