Can video games change the world? Rick Myers, who lives in the mountains of Montana and has been studying artificial intelligence (or AI) since the first grade, thinks they can. He has just started a Kickstarter campaign for a game called Origin, which will be a sci-fi game on the Windows PC platform that has a story involving ancient astronauts, the Voyager probes sent out in 1977, and the fate of all life in the galaxy.
If the plot sounds big, you are right, and so are his goals for the gameplay. Origin will have a next gen AI described as “a true self evolving group consciousness neural network.” The game will actually change constantly based on your actions, making no one play through the same. This, combined with shooting and RPG elements, could be a truly remarkable gaming experience if Rick gets his funding.
But what is equally as remarkable as what Origin could be as a game, and as epic as the story sounds to be, is what Rick Myers’ plans are for the future if he is to succeed. He plans to take the revenue earned from the game and start a robotics company. In his own words, “If given the chance to get my company off the ground, my AI research could change the world through advances in space exploration, defense, and even medicine. It’s just a matter of getting started.”
As of this writing, the campaign has 29 days to go and has only $51 of its $20,000 goal raised.
You can find the Kickstarter page for Origin here.