Funny how war games have become less and less like games and more and
 more like war.

This portentous observation comes courtesy of the New York Hall of
 Science in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, where last week, a group of
 kids battled in a tug o'war to celebrate the museum's just-announced
 $68-million expansion project.

But this wasn't an ordinary rope-pull pitting two teams of screaming kids
 across a short chasm meant to symbolize a wartime front line. No, to
 demonstrate a new and amazing future exhibit called Connections, the
 team of schoolkids from P.S. 153 was holding one end of the rope in
 Queens while the team from I.S. 131 was holding the other end of the
 rope in Manhattan.

It wasn't a really long rope, mind you, but two short lengths that were
 connected to powerful computers that could "read" the amount of force
 exerted by the kids on each end, and tighten or loosen the ropes
 accordingly. Like a real tug o'war, the harder the kids pulled, the more
 pull was exerted on their opponents' end of the rope. If the kids on one
 end weakened, their rope would be pulled back by the machine as if it
 was being pulled by the other team.

This is a technology known as "haptics." In the future, it will allow a
 New York doctor to operate on a patient in France -- and not just cut,
 mind you, but FEEL what he's cutting -- without missing the Jitney to
 the Hamptons. It will allow a scientist to analyze a rock on the surface
 of a distant planet -- not just to pick it up by remote control, but to
 sense its texture -- without leaving the safety of NASA headquarters.

But for now, haptics is a fun kids game that, in light of some recent
 events, isn't fun for some adults. Watching the P.S. 153 kids battle
 their "opponents" in lower Manhattan -- their "enemies" visible only on
 a silent TV monitor, their rope "weapon" being controlled by sensitive
 machinery -- offered a glimpse at modern warfare, which is basically
 just a haptic video game where missiles are launched from hundreds of
 miles away, no one has to see messy things like victims and there's no
 need to even try to understand the enemy because the enemy is just a
 target on a computer screen.

The children all pronounced the experience "fun," of course, and no one
 could fully grasp the similarities between the "virtual tug o' war" and
 war as we practice it today. But some of the children were able to see
 that the disembodied version of their normal schoolyard scuffles has
 unsatisfactory ramifications.

"It's worse to do it this way," said Matthew Garone, 9. "We were pulling
 the rope and looking at them on the TV screen. But you can't hear them.
 We weren't even YELLING at them."

His friend, Sergio Redondo, agreed that the experience of fighting an
 enemy you can't see was unnatural.

"I would have yelled at them, but they were on TV, so what's the use?"
 Redondo, 10, asked. "You can't get mad at an enemy you can't see."

The connection between the kids' game and modern warfare wasn't lost on
 Eric Siegel, director of program development for the Hall of Science.
 While enthused about the scientific potential of haptics, he knows how
 easily technology can eliminate human interaction.

"Every advance in communication has reduced human communication a little
 more," Siegel said. "With haptics, you could have a meeting with someone
 in another city and still get to feel what his handshake is like. You
 begin to wonder, though, will people even NEED actual contact with
 people anymore? And what will that do to us as people?"

If war -- and war games -- are any indication, those questions have
 already been answered.

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