JOUR304.3001--Violent Video Games & Mass Homicide--AN OPERATIONAL POTENTIAL INNOVATIVE PARADIGM

EOC400.3015
J. L'Angelle
Univ of Nevada, Reno
Fall 2019

      (RSJ Laboratory)-- Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the link between video games and mass attacks on soft targets within the culture has yet to be performed to a degree of understanding. The exam would yield what might be called an "Operational Potential Paradigm," or a procedure to predict where the incident might happen next. Without any type of model to go on, the event will continue to assume what appears as a random act by a lone, fringe element gunman out to get even for some slight, or revenge, or plain sadistic satisfaction.
     Studies in a non-related field by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) examined subliminal messages for advertising in a Secret 1994 document by Richard Gafford titled "The Operational Potential of Subliminal Perception."   A famous one by James Vicary involved  quick-frame flashes across a movie screen suggesting the viewer go to the concession stand and buy popcorn. (Lucia Wang)  Even though that particular subliminal signal experiment was a total fraud, the CIA didn't rule out the potential of the system;

     "It is evident that there are several mighty leaps in logic in the advertising man's argument, and a great many places where his scheme can go astray. He has taken several psychological phenomena which have been demonstrated to a limited degree in controlled laboratory experiments and strung them together into an appealing argument for a 'technique.' Because part of what he is promoting is supported by laboratory data, however, it has enough status to warrant serious attention." (Gafford, CIA)
Thus, the possibility of a link utilizing quantitative and qualitative analysis might be established through an inductive process directly connecting the video game user in cyberspace with an impulse for mass homicide in the real world.
     Gafford further breaks down the concept of operational potential by four requirements;
"a) his behavior itself, b) the relation of his behavior to some stimulus,  c) the stimulus itself, because of its slight impact, d) the precise nature of the stimulus, as well as its relation to his behavior, because of inattention." (CIA)
Translated, it means that the video game user may be so involved in running over gremlins in a Fast & Furious megacar, or mowing down zombies with an automatic weapon, that he is completely ignorant of the mesmeric affect it is having on him. Gafford concludes that the stimulus produces behavior that the "individual is unaware." It is also important that the method of sublimation is kept unknown to that individual.
     Most of the studies have involved quantitative methods, compiling data that can be streamlined into graphs, divided by category, whether the violent video game uses a vehicle, or a gun, to indiscriminately kill the defenseless. Other descriptions of operational potential appear to be limited in character to mechanical performance. (yadda.icm.edu.pl) There doesn't appear to be any consensus on the link between video games and violence other than the more studies done with even larger groups of participants all arrive at negative conclusions.
     What isn't addressed is the subliminal motive, it is taken for granted that the fringe element mows down hundreds of zombies in cyberspace then drives across Texas to El Paso and attacks a Wal Mart, of course there is no connection whatsoever. Unless there is a subliminal catalyst. That doesn't mean the catalyst is intentionally implanted either, the whole nature of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one where the ground is still a bit un-navigated. Combine that with what Gafford calls;
     "A normal human being is an infinitely more complex receiving instrument than any electronic gadget, and adjusting a stimulus for such a variable receiver is difficult. In most of the laboratory studies on which the current theory of subliminal perception is based  there has been a long pretrial period requiring the subject's full cooperation to zero him in on the subliminal signal. " (Gafford, CIA)
Exactly what that subliminal signal is that the video game produces that triggers the homicidal reaction is the unknown, the qualitative component beyond the quantitative.

     A prime example is the advertising algorithm used on social media. A user surfs the web and information is gathered about the person through cookies. Soon, ads pop up all over the pages relating to the content that is being accessed, though not subtle, not subliminal, it acts in the same way, just transparent by nature. In the case of the video game, the player acts and reacts to a given set of stimuli, attempting to outwit the AI behind the scenes, lost in the circuitboard and hidden in the software. To what degree this "HAL" (2001: A Space Odyssey) tries to "program" the player is uncertain and the other unknown is just how much of that is going on below the surface of cognition and memory.

      Forgetting the real world studies of the subliminal phenomenon, the movies have always had a better take on it, as in the 1977 MGM release of "Telefon" directed by Don Siegel starring Lee Remick  and Charles Bronson. The plot revolves around a USSR Cold War brainwashing of a deck of cards of "sleeper agents" scattered across the USA whose missions are activated by madman Donald Pleasance out to start World War Three.

     The presumption that it is indeed possible to program a mindless stooge to kill indiscriminately has always been on the minds, deep within the minds for that matter, of everyone from the CIA to Hollywood, is but a stark reminder of the "operational potential" of such a concept, made more plausible by modern technology.

Works Cited
Gafford, R., https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol2no2/html/v02i2a07p_0001.htm
Wang, L., Popcorn, https://visme.co/blog/subliminal-messages/
Pajak, M., Mechanical, http://yadda.icm.edu.pl/yadda/element/bwmeta1.element.baztech-f3cf2cff-2ba7-477b-8315-3376655f42a1/c/pajak_operational_4_2015.pdf
HAL, https://qz.com/quartzy/1243811/trivia-about-2001-a-space-odyssey-in-honor-of-its-50th-anniversary/
Telefon, https://bloodymurder.wordpress.com/2012/11/20/telefon-1977/