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February 01, 2008
Games : Adults playing D&D
For reasons I'll not go into here, I was asked to write an essay in defense of adults playing Dungeons and Dragons. Since I liked the result (and since I find myself using this blog as a repository of any non-fiction writing I do), I decided to post it here.
BTW – for my perspective on Christians playing D&D, see this previous post on the subject.
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First, it needs to be acknowledged that “playing Dungeons and Dragons” in not a uniform experience. Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is a very flexible set of rules to play a game where much of the game experience comes from the players themselves. Therefore there is great variety in what “playing Dungeons and Dragons” means for different groups. This is in fact no different from the experience playing other kinds of games. Consider card games: One group might meet to play cards where the card game itself is secondary to the purely social aspects of the gathering (talking, eating, and drinking). The next day, one might even remember who won since winning was secondary to the purpose of playing. A different group might take the card game very serious where each player is entirely focused on winning. One can not therefore discern a great deal about the experience simply from an observation that “they played cards”. The same is also true of D&D: Some groups (often those involving juveniles) play the game in a rather “juvenile” way. Others use the game as an excuse of social gathering where the game itself is secondary. Many groups of adults meet to play D&D as an exercise in interactive story telling.
Interactive story telling can be difficult to explain to someone who has not participated in such a group. Each player comes to the meeting with a character whose story they want to tell. One of the players - the “game master” (or “dungeon master” when playing D&D) - comes with a setting some key plot elements that provide the context in which the character’s stories can be told. They all then cooperate with each other to try and tell a “good story” while at the same time competing with each other to make their character “the hero” (or sometimes “the villain”) of the story. To make this exercise fair for all players, some rules are needed to constrain what a player can claim their character does (you can’t just claim your character does 10 impossible things and immediately saves the day) and over the years the various version of D&D have proven to be very useful at providing those necessary boundaries for the creation of interesting stories.
This is perhaps not a surprise since Dungeons and Dragons itself was originally inspired by Tolkein’s classic “Lord of the Rings” books and the desire of the game’s developers to recreate such adventures on their table-top. Fantasy is a natural genre for such interactive story telling because of the volume of heroic fantasy literature draw on and because the existence of magic and monsters within fantasy provides more flexibility in the directions a story can go over trying to do this within a purely natural setting
In my own experience, it is this interest in interactive story telling that tends to attract adults to play D&D. They are looking for an outlet that is both creative and social, and playing D&D provides opportunities for both.
Playing D&D can be a profoundly creative experience – creating a character, considering how that character would responds to the situations presented in the game, trying to understand how a character like that would think and feel. Some groups include in this creativity actually “acting” the role of the character (speaking "in character", using accents, etc.) while other groups only have players describe their character's actions. Many players use this to explore what life might be like for someone who is different from themselves (a different gender, handicapped, from a different culture) – the process of character creation allows them to put themselves in another’s shoes for a time.
This creativity does not however end with the creation and portrayal of a character - it is also necessary to work with the other players to try and tell a “good story”. A player’s contributions must both contribute to their own character’s individual story and also to the larger story in which everyone else’s character is a part. A good interactive story teller playing D&D will make sure their character behaves in a way appropriate for their character but also that they act in a way that leaves opening for other characters to react and interact in ways that improve the overall story. This is what makes the experience different from simply sitting down to write a book (although many D&D players have gone on to become authors as well) – one must work with the other players to create an enjoyable overall experience. Those interactions provide a social context in which many long-lasting friendships have been built.
This kind of play, using the D&D rules, is not uncommon among adults who play the game. Some started playing as children and their play style matured as they matured. Others did not start playing until they were adults. The increasing numbers of adults playing D&D this way can be seen in the influence they have had on the revisions between the various versions of D&D (the current version of the rules is 3.5 with version 4.0 due out this summer). Each new version has substantially increased the flexibility in character creation and interaction while simplifying the more action-oriented aspects of the game that have traditionally appealed to younger players. The developers of the game would not have done this if there had not been a demand for it. These days, juveniles are far more likely to be interested in playing “Magic the Gathering” and similar collectable card games than playing D&D.
So while one can play D&D in a fairly "childish" manner, one can also play in ways that mostly adults would contribute and enjoy.
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
February 04, 2008
Books : Books 2008/02/04
Current count of books pending to be read: 132
One book read, non purchased
This has been a busy week (work, Superbowl, etc.) and there just hasn’t been a lot of time to read. I even ended up working some on Saturday, which is usually my main day for curling up with good books.
Books finished this week:
A Tour of the Calculusby David Berlinski
Sometimes you run across a writer who is so good at the craft of writing that they can make anything interesting – even, say, Calculus. “A Tour of the Calculus” is a parallel exposition on the history of calculus and an introduction to the mathematical discipline itself. What set this book far apart from any other on the subject is the nearly lyrical prose employed by the author to explain things. There are passages that rival Hemmingway in their imagery and all of the book is a joy to read. The author also segregates the more detailed work (proofs, etc.) to “appendices” between chapters which can be skipped by those not so mathematically inclined.
Computer Games Played: a little bit of LotRO
DVDs Watched: none
Next Book: Training in Christianity
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
February 05, 2008
Life : Of RSS and Other Things
The number of blogs I follow seems to be constantly increasing. While I occasionally do “spring cleaning” – removing those blogs on which I haven’t actually read a post recently (or for which there for which there just haven't been any recent posts ) – the number of new blogs I find to read always seems to be greater than the number I punt. I am now up to nearly 30 blogs I follow.
As a result, I have finally decided to switch to reading blogs via their RSS feeds as opposed to going directly to their sites. I have avoided this until now because you lose context (you only see the post, not the whole page); but opening all of those sites has just gotten too tedious (particularly since some of the site are rather irregular in their posts).
I have therefore decided to try out Google Reader to manage my blog-reading. It provides a nice web-based interface not unlike the net-news readers of old. Yes, I have been on the web long enough to have a lot of experience with news groups (A.K.A “usenet news”); and was even around for the “Great Renaming” (a gold star if you know what the “fa.” prefix stood for). With the Google Reader I can find out at a glance from one web page which blogs have new posts. I just have to paste into Google Reader the URLs for the RSS (Real Simple Syndication) feeds for each blog and it does the rest. This is particularly useful for those blogs that rarely or irregularly have new posts. I can now monitor them for new content without having to visit the page frequently.
The only downside I have identified so far is that the frequency with which Google checks for new content depends on the number of people interested in a feed. For most of the sites I follow, that seems to be OK; but I doubt that Google will ever check my blogs as often as I want to monitor them for comments. Even IE7 will not check feeds any faster than once an hour, which is too slow for me. So for this blog I will keep checking it the old fashioned way.
Now that I am a client of RSS feeds, I also realized I needed to update “Sighs and Musings” to be more RSS-friendly. I improved the RSS template for the feed of all of my posts, and created a second feed that lists the comments on the site. By subscribing to both, people can track all activity on my blog. Links to my two feeds can be found near the top of the right column on every page. I wish more sites has comments feeds as there are a few blog where I am as interested in the comments as I am on the original posts.
I also took the opportunity to clean up some other minor issues with my blog templates. Nothing big – the title of the post is now a link to the individual page and the “recent comments” links in the right column now takes you to the comment section of the page such that the new comment should be visible (if not always at the top of the window).
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
February 06, 2008
Life : The State of the Blog
The next few weeks (until mid-March) are likely to be busy for me at work. There’s a new version of a document that I need to get out, and the current version is already 360+ pages. That’s a tripple problem for this blog. First, I won’t have as much time to write in general. Second, I will have been writing all day, so I won't be as motivated to do more writing. Third, since I tend to write about whatever I am thinking about, but I don’t write about work, therefore the fact that I will be thinking more about work in the next few weeks means that even when I have time and motivation to write I may not have anything to talk about.
As a possible means to ameliorate the third problem, I am open to suggestions from my readers for things to write about. If there is some topic you’d like to see me hold forth on (or otherwise want to know my opinion on), drop a comment and I’ll see what I can do. The only absolutely forbidden topics are my work and personal information about family members. I’ll consider suggestions on any other topic or question.
On another front, the battle between comment spammers and anti-spam technology continues. Every few weeks the spammers seem to discover some new trick to fool the blockers and I end up cleaning up bogus comments until new countermeasures are discovered. While I could probably stop them cold using a CAPTCHA, I am loath to do so. The measure I am contemplating is turning off comments entirely on any post that is more than a month old. Most of the bogus comments I get are on older posts, so that should help. Any thoughts from my readers?
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
February 07, 2008
Faith : How I Study the Bible, Part 2 - Customs
In part 1 of this series I talked about language issues in studying the Bible. So, let’s say you take my advice and are reading multiple translations of the Bible (that employed different translation philosophies) and also follow along in an interlinear Bible and use Greek/Hebrew lexicons to better understand key words. Can you then say you understand what the text would have meant to the original audience? Well, not quite.
The problem is that even though you may understand the words, without understanding the culture in which they were spoken you may still not grasp the original meaning. There are many passages that are open to misinterpretation (or at least not full understanding) without having some appreciation of Roman adoption law, Hebrew wedding customs, Greek educational system, ancient forms of slavery, Roman colonization policies, and the like.
As an example, today we tend to think of the heart as the seat of emotions (at least metaphorically) – we “feel” with our heart and we “think” with our brains. This is however a relatively recent invention. In fact many ancient cultures attributed decision making with the heart (not quite “thought”; but certainly not “feeling”) and associated emotions with the “gut” (bowels, kidneys, etc.). This puts a very different spin on a number of verses in the Bible (although some translations confuse things even more – translating “kidneys” as “heart” for modern audiences, so the careful reader needs to be sure what word was used in the original text).
Another example of the value of cultural understanding in Bible study can be seen in the Gospel of John. More so than the other gospel authors, John tends to record the time and place Jesus said things. I used to think that this was random details with no significance; but as I have studied John in detail over this past year I have come to understand that in many cases Jesus carefully chose when and where he said things to maximize impact. His “I am the light of the world” speech was given in a room that in that particular week was filled with candles. His “come to me all who are thirsty speech” was given on an occasion when the Jews memorialized when God provided springs of water for the Israelites as the wandered in the desert. Essentially Jesus was doing what we would call today “street theatre” – leveraging time and place to enhance the power of His words.
So what’s the solution to knowing the cultural context of the Bible? Good reference books (preferably more than one by different authors). I try to use books that are actually organized to follow book, chapter and verse in Bible so it is easy to find the information that is relevant to a passage. For New Testament, I tend to use “Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary” and the “IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament”. For Old Testament, I use “IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament” and am still looking for a second source that I like.
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
February 08, 2008
Books : The Culture Code
This is the last of the book reviews from 2007 that I never got around to puttting on my blog.
The Culture Code: An Ingenious Way to Understand Why People Around the World Live and Buy as They Doby Clotaire Rapaille
Clotaire Rapaille is an accidental marketing expert who is on retainer with half of the Fortune 100 companies. Having read his book, I can now see his hand in numerous marketing campaigns I have been exposed to.
By training Rapaille is an anthropologist and psychologist and started his career studying autistic children. One of his papers described how normal people (but not individuals with autism) form emotional imprints for things at a very young age and that these imprints continue to subconsciously influence how we think about those things throughout our lives. Every word, concept, brand, idea can then have three potential meanings – its denotation (dictionary meaning), its connotation (its conscious cultural meaning), and its "code" (its subconscious emotional imprint).
This paper caught the attention of an international corporation who asked him to determine what the "code" was for their product in a particular country where they were having problems coming up with a successful marketing strategy. Rapaille developed a a series of very structured focus group sessions (lasting three hours each), and after doing several of these was able to advise the client on how to proceed. This caught the attention of other companies, and running these sessions and advising his clients on their results has become his career. From a marketing perspective, what he teaches is that the most successful marking campaigns are aligned with the "code" for the product in the given country. Either they confirm and support people's emotional imprint for the product or they go completely against it. Marketing campaigns that go in some other direction tend to fail.
As an example, the automaker Jeep hired him to look at their marking campaigns in the USA, France and Germany. In the US, he discovered that the "code" for Jeep was "Horse"; while in France and Germany it was "Liberator". This, he explained, was why Jeep's attempt to sell their new SUV's in the US based on comfort and amenities was failing – Horses don't have luxury appointments. Jeep switching to showing the vehicle climbing hills and going off-road and sales soared. Likewise in France and Germany they developed an ad campaign that focused on the freedom to go where you wanted and sales grew.
The book is full of "codes" for various things – not just products; but also abstractions. Many would seem trite or silly were I to repeat them here without his full analysis; but in almost all cases they ring true to me. The most interesting sections of the book are where he has been commissioned to look at the same concept in multiple cultures and to see how different the "codes" can be. Particularly telling are his analysis of the meaning of "seduction" in various cultures around the world. No wonder Americans are so up tight!
Some of his stories of product and marketing successes and failures are also quite good, for instance the differences between how Lego's are used between the USA and Germany. In the US, kids tend to ignore the instructions and just build things. After one thing is built, they take it apart and build something else. In Germany, kids carefully build exactly what is shown on the box cover and then put it on the shelf like a model, never to be taken apart. So in the USA, Lego tended to sell one box per family, while in Germany they sold several.
I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants a bit more insight into how cultures can differ.
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Life : Comment Problems
Melissa reported having some problems posting comments on the blog. Now one of the problems was simply that one comment got caught in moderation (and I have been busy today and so I didn't get around to approving it until later).
However, I also had a comment of my own that simply wouldn't post today. It didn't go to moderation - I got an HTTP 406 error (with the cryptic text "Internet Explorer cannot read this webpage format"). I was able to post it by removing the word "s e x". What is frustrating is that this was not sent to moderation; but was refused outright by the server without any opportunity for me to approve it.
I'm going to try and figure out what is causing this (and if I have any control); but the bottom line is that if you have any problems posting comments, post a comment that simply says "placeholder" and Email me the text you want to put there.
Posted by Steven at 03:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
February 11, 2008
Books : Books 2008/02/11
Current count of books pending to be read: 130
Read two, purchased none.
Books finished this week:
The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of Historyby Howard Bloom
I’m going to have to think about this book.
A lot.
In fact I may do a full-post review once I have finished processing it. In essence this is a secular-humanist book about the nature and origins of evil. He makes a case (based on the principles of evolution and scientific observations) that human society is inherently evil and that we as members of that society are either perpetrators or victims of that evil. While the means by which he makes that case is secular in nature, his conclusions are completely in sync with the Christian perspective that “all have sinned” and that the world is inherently corrupt (a point he acknowledges in the title of the book.) Hmmm.
Training in Christianityby Soren Kierkegaard, translated by Walter Lowrie
I am a fan of Kierkegaard’s Christian writing (and to a lesser extent of his purely philosophical works). This is a collect of four of his essays, each of which delves deeply into a single verse. As is common in Kierkegaard, he takes a verse and analyzes is great detail “Could this mean X? No, because… Could this mean Y? No, because…” and 60 pages later “Therefore it must mean Z. And if that is true, we must …” I am sympathetic to those who prefer books about Kierkegaard’s than his actual writing (it can get rather tedious after you start to see where he is headed); but I enjoy the details of his arguments.
It is also interesting to see how often, 100 years ago, he was making many of the same points as the organic/simple church movement.
Computer Games Played: LORTO
DVDs Watched: none
Next Book: The Society of Mind
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Life : 500 comments
Just a quick note – sometime Friday this blog got its 500’th comment posted to it. Yippee!
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
February 12, 2008
Life : Election 2008
The California primary was last week, so I suppose I should say something about the election. Problem is, as has often been the case, I am so disappointed with the state of affairs that I find it hard to drum up the motivation to say anything.
As reader of this blog will know, I have a strong Libertarian streak, so it should be no surprise that I voted for Ron Paul (while a member of the Republican Party, Paul was the Libertarian Party’s candidate for president in 1988). I had no illusion that he had any chance to win; but I had to vote my convictions.
So when the dust settles, it looks like McCain will get the Republican nomination. I’m OK with that – he would have been my second choice. I would not vote for him in the primary because of his support of the Iraq war; but I respect that fact that he is a true fiscal conservative (his previous campaigns have focused more on the economy); and perhaps more important he has shown the ability to work across the aisle with members of other parties. While I disagree with him on a few decisions, I am comfortable with most of his voting history in the Senate. If he is elected I expect the country will make real progress on real problems.
Now many Republicans don’t like him because first, he is not focused on the social conservative agenda promoted by many Values / Christian voters. While his own beliefs are quite conservative, McCain doesn’t see those issues as a priority and considers those who focus on those issues to be divisive (famously calling Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell “Agents of intolerance” in his 2000 presidential campaign). I have no issue with any part of that. Second, some Republicans dislike him because he has worked so well with Democrats to get important bills passed. To me that means we won’t have four or eight years of gridlock if he is elected, which is a good thing.
Still, he will likely need to pick someone from the social conservative end of the party as a running mate to shore up support from that part of the base. A McCain/Huckabee ticket may prove to be a winning combination.
On the Democratic side, thing are still up n the air. I like neither Clinton nor Obama. Electing either of them will result in no progress on the budget deficit, which I have previously established as one of my main concerns (in fact electing either one of them guarantees substantial increases in the deficit).
However if I had to choose one I would pick Obama. First, I don’t think Clinton is even remotely electable. While she touts her “35 years of experience”, much of that experience has set up ill will towards her from too many people. Having a record can be a bad thing if there are too many skeletons in it. Second, I believe her impact on the deficit is likely to be worse than Obama’s.
On the other hand, as a candidate Obama has an interesting combination of virtues. First, he is a compelling public speaker. He has that rare ability to inspire people with his words. Second, he has almost no record for people to campaign against. The combination of the two means that people can read into him positive ideals without getting distracted by actual policies. Because of that I think he has a better chance of winning that Clinton, and if he wins, he has the skills to make America feel good about itself again. If only his policies would actually improve our lot as opposed to just helping us feel better. For a running mate he needs to pick an experienced technocrat from the Northeast or Southwest (definitely not Hillary, and not Edwards). Bill Richardson might be a good choice, or even Dianne Feinstein.
So that’s how I see things now. More if/when the situation on the Democratic side becomes clearer.
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Faith , Thoughts : Unchallenged Thought
Liam Kinnon had a wonderful post on his blog. I love the first paragraph:
Thinking is only thinking if it’s challenged, only then is it a verb. Unchallenged thinking is only a thought and that, left unchallenged, is prejudice. If you enter a conversation and there is no chance of anyone changing their perspectives it is a pointless exercise.
Now back to your regularly scheduled blog post:
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
February 13, 2008
Faith : In the Cubicle Next Door
Here’s a great post by Brant Hansen on his “Letters from Kamp Krusty” blog. A true story that is a mix of wonder and tragedy. It says more about the differences between the institutional church and people simply being The Church than I could say in a week of posts.
I strongly encourage everyone to read the whole post. I cried the first time I read it. But here’s an excerpt to give you the flavor:
Each Sunday morning, Kumar sits in a folding chair, waiting for the rock band to start up, and the preacher to give a seeker-sensitve sermon. The chairs are partly filled, in a school gymnasium, just outside Washington, D.C.He's a small man, from Chennai, India, and here, in the rows for the audience, he's part of someone's Big Vision. Like many others, the church start-up has a visionary, who hopes it becomes the next Willow Creek, even hoping to buy 40 acres in suburban D.C. (Anyone got a half-bil for that?)
And Kumar, who's 36, drives each day to his office job at Sun Microsystems, where he spends a lot of time checking urgent email from very far away.
…
A few years later, he went back to India. Kumar took his vacation from Sun, and headed over with no plan. He just went door-to-door, and told people about Jesus.
The first day, 45 people decided to become Jesus-followers. How'd THAT happen?
"I don't know. I just went door to door, and neighbors would introduce me to others, and I was amazed."
…
Kumar still takes his vacations, two weeks a year, and heads to India. But things have grown. From those first 45, and from his trips over the past seven years...
More than 100,000 conversions. 139 communities. More than 100 pastors. Model orphanages for children suffering from AIDS, Schools for Dalit children, the lowest-of-the-low in India. Shelters for little girls, now rescued from prostitution. Food. Medicine. Jesus.
…
If you're reading this on a weekday, Kumar is sitting in a little room at Sun and doing his job, and answering far-flung emails while he prays. And on Sundays, he sits on a folding chair in a high school gym, and hears about the church's big plans. It will be costly, but just think what could happen, with a new building! He admits he wonders sometimes...
"They have now added us to their missions’ budget. They give $1,000 per year. I guess I am happy for that, but..." and his voice trails.
But... the church has other priorities, and a Big Vision for another affluent suburb that, need we remind, needs Jesus, too.
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
February 14, 2008
Observations : The Politics of Greed
When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic- Benjamin Franklin
Who wouldn’t want guaranteed food, lodging, clothing, education, and healthcare if it was offered to them? Who wouldn’t want to be guaranteed safety - a world to live in where nothing could do them harm? All benefits look great if you ignore the cost.
But there is always a cost.
Everything that politicians promise comes with a price tag; but they never talk about that. Often the cost is financial. Sometimes the cost is social. But there is always a cost. Unfortunately, political discourse in America often degenerates into the politics of greed. Who can more convincingly promise more benefits while simultaneously hiding the costs?
And these days this isn’t a Democrat vs. Republican issue. The benefits each party promises are different; but the share a common commitment to not discuss the costs. Universal health care has a cost. National security has a cost. Early childhood education has a cost. The war in Iraq has a cost.
Now sometimes that cost is worth it - I for one believe the benefits of an excellent educational system far outweighs the costs. The problem is not that there is a price to pay for various programs and policies; but that the discussion of that price rarely makes it into the public forums. At one point the news media might have served as the watchdog to ensure that citizens are kept informed of the whole picture; but the news media today is too driven by their own greed to risk not telling the public what they want to hear.
So the vast majority of citizens are left to make their political choices based on only half the picture. Perhaps Benjamin Franklin is right and this is the beginning of the end of our republic.
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
February 15, 2008
Books : Pages Form Church History
oops! I thought I did the last of my reviews of last-year's books; but discovered I had written this one up and failed to post it.
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Pages Form Church History: A Guided Tour of Christian Classicsby Stephen Nichols
This is a survey of twelve influential Christian writers: Polycarp, Augustine, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas a Kempis, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Bunyan, Jonathan Edwards, John and Charles Wesley, William Carey, and Dietrich Bonheoffer. This small group was selected both for their influence and as examples of particular schools of thought within church history. Each author has a chapter, and each chapter follows the same format: a brief introduction, a description of the author’s life and times, a summary of the key points of the author’s theology and their writings, an examination of one of their works in more detail, and finally an exploration of their legacy. A benefit of the repeated format for each author that I had not expected was that it helped me put them into relation to each other in ways that more free-form biographies would not. I came away wishing there were more books done this way.
I would strongly recommend this book for anyone who has heard of these names; but really doesn’t know who they were or what they believed. I’ve done a fair amount of study of church history and I still learned things reading this book.
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
February 18, 2008
Books : Books 2008/02/18
Current count of books pending to be read: 127
Read three, purchased none.
I am now down to 3/4 of my starting level and room in my “to be read” bookshelves is becoming manifest (My goal is to reduce this from three double-stuffed shelves to one in which I can see all of the titles without moving anything).
Books finished this week:
Society of Mindby Marvin Minsky
While I was a student at MIT, worked for a while at and around the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, and saw Dr. Minsky periodically, I never actually got around to reading his classic book on how the human mind works until now. Actually – it may be because of those things that I never read it. The ideas in the book were part of the background of my life for a couple of years, so I felt I had already absorbed the contents without reading it. However, Minsky recently came out with another book (“The Emotion Machine), and when I purchased it I thought perhaps I should read his original work first. Now I have.
Truth is, the ideas in the books seem quite dated now, particularly having read “On Intelligence” which provides a simpler model that actually maps into the structure of the brain. In hindsight, Minsky’s model looks like a rather complex kludge – with additional mechanisms added every time he had another problem he couldn’t solve. Hawkins theory in “On Intelligence” has some missing pieces as well; but seems far more elegant. I’ll let you know when I read “The Emotion Machine” if I think Minsky would agree with that assessment.
The Quantum World: Quantum Physics for Everyoneby Kenneth W. Ford
I can’t recall why I purchased this; but the phrase “for everyone” in the subtitle should have warned me off. It was definitely well below my level and added nothing to my understanding. So far, no books have been punted from my pending list without having been read; but this came close. I’m not sure I would even recommend it to a novice – the book spends too much time covering the “standard model” of subatomic particles and doesn’t get into the meat of quantum theory until the final quarter.
The Church Comes Homeby Robert J. Banks and Julia Banks
Finally, a practical guide to being a part of a Simple/Organic Church (even if they call it a “Home Church”). I have read a lot of books on the movement; but most are focused on why it is a good thing. This is the first book I have read that is focused on the nuts and bolts of doing a simple/organic church. Not sure I agree with everything they say (to them, having a meal as part of the meeting is critical); but I have to acknowledge that they have incorporated input from a large number of sources into the book and so there is a lot of practical wisdom there. Going to hang on to this one.
Computer Games Played: none
DVDs Watched: BtVS S5.d3,d4, “Across the Universe” (film and special features)
Next Book: Sex and the Slayer
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
February 19, 2008
Movies : Persepolis
Anne and I saw the movie "Persepolis" last weekend and enjoyed it.
In 2000, Marjane Satrapi (an Iranian woman and professional illustrator living in France) started publishing a series of autobiographical graphic novels entitled “Persepolis” covering her coming of age in Iran and Europe in the time of the Iranian Revolution. This movie is essentially an animation of her graphic novels using the same illustration style. The movie is in French with English subtitles.
While the politics of Iran are never far in the background (her family suffered under both the Shah and the Islamic Revolution), the story is really about her own development as a young, naive, foolish, and often self-centered young woman living in turbulent times. Unlike some autobiographies, she makes no effort to portray herself as noble – instead fully acknowledging her own weaknesses. The result is a powerful story about one woman and the world in which she lived.
It is also a hilarious story, full of both visual and verbal humor. Anne and I both had a great time watching it and had great conversations afterwards. People might have a work to find this one in the theatres; but it is well worth it.
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February 20, 2008
Faith : Bishop Ussher and Adam's Birthday
There was a comment thread a while back (starting with another post suggestion from Melissa) on Bishop Ussher's estimate that creation began at nightfall October 23, 4004 B.C. It was evident from the comments that Melissa's real curiosity was on my thoughts on the age of the earth. Since these are actually separable issues, I will take them in turn.
But first, I want to state that this is not one of those issues that is critical to my faith. To me, the critical fact is that the earth and the diversity of life in it exist according to God's plan and design. The means and timetable by which this was accomplished is completely secondary. Should incontrovertible proof exist that the world is only 6000 years old, it would not affect me. Should incontrovertible proof exist that the world is billions of years old, it would also not affect me or my faith.
With that as a starting point, I'll begin with Bishop Ussher. There is a great deal of excellent scholarship in his chronology. There are also a number of assumptions – the largest is that Genesis 1 is to be taken literally. Genesis 1 is written in a very different style than the rest of Genesis, and is clearly structured as a poem. A key question is – should it be taken as a literal description of creation taking 144 hours or as a poetic metaphor for the process of creation. I am aware of no other scriptures that provide guidance on that decision, and so each Christian must decide for themselves where they stand.
I do not however think (as some argue) that assuming Genesis 1 is poetry and not narrative leads inevitably to taking the rest of the Bible as metaphorical. The vast majority of the Bible is clearly written as descriptive narrative and therefore to be taken at face value. Only those portions which are written as poetry or similar metaphorical styles (Revelations for instance) allow for less literal interpretation.
So, let's strip away the first six days of Ussher's chronology. What are we left with? Ussher says that Adam's came into being October 29, 4004. The date (and time of creation as "nightfall") are based purely on the Semitic calendar and the assumption that the Jewish traditional start of the day (nightfall) and start of the year (the autumnal equinox) were aligned with God's own creation. This is another assumption for which I can see no clear Biblical evidence. That leaves us with just the year – Adam, the male progenitor of all humans, came into being in the year 4004 B.C. Here, finally, Ussher's scholarship shines through. While there are questions on some minor points of his calculations, they result in differences of only a few years. It should be noted that many other scholars have taken upon themselves to create a chronology based on the Bible and the have all come to the conclusion that the Bible says that Adam showed up around 4000 B.C. (Isaac Newton calculated it as 4000B.C. exactly).
So how does the idea that the human race descends from one man who lived 6000 years ago match up with science? The answer to that has changed a great deal over the years. Science generally agrees that there were hominids indistinguishable from humans around for much longer than 6000 years; but DNA variation evidence indicates that we shared a common ancestor much more recently. The "Recent Africa Origin" theory (which is one of two options being considered by science today) says that a small group of hominids (perhaps as few as 150) in Africa in the Late Pleistocene era spread out around the world and replaced all other strains of hominids. The idea that this small tribe might have has a single common patriarch is not unreasonable. The only problem is that the Late Pleistocene era ends 10,000 years ago and supporters of Recent Africa Origin generally believes this migration started in the middle of the Late Pleistocene – around 60,000 B.C.
So where does that leave Christians? Well if you are willing to accept the idea that God might have used evolution as a means to create humanity (and therefore that Adam was merely the first hominid that met God's specifications for "mankind"); and if you are willing to accept that Science may be a bit off on the dates for the migration out of Africa (or that there was a later migration/replacement wave that science has not yet discovered), then the Biblical chronology can in fact be reconciled with current science. Otherwise one must wait for either future scientific discoveries or new Biblical scholarship for some other form or reconciliation. I personally am in the latter category – I am unwilling to either compromise my faith or my science to make them fit together. Instead, I assume that there is some fact that remains missing (in either science or faith) that will allow these two sets of data to fit together seamlessly.
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
February 21, 2008
Faith : Old Earth, New Earth
I wrote yesterday regarding Bishop Ussher's chronology for when Adam was created; but I intentionally skipped the first five days of creation described in Genesis 1 and therefore did not speak to the broader question of the age of the earth. There are three answers supported by different groups of Christians on that.
First, there are Christians who believe that Genesis 1 must be taken absolutely literally – that creation was accomplished in 144 hours and therefore that the whole of the earth is around 6000 years old. I believe this position is very difficult to reconcile with scientific evidence unless you assume God is malicious and created misleading evidence for us to find. I know the Young Earth advocates have some science to support their view, and there are certainly questions that remain unanswered by both sides; but the last time I looked at this closely, the list of things the Young Earth advocates had to find explanations for is larger and appeared to me to be more difficult to resolve. Note I do not say that these people are wrong, only that I see no way to reconcile this position with collected evidence. Such a methodology may in fact exist; I just have never seen it. I certainly believe God is well able to create the entire world in 144 hours if He wanted to, so I don't need an alternative solution. What I need is an understanding of why God would have left behind the evidence that He did if this was the case.
Second, there are Christians who view Genesis 1 as a poem that provides a metaphorical account of the sequence of creation. It describes what order God did things and His pleasure with the original form; but not the exact timeline. Each of the six steps in the sequence could in fact be a description of million or billion years of time. This approach is trivially reconciled with science.
Third, there are Christians who view Genesis 1:3 and onward as a description of the re-creation of the world after some great cataclysm. They point to the ambiguity in the verb used in 1:2. While normally translated "and the earth WAS without form and void", it could also be translated "and the earth BECAME without form and void". The idea is that God took billions or millions of years to create the world and then something happened to make a mess of it, so God spent 144 hours putting things back in order. While this does allow for an arbitrarily old earth, it also implies some great cataclysm 6000 years ago which (evidently) God cleaned up without leaving a sign. While there are some cataclysms in the geological record, it is difficult to line them up with the timeline required for this. As with the first group, new evidence and new scholarship may eventually clear up the issues; but today this is un-reconciled with the data.
So, what do I believe? I have actually been in all three camps at various points in my life, so I am sympathetic to them all. Currently I view Genesis 1 as metaphorical; but do not rule out coming to a different conclusion in the future. I haven't spent more time on this recently because I believe I have been called to focus on other aspects of the faith.
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
February 22, 2008
Observations : Quality of this blog
I have had reason in recent days to go back and read some of the older posts on this blog and have come to the discouraging conclusion that the quality of my writing has not been as good since November as it was in the first years of my blogging. I don't have a clear idea yet why this is true (it isn't just a matter of time invested); but my older posts seem to be far better crafted than my more recent ones. I'm going to have to think about this.
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Life : Away on a business trip
I will be out of town next week on a business trip, and I don’t know how much time I will have to write things or how good my internet connectivity will be. I have scheduled posts for while I am away, so there should be things for people to read; but I may be unable to reply to comments or to moderate the blog.
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February 25, 2008
Books : Books 2008/02/25
Current count of books pending to be read: 126
Read one, purchased none. Busy week.
Books finished this week:
Sex and the Slayer: A Gender Studies Primer for the Buffy Fanby Lorna Jowett
I came to this second-generation Buffy-Studies book with mixed feelings. On the one hand, I am very interested in ready any academic book on Buffy. On the other hand, my interest in post-feminist gender theory is indistinguishable from “none”. Fortunately I was pleasantly surprised. The book is well written and actually made some observations about the show that I had not considered before. I don’t agree with all of the author’s opinions; but I have to acknowledge that they are well argued.
Computer Games Played: LotRO
DVDs Watched: BtVS S5.d5,d6, “Man from Earth” (film and special features)
Next Book: TBD (one of several novels, just haven’t picked which one)
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February 26, 2008
Faith : An Apprenticeship in Holiness
In the old days, if a young boy (or sometimes girl) wanted to learn a trade, they would find a master at that trade who was willing to train them as an apprentice. The apprenticeship agreement had two sides. On the one hand, the master would commit to train the apprentice to be as good as they could become in the trade. On the other hand, the apprentice would promise to be the master's servant until their training was done – not just to obey their master in their training; but also to obey them in other menial tasks as well. (The famous "wax-on, wax-off" sequence in the movie "The Karate Kid" is a perfect picture of apprenticeship). The Master would also take the apprentice into his household, proving food, clothing a shelter to the student as the trained. In extreme cases, where the master had no children of his own available to take over his shop, he would often adopt a promising apprentice with the intent that they would assume the family business.
I find this all a useful metaphor for the Christian life. We all start out acknowledging that we are sinners – that we lack the skills of the trade of "holiness"; and we discover that we need those skills to come into the presence of God. So as Christians, we have sought out a Master in Holiness (God's son, Jesus) and have arranged to become His apprentices in the skills of holiness. As part of that apprenticeship, Jesus has committed to us to train us in how to be holy – to transform us into His (the master's) image. He has also taken us not only into His house (providing all of our needs); but has arranged for us to be adopted into His family as we are trained. In exchange, we must commit to be His servants as he works with us to teach us what it means to be Holy. We serve him not just in matters of holiness (guarding ourselves from sin); but in all things He commands us to do.
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February 27, 2008
Movies : Desert Island Media (Movies)
A couple weeks ago, Melissa asked “If you were on a spaceship to Mars and could only take three movies with you, which three would you choose and why? What about Books? Computer games? TV series?” This is a variation on the standard “If you were stranded on a desert island, what 3 (or 5, or 10) books would you want to have with you?” I assume the variation is to allow for movies, TV and games to be considered (kind of hard to find an outlet to plug the computer into on a desert island.)
I’ll note that this is slightly different from the question of which works I think are “best” or that I would recommend that other people read/watch. There are many excellent works for which a second pass might be enjoyable; but a third or fourth pass starts to get boring. Having those on a desert island (or trip to Mars) would be undesirable. So while I think all of my answers here are great works that I think everyone should experience, there is a bias towards those great works that have sufficient depth to warrant reading / viewing / playing them again and again.
So without further fanfare, here are my picks for movies (I’ll hit the others in later posts):
This proved to be more difficult than it might have been. I used to be a serious cinemaphile; but have grown disenchanted with the limitations of the medium over the last decade or so. The truth of the matter is that I would be content to live several years without access to any movies – I’d rather have more books, TV, or games with me. However, if I had to pick, here’s my short list of movies I’d enjoy watching again and again:
1. Pleasantville
2. The Abyss
3. Contact
I note that what these three all have in common is that they are nominally Science Fiction movies but all use SciFi to communicate a strong message about the nature of the human condition. They are all also (in one way or another) about faith.
If I could take three more I would grab:
4. The Stunt Man
5. Raiders of the Lost Ark
6. The Princess Bride
“The Stunt Man” is a wild movie that constantly bends the line between reality and illusion. It you have never seen it, I consider it a must-see movie.
“Raiders of the Lost Ark” is one of my favorite movies of all time. I actually saw it 8 times before the end of the first week it was out – once in a preview showing the week before, and then once it opened, each night I dragged a new group of friends to see it. It isn’t a deep movie; but it was never meant to be – it is a straight entertainment movie made to perfection. It is down in fifth place because the others are not only well made; but they have something important to say.
“The Princess Bride” is a wonderful mix of comedy and action.
There is a real step down in my opinion from those sixth to the seventh, so I will stop there.
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
February 28, 2008
Faith , Introspection , Life : Games, God, and I
Playing games has always been an important part of my life. At one point I had a collection of over 350 board games and I have no idea how many computer games. For a while it even became a source of stress in my marriage – I was spending too much time playing computer games and not enough with my wife, but that was addressed a while back. Anne also doesn’t approve of some of the game I play; but that’s a different matter.
This past fall, The Lord started to deal with me on my choice of games to play (although, not exactly in ways that Anne would have wanted). I sensed that He was asking me questions as I played various games. What do I like about that game? How do I feel after having played it? Why did I pick that game to play tonight and not another? What did I get out of playing that game? God was working to help me be more conscious of my relationship to the games I played. A similar thing happened a couple years ago when God led me to re-think my TV watching.
The bottom line is that God helped me become aware of what games were beneficial for me to play and which were not. What’s interesting is that despite the amount of hot air generated by pundits on the subject, the issue was rarely a moral one. It was far more about how the games made me feel as I played them. Did they make me think? Did they allow me to be creative? Did they get me interacting with people (board game obviously have a big advantage here)? Or did I tend to get frustrated and stressed as I played them? Did they lead me to isolate myself?
Now a lot of these ideas are obvious; but the fact is I had rarely used principles like this to guide my game purchase decisions. I was more interested in what was “hot” and what had cool new technology than what benefit I derived from the experience (other than a few hours of distraction from life). Which leads me to the other thing I realized – how much I used computer games as a means of escape when I got stressed at work. Now there is value in that to a point; but only to a point; and there are dangers if I use games to avoid dealing with things that need to be dealt with.
So I am in the process of formulating some rules for myself for how I will decide what games to buy and play in the future. I don’t have a sense that I will necessarily be spending less time playing games; but the kinds of games and the venue in which I play them may change significantly.
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
February 29, 2008
Books : Desert Island Media (Books)
This is the continuation of my response to a suggestion for posts from Melissa. Essentially if I had to go a long period of time with access to only a small set of movies, books, TV, games, which would I choose? I previously gave my list of movies here.
Books turns out to be an easier list since I already have a set of books that I tend to re-read periodically, so they are natural choices. The only question is what order to put them in. I will however note that my choices here are definitely influenced by the idea that I would be re-reading them many times. There are books (particularly non-fiction books) that I recommend more highly for reading once; but for books to re-read, this is my list.
The obvious first choice is, of course, the Bible. It is in fact so obvious as to be uninteresting, so I’ll focus on what books I would pick after that (and assume I have on my desert island, or spaceship, or whatever, a Bible). Although if I had a choice of what translation to take, I think I’d currently pick the New English Bible – a British translation.
So after that, here’s what I would pick:
1. "Godel, Escher, Bach : An Eternal Golden Braid" by Hofstadter
As I mentioned in a recent review, this is one of my favorite books of all time, and one I re-read regularly.
2. "Snow Crash" by Stephenson
One of my favorite SciFi books of all time. I re-read this periodically, both for the ideas in the book and for the author’s excellent use of language.
3. "Courtship Rite" by Kingsbury
Another of my all-time favorite novels.
If I could take a few more (perhaps trading in my movie allotment), I would grab:
4. "Le Ton Beau De Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language" by Hofstadter
Hofstadter’s other masterpiece.
5. Cryptonomicon by Stephenson
Another of Stephenson’s books
6-8. The Baroque Cycle by Stephenson
If I could take 8 books, the I would next add Stephenson’s entire Baroque Cycle. Otherwise I would pick:
6. or 9. "The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" by Stephenson
Another Stephenson book.
So yes, if I was able to grab 9 books, I would only have 3 authors represented.
Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
