Dr. Dehumanization or: How I learned to stop worrying and love Commodifying NPCs Games make use of abstractions to codify and standardize interactions between players and non-player characters. This exists in every capacity and level of articulation. From the greatly simplified children’s board game where your only power is a […]
Re-Epistemology, rewinding our own minds Alien Worlds – Alternate Dimensions: A series of brief what-ifs meant to hold up a mirror against our own experiences and expectations by exploring alternatives built on different assumptions and presuppositions. Epistemology, aside from my favorite word to bewilder coworkers, is the study of knowledge. […]
Xenomorality, Relativism on a Planetary Scale Alien Worlds – Alternate Dimensions: A series of brief what-ifs meant to hold up a mirror against our own experiences and expectations by exploring alternatives built on different assumptions and presuppositions. While there is a tremendous debate about Moral Relativism, I don’t have quite […]
No Pain, No…Problem? Alien Worlds – Alternate Dimensions: A series of brief what-ifs meant to hold up a mirror against our own experiences and expectations by exploring alternatives built on different assumptions and presuppositions. A common theme in many media is that of magical, supernatural or otherwise near-instant healing […]
Desensitizing to Death For today’s article, I’m starting with a quote from our inimitable bard in reference to the recent rash of celebrity deaths: As time goes on, the amount of celebrity deaths is going to seem to increase. That’s because our metric of recognizing famous people has significantly increased. […]
Extending Efficacy We, as physical beings, can interact with the world around us. The extent to which we can do so, our efficacy, is a product of our bodies, our tools, our circumstances and our cleverness in applying those things. One of the great, unending struggles in humanity is extending […]
Digital Beard Stroking Communication Conundrum Communication is always a fascinating topic. We often consider communication to be transferring or conveying a concept. But if we look a little deeper at the underlying constructs that we employ to do this, it isn’t so simple. The often exceedingly difficult challenge of bringing […]
Digital Beard Stroking Inertia – Overcoming the Inert The fundamental aspect of human motivation is that it is, by it’s nature, self-starting. If we’re not reacting to direct, threatening stimuli, we have to be able to generate this motivation to act from within. Granted, from a technical standpoint, it’s all […]
Digital Beard Stroking Media Avatar, Expressor of Efficacy pt 2. Today, I’ll be building on the concepts established in my last article, so check that out. It’s not like Star Wars, though, it’s much better if you read them in order. Or read the sequel first. What am I, a […]
Digital Beard Stroking Philosophy of Technology I’d like to provide another perspective on the importance of technology, gaming and nerd culture through a lens of philosophical constructs and psychological concepts, thus providing a juxtaposition of historical/academic context of the above mentioned topics against a humorous, accessible vernacular. Media Avatar, Expressor […]
