Game Theory: Are Humans Obsolete? (Ghost Recon Breakpoint)

Hmm, it must have been my imagination. That...! Drone Bird! Stroke! Do you want to know the strangest part? This isn't even a joke. See what I want to say today in Game Theory Hello Internet! Welcome to

game

theory

! The program is a little nervous about the accuracy of the record of predicting

ghost

recognitions in the past. Here's the situation: "We have been deployed at the request of the Georgian government to help them deal with rebels on their Russian border. Our area of ​​operations will be the Autonomous Region of South Ossetia." This was the scene early on August 8, 2008, when Georgian rockets bombed the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

In case you're confused, what I just showed was Ghost Recon predicting the exact area of ​​a Russian rebellion that occurred seven years before it actually happened. This franchise has a better track record at predicting international conflicts than I do at trying to predict Star Wars plots. And given that history, the question I'm exploring today is whether history is about to repeat itself with the latest installment in the series: Ghost Recon. Breakpoint: The series takes a close look at the high technology of drone warfare. A war with tropical drones! Special thanks to Ubisoft for sponsoring this episode, giving us access to the military minds behind the

game

, and giving me an excuse to talk about the terrifying world of battlefield technology and drone combat.

And here I mean scary! You all already know that I cover a lot of spooky

ghost

stories on this show, especially between Petscop, Pokémon, and FNAF lately. But I have to say, this episode is the scariest ghost story of all: a Ghost Recon story that's absolutely terrifying because it's non-fiction, folks. Everything we are talking about today is incredibly real and used in the world around you even as I speak. And, to make things even more intense, these are the things they're talking about publicly. Imagine the type of technology they have access to that we don't know about.

I mean, the whole time I've been working on this episode, I've been saying, "Man, I wish people would get more excited when we covered topics related to military technology." Because these types of episodes are probably some of our most important. episodes because not only do they touch on all the scary technology we cover in other things in a more fictional sense, but it's real. It makes you more aware of what is happening in the world around you. Now, coming into today's episode, I didn't know much about drones except for two things: first, that you can't fly them in as many places anymore due to privacy and airspace concerns; and second, there are selfie drones that track your face, fly around following you and taking your photo.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you what humanity has chosen to do with our most advanced technologies in 2019. "Feed my narcissism, flying paparazzi! Capture this amazing duck face in all my different angles!" But there's a lot more here that honestly isn't talked about much for safety reasons, things that I think you'll find both fascinating and terrifying. I know I did and I started to peel back the layers of drone capabilities on the battlefield. It posed the question to me: "How can

humans

defend themselves? Have we become

obsolete

on the battlefield?" Today's episode is about technology versus training: it lays out the advanced capabilities of drones and then looks at what highly trained real-world soldiers, like the ghosts of Ghost Recon, can do to defend themselves.

Modern warfare is increasingly becoming a battle between man and machine. Let's hope the man can still win. Let's start with a quick look at Ghost Recon Breakpoint, where for the first time in the series' history, the ghosts find themselves at a technological disadvantage. The game takes place on Aurora, a private island owned by Jace Skell, a billionaire technological genius. Unfortunately for him, however, all the money in the world means nothing when Cole Walker, a former ghost gone rogue, takes over his tropical technological paradise and hopes to, in his own words, "Secure the future with technology." . others were developed, but were too afraid to implement them." Cole is basically like Incredibles Syndrome, complete with an island full of devices that will be happy to separate you from your head before you have a chance to say Aloha.

Cole, who calls the Wolves, threatens international stability with an arsenal of automated tanks, well-armed super soldiers and, of course, a legion of highly advanced drones, all at his disposal. In short, this is a game in which the skills of. Our heroes' survival is tested against an onslaught of computer-powered super weapons. And frankly, the odds don't seem so good. So to give them, and us as the player, the best possible chance of survival, let's see. What the Ghost team will face to see how their training could help them survive this challenge. Now, it's worth noting that what we're seeing in the trailers and pre-release footage aren't some kind of fictional weapons.

The drone technology modeled in this game is closely based on real-world military technology, which honestly makes the game feel really realistic and is also why it's worth talking about. This is not just a distant fictional story, it is today's technology. Military weapons have become so advanced that we no longer have to imagine these super weapons. They are already here. So before we can get into anything that attacks, we first need to take into account all the surveillance that Cole is going to use on his entire island. The game introduces us to the Azrael aircraft and Cherubim quadcopters, both based on real military-grade surveillance drones such as the ScanEagle and the Wasp.

They rely on sensors to detect people's shapes and sometimes even specific faces as they scan. Well, that's impressive, but there seems to be an easy solution, right? You can simply outsmart their cameras by disguising your face or putting on some camouflage; It works for hunters, so it should probably work against a drone computer too, right? Kind of. To understand how drones like this work, we need to know a little more about camouflage. Camouflage works in two ways: it blends you into your surroundings or it helps break up your silhouette so you don't look like one big, burly person, you just look like a bunch of little pieces of color.

When you split your silhouette, you can trick computers into thinking you're not there because, essentially, there's not enough of you there to register your body as a human form. That's why even military jeeps are painted in camouflage. Obviously, that kind of paint job isn't going to make anyone say "OMG, where did that Jeep go?" but when you fly overhead using a low-resolution camera, the different colored spots blend into just some dirt or foliage. However, note that I specifically said "low resolution cameras." As this technology improves, the cost of better equipment is becoming lower, meaning drones are now smarter.

Drones not only use better cameras, they also use better AI. It is now more difficult to fool them with camouflage; They can now sense a regular light pattern, which means it won't matter if you're Joseph and the Amazing Camouflage Dreamcoat down there. The drone will now be able to see your shadow, which may appear even larger and more obvious than yourself. However, there are other ways to camouflage, which I like to call the Peeta Mellark method. If you have a good paint job and don't move at all, you may be able to avoid detection. For example, this image you see on the screen now contains a sniper.

This is like the 'Where's Waldo?' from the real world. If there was a book like this, I would totally do it forever. Anyway, it probably took you a second or two to realize where he was and a computer won't be much better than you. Basic 2D camouflage is not enough to fool these types of surveillance cameras: you need something that divides you into three dimensions, that divides not only your human form, but also your shadow. Doing things like using branches and leaves will do exactly that. Don't want to get caught playing with sticks and mud on the battlefield?

Well, that's why they invented the ghillie suit, which instantly makes you look like Swamp Thing or a desert or snow thing, depending on the environment you want to hide in, which means the score is human one, technology zero. Don't put that score on the board just yet... You see, drone technology has a lot more tricks up its sleeve. Drones like Azreal's scene in the game, modeled after drones like the MQ Predator in real life, are fully equipped with, you guessed it, infrared heat sensors, and that ghillie suit you're wearing will be hot, making you stand out like a headache with any thermal imaging software.

I mean, we're alive and the idea is to stay that way so that your heat signature appears to be pretty locked in place. So how do you train soldiers to get around technology like that? Well, there are actually many options. The newest high-tech solution is Ulcans: ultralight camouflage netting systems, which take the classic military netting concept and update it for the modern battlefield. This is what is known as multispectral camouflage, which works to hide multiple bands of the electromagnetic spectrum: not only infrared and visible light, but also radar and other electronic signals. But this is super new and as a result, it's super expensive, so what kind of training would a ghost soldier have to handle a situation like this?

Well, although we all immediately think of hiding our heat signature, when it comes to infrared detection, the most effective solution is not to make your body reach the same temperature as your environment, but to make your environment the same temperature as your body. The best way for Ghosts to realistically combat infrared technology is to travel during the hours immediately after sunrise and sunset, because, believe it or not, it is difficult for IR sensors to read you accurately during those times because they are the most volatile. so they can't tell what is a person and what is just a random hot spot.

Also, it's about not giving the enemy a reason to look in your direction in the first place. Highly trained soldiers like the Phantom would know that infrared detection systems are expensive and resource intensive to operate even for short periods of time. As a result, they are used sparingly and primarily in higher threat areas. So by avoiding the main supply routes and instead taking longer, less obvious routes to the objective, you'll actually be able to encounter less surveillance. Of course, it will be more difficult (the routes are less obvious for a reason), but if you stay disciplined and calm, the advantage will be yours.

So can I finally raise this point? Humans - one, Tech- Oh, what now? We have updated. Now we have hyperspectral scanning. And now that? Wow, you're just making up words at this point. Wait... An hour later... Okay, so my little drone friend doesn't lie. After looking into it, the final boss of drone surveillance systems that is starting to appear on military drones around the world, using technology from companies like headwall here, is what is called hyperspectral scanning. This type of technology goes far beyond infrared signatures and looks for unique electromagnetic patterns emitted by any substance. If that sounds confusing, you don't know the half of it.

With these types of systems, you build complicated data cubes to analyze whatever you're looking at in all the different ranges of spectra: visible spectra, heat, chemical signatures... most importantly, you can detect unusual perturbations in the natural pattern. of a beach or sandbar to detect where mines have been placed simply by the uneven patterns of erosion in the sand. It can detect patterns of movement through a forest based on branches that have been broken and foliage that has been carelessly pushed around, and don't even get me started on camouflage! Studies have shown that it is possible to detect camouflaged objects that represent as little as 20% of a single pixel.

And if you think that ghillie suit will help you, think again. Unless it's made from the foliage on that exact part of the tropical island you're hiding out on, you're stuck because the chemical composition of the ghillie suit will be different from all the vegetation around you, that's how precise it is. So if Azrael's hyperspectral array picks up a single pixel of one of the Ghosts, it will be able to detect them. How do you combat something so advanced? Well, strangely enough, the best way to defeat this high-tech weapon is a low-tech solution: you hide behind a large rock.

I'm not even kidding! In the game's reveal, we see our Ghost receive a warning thatAzrael approaches and his response is to hide behind a large rock, which is what you would actually do in a situation like this in real life. 200,000 years of human existence, ladies and gentlemen, and big rocks are still one of our most effective tools. Humans one, technology... Well, it's not zero. I mean, let's face it: it's putting up a pretty good fight, and further complicating matters is the fact that drones sometimes work in groups like the game's Stolas drones, where a team of drones connected to a powerful network can communicate. . each other to detect changes that neither of them could detect.

A drone flies by a location, takes a photo, and then another drone flies by a little later and they realize something has changed: Boom, you're trapped! Unless the Ghost was very careful in his path through the landscape, you will get Trapped, rock or no rock, and here's the crazy thing... We're 5 pages into the script and we've only dealt with the surveillance. We're dealing with drones that are basically a really smart internet stalking drone. Technology goes far beyond just looking at you. Much of what the ghosts will have to face in the game and what real-life soldiers will face on the battlefield is technology, designed to wipe you off the game map.

They are drones like the Andreas that have search and destroy capabilities. So how the heck do you combat that? Are the ghosts and soldiers in general basically cooked at this point, because the soldiers they fight now weigh 8 pounds and can fly? How to not only avoid being detected by these things but also fight against them? Well, there are some methods that we

humans

can use to have a chance. First, remember that drones are lightweight and ultimately a bit flimsy because they have to stay in the air. Considering that, you can technically shoot a drone out of the sky with a normal gun, but good luck with that.

The challenge is that the profile of a drone is difficult to achieve because it has a lot of holes, wings and things spinning. And instead of something that's at least on the ground in the same plane as you, you're trying to reach a target that moves in 3 dimensions above your head. Unlike bird hunting, many drones don't even fly in a straight line. To its credit, Ubisoft even shows us this when you see the Ghosts having trouble hitting a drone with their gun. Actually, your best option here will be to use a different type of ammo: the aptly named Skynet shotgun shells, which can be loaded into a modified weapon and then split open into a web after firing.

That way you can look cool, not be remotely accurate, and still shoot down your target: whenever the net hits the drone somewhere, it will clog the rotors and knock it straight out of the sky. But if that still doesn't sound exciting enough to you, maybe you'd prefer a more American solution. That's why you have to send the eagles. No, that's not a fancy name for a new gun or new ammo. I literally mean eagles. Anti-drone eagles. Yes. These are very real. And yes, they are as crazy as they sound. Instead of capturing another bird from the sky and taking it away for an afternoon snack, eagles are trained to detect and attack drones in the air, usually immediately overpowering them with their size and super-eagle strength.

While I personally would have gone with these as my weapon of choice in the game, I can also understand why Ghosts wouldn't feel like sneaking onto a tropical island, with literal attack eagles on their arms, would be the wisest decision, but still So. , with all these ways of fighting drones, still leaves us humans in a lurch. Regular ammo will make it harder to shoot and some of these other options are a little more specialized. It's not just finding drone attack eagles lying around to resupply. Is there another way we humans can have a chance? Well, we've been focusing on pretty low-tech so far, so maybe it's time to fight high-tech drones with higher-tech defenses.

EMP or electromagnetic pulses, the things you see in the movies where a mysterious silent explosion occurs and suddenly all the machines stop working. In fact, I just talked a lot about how EMPs work in a recent episode about movie

theory

and the new Sonic movie, so if you're interested in the ins and outs of gamma radiation, you can totally check it out, but the long and In Simply put, electromagnetism is what makes automated drones work and EMPs interfere with existing electromagnetic radiation to overwhelm their circuit boards and shut them down. You can actually detonate BMPs like a bomb, but at the end of the day, that's pretty inefficient and many EMPs have very limited range.

Enter Boeing's anti-drone laser cannon that concentrates all EMP energy into a single point, blowing a small hole in the drone and disabling it from the inside! And here's the thing, I don't even care if it wasn't able to lock onto drones and make them fly out of the sky: it already has the words laser cannon in its name, which scientifically makes it a thousand percent cooler. Humans, 2 - technology too, 2 - I don't know? Let's face it, this scoring system is really stupid. This arms race between technology and training simply cannot be quantified in single digits. It's a much more nuanced problem we're dealing with here.

After this episode, I hope you see that technology on the battlefield is a force to be reckoned with. Capable of picking up things with its sensors with a speed and efficiency that no human could hope to match. Drones are fearless and as such can perform the tasks they are programmed to perform with ruthless efficiency. But that's exactly the point: the task they are programmed to do. Sure, technology can do all of these things, but that's where it stops in many cases. What makes soldiers like the Ghosts on the battlefield so effective is their ability to adapt on the fly, restructure strategies, and think outside the box.

For every challenge the drones threw at us humans throughout this episode, we came up with a new solution: traditional camouflage doesn't work, upgrade the camo, pop it, try e/m mesh; If you have a hard time knocking a drone out of the sky, use a damn eagle! It is the Ghosts' ability to read the situation and solve problems quickly that allows us to compete against such a sophisticated and seemingly insurmountable opponent. The battlefield is really a chess game, you against your opponent. And most of the time, it's not about the tools you have, but how you choose to use those tools that ultimately decides who is the victor.

And let's face it, in the ultimate battle between technology and training, you'll know who the real winner is: eagle drones with laser cannons! But hey, that's just a theory, a game theory! Thanks for watching and thanks to Ubisoft for sponsoring this video. If you want to see more of Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, click on the box you see on the screen right now and watch the game come to life, all the cool stuff we talked about. Today now if you'll excuse me. I have to catch an eagle.