Star Fox 64 and it’s Cybernetic Systems (mini analysis)
Cyborgs are an example of a figure that tends to give people anxieties. The anxiety of cyborgs arises from the question of autonomy and control. In a cybernetic system, we wonder if we are even in control of ourselves. We wonder if the goals the system is trying to achieve are our own, or the goal of some other component. As a result we feel a sense of anxiety with the concept of cyborgs and cybernetics in general.
The concept of the cyborg and it’s associated anxieties appears in a multitude of media and texts. One such example is the Nintendo 64 game Star Fox 64. The main characters in this game can be considered autonomous cyborgs. However, Unbenounced to the main characters of the game, they are actually experiencing the same exact anxiety that arises as a result of cybernetics.
In this game we control a team of space pilots who fly plane-like machines called “Arwings.” Already, we see an example of a cybernetic system. The components being, the pilot, and the arwing. The function of the pilot is to control the arwing, and the function of the arwing is to simply fly. With these functions, this system can achieve the simple goal of getting from point A to point B. Making their operation of the arwing a cybernetic system.
These pilots also have mechanical parts surgically implanted into them. For example, their legs are actually robotic, extending the notion that the pilots are in fact cyborgs. The components being, their bodies and their robotic legs. The function of the body is to use their eyes as feedback mechanisms to sense the surrounding area and using the brain to communicate to the robotic legs to perform their function of motor skills. The goal being presented here, similar to the previously stated goal, is to go from point A to point B.
Despite the pilots being autonomous cyborgs, there exists one cybernetic system that inhibits their autonomy. Before the start of every mission you are ordered by a character named “General Pepper” to achieve specific goals in the selected stage. This interferes with the pilots autonomy, their kubernetes. This other part of a bigger cybernetic system governs the actions of the pilots. As a result, turning their autonomy of kubernetes, into the governing and controlling gubernetes.