Titling
I. The word “Species” means something. When asked “Does a ‘species’ exist?” you might get tripped up: the taxonomy is itself a human invention, and the traditional definition of a species- a group of creatures bound by their capability to breed- is shakier than one might be comfortable with. But, overall, I think the reasonable answer is more »
Housekeeping: May 26
Dumping out some follow-up thoughts. I sometimes think this whole operation might’ve better served as a micro-blog. But I can’t decide whether that’d be annoying or not? Reading I have a lot of heavy-lifts in terms of projects this season, but I’ve got three books I’ve started to meander through. I doubt that I’ll release comprehensive more »
Social Physics and Algorithmic Prisons
I. “Prom Week” When I was in school, I attended a lecture given by Michael Mateas, who talked a bit about videogames involving social interaction. Mateas was already well-known for Facade (actual game here), and was working on a new game called “Prom Week”. “Prom Week” was developed to explore the gap that I’ve touched on more »
The New Games Movement
I. Play Hard. Play Fair. Nobody Hurt. I’m returning again to Stewart Brand, the Counterculture, and tying it back in to my long-running series of notes on game studies. Someone- I forget who and it’s probably unimportant- was observing puppies play, and interpreted their play as an exchange of signals: “I could hurt you if more »
Mulling: Machines and Theories
I’ve been overworking a bit. I still wrote a little bit but nothing too coherent. (What else is new.) Part of my problem was that I temporarily stopped flying, and those three-hour sessions of confinement (plus the free drinks) were a big part of my usual writing ritual for this blog. I’m in the air more »
Text Dump: Infantilization, Dreamlogs, Liberation through Laziness
I think this happens often- when your mind changes, the network of ideas that supported your previous worldview crumble a bit, and it becomes a little bit harder to earnestly work out why the old idea was so convincing. The new idea is just so obvious. This blog has helped by acting as a repository more »
Mulling: Changing Minds
In the game “Argument Champion“, A little demon appears and shows you the thought bubbles of your audience’s beliefs [for example “I like headers” or “I dislike squids”]. Connect “positive” beliefs to your nonsense cause and “negative” ones to your opponent’s, by navigating a grid of related terms and trying to cover the smallest topological more »
Mulling: Doctorow’s Wars, Estrada’s Organisms
I’ve started to clean and update my “cowpaths” page of reasonable-sounding connections/themes for 2014 so far. The reflection probably could’ve been saved for my March meta-post, but I had a little time. My current constellations of posts are: Ecological Thinking, Stories and Decision Making, Modern/Centralized Systems, and Games/Game Studies. I have half a mind to more »
Against the Smart City III
Between my new learning regimen and a big sprint on one of my projects (which will probably continue into another week), I haven’t been keeping up with my usual reading/writing pace. I’ll make for lost time starting next week, I think. Anyway, more of Greenfield’s Against the Smart City. Very light run-through this time. Part I (reviews/interpretations) more »
Against the Smart City II: Generic Time and Space
Note: Greenfield’s arguments are also easily applicable to any political ideology. Discussion about this pamphlet started here. Background Against the Smart City is the first pamphlet in an unfolding series, The City is Here For You To Use. The pamphlet is not long, but I’ve been reading it sporadically alongside some other things, so these notes more »