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Peter Crowther
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"A person who solely 'thinks for themselves' i.e. who never checks their reasoning, ethics, or assumptions against another person cannot be relied upon to think reasonably, or to reason morally, because humans naturally skew their reasoning towards their own benefit."
Chris, I suspect this may say more about your own definition of "reasonable thinking" than anything else - in particular that you have some notion that "reasonable thinking" should not skew a person's reasoning towards their own benefit. I don't think one can go down that road without agreeing with Bentham; if we follow that route, we should all work tirelessly to improve the lot of (particularly) people in the developing world rather than our own position in life. I don't see that happening out there in the world, so there's a mismatch somewhere?
Cheers,
Peter
Think for Yourself?
An extremely common demand made by non-religious folks is that you ought to ‘think for yourself’. On the surface, this seems like a reasonable request – certainly, the people who make this claim believe it is morally exemplary to do so! But what does it mean to ‘think for yourself’ and what mor...
It's my only way of playing MechWarrior 3 - still my favourite "first person shooter".
How to Run Discworld Noir
Since the welcome defeat of Windows 98, my first game as lead designer and writer – Discworld Noir – has been virtually impossible to run. Until now! Friend of ihobo, Adam Sirrelle, has this video and text description of how to cajole the game into running. Hope it's helpful! "How to Run Discw...
Thanks for this!
As an alternative, if (like me) you're one of those sad people who keep old OS disks, you can:
1) Install a free virtual machine environment. I use VirtualBox, but others are available.
2) Install Windows 98 in that environment from your Windows 98 installation CD.
3) Install Discworld Noir onto the virtual machine.
4) Play.
How to Run Discworld Noir
Since the welcome defeat of Windows 98, my first game as lead designer and writer – Discworld Noir – has been virtually impossible to run. Until now! Friend of ihobo, Adam Sirrelle, has this video and text description of how to cajole the game into running. Hope it's helpful! "How to Run Discw...
I think you might appreciate the footnote at the end of http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/08/worstall_i_support_the_green_party_natalie_bennett_minimum_basic_income/ in relation to this piece! I'll hold off further discussion until I've read the next article.
P.S. Yes, and we'll be there - thanks very much!
The Wikipedia Knows Nothing
Can someone who looks up a topic on the Wikipedia be said to have access to knowledge on that subject? Questions about what constitutes knowledge are the purview of a field of philosophy known as ‘epistemology’, and the most general formula for understanding what constitutes knowledge is justi...
An interesting question: Does the complete edit and talk history of an article on Wikipedia, which ascribes provenance to each character and shows up actively contentious parts, gives you *more* information? Articles in a conventional encyclopaedia may not be credited and necessarily do not carry their edit history with them.
The Wikipedia Knows Nothing
Can someone who looks up a topic on the Wikipedia be said to have access to knowledge on that subject? Questions about what constitutes knowledge are the purview of a field of philosophy known as ‘epistemology’, and the most general formula for understanding what constitutes knowledge is justi...
I like your poetic description, actually - how one thinks/speaks of oneself is probably closer to what I was getting at.
OK, so to bring this back towards the original discussion, how about "There's a new World of Warcraft expansion coming out in a couple of weeks and I, as a member of a world-leading guild that gains fame and fortune by its successes, will take all reasonable steps in my power to make sure I'm in on the world-first clear of the first raid." Is that an end? If so, might they be affected by rights?
Can Players Have Rights?
Could there be a viable concept of ‘player rights’, and if not, are there any grounds for legally restricting games? There have been several attempts to propose a ‘Player’s Bill of Rights’ (e.g. Graham Nelson in 1994, Raph Koster in 2000, Peterb of Tea Leaves in 2004, Ernest Adams in 2005, and...
"To will something is to commit to taking all steps in your power to bring it about (as far as Kant is concerned)."
By that definition I have no ends*, and never have had. I will take *reasonable* steps in my power, subject to re-evaluation of priorities in the future. I may want something, but I do not will it in that sense. Part of me's saying "why the bloody hell would anyone ever be that crazy?"
Regarding the transience of ends, might we perhaps approach a definition based on the end being sufficiently significant to the person that they will remember the event in the future and attach significance to that memory?
* Arguably one: to protect my wife. The argument is beyond the scope of this comment ;-).
Can Players Have Rights?
Could there be a viable concept of ‘player rights’, and if not, are there any grounds for legally restricting games? There have been several attempts to propose a ‘Player’s Bill of Rights’ (e.g. Graham Nelson in 1994, Raph Koster in 2000, Peterb of Tea Leaves in 2004, Ernest Adams in 2005, and...
You seem to be making a qualitative distinction that I consider to be a mere difference of degree. Given that an end need not be a goal that lasts the remainder of your life (you cite getting a degree as a legitimate end), where does an end stop and why (for example) is aiming for a cold beer not an end? I admit that I've not (yet!) read Chaos Ethics, which may clarify that, so feel free to point me in its direction.
Blizzard has forced an unexpected quasi-end on me recently: I've stopped playing WoW without reaching my own desired quasi-end of settling my characters somewhere peaceful, because it has become clear that in order to maintain what they refer to as a "hero crucible" that peaceful place must not exist in the game. Because WoW is an evolving world controlled by the developers, it's possible for a games company such as Blizzard to change the game world so that one's ends are unachievable. Whether or not this meets any sensible definition of "rights" can be debated, but to the person at the sharp end it does rather feel like the laws have been arbitrarily changed!
Can Players Have Rights?
Could there be a viable concept of ‘player rights’, and if not, are there any grounds for legally restricting games? There have been several attempts to propose a ‘Player’s Bill of Rights’ (e.g. Graham Nelson in 1994, Raph Koster in 2000, Peterb of Tea Leaves in 2004, Ernest Adams in 2005, and...
There's presently this dichotomy between centralised networks (Facebook, Twitter) that provide rich cross-linking but require centralised money (advertising money) to maintain, and decentralised networks (Diaspora, blogs) that are paid for by their users but have much poorer linking and search facilities.
I'm working on (OK, thinking how to implement) a decentralised platform that allows rich linking, potentially removes single points of failure, provides strong identity guarantees (that two items come from the same account or from different accounts, not who holds those accounts) and where service nodes can be placed anywhere you like, with users storing content across any nodes with which they can negotiate an appropriate legal agreement. Oh, and where users are actively encouraged to use a wide variety of readers, which are explicitly allowed to transform what they display (for example, to remove advertising). Service nodes could, for example, be Raspberry Pi-sized (or one of the wall-socket micro-servers), and hence very affordable.
In that environment, advertising is much less advantageous and there is no requirement to have it.
A Social Intelligence Network
Could a social medium be designed for leveraging collective intelligence, rather than entertainment and advertising? We currently have social networking media, but we do not yet have social intelligence media. Existing social media is effective at building networks based upon familiarity or co...
Earl Grey, please...
Warming the Teapot
Returned from my travels, and gearing up for more Only a Game very soon. I have a few new philosophical dialogues to share, as well as some pieces to support the release of Chaos Ethics. Plus, I have at least one blog letter in the Republic of Bloggers that warrants a thoughtful response. I woul...
Still here. Posting on Week 1 as I was out of mobile coverage due to holiday, otherwise I'd have seen this!
Week One: Lurkers and Loyalists
I suggest we begin without doing any outreach and see how many players turn up to Only a Game within the first week – we can then push out to G+ and Twitter in future weeks, and to Facebook as well (although I’ll need your help to reach there, as it is a dark place I dare not tread!). Many thank...
Yay!
I'm still around, but many of your recent pieces are so far away from my areas of competence that I'm simply not equipped to comment.
I'm Getting the Band Back Together
Dear Players of Only a Game, I want you back – even if it’s just for one comment! So starting in a few week’s time, I’m going to have a mini-campaign that attempts to reach out to old regulars of this blog and see how many we can get back for salutations and felicitations. I’m still thrashing ou...
Hmm. You've now got me wanting to look out the source of "do not bite the fan that heeds you". One of Arthur C. Clarke's fans to him after a grumpy comment I *think*.
Always Feed the Fans
A wise internet adage suggests you should “Never feed the trolls” – but I should like to suggest that the contrary of this is also advisable: “Always feed the fans.” This concept is extremely well known among writers of fiction, who recognise more than others their dependency upon their fanbas...
Oh, good. I much preferred the blog when it was somewhere I felt I could join in the discussion rather than admiring the finished works.
Skimming Stones
Alas, since I am only two thirds through the manuscript of Chaos Ethics, I'm not going to be able to commit to resuming blogging this month in the manner to which I have become accustomed - namely, writing short essays on various topics that interest me. Since I don't want to stop blogging, I'm g...
Moore's Law has not been kind to the console. Once upon a time, expensive dedicated hardware was essential in order to obtain any useful performance out of many games. These days, a multi-hundred MIPS processor costs cents in bulk and tens of gigaflops of GPU power costs little more - look at the economics of the Raspberry Pi for a fascinating example. Once you can embed something that's "good enough" for many users for many games as a tiny cost as part of a general-purpose device, whether that's a phone, tablet, TV or smart glasses, the economics change completely.
The Console Wars Are Over
Is another round of the Console Wars just beginning with the launch of the Wii U, or is it already all over for the home consoles? Not long ago, I suggested this current round of home game console releases could be the final round of the long-running Console Wars. To be honest, I'm not sure ...
I'm not planning to enter the competition, but would appreciate it if you'd sign my copy at some point.
Win a Copy of The Mythology of Evolution
Free to one lucky player of Only a Game, a signed author copy of The Mythology of Evolution. Simply send an email to comp [at] ihobo.com giving your name and address. Also, let me know if you’d like it signed to you personally, otherwise it’ll just have my signature on its own. Good luck! Closin...
"moral values intimately entail facts"
Sure? My own entailment arrow would be the other way round. But then, maybe I'm just a positivist :-).
Positivist Mythology
How do the myths of positivists, those spirited defenders of ‘Science’, come to bear upon our commonly shared world? When it comes to the relationship between science and ethics, is the wall that separates ‘facts’ from ‘values’ a valid inference from the evidence, or just another positivistic ...
Yowch! All the best for a swift recovery.
Must be catching, by the way. For the first time in... oh... three decades or so? I fell out of bed last night, via a rather sharp drawer edge.
Falling Down the Stairs
No blogs this week on account of an accident on the staircase this morning. I was carrying my 18-month son down for his morning milk when I slipped and slid on my back all the way down to the ground floor. Soren is fine, thankfully – I held him tightly to my chest – but I’ve taken quite a few hi...
I suspect if you asked people on each side to define the word "marriage", you would get different definitions. Asking the question "should group X be allowed to marry?" without agreement on the definition of marriage will produce heat, but little light as the two sides aren't answering the same question.
Unmarriage
Supposing the only people who are married are those men and women that made a public commitment to one another, what can we say about those unhusbands and unwives who do not or cannot ratify their love institutionally? Say what you will about conservatives, on the issue of marriage they have r...
As a mere thought experiment that's probably been done: what happens if you add (let's say) a distance measure of "relatedness" or "careness" to the "number" measure of a consequentialist ethics, such that different people can calculate different answers to the same question based on their relationships with the people involved?
Certainly this can neatly solve the Repugnant Conclusion if the measure is designed so that any number of low-careness individuals can be outweighed by one high-careness individual.
If one assumes that Deep Judge could be built with such a framework, I think some very interesting discussions ensue :-).
The Ultimate Moral Computer?
Deep Judge is the universe’s most advanced computer, tasked with solving every possible moral question and dilemma once and for all. The question is, could such a machine be built – and should we want to? What I am calling moral law is the position that questions of ethics and morality have de...
So move to Chorlton Village :-).
Social Media Crisis
Actually, 'crisis' is too strong... 'pickle' may be more appropriate. I now have too much coming into my social media funnel and I don't have time to wrangle it all. Something has to go, but what to cut? Google+ is developing into a rather satisfying forum for conversations, being more integrat...
Amazingly or amusingly, I'm *still* playing and enjoying World of Warcraft five years on, and it's still all about the people and the exploration. Oh, hang on, Brainhex has me tagged as a seeker/socialiser...
What Are You Playing?
Decided to bump the piece I had scheduled for today to next week, since so many people I’d like to respond to it are busy at GDC right now. In the meantime, I’m always interested in what people are playing, why they like it, and what they’re looking forward to. Personally, I’m still playing th...
Necro-comment - sorry!
"Sometimes people cheat, but in order to cheat you must already have acknowledged that there were rules that could be broken."
Mmm. I'll point to relativism again. Who asserts that the person has cheated? Can a person who believes that they're playing a game to different rules than another legitimately believe they haven't cheated when the second player believes they have?
Life Amidst Moral Chaos
Can there only be a meaningful ethics if there is just one true moral law? Or might there be value in embracing moral chaos? For centuries, discussion of ethics has focussed upon the idea of the moral law – a set of rules or criteria that dictate what is permissible or required. This debate ha...
The large rights holders are leeches and can, as far as I'm concerned... how to put this politely... go and die in a fire.
That said, I quite appreciate the small fractions of a cent Albireo gets for each listen to a track over a legal streaming medium. Between that and online track and album purchases, we've racked up... ooh... tens of dollars. Total, not each. It's still fun.
Common Errors about Music Piracy
Do pirates steal money from musicians, and make it harder for new artists to break through? Or are they simply renegade librarians using a new technology that exposes the outrageous injustice of cartel pricing in the music industry? A brief look at some of common mistakes concerning file shari...
I'm puzzled. Why do you think that studios will feel they have to support multiple input schemes on one title if they can guarantee that the console ships with their controller of choice?
Sony and Microsoft's Controller Crisis
Nintendo has already put its cards on the table – now gamers are waiting to see how Sony and Microsoft can trump them. But what controllers will the PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720 ship with? To answer this question, we need to look at the economic challenges facing the two console manufacturers wh...
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