Video Gamer’s Reality

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Have you ever heard a song and thought, That reminds of my favorite video game…?

There are a few diehard Zelda fans who revere Maurice Ravel’s “Bolero” because it might have been in the game. They still know the real title music when they hear it. They know when they hear something even close in style that they’ve played a game with that kind of music in it. Oh yeah, the thumbs start trembling excitedly and their eyes glaze over as if they’re suddenly transported right into that interactive world.

Have you ever seen a chevron painted on the street, like the one in the picture above, and thought, This should give me a burst of speed…?

If you have, then you know exactly what it’s like to live in the video gamer’s reality. It must be some kind of parallel world, because people from far parts of the globe have reported experiences like that. One minute you’re writing reports on your office computer, and the next you’re flying through the darkness of the starry universe shooting down enemy ships. One minute you’re driving the company truck, the next minute your driving a tank. One minute you’re riding the bus, and the next minute you’re driving the bus erratically, smashing down the pedal, racing for that next ramp so you can leap this ten ton hunk of diesel burning machismo over the broken overpass…and then you come down, not landing the bus, but landing your sense of reality right back where you were. You wish you were there, but there is no there. At least not anything you can hold down and make it stay.

One more: Have you ever accidentally looked over someone’s shoulder, someone you don’t know, and saw them playing a game on their phone like Candy Crush, Angry Birds, Plants vs. Zombies, or Geometry Dash and you wanted so bad to tell them how to play the level they’re on because you’ve already beaten it, and you know they’re going to make a mistake, but you don’t say anything because, well, you don’t know that person, and that would be really awkward to jump right in and say something, plus they would probably get mad and tell you it was your fault that they blew the level, and that’s what you would do if someone over-the-shoulder played your game for you?

Where’s My AI?

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Have you ever heard of apophenia? It means to communicate by using a series of seemingly unrelated ideas. Well, I have an acquaintance, even a friend, who makes lots of sense when I speak to him directly, but when he creates online conversations, he is totally apophenic. He trips from subject to subject so rapidly, there are few people who follow his online rants. In fact, there are few people who can follow his online rants. He does not construct a paragraph thoughtfully. For instance, while chatting with him about his pet peeve, “climate change”, he managed to change the subject seven times. He wandered off into subjects like the caffeine and cocaine contents of certain soda, the pay-off of American auto manufacturers by their government, and how many people work at NASA. Now, if you take all of these subjects one by one, you can see how they do relate to the original topic, though the relation is no doubt indirect. It may even be interesting to note here that one definition of the word apophenia is to read connective meaning into someone’s seemingly unrelated ideas. So, for me to understand my apophenic friend even better, I have to employ apophenia? It’s not easy.

Another acquaintance of mine, who, unfortunately, I can’t really say is a friend, has autism. For this man, I have to employ a great deal of patience. He does not understand figures of speech at all. He takes every word literally. If you tell him you sent smoke signals, he would look up in the sky for the smoke. If you tell him he ate crow, he would mentally review his last few meals. If you told him someone was pulling his leg, he would ask you why you can’t see the obvious truth—no one is even so much as holding his leg.

And this is where I think AI could shine. Really, really shine. If I had an Artificial Intelligence program to communicate with both of these men, then more clear sentences could be arranged, more clear thoughts could be passed around. Of course, we would have to input the specific case of each man. I would have to tell the AI that the first man uses apophenia. I would have to tell the AI that the second man has autism, and probably I would have to tell the AI what sort of autism. And of course the autism would have to be diagnosed to discover the specific kind. Then again, an AI could be trained to detect the subtle nuances of an autistic mind.

The great conclusion of all of this would be that we could all communicate with each other more effectively. I can just imagine how the AI would pare down the first man’s ideas like this: “And I believe in thegungadincocacolamachinepoisoncontroleradication fromouterspacetimecontinuumfactoreconomicsofahockeygamefistfight will cause climate stasis.” So that I would hear only: “I believe in climate stasis.”

And then with the second man, I would say, “He’s pulling your leg.” And he would hear, “He is not telling you the truth. He is instead fabricating a non-existent scenario for your entertainment and amusement, while simultaneously using you as part of the humor. You are now friends. The appropriate response is to laugh, make a fist, and punch him in the shoulder.”

There Are No Idiots

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Have you ever seen someone point at a Ford Bronco and say, “That’s a cool looking Jeep.”? Just because they think it’s a Jeep doesn’t make it a Jeep.

Just because you think someone is an “idiot” doesn’t make them an idiot. Plus, what happens to your abstract mental construct when the person you called an idiot gains a higher IQ score than you? Would you call yourself an idiot? And even if you did manage to call yourself that, would it be true? I’m here to tell you it’s not true. There are no idiots, only people in a different stage of growth, or level of learning from you.

The “abstract mental construct” I mentioned is that label, the tag. It creates a space inside the taggers brain—a convenient file for all the other people who are like the one identified. A shallow way to regard others, it requires no in-depth study of anyone. It doesn’t necessarily correlate with reality; that’s the abstract part. It’s not objective, as in, it can’t be verified by everyone in the universe. So, for instance, if you were playing with 5 year old Isaac Asimov on the playground, and he poured gravel in your shoes, and you called him an idiot, would everyone, or even a high majority of people agree with you? Or would they say that you’re the only one who thinks so?

Okay, maybe that was too agreeable. Many people love Isaac Asimov. Many people would even wish to have him pour a handful of gravel in their shoes. They would have saved that gravel their whole lives—and cherished it. Insert the name of someone less agreeable in the above paragraph, like say, Donald Trump, or Marshall Mathers. Did either one of these “idiots” know very much when they were 5 years old? You might even say that both are of the same intelligence as they were when they were 5; but if you said it, you’d know you were only trying to be funny, and that your argument didn’t carry any weight logically. They grew. They learned. They know more than they did when they were 5. We all grow. We all learn. Some learn slower than others. But if idiocy is so temporary, is it still a label you want to use? In a few short weeks, or even months, you could be proven wrong. You could be passed up on the scale of knowledge.

Next question: How does labeling someone an idiot help that person learn what you wished they knew?

Opinions

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A short list of some opinions was probably another eventuality.

Guns: Living beings have a right to protect themselves. This is not a constitutional right, it’s a universal right. Guns are an effective method of protection. Unfortunately, current Earthling culture praises the use of a gun as an offensive weapon. Strange how they miss the part about being mortal.

Intelligence: It’s rare, but it does exist. Some of us come by it randomly. Some of us come by it only in passing. Others have to work at it. If you use someone else’s lack of intelligence as an insult, then you have a lot of work to do yourself. Cyberbullying is too often done with words like “idiot” and “moron”.

Protests: Protests are a way for people who make videos to insult the intelligence of the common protester who doesn’t have any idea what the protest is about. Refer to the statement on intelligence.

Authors: Authors are stuffy, old weirdoes with little to no concept of hygiene. If you know anyone who calls themselves an author, give them a bar of soap and instruction on how to use it. Writers, on the other hand, are clever people who tend to turn a word into a vista.

Blockchain: Sounds like imprisonment. Looks like it’s an inevitable part of our future. Hopefully it will be better than it sounds.

Eventually, I’ll Slip

dwarf-1273075__480It’s probably inevitable. (Does this count as a legal disclaimer?) Somewhere, somehow, I’ll be voicing an opinion, and BAM!, I’ll say, or write, something that upsets someone. Within everyone is a huge ball of emotions and opinions and probably some spices and undigested scraps that haven’t been explored yet, and I’m no different. I have stuff in me that I don’t know about. Isn’t it true that we know others long before we know ourselves?

Not even talking about introversion or extroversion here. I’m talking about self-knowledge. We all seem to be poor critics of ourselves. We don’t judge ourselves very accurately. Accurate self-image is a skill that seems to escape most humans. When was the last time you saw someone dressed in clothes you would consider awkward and heard them admit that they were dressed in strange clothes? Have you ever hired someone who wasn’t any good at what they do? And did they know that they weren’t any good at it? Sure, it’s considered impolite (in some cultures) to point out another persons faults; however, how will that person ever really know if someone doesn’t eventually give them an honest, objective opinion? And ooh boy, do I have opinions. I could probably list some here. No, I better stay on topic. The point of today’s ramble is two-fold: First, I wouldn’t mind some constructive criticism; Second, I will most likely give out criticism (hopefully constructive) to someone, and with this web archive I can say, “See? I told you so.”

Oh, and by the way, when I’m giving criticism, I try to keep it constructive by using softeners, such as: “It seems like…” and “From my point of view…” These are good tactful ways to show you’re merely observing and not nitpicking. So there you go. If you have read this far, you maybe learned some diplomacy. Maybe you could prevent the next nuclear holocaust.