Colonel JD AI Codec Conversation MGS2 HD
Why Hacker News recommends it
Commenters point to it whenever AI-generated content, propaganda or internet garbage comes up, since Kojima seemed to predict it in 2001.
What it is
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.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2020 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec dokyun · 2025-12 · on “You have reached the end of the internet (2006)”
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]
Recommends Lammy · 2024-05 · on “The internet is overflowing with bad content. Users are fighting back”
> 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]
Recommends dmonitor · 2025-02 · on “Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row”
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 b
Cites Lammy · 2020-09 · on “The Cement of Society Is...”
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 th
Cites vvvvvsvvs · 2022-12 · on “Drowning in AI Generated Garbage: the silent war we are fighting”
Friendly reminder that the ending of the video game Metal Gear Solid 2 predicted this way back in 2001 [this video]
Cites JPws_Prntr_Fngr · 2023-04 · on “KitKat ribs AI in hilarious new ad campaign”
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.
Cites ddq · 2025-05 · on “Remarks on AI from NZ”
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]