Godzilla vs. Biollante and the Moment Genetic Power Overtook Nuclear Power as the Scariest Thing On Earth

Godzilla vs. Biollante and the Moment Genetic Power Overtook Nuclear Power as the Scariest Thing On Earth

Michael California
genetics, Science, film

Godzilla vs. Biollante! This week I am joining Derek and Charlotte on the Castle Bravo podcast (all about Godzilla films!) to discuss this fabulous film. Watching it for the first time in over 20 years, I had a lot of thoughts about how the film comments on the theme of genetic engineering and especially the historical context—how genetic engineering was a major fear in society in the 1980s, and how the United States was wielding that genetic power to get a leg up on more technologically advanced adversaries like Japan. I also wanted to discuss the concept of a “chimera” a bit and clear up something I think the film gets wrong here.

Elden Ring and The Ecstacy of the Esoteric

Elden Ring and The Ecstacy of the Esoteric

Michael California
Video Games

If there’s one word to describe Elden Ring, it is “esoteric”. Designed to be inscrutable, made to be studied and learned like an academic pursuit, playing Elden Ring makes you feel like you’re part of some special club for people who truly wanted to put in the effort. But that esoteric design can also facilitate a tribalism that results in immature trampling on legitimate questions about accessibility and difficulty.

A Year of Micro-Videos Taught Me a Lot About Myself

A Year of Micro-Videos Taught Me a Lot About Myself

Michael California
Personal, Video Games

Last year, I suddenly decided to try a new form of creative expression: micro-videos. Of course, that’s not the cool name for them and I don’t know what the cool name is but basically, short videos of under a minute in length that I put up on TikTok and Youtube Shorts. It was a fun experiment that I’m carrying on still today! I have a few videos that have hit it big and truly gone viral but actually the ones I’m most proud of have maybe a few hundred views.

Hyperlinear Hands and the Big Vampire Lady

Hyperlinear Hands and the Big Vampire Lady

Michael California
genetics, video games

This week, I wanted to talk about the latest video game sensation: Big Vampire Lady from Resident Evil VIllage. Lady Dimitrescu has been drawing a lot of attention for her incredible height and incredible bust, but as high resolution images of her started to spread this week, people also noticed her skin seemed a little odd. But it turns out… she’s not the only one with unusual skin. I talk about my own skin as I discuss the genetics of a condition I have called ichthyosis and how it may relate to the design of Lady Dimitrescu’s skin and also revisit how I feel about that kind of representation in games.

Welcome to the Monkey House

Welcome to the Monkey House

Michael California

Welcome back. I made a commitment to myself that I was going to post a blog at least once a week this year. Here we are in the first week of the year and unfortunately, there’s really only one thing I feel like I can talk about today. Yesterday’s Capitol Hill Insurrection by a bunch of slack-jawed racist Trumpists really pissed me off so you’ll have to excuse me if I take a detour from the science and games and other lighter content to share my thoughts on what happened.

The Real-World Science That Underlies Pokémon Evolution

The Real-World Science That Underlies Pokémon Evolution

Michael California
Escapist Magazine, Science, Video Games

I’d wanted to write a piece about the real genetics of Pokemon for a very long time. The only problem is that, despite having breeding and “evolution” and so on, Pokemon doesn’t really use rules of real-world genetics! Instead, “evolution” is much more like another real biological phenomenon: life cycles. In this article, I discuss the standard evolution-by-level and the more unusual evolution-by-stone and how both of them compare to life cycles that exist in real world animals.

How Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Turns Human Evolution into a Game

How Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Turns Human Evolution into a Game

Michael California
Escapist Magazine, Genetics, Science, Video Games

I had a chance to sit down with Patrice Désilets, the creator of Assassin’s Creed, to discuss his recently released game Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey for Escapist Magazine. We talked about their goals when creating the game and how they tried to infuse real scientific facts about human evolution and ancestry into the game. Patrice was a fun interviewee and was very candid about their design goals with the game as well as where they want to go in the future with Ancestors.

The Problem with "Gaming Disorder"

The Problem with "Gaming Disorder"

Michael California
Video Games, Science

“Gaming disorder” is now a diagnosis according to the World Health Organization and the response to it has ranged from sarcastic skepticism about gaming being treated like a disability to complete faith in it as truth and a hope that its definition will lead to helping people with addiction to gaming. But on deeper inspection, I have doubts about video games in particular being focused on in lieu of addiction being seen as the ultimate problem facing these people.