Everyone writing their own Software???

While i was browsing the New York Times, i stumbled upon an extremely interesting article that could possibly change software in the future forever. The article is named, "Awaiting the day when Everyone writes software," and in short, the article explained a new innovative way to write software that yields a custom made program catered to whatever the designer desires. This new system, called Intentional Programming, what thought of because, in essence, most software isn't very good. It often does not do exactly what the user desires and it often has many bugs. Although the release date of the product is still unknown, the possibilities it holds are truely tremendous. According to the article, a study found that each year $59.5 billion are lost each year due to software failures. Each business or whomever uses this product will be able to create software that does exactly what they desire, which will eventually reduce operating costs by doing work more accuratly and efficiently. If this article sounds interesting to you, I have a link posted down below for the whole text.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/business/yourmoney/28slip.html?ref=technology

Discussion Question

Although it is difficult to predict what will happen in the future, it is easy to assume that video games and MUD's will become even more realistic and advanced. What possible issues or concerns do you see or have with the advancement of video games?

Taking MUD's too far

Going back over Sherry Turkle's article, Identity in the Age of the Internet, i came across an alarming quote from an avid gamer who stated, "It's [real life] just one more window." To me, this is when a simple game turns into somthing much more serious. When a gamer starts seeing life as "just one more window" within a series of characters and games it tells me that gaming its begining to go too far and is possibly too realistic. I understand that people like to "get into the game," but when the distinction between a game and real life gets blurred, it is easy to see why these MUD's have become so dangerous. To stop gamers from going over the edge, as i see it, game designers need to take a step back and take out some of the human elements that can cause gamers to distort the distinction between real life and a game. Seeing as we are a mere twenty years into the computer generation, we need to begin toning down these video games before they become even more "real."