Do we need an S3 Program?

Kylan Parayao, March 18 2021

Disclaimer: We’re going to be discussing the ending of Metal Gear Solid 2 - Sons of Liberty in this article. If you have any interest in playing the game yourself or watching someone else play the game for the storyline, I’m advising you to not read any further. Then again, Metal Gear Solid 2 was released in 2001 so I’m not surprised you haven’t heard about the ending yet. Or maybe you don’t really care about video games and you’re here for a different reason. I’m not one to judge.

The S3 Program comes from the video game Metal Gear Solid 2 - Sons of Liberty of the Metal Gear franchise. The S3 Program in question stands for the Selection for Societal Sanity. It’s explained to be a program created by the organization known as the Patriots, the people who have been running society in the universe of the Metal Gear franchise. The Selection for Societal Sanity was conceived to be an AI program that would create context for data published on the internet. The Patriots were planning on using the S3 program to manipulate world events and decisions of individuals on Earth, shaping history as to how The Patriots see fit. In their words, the S3 Program is to “create context” to all data published on the internet. They argue that due to the juxtaposition that human beings create on themselves: “Billions spent on creating new weapons to humanely murder other humans. Rights of criminals are given more respect than the privacy of their victims. Although there are people suffering in poverty, huge donations are made to protect endangered species. Everyone grows up told the same thing. Be nice to other people, but beat out the competition! ‘You’re special. Believe in yourself and you will succeed.’ But it’s obvious from the start that only a few can succeed...”

The Patriots argue that because we impose these juxtapositions on ourselves, should human beings be in control of our own lives? Should we be responsible for maintaining our individual freedoms when it comes to the internet, given that whatever the average person uploads on the internet mostly tends to be what resorts to junk? Petty issues and rants to internet strangers on reddit forms, photos of people uploading their daily lives on platforms like Instagram and Facebook, YouTube drama blogs talking about the latest gossip. While there is some valuable information found on the internet, as in you can search up anything academic or professionally useful through Google or watching the right videos on YouTube, what the S3 Program means to do is to filter out the junk data while preserving the useful data.

You might say to yourself. But the S3 Plan addresses one step further. The S3 Plan addresses the fact that because anyone can upload anything on the internet, anyone can feel offended by anything that is uploaded on the internet due to the freedom that any individual may hold. They address the fact that people retreat into their comfort zones, afraid of the greater truth and instead live with the half-truth that they are comfortable living with instead. With an AI machine filtering out junk data and preserving valuable data, the Patriots argue that societal chaos will be prevented as long as all information processed on the internet has its context edited.

Well it may not affect you negatively given that the S3 Program is a work of fiction and not an actual real world creation, so we hope. But in our current world, there has been quite the need for the S3 Program. In our current world, we have seen a greater emergence of echo chambers. Individuals flock to others who hold the same opinions as them. When an individual is constantly surrounded by other individuals who reinforce what you already know, it enables for a warped perception of reality. Now, all people can avoid these echo chambers but all people are drawn towards people who do reflect their personal beliefs.

There is a certain danger of the echo chamber that can culminate in real world consequences. An individual or a group of individuals with the intent of spreading misinformation can cause real world damage. These individuals are known as cyber threat actors. If they happen to influence the right people, they can cause critical delays to society. And these delays happen in the real world.

The reason why the January 6 Capitol Hill raid happened was because a cyber threat actor said that the 2020 election results were fraud, despite multiple statements from state and federal authorities stating that no fraud took place.
Because of this cyber threat actor, he was able to influence some tens of thousands of people to participate in a raid on Capitol Hill. These voters were influenced by the words of one man, who strongly believed in a different interpretation of reality. This man happened to be the President of the United States from January 2017 to January 2021, one of the most powerful nations on the planet.

If the S3 Program were in place, we would most likely not have had this amount of chaos during the pandemic. In our current society, it looks like we would benefit from the S3 Program regardless of how legal would be to control and edit information on such a mass scale.

The human race is not a lost cause. I would like to believe that anyway. If you want my honest opinion, we can do one thing to prevent echo chambers and the spread of misinformation. We should start connecting with each other. We should hold each other accountable to be in the know about the facts. We should not let other people be blinded by half-truths and we should do our best to be as informed about society as possible. And we do this first step by engaging less with people who reinforce our views and we engage more with the people who do challenge our views.