Infinite Children isn’t something easily explained. It’s purely indie in the sense no big budget studio would take a chance on something this exotic. The website for Infinite Children describes the free PC release as a “science fiction audio book video game.”
In short, it’s pure sci-fi, concerning controversial life extension and speaking through time as long dead family members communicate in an attempt to shape your decision. It’s philosophical and rich, from the mind of USC games professor Peter Brinson.
Brinson tinkered with the idea for years, he writes. Infinite Children exists for players to relate to. Choice is common in video games, but not often consequential or grounded. That’s the difference for Brinson. “For me, experiencing consequential choices in video games is that of fantasy; such situations do not remind me of my own life, and therefore such dilemmas do not invite me to reflect on the meaning of those tensions, which I feel is what good art provides.”
That coalesces in a unique experiment. At first, Infinite Children was incomprehensible. As more players stepped in to play, things became clearer. The first person who played got something entirely different than the last. Exploring popularity and how that impacts choice was central to the idea. “We’re browsing YouTube and consider clicking on a video with 5000 hits versus one with five million. Regardless of content, we will experience the videos differently because of the context of knowing their relative popularity. As we watch, we think of the other people who have had their own lone experience with those videos,” writes Brinson.
At the center of all this is the life extension theory. Brinson sees this technology as an inevitability in the coming decades of medical progress. “Perhaps it should be called, ‘youth extension.’ Because most serious ailments are a product of age, life extension will curb the likelihood of getting cancer, heart disease, and even balding,” explains Brinson.
It’s an ethical conundrum. Imagine an ever growing population, already straining resources, but giving people a chance to live longer creates additional planetary hardship. “I have found that player’s first reaction to the promise of medical life extension to be a negative one. They say they won’t take it because it is not natural. But work that backwards for a minute. Would you forgo antibiotics for any such reason?” poses Brinson. Infinite Children further complicates things.
“You are not pursuing life extension for yourself, but for your child. If other parents were giving their kids life extension - that they were treating it as a valuable and limited resource for the kid’s benefit - are you so sure you would opt out?” Brinson asks.
Infinite Children let’s you choose. That’s key to the narrative. While hopefully captivating, Brinson sees the idea of a shared story as something to grow. “Surely, this dynamic scales up? How would Bioware or Naughty Dog use the extension dynamic? I feel they could make a riveting experience with their own interpretation,” poses Brinson.
