Before waking up this morning I was engaged in one of the coolest game experiences I have ever had. It was a two person head-to-head virtual reality Wand Dueling game. It used these three technologies:
A brainwave headset for casting silent spells and manipulating the virtual world. (TED.com Brainwave Headset)
The Kinect Controller expanded to for observing all 3D movements.
With Kinect Controller, Hackers Take Liberties - NYTimes.com
And some form of virtual reality glasses, to allow proper game viewing.
The two opponents stand head to head and cast spells to try and defeat each other...
This type of game is not very far off. I'm excited to play.
Sweet! Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOTItUNg6dc
Monday, November 22, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
When you assume...
There is a spelling rhyme that goes : when you assume, you make an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me'. Or as my brother Simon says, "When you make an assumption, you make an 'ass' out of 'umption'."
In either case asses are involved. Studying economics exposes a person to a lot of assumptions. However, most people's understanding of economics is limited to the fair price mechanism where price is determined by the interplay between supply and demand. "Supply and demand" doesn't mean anything without understanding the assumptions behind it. And once you know what the assumptions are you can begin to learn about where these assumptions fall short.
But these little assumptions don't compare to the big one.
We can also say that an assumption is a belief that is taken for granted. The big ass is the one that the majority of people in the world take for granted. That big assumption is that the world belongs to humans.
If the world belongs to humans, than it is ours to do with however we please. And how do we prove it belongs to us? Well, who knows how, but it is at least worth considering this basic assumption when we make our decisions about what we do with it. And really, if we extrapolate out from historical events where Europeans claimed countries that were already populated, we could find our selves in a situation where aliens have already claimed Earth for their own, and we don't know that we are destroying somebody else's property.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
God is 4.
God is a very complex system. I would actually go so far as to say that God is the most complex system.
Like with any complex system, in order to understand God we have to make assumptions and models.
For instance, before we could see Earth from outer space, we made the assumption that Earth is a sphere. You can go to the science store and find a model of the Earth that is about the size of a basket ball, with blue for oceans, and slight rises to indicate mountain ranges. These models only indicate the crust, they don't indicate anything about the core, or the mantel, unless of course you have a slightly cooler model, but even then it can't include the troposphere, stratosphere, or mesosphere. No model of the Earth can indicate how hot the center of the Earth is, nor how cold the glacier peaks of the highest mountains are, nor the way ocean currents circulate and bring life in upswell regions. But it is at least useful to recognize that the Earth is a sphere, and that there are continents on it... and an added benefit of this model is that even folk without vision can understand it.
So, for God I will design a model around this assumption: God is God is god is God is god is god is God is god.
This model of God will look at god as a whole and not discuss God's complex parts.
The model is: God is the number 4.
In this sense, 2+2=4. If all you know is the number 2, then you can recognize God. However, God can also be recognized even if all you know is the number 1, as in 1+1+1+1=4. Similarly, God can be understood as 1 and 3. Or further, the square root of 16. There are infinite ways of understanding God, just as there are infinite ways of mathematically arriving at the number 4. And for the "atheists," 0+4=4, too.
That last bit about the atheists may have not been understandable, so I will provide a slightly more detailed model of God.
For this model we add these assumptions: God is Life is God is Life is Life is God. And, God is everything. And, God is infinite and finite.
For this model all you have to do is take a deep breath. Or blink your eyes. Just the fact that you are you allows you to experience God. In fact, under the assumptions of this model, since you exist, you are a part of God. And since I broached the subject of parts, I will just add that god isn't just the sum of God's parts, God is god's parts.
Whenever people ask me which God I believe in I get very confused, because according to this model there is only one. And further, you would never ask, "which Life do you believe in?" Neither would you be more grammatically correct in asking, "In which Life do you believe?"
Life is Life. Beyond that, there are some commonly held misunderstandings about different Life and God systems, but I won't go into those right now.
Now go get your God on. Live your Life. Live, you're God.
Like with any complex system, in order to understand God we have to make assumptions and models.
For instance, before we could see Earth from outer space, we made the assumption that Earth is a sphere. You can go to the science store and find a model of the Earth that is about the size of a basket ball, with blue for oceans, and slight rises to indicate mountain ranges. These models only indicate the crust, they don't indicate anything about the core, or the mantel, unless of course you have a slightly cooler model, but even then it can't include the troposphere, stratosphere, or mesosphere. No model of the Earth can indicate how hot the center of the Earth is, nor how cold the glacier peaks of the highest mountains are, nor the way ocean currents circulate and bring life in upswell regions. But it is at least useful to recognize that the Earth is a sphere, and that there are continents on it... and an added benefit of this model is that even folk without vision can understand it.
So, for God I will design a model around this assumption: God is God is god is God is god is god is God is god.
This model of God will look at god as a whole and not discuss God's complex parts.
The model is: God is the number 4.
In this sense, 2+2=4. If all you know is the number 2, then you can recognize God. However, God can also be recognized even if all you know is the number 1, as in 1+1+1+1=4. Similarly, God can be understood as 1 and 3. Or further, the square root of 16. There are infinite ways of understanding God, just as there are infinite ways of mathematically arriving at the number 4. And for the "atheists," 0+4=4, too.
That last bit about the atheists may have not been understandable, so I will provide a slightly more detailed model of God.
For this model we add these assumptions: God is Life is God is Life is Life is God. And, God is everything. And, God is infinite and finite.
For this model all you have to do is take a deep breath. Or blink your eyes. Just the fact that you are you allows you to experience God. In fact, under the assumptions of this model, since you exist, you are a part of God. And since I broached the subject of parts, I will just add that god isn't just the sum of God's parts, God is god's parts.
Whenever people ask me which God I believe in I get very confused, because according to this model there is only one. And further, you would never ask, "which Life do you believe in?" Neither would you be more grammatically correct in asking, "In which Life do you believe?"
Life is Life. Beyond that, there are some commonly held misunderstandings about different Life and God systems, but I won't go into those right now.
Now go get your God on. Live your Life. Live, you're God.
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