27 JUL 2018 by ideonexus
The Communal Nature of Tabletop Gaming Complicates Unders...
De Koven’s concept of play is predicated on the idea that play, as a purposeless act, is the means through which we can build community and move closer to living better lives. He ultimately moves away from the idea of playing games and towards a purer idea of play beyond games, play as mastery over nothing in particular (De Koven 2013). For De Koven, games are at best a means to an end, a way to encourage an initial sense of playfulness; at worst, they are a controlling aspect over play, so... 1 
notes
notes03 MAR 2014 by ideonexus
The Scientific Bias Against Promotion
I agree that a dreary comprehensive litany of who made what suggestion and which project official rejected it would be tedious (although me fact that the same idea arose in the minds of many different people - both in the science and the engineering teams - is worth noting), while at least some indication of the resistance to "nonscientific" data might be quite interesting. The battle is, of course, being played out again with regard to the two Galileo Earth encounters, where there was partic... 1 notes
notesCarl Sagan recounting the resistance to having Voyager take a photo of Earth from deep space because it had no scientific value.
24 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
The Neccessity of Selective Attention
Three decades ago, cognitive scientist Colin Martindale advanced the idea that each of us has several subselves, and he connected his idea to emerging ideas in cognitive science. Central to Martindale’s thesis were a few fairly simple ideas, such as selective attention, lateral inhibition, state-dependent memory, and cognitive dissociation. Although there are billions of neurons in our brains firing all the time, we’d never be able to put one foot in front of the other if we were unable t...Folksonomies: attention perception
Folksonomies: attention perception
1 Douglas T. Kenrick explains how our senses are bombarded, so we filter. If we could not filter, we would become incapacitated.
26 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
We Have Finite Time to Spend in Life
At IndieCade in October 2011, Adam Saltsman, Canabalt's creator, discussed the notion of "time until death." All of us have a finite amount of time on earth, and any time we spend on a particular activity is time that we can't spend doing something else. This means that the time we spend gaming represents most of a game's cost of ownership, far more than any money that we spend. If that time is enjoyable (or rather, if its benefits outweigh its costs), then the game was worth our time.
Value... 1 notes
notesWhen we play games, we should play games that are fun, but also creative and challenging. Easy games are a complete waste of time, like watching TV. Hard games challenge us and make us grow.
03 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
The Rigidity of Digital
Before MIDI, a musical note was a bottomless idea that transcended absolute definition. It was a way for a musician to think, or a way to teach and document music. It was a mental tool distinguishable from the music itself. Different people could make transcriptions of the same musical recording, for instance, and come up with slightly different scores.
After MIDI, a musical note was no longer just an idea, but a rigid, mandatory structure you couldn’t avoid in the aspects of life that had... 1 notes
notesMIDI as an example of how a digital version of a musical note boxed in the concept and removed us from the analog freedom of musical notes.
