- 7 weeks ago
Video games did it first!
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00:00All right there, you little demons, Jules here for WhatCulture.com, back again with another
00:07episode of the awesomely named and author Lee hosted Choose Your Own Adventure, the
00:11weekly medieval-themed format where I, the crowned Jules of WhatCulture.com, take a list
00:15chosen by you, yes, you, the person who actually has something to plug today.
00:20You see, you might have noticed on the previous episode that Cy is painting up some Warhammer
00:24that is actually going to be a part of a charity event that I, too, am a part of, the 40 Hours
00:29of 40K charity event is going to be running very, very soon, and the money gathered is
00:34going to be going towards the campaign against living miserably.
00:37It's a great cause, and there's going to be a ton of people that have contributed in so
00:41many different ways across the 40 Hours of 40K, and it's going to be an incredible event.
00:46And there's actually going to be a secret special battle report that's going to be filmed there
00:51with the Live and Let's Dice boys.
00:52We're going to be taking this game here, and I invited a ton of my incredibly skilled mates
00:56to come and paint up a model each to form all of the models in this game, and we're
01:01going to meet to do three battles back-to-back as we try and take on the dreaded amble.
01:05If that wasn't enough, then not only will all the money that you donate to this event
01:09be going towards the campaign against living miserably, but it will also give you entry
01:14into a raffle which will allow you to win, potentially, an entire World Eater's army
01:19painted up by all of us.
01:21So if that wasn't good enough, I don't know what bloody it is.
01:24So yes, you get to decide what list I dole out to you each and every week.
01:28Ooh, that was a long plug, but I do think it was worth it.
01:30Yes, you get to decide what list I dole out to you each and every week, and this week we
01:34have none other than I think, and I'm going to wet those withers.
01:40To a brighter future, that was really disturbing, wasn't it?
01:43Who suggested that we take a look at video game inventions that actually went on to become
01:49real-world items?
01:51Ooh!
01:53Now I like to think of myself as a bit of a sci-fi guy.
01:56I've got a VR headset, I've got a Bluetooth toothbrush, I've got a keyboard that is designed
02:01to only feel sexual stimulation, but you know what?
02:03I'm not the only one, because thanks to video games and their outlandish weapons, gadgets
02:08and items, it was only a matter of time before greatness echoed greatness, and somebody in
02:13our reality decided to bring these mad inventions to life.
02:17So let's have a chat, as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and these are eight incredible
02:22inventions ripped straight from video games.
02:26Number eight, the tactical laser system, Ace Combat.
02:29Now Ace Combat's tactical laser system, T-L-A-S, is an experimental laser weapon which
02:35you can attach to a player's aircraft, allowing them to paint a target and then annihilate it
02:39with a devastatingly powerful laser blast.
02:42Now the T-L-A-S was first introduced in 2004's Ace Combat 5, the Unsung War, and though
02:49its power has changed numerous times over the years for the sake of balancing, it seemingly
02:54eventually caught the attention of aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
02:58In 2020, the company announced their Directed Energy Initiative, a laser defense weapon system
03:05that could, like Ace Combat's T-L-A-S, be mounted to a plane's fuselage, used to paint
03:10a target, and then near instantaneously shoot it out of the sky.
03:13Now the company even included a test video on their website showing the laser in action,
03:18and while it is entirely possible that the company came up with such tech independently,
03:22it sure is amusing, and also a teensy bit scary, to consider them getting the idea from
03:27Ace Combat.
03:28Could you imagine that?
03:29They're just playing that.
03:29You walk through the studio and they're just like, oh what are you playing there?
03:32Ace Combat.
03:32What's that?
03:33Playing with a laser weapon?
03:36I've got a great idea.
03:37And they're just like, no, no, no, no, no, no, the end of humanity steps forward when you
03:42say stuff like that.
03:43The last time you said that was with a plague bomb.
03:48And that's how we got Nurgle.
03:49Number seven, stealth camouflage.
03:52Metal Gear Solid.
03:53Now there are few technologies in video games cooler than the stealth camouflage that
03:57are shown off in Metal Gear Solid.
03:59Unlocked at the end of your first playthrough, if you submit to Revolver Ocelot's Torture,
04:03the stealth camo renders the player invisible to all regular enemies throughout the game,
04:07bending light in a way that gives Solid Snake a faint green outline.
04:12It must be quite terrifying to be a guard and realise that it's Solid Snake mere metres
04:17away from him and he's like, oh god, I'm just dead.
04:19You're just kind of like, what is that?
04:20Why is, the light is like shimmering.
04:22There's something not right about this.
04:24I put my contacts in as well today, so I've got 20-20 vision.
04:27Oh my god.
04:29It's saying your neck snapper.
04:33I love that bit.
04:35And yeah, this probably seems like just fanciful fake tech that we can never achieve, right?
04:40But the fundamentals are solid enough that a company developed a prototype of it,
04:44way back way in 2003 even, just five years after Metal Gear Solid was released.
04:49Susumu Tachi, a professor at Tokyo University, developed a so-called invisibility cloak,
04:55which works by projecting footage from a camera placed on the back of the cloak onto the front
05:00of it, rendering the clothing basically see-through.
05:03Since then, more elaborate versions have been developed.
05:06Like in 2019, Canadian company Hyper Stealth Technology, cool name,
05:11filed a patent for a quantum stealth cloak.
05:14Again, cool name.
05:16Which, quite impressively, bends light around a subject wearing the material.
05:21And Hyper Stealth even claimed that the tech could successfully cloak not only soldiers,
05:25but also heavy artillery.
05:27And isn't that a lovely, lovely thought?
05:30Unseen death.
05:33Cool.
05:33Move over, stress.
05:35We've got the new Unseen Killer.
05:37Number six, the Medigun.
05:38Team Fortress 2.
05:40Now, Team Fortress 2's Medigun is a damn miracle of a weapon,
05:44allowing a medic to aim it at a wounded, friendly player and just heal them with it
05:47by shooting them repeatedly in the spine.
05:50Now, you're probably thinking to yourself at this point,
05:53how would this ever make its way into reality?
05:55Because the last time I checked,
05:57shooting people with things usually causes more damage than it does heal them.
06:04But wait!
06:05Because yes, while there are obvious limitations to how this tech could be replicated in reality,
06:09back in 2011, National Geographic reported a similar tool called the Skin Gun,
06:14which can take the stem cells from an injured person's body,
06:18in this case, a burn victim,
06:19and spray it onto their injured skin, healing them in a matter of days.
06:23Now, given that conventional skin grafts can take months to fully heal,
06:27that is an astonishing step up,
06:30even if it's not quite as instantaneous as the Medigun's ability
06:33to heal a fellow player in a few seconds.
06:35But also, just mad concept, isn't it?
06:39Oh, hey, mate, what's up?
06:40He's like, oh, my arm's come off.
06:42Thought a bear on the way to the co-op.
06:45Awkward, I know, right?
06:47Actually, I can't even gesture with that.
06:48Awkward, I know, right?
06:49Oh, don't worry, mate.
06:50I've got a gun for you that'll heal you.
06:52Oh, what's inside of it?
06:53Is it magic?
06:54Sorry, is it magic?
06:56Is it bloody like...
06:57No, it's skin.
06:58Say what?
06:59Skin!
07:01CSGO players are going to love this, man.
07:03Skins, guns, it's their entire thing.
07:05But weirdly enough, despite the skin gun's extremely impressive,
07:08even miraculous ability to heal burns,
07:11the word has gone quiet on it in recent years.
07:14All the same, it's as close to a real-life Medigun as we've got for now.
07:18Number five, Power Armor, Fallout 4.
07:21Now, Power Armor is one of the most iconic items of the Fallout franchise,
07:25second only to rad roaches that are so rad that they should come with their own skateboard and 90s aesthetic.
07:32But yeah, anyway, Power Armor.
07:33It's a large personal infantry suit which grants the wearer protection against both artillery and radiation
07:38while also giving them amazing strength and durability.
07:43Anyway, in the early 2010s, the US military began work on a similar armoured exoskeleton suit
07:56which they dubbed the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit, or Talos.
08:02I swear that half of these inventions, you come up with the name first and the rest falls into place.
08:07In addition to providing the user with full body armour and enhancing their strength,
08:11it would also include sensors to monitor their vitals,
08:14with the intent of allowing the user to clear rooms with heavily reduced personal risk.
08:19And though prototypes were privately developed,
08:21the Talos programme was ultimately scrapped in 2019 due to both the costs involved
08:25and the challenges of powering the suit in a lightweight way.
08:29Because, I mean, it's not like you can just strap a ton of, like, car batteries to it and just be like,
08:33oh, yeah, cool, I can move, but, um, carrying a ton,
08:38so it's kind of impacting the strength gain to net loss of this.
08:44Excuse me while I go down and saw out that there.
08:48It'll be interesting to see whether or not another company can solve these fiscal and technological challenges in time
08:53because of all the inventions on this list, it's honestly one of the least insane.
08:58Number four, stylised bionic arms.
09:00Deus Ex, Mankind Divided.
09:02Though bionic limb technology has existed for many years,
09:05only recently has such tech taken some direct, unequivocal inspiration from a video game.
09:11You see, in Deus Ex, Human Revolution, and Mankind Divided,
09:14protagonist Adam Jensen rocks a pair of augmented limbs, mechanical prostheses,
09:19which, rather than attempt to blend in with the user's body,
09:22are instead stylised to draw out attention to themselves.
09:25And in 2016, a UK company called Open Bionics developed a type of bionic arm directly inspired by Jensen's own,
09:34even partnering with Square Enix to officially call it the Jensen arm.
09:38Though this version of the arm doesn't quite allow the physical augmentation of Jensen's,
09:43it is 3D printed to resemble it exactly,
09:46enough that the first user, a man named Daniel Melville,
09:49had to show people it wasn't cosplay,
09:51but actually a real, fully functional bionic arm.
09:55Rather than blend in with his body and skin,
09:57as most prosthetics are intended to,
09:59Melville's announces itself loudly and proudly,
10:01and you know what?
10:02Why the hell not?
10:03That is amazing!
10:06That we even live in a time where this is possible,
10:08but also that it's possible to stylise it in this way.
10:12It is so cool!
10:13And since then, Open Bionics has expanded its stylistic bionic arms to offer the likes of
10:17Star Wars, Iron Man, Attila, Battle Angel, Metal Gear Solid V, and many, many more.
10:22You'll love to see it.
10:24Number 3. Auto Aim slash Aim Assist
10:26Many, many shooters.
10:28Now, auto aim has existed in various forms in video games for decades at this point,
10:32from basic lock-on aiming to more subtle aim assist features,
10:36each are intended to help players shoot their targets with a greater degree of accuracy.
10:40And so, it's hardly a surprise that a real-life rendition of this idea was soon enough worked up.
10:46You see, in 2011, the world's first precision-guided firearm was revealed,
10:51the Tracking Point X-S-1.
10:55Again, I just want to be in the room when these names are come up with.
10:59I want to be a part of this fun.
11:01The weapon, which costs $17,000, allows the user to tag a target
11:05and then let the gun calculate variables such as wind speed to ensure an accurate kill shot.
11:11The tech quickly evolved to allow tracking of fast-moving targets from varying distances,
11:15enough so that the US Army began experimenting with it in 2014.
11:19As for why it hasn't been rolled out in the field for real,
11:22well, in 2017, software vulnerabilities revealed the possibility of the aiming technology being hacked
11:27by a third party, the implications of which are naturally horrific.
11:32Like, you can imagine this.
11:33It's like, all right, Gunny, should we go kill some bad guys?
11:35Yeah, that sounds brill.
11:37I love it, etc.
11:39Are you trying to quote McDonald's at me?
11:42No, not at all.
11:43Corporations would definitely stay out of military hardware.
11:46Anyway, we're right.
11:47Tag, tag, tag, tag.
11:48Tag, tag, tag, tag, tag, tag, tag, tag.
11:50Click.
11:51What's up, mate?
11:52I have performance anxiety.
11:54Oof.
11:55Don't we all, mate?
11:56Don't we all?
11:56Oh, wait, wait, now, what's this all about?
11:59Oh, sorry, boss.
12:00I work for a new owner.
12:04Gunny, no.
12:06Drama.
12:07Drama part two coming in the future, choosing an adventure.
12:09What will happen with man and Gunny?
12:12That's the name of the team.
12:14It's Gunny and the man.
12:15That's it.
12:17Gunny and the man.
12:20Anyway, since then, the X-S1 has largely fallen out of public view,
12:24even if the bones of the idea remain as genius as they are unnerving.
12:28Number two, The Flood.
12:29Super Mario Sunshine.
12:31Now, throughout Super Mario Sunshine,
12:32everyone's favorite Italian plumber is required to clean up Al Delfino
12:36with a wild piece of tech called the Flash Liquidizer Ultra-Dowsing Device,
12:40also known as Da Flood.
12:42Now, in addition to cleaning the environment, however,
12:45the high-powered water jets can also be used to propel Mario into the air
12:49to reach higher platforms, effectively functioning as a water-powered jetpack.
12:55And in 2009, the flood was realized in real life with the Jetlev,
13:00a water-propelled jetpack which allowed users to hover up to 30 feet above water.
13:06The success of Jetlev led to numerous other competitor products hitting the market,
13:10and today, hydro jetpacks are commonly used by guests in water parks
13:14and by rich people who just cannot be bothered to walk anymore.
13:18I mean, that is quite a successful journey for a piece of tech
13:21seemingly inspired by a silly gimmick gadget,
13:24albeit an extremely fun one, from a Mario game, of all things.
13:28But also the fact that it's from a Mario game
13:30does make me question why Nintendo didn't get up
13:33the mountainous lawyers that it keeps on retainer.
13:36Because you know what they're like.
13:37They probably saw that and were like,
13:39that's ours.
13:41It's not, Nintendo.
13:42People can't have fun without you.
13:44Are you sure about that?
13:47Are you sure about that?
13:49Actually, now that you've said it with such conviction,
13:52no.
13:53No, I'm not.
13:54Graggy.
13:55Nintendo.
13:56Put a sale on your first-party titles.
13:58Come on, man.
13:59And number one, social media in its entirety.
14:02Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty.
14:05And finally, perhaps the single most ridiculous piece of technology on this entire list,
14:09the clown show that is social media itself.
14:12As if we don't have enough proof that Hideo Kojima is an unhinged genius,
14:15way back way in 2001,
14:17he basically outlined what algorithm-driven social media platforms
14:21would eventually become and do to society
14:23in Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty.
14:27Now, near the end of that game,
14:28the Patriot AI versions of Rose and Colonel Campbell
14:30detail how an increasingly digitized society
14:33will become fractured by the presence of misinformation,
14:36aka fake news,
14:37and retreat into siloed-off echo chambers
14:40fearful of challenging outside opinions.
14:43Wow.
14:44That is way too familiar, dude.
14:46Given that the proto-social media of the early 2000s was message boards
14:49without any smart algorithmic curation,
14:52it's mesmerizing that Kojima was able to predict
14:54what the likes of Facebook and Twitter would aggressively ramp up
14:57throughout the 2010s to this very day.
15:01Now, it's far more likely that Kojima just did his research
15:03rather than those platforms taking inspiration from him,
15:05but all the same,
15:06it does feel eerily prophetic watching these scenes
15:09in that game play out today
15:11and for it to be so close to home.
15:14I can see my address.
15:15I'm coming through the letterbox.
15:17It's that close to home.
15:18It's coming into my room.
15:19Oh, dear.
15:20I'm dead.
15:22And there we go, my friends.
15:22Those were some amazing inventions
15:24ripped straight from video games.
15:26I hope that you enjoyed that
15:27and let me know what you thought about it
15:28down in the comments section below
15:29and remember to leave your comment for next week's video
15:32down there as well.
15:34If you want to chat to me in the meantime,
15:35you can go follow me over on my social medias here
15:37or you can follow my lovely editor,
15:38Sai, over on her social medias over here as well.
15:41But before I go, I just want to say one thing.
15:43Firstly, don't forget to check out the link
15:45in the description for more details
15:47on the 40 hours of 40k live event
15:49that both Sai and I are taking part in,
15:52contribute to that,
15:53potentially win yourself a free army
15:54and help people get a better life going forward.
15:58And speaking of which,
15:58that's pretty much all I try to do
16:00at the end of these videos for you lovely people
16:02because, well, look, let's just face it.
16:04Let's just cut straight to the chase.
16:05You guys have afforded me a lovely platform here
16:08of which that I'm able to do
16:10all of my silly video game stuff
16:11and I always think to myself,
16:13I want to pay it back to you.
16:14You've shown me great kindness over the years,
16:16helped support me through so many different endeavors
16:18and it really means a lot to me.
16:20It's part of the reason why I always say these things
16:22at the end of the video
16:23because I just want you to live a healthy and happy life.
16:26You've reminded me that I'm a big ledge
16:28every single day that I open the comments
16:30and I want to do the same to you.
16:31I want you to start the day reminding yourself
16:34that you deserve love, happiness and success.
16:36You're a good person.
16:37You deserve the bloody best, all right?
16:39And don't let anything or anyone else tell you otherwise.
16:42All right?
16:42As always, I've been Jules.
16:44You have been awesome.
16:45Never forget that.
16:46I'll speak to you soon.
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