Interactive Fiction has "Potential Narrative"

A work of IF is not itself a narrative; it is an interactive computer program. A narrative is “the representation of real or fictive events and situations in a time sequence” (Prince 1980, 180); this can result from an interactive session but does not describe any IF work itself. Similarly, interactive fiction is not a story in the sense of the things that happen in a narrative, or more precisely, “the content plane of narrative as opposed to its expression or discourse; the ‘what’ ...

 How the Tarot Works

The Tarot is where the past and the present meet, where pictures and stories come together—that is how it works its magic. We tell stories about our lives constantly—both to other people and ourselves. Just remembering what happened last night or talking about your day involve storytelling. What's more difficult is understanding what is going on below the surface of these stories. One of the most difficult things any of us can do is to get a perspective on our lives from outside of our co...

 How Media-Metaphors Change Thought

But our media-metaphors are not so explicit or so vivid as these, and they are far more complex. In understanding their metaphorical function, we must take into account the symbolic forms of their information, the source of their information, the quantity and speed of their information; the context in which their information is experienced. Thus, it takes some digging to get at them, to grasp, for example, that a clock recreates time as an independent, mathematically precise sequence; that wr...

 Online Comment Culture

Being an active commenter felt like being an internet socialite, part of an elite society of people who put their voice out there instead of lurked. And my fellow internet socialites responded in turn. Some upvoted, responded, debated. Some liked what I said, some hated it. A few of my comments made it to the top and became a fountain of dopamine. A few comments made it to the very bottom too. That can happen with 16 years of commenting history. [...] Various estimates of lifetime human ac...

 Time Does Not Pass

To say that time passes, is like saying that a path travels. A path does not walk. It allows walkers to travel. Likewise, a musical score cannot sing. It allows singers to sing. In other words, there is something static in time because it is invariant. But it is also dynamic because the present is constantly renewed. - Etienne Klein, Philosopher of Science. Physical Science Research Laboratory, Paris-Saclay University

 Zen Perception of Time

In its own way, each one of the arts which Zen has inspired gives vivid expression to the sudden or instantaneous quality of its view of the world. The momentariness of sumi paintings and haiku, and the total presence of mind required in cha-no-yu and kendo, bring out the real reason why Zen has always called itself the way of instantaneous awakening. It is not just that satori comes quickly and unexpectedly, all of a sudden, for mere speed has nothing to do with it. The reason is that Zen is...

 Abstraction is a Necessity for Communication

The English words "man," "fish," "star," "Hower," ·run," "grow," all denote classes of objects or events which may be recognized as members of their class by very simple attributes, abstracted from the total complexity of the things themselves. Abstraction is thus almost a necessity for communication, since it enables us to represent our experiences with simple and rapidly made "grasps" of the mind. When we say that we can think only of one thing at a time, this is like saying that the Paci...

 Column of Motivational Quotes

All know the way, few actually walk out - Bodhidharma Life isn’t about finding yourself, it’s about creating yourself - unknown Falling down is part of life, getting back up is living. - anonymous Life begins at the end of your comfort zone - Neale Donald Walsh Do the things you think you cannot do - Eleanor Roosevelt It's never too late to be what you might have been - George Eliot If you’re going through hell, keep going - Winston Churchill The sky is the limit - Spanish Proverb Do on...

 Leisure is an End That Can Only Be Enjoyed Without Burdens

But even when the work ethic reigns supreme, leisure holds a potent moral valence. Although we may not have much say over how we make money, we do have a choice about what we do in our free time. If work represents is, leisure represents ought: How we choose to use it will either embody our understanding of the good life or reveal the depth of our degradation. What is time well spent? Philosophers and social critics have long pondered variations of that question and offered rather consistent ...

 We Make Life Short by Dissipating It

Seneca observed that “we do not receive a life that is short, but rather we make it so,” by dissipating it in “extravagance and carelessness.” How better to describe the contemporary leisure experience? Americans spend, on average, more than three hours per day—more than 60 percent of their “leisure” time—watching TV and scrolling through social media (often at the same time). “All boats are rising here,” boasts entertainment mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg. “More people are wa...