8 Insane Inventions Ripped Straight From Video Games
1. Social Media - Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
And finally, perhaps the single most ridiculous piece of technology on this entire list - the clown-show that is social media itself.
As if we don't have enough proof that Hideo Kojima is an unhinged genius, way back in 2001 he basically outlined what algorithm-driven social media platforms would eventually become and do to society in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.
Near the end of the game, the Patriot AI versions of Rose and Colonel Campbell detail how an increasingly digitised society will become fractured by the presence of misinformation (aka "fake news") and retreat into siloed-off echo chambers, fearful of challenging outside opinions.
Gee, does that sound familiar or what?
Given that the proto-social media of the early 2000s was message boards without any "smart" algorithmic curation, it's mesmerising that Kojima was able to predict what the likes of Facebook and Twitter would aggressively ramp up throughout the 2010s up to this very day.
It's far more likely that Kojima simply did his research rather than those platforms taking inspiration from him, but all the same, it does feel eerily prophetic watching these scenes from the game today.