@RAF Flütersloh
 
@RAF Flütersloh  
I know that scientists have been working for a long time trying to figure out if it’s possible to remove evil from humans brains, if it’s possible to do so, I’d be terrified of them doing that.  
It’s one thing to say “with our new technology, humans will never want to commit murder again! World peace is now possible!”  
But just knowing that there is a natural configuration for how the human mind is supposed to be, and that people want to change that for various reasons, terrifies me.

@Ping_chan  
Oh I agree. Interesting to wonder whether space exploration has fallen by the wayside because the Soviet Union collapsed. I mean, as it stands currently, America relies heavily on Russian cooperation to operate in space and the ISS is a fantastic achievement, but watching a documentary about the Apollo missions today (In the Shadow of the Moon btw, great doc actually - its where the Star Wars trailer music comes from too!) there were many aspiring incentives that Kennedy set out when he ordered NASA to land on the moon within the decade, but one of them clearly was “I’ll be damned if we let the Russkies beat us too it!” :P
 
Funnily enough, the car analogy was something I was thinking of using myself. On a personal note, I saw recently that two of my best friends from high school were posting pics of their new cars on Facebook - one had a brand new BMW and the other a Jaguar. I have a old Ford Focus with a broken speedometer. I don’t resent my friends at all and while I’m relatively happy with my car it does make me think that I surely can do better.  
It’s a mite hypocritical of me - on one hand I could say that, if you believe in evolution, every single human being descends from a common ancestor who fatefully went “nope, I need something better” and ventured out of their tree, or their cave or their continent, even - but I can’t say I’m exceptionally motivated to change myself at the moment :|
 
Certainly though, there are some areas that one hopes could be removed from human behaviour - if one could be so simplistic then “malicious thought” would be one. I mean aggression, jealousy for example are broad in application and motive but a malicious thought - like you describe it - the desire to inflict suffering on others - that seems superfluous. I mean, most societies decry malice, but it still exists. For that to be removed from human behaviour would make huge changes to the world and would still leave us able to advance and defend ourselves. But to earmark “malice” remains very abstract though.
 
I mean, realistically, an attempt to alter the noosphere is not likely to become reality any time soon (although, who knows, STALKER did make it seem surprisingly real) but I do wonder whether genetic engineers may attempt something similar in the relative-near future instead. One problem that exists with the notion of a “new” and emotionally superior human being born is that how the hell would “old” humans (us) accept them? These kinds of cultural advances can only be undertaken gradually if they are to be successful. Our attitudes change - in fact I think the 20th century has seen some massive change in general attitude. But these kinds of changes should never be forced.
 
Rambling now, sorry :P

@RAF Flütersloh  
Yup I have to agree that for a society to advance its technology, it needs something to push it further. It needs a reason to want advance.  
World War 1 and 2 pushed hard for new advances in technology and medical practices. The Cold War pushed us with computers, wireless technologies and the space programs.  
It’s like, once you got past the idea that the Soviet Union wanted so badly to just nuke the US and be over and done with it, they were pretty good rivals for us. :p  
But if it were possible to just modify something crazy like the Noosphere, and immediately remove any and all undesirable traits from the human mind, it’s pretty scary that you suddenly loose any capability to be jealous or angry with people.  
It’s like if you are driving to work and your buddy drives a new car and parks next to you, it’s normal to express some amount of jealousy and make some snide remarks.  
If you bought a new car and your buddy who had previously expressed great interest in buying the same car that you just bought and suddenly he is like “meh.” that wouldn’t be right. It wouldn’t be the same if no one cared that you bought something shiny and new.  
I guess my point is that it’s normal for people to express regular emotions.  
I remember a family member long ago was very close to having a feeding tube installed, which would have meant loosing the ability to eat food normally. If he had gotten the tube installed, he never again would have enjoyed the taste of eating food normally.  
But he was lucky enough to not need the tube installed.  
A normal part of being human is to enjoy eating food, especially in a social environment.  
But with all of the evil things happening in the world today, I always think about that Noosphere and if it were possible to remove evil thoughts and desires from people’s minds, thoughts like the desire to steal and murder.  
But what happens if every single human lost the ability to fight and strive to win a war, and suddenly aliens from Mars or some crazy planet decide to invade and take over? We would be like “Meh.” we would be incapable of fighting back.  
Eehh, thinking about this crazy stuff is fun to do while I’m bored at work. :p

@Ping_chan  
I should really find the time for Survivum as well :P Can’t believe I haven’t played Metro yet… :|
 
I do love the RL theory about the noosphere, that creatures can potentially interact in a non-physical manner. I also think it was an excellent creative choice by the devs. The original book told of aliens (in an unusual approach) and Tarkovsky was very vague about the causes, so STALKER itself remained fresh. That said, attempts to interfere with human behaviour have appeared elsewhere, and most fiction writers recognise it’s fraught with danger. C-Consciousness’ failure is mirrored by the Miranda experiment in Firefly, for example. The actual opposite effect of what happened to the Reavers; i.e. the people of Miranda who just gave up everything, including breathing in the end; strikes me as one of the greatest reasons why I think any such experiment, even “successful”, would never lead to a true utopia.
 
Even if people retained their basic functions to survive and reproduce, we intransigently develop through competition. Topically, a prime example of this is Starlight Glimmer’s little experiment. It might technically work on a very small scale, but by forcibly removing a pony’s natural talent means that that society will never actually achieve anything and will gradually diminish.
 
Let’s not forget, Ponyville is not free from jealousy and fighting. Of course, often its brought out for the purpose of plot progression, but numerous episodes, such as Putting Your Hoof Down, implies that Ponyville can be full of jerks. But from what you describe, one can kinda equate the ponies of Ponyville with the crew of the starship Enterprise. Gene Roddenberry wanted a crew (or crews) that always got on, were never jealous and always worked in harmony. But the characters remained, for want of a better word, “human” and flawed, like many of the ponies are, so that it remains an obtainable reality for the audience to relate to and to strive towards, rather than a “perfect” world which appears unobtainable and, well, boring - a kind of forced reality that the experiment may have resulted in. That’s why the Zone would have been a much better place if the C-Conciousness scientists just sat around and watched Pony instead. :P  
Or at least, more Star Trek.
 
Then they’d just be left with the results of what happens when a society pretends everything is perfect, and neglects to tell technicians of critical design flaws that will bite them hard if they play loose and fast with safety regulations…
 
And for my next essay…
 
Sorry :P

@RAF Flütersloh  
I really wish that there could have been a STALKER 3, I just enjoy exploring all of the spooky ancient Soviet laboratories and abandoned towns. I also can’t help but wonder had the C-Consciousness been successful in their brain altering experiment, would it have lead to a perfect utopia in what people look for in a place like Ponyville? Everyone gets along, no fighting or jealousy, perfect peace and harmony….  
Also I really should take the time to try playing Survivum…

@Ping_chan  
Agreed, though the shotgun welcome to visitors is a nice comical moment. :D
 
The way I see it, STALKER unfortunately remains, at its heart, linear. I think the devs had huge plans for its scope but time and technology limited them. I know they don’t strictly exist any more, but I’d love to see a more open-world version of STALKER, and in that characters like the Guide would be much more apparent, imo, and also, the player being able to develop a playing style to be like them would be terrific :)

@RAF Flütersloh  
You know what, that guy in the ship would be more awesome if he didn’t have his shotgun, but was totally at peace with the zone and survived with the help of the pseudodogs that he is raising.

@Ping_chan
 
I know what you mean. I always took what Freedomers said with a pinch of salt but I did buy into the philosophy of Stalkers being a peace with the Zone, and Duty antagonising the Zone made things worse (I respected Duty’s philosophy of order so I inevitably sided with them…) Certainly what you describe sounds a lot like the eponymous Stalker from Andrei Tarkovsky’s film, which could be what the game writers were alluding to.
 
I guess the closest we get is probably the Guide from the first game, who appears very fleetingly during the plot. You never see him armed and, possibly straying into headcannon territory, I believe he’s so successful because he respects the Zone, understands it and therefore can always find the safe way through. That’s how he guides Strelok’s gang all the way to the centre of the Zone, while the player, having to take the aggressive route, has to go the very much harder way, as it were.
 
The other character I see that’s sort of similar is the guy in Call of Pripyat who lives by himself in a sunken ship. Rather than being totally at peace, he shoots at anything and everything that tries to come through his front door, but on the other hand he has tamed a pseudodog of all things and can guide the player through a treacherous patch of fire anomalies.

One thing that I wish was explored further was that somehow there was supposed to be stalkers who were at peace/neutral to the zone it self.  
I think I remember hearing from some Freedom stalkers, that a stalker could free themselves from anything metallic, like guns and knives, and not fight back against the zone, like how Duty does, then the zone would leave them alone.

@RAF Flütersloh  

 
The Stalkers don’t have to be afraid of the monsters because everybody knows that Yashka The Sheriff loves to camp out here.

“Somewhere” in the Zone? If anything that reminds me of the village near the Army Warehouses which is full of Bloodsuckers! I never got how those couple of Stalkers were chilling just outside, I mean, just outside; you hop over the small wooden fence they’re leaning on and immediately half a dozen or so Bloodsuckers shout “the buffet’s here!”
 
The Stalkers just sit there, probably tutting to themselves as the village erupts in the sound of screams, gunfire and explosions, barely looking up as moments later I come leaping over that fence amid a cacophony of “Nopenononopenopesomuchnope!!!” with the monsters behind me going “Grr, wait, wooden fence? Ah, bugger it…”
 
Wise Stalkers…
 
Anyway, I digress. Nice picture as always - love the atmosphere.  
How can they sleep there though!?!?!?!