Deus Ex Morpheus Conversation [1080p Widescreen]
Why Hacker News recommends it
Commenters call it one of the game's best dialogues and bring it up in discussions of mass surveillance.
What it is
A 1080p widescreen capture of the Deus Ex conversation between JC Denton and the AI Morpheus. It is a philosophical exchange that includes surveillance as a replacement for God.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2016 to 2021.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec Trasmatta · 2020-04 · on “Restoring the Gold Filter in Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Director’s Cut”
> to be honest it still just came across as conspiracy gibberish to my ear Warren Spector said that his initial idea for the game was "what if every conspiracy theory was true?", so that's pretty intentional. So as long as you buy into that conceit, there's a lot of amazingly clever writing in the game. My favorite conversation in the game is probably the one with the AI Morpheus: [this video]
Recommends onli · 2021-07 · on “A key product of ubiquitous surveillance is people who are comfortable with it”
There is that concept that people are comfortable with surveillance, even want it. A maybe somewhat fringe pop cultural reference to that is in Deus Ex (2000), the best video game made so far: > JC Denton: "Some people just don't understand the dangers of indiscriminate surveillance." > Morpheus: "The need to be observed and understood was once satisfied by God. Now we can implement the same functionality with data-mining algorithms." > JC Denton: "Electronic surveillance hardly inspires reverence. Perhaps fear and obedience, but not reverence." > Morpheus: "God and the gods were apparitions of observation, judgment and punishment. Other sentiments towards them were secondary." > JC Denton:
Cites papaf · 2016-11 · on “Annotated version of an original Deus Ex design doc surfaces”
We used to play Deus Ex 1 in a pair. The game was so different for each player and their playing style that it never got boring. We completed the whole game in this way. One highlight that I remember was the explanation of mass surveillance being a replacement for less religion in a society. In the past people censored themselves because God was always watching. It was hoped that people would continue to censor themselves because Echelon was always recording and datamining. [this video] This was an optional cut scene and not part of the main story -- my friend found this, I never got this cut scene when I played. I agree that Deus Ex 1 is so special that anything after does not compare. This does