Deus Ex: Human Revolution is About DRM
-
Category: News ArchiveHits: 2550
In Human Revolution, Hugh Darrow Augmentation's Oppenheimer sees the world he's created and can't help but think it's doomed. He does not trust people with the power he's given them. Moreover, he doesn't trust those who have power over others to act correctly. He knows what the Illuminati were planning the ability to prevent anyone in the world mis-using the nukes beneath the skin. While we can easily say his bitterness is because he's physically incapable of accepting augmentations himself therefore, is always going to be left behind by progress he does have a point. This is what technology allows people to do, both the masters and the serfs. You are deluded if you believe by putting technology into your body you make it yours. It is still theirs and putting it into your body, makes you theirs.
The Illuminati's original position doesn't really care about that. It thinks the masters are best for the people. If people are free to just do whatever they want, they're going to destroy the society. If everyone has a nuke, even if the vast majority can use it responsibly, it only takes a tiny portion to decide to mis-use it to bring ruination. So, by fair means or foul, there must be a way of enforcing discipline. By killswitching this world-ending they maintain control. They have added entirely unnecessary functions to a piece of technology because they distrust human nature to use it responsibly and maintain a societal order.
At which point you see the DRM metaphor. The Illuminati's plan is to put DRM into every piece of cybernetics to ensure that it's not misused or, if it is misused, it can be prevented from causing wide-spread harm. Darrow's murderous critique isn't just that augmentations are dangerous but that augmentations will leave you open to something like this. His problem is both what the augmentations let you do ((I can tear that dude's head clean off if I feel like it)) and what they make you do ((They can make you feel like tearing that dude's head clean off if they feel like it)). Some technology is just too dangerous for anyone to allow it to exist, because the safety-locks you (have) to add to it are just as rife for abuse as the technology it exists to control.
