There were issues with this book, but I appreciate how the Critical Theory aspects of it serve as a sort of "red pill" to break us out of our complacent acceptance of the world--specifically in video games. Many reviews complain about the erudite verbiage, but all Critical Theory makes use of newly-invented words in order to circumvent our preconceptions about the social constructs that rule our lives. I appreciated the concept of the "allegorithm" of how the programming of games is used to define a world, the questioning of "play" in games when really many games are actually work, criticizing the concept of "flow" and calling it "non-contemplation," and the idea that the best gamers are merely the ones who most internalize the algorithms. This book is not for everyone. It is dense and obtuse, but also highly effective and will be very enjoyable for the right readers.
06 JUL 2024 by ideonexus
Boredom Always Returns
Boredom can be displaced only so far. Even the most deluded of gamers can eventually realize that their strivings have no purpose, that all they have achieved is a hollow trophy, the delusion of value, a meaningless rank built on an arbitrary number. Boredom always returns. Giacomo Leopardi: “The uniformity of pleasure without purpose inevitably produces boredom.” The very action of overcoming boredom reproduces it, when gamer and game reach some impasse. There is always a limit. In games...Folksonomies: gamespace
Folksonomies: gamespace
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notes04 JUN 2024 by ideonexus
Topic, Topology, and Topography in Critical Theory
In practice, critical theorists use these concepts to:
Topic: Identify and critique the central themes and issues in various discourses, questioning what is considered important or relevant and why.
Topology: Analyze the networks and relationships within social structures to reveal how power and influence are distributed and maintained.
Topography: Map and describe the socio-cultural landscape to expose the underlying forces that shape it, often highlighting issues of power, inequality, a...Folksonomies: critical theory
Folksonomies: critical theory
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notes23 DEC 2023 by ideonexus
Anthropocene Traps
The concept of evolutionary traps has been used almost exclusively for studying how non-human species respond to cues in anthropogenic environments [24–34]. Key examples include artificial human lights attracting insects, island species responding naively to the presence of introduced predators, and seabirds not being able to discriminate between the cues of marine plankton and marine plastics [34–36] (figure 1a). In the context of humans, evolutionary mismatch is a much more fr...Folksonomies: evolution maladaptation
Folksonomies: evolution maladaptation
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notes23 SEP 2023 by ideonexus
When Isolation and Disconnection are Desirable
In his article on Scuttlebutt, Bogost asks, “What if isolation and disconnection could actually be desirable conditions for a computer network?†He says this in the context of describing how Dominic Tarr, the creator of Scuttlebutt, lives largely offline in a sailboat in New Zealand, but it makes me think of the not-yet-wireless phone in my house growing up. Before I got older and started carrying around a heavy black rectangle of potentiality and dread, it worked like this: You t... 1 notes
notes30 APR 2023 by ideonexus
Three Guidelines and Eight Stages
I.A The Three Guidelines
The Dao of Great Learning lies in making bright virtue brilliant; in making the people new; in coming to rest at the limit of the good. Only after wisdom comes to rest does one possess certainty; only after one possesses certainty can one become tranquil; only after one becomes tranquil can one become secure; only after one becomes secure can one contemplate alternatives; only after one can contemplate alternatives can one comprehend. Affairs have their roots and bra...Folksonomies: confucianism
Folksonomies: confucianism
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notes05 JAN 2023 by ideonexus
Identifying AI Online
Before you continue, pause and consider: How would you prove you're not a language model generating predictive text? What special human tricks can you do that a language model can't?
1. Triangulate objective reality
[...]
This leaves us with some low-hanging fruit for humanness. We can tell richly detailed stories grounded in our specific contexts and cultures: place names, sensual descriptions, local knowledge, and, well the je ne sais quoi of being alive. Language models can decently mim...Folksonomies: ai auto-generated content
Folksonomies: ai auto-generated content
1 There are additional tactics for differentiating ourselves from AIs, but the first two were the most interesting to me.
05 JAN 2023 by ideonexus
Web Gardens and Streams Elaborated
Caufield makes clear digital gardening is not about specific tools – it's not a Wordpress plugin, Gastby theme, or Jekyll template. It's a different way of thinking about our online behaviour around information - one that accumulates personal knowledge over time in an explorable space.
Caufield's main argument was that we have become swept away by streams – the collapse of information into single-track timelines of events. The conversational feed design of email inboxes, group chats, and...Folksonomies: web topology digital distraction
Folksonomies: web topology digital distraction
1 19 NOV 2022 by ideonexus
Critical Ignoring and Deliberate Ignorance
Low-quality and misleading information online can hijack people’s attention, often by evoking curiosity, outrage, or anger. Resisting certain types of information and actors online requires people to adopt new mental habits that help them avoid being tempted by attention-grabbing and potentially harmful content. We argue that digital information literacy must include the competence of critical ignoring—choosing what to ignore and where to invest one’s limited attentional capacities. We ...An important educational paradigm.
17 OCT 2021 by ideonexus
Sex Makes Life and Should Not Be Shunned
If there is a perverse man who could take offense at the praise that I give to the most noble and universal of passions, I would evoke Nature before him, I would make it speak, and Nature would say to him: why do you blush to hear the word pleasure pronounced, when you do not blush to indulge in its temptations under the cover of night? Are you ignorant of its purpose and of what you owe it? Do you believe that your mother would have imperiled her life to give you yours if I had not attached ...Folksonomies: morals
Folksonomies: morals
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