Gray, the procedural man

[update]: see the bottom line
(WIP)

As the big holidays are fast approaching, this Halloween I've had a nightmare where tovarish Marx was Santa with a huge white bear. Having a list with us all, knowing good from wrong and constantly SEEING who's behaved badly.

Although usually quiet or asking questions meant to scary (read: impose respect) little children, this time having first consumed huge amounts of alcohol, he even insisted on a speech:
Communism distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress. Communism is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of communism as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions.
(obscure paste from wiki)

I was content with the truism and haven't felt any distress that in his own (distress and tirade) he switched religion with communism.

Both are born from chaos though hypocritically claiming the ultimate order and lawfulness giving you pylons of air to sustain their theory. Both the fanatic religious and the extremist socialist when faced with times of crisis, are praying that there is a God or social entity larger than man, that is bound with a "contract" to help them as they have previously paid their dues. Mephisto anyone? :)

This payment of the dues represents the ritualistic archetype hereby bound UAXT:A under the name of The Procedural Archetype.

And following the post that included Rand and her objectivism, a post about the irrational and over confident, Procedural Man.

Let's make another shortcut: UAXT
- We'll say U is the union sign, representing vaguely what every ideology is after, but never achieve, for U was there before they opened their mouth, and will be there unchanged, after their rants would be desert dust.
- the A stands for intersection, from the rational set theory, but also extends to the rationalist Occam's razor and the commie belief that everyone should be as one by cutting rather than enlightenment (mneme: A = abstract)
- X for difference, usually between two entities; being in itself an entity that begs to differ.
- and T for transcendence, mind you, not the meditation transcendental kind, simply the object that you acknowledge is more than what you comprehend for the time being. (somewhat in the middle of Kant's transcendental and transcendent, therefore that which lies in the objective world, it is comprehensible but not yet fully comprehended, treating both sides in the same time)

See, I told you we need a shortcut, therefore: UAXT with its operators (UAXT:U; UAXT:A; UAXT:X and UAXT:T)


The so much sought and nowadays more popular than ever - concept of consciousness, is bound to the notion of memory, one of our most recognizable function of the brain. The memory however comes in various types, and we have in our little head, at least four big categories. From these, the procedural memory is in fact largely unconscious, therefore the generic names given and associated with its skills should be considered highly volatile when applied to individuals.

But the archetype of the procedural human (as all the other four when taken independently) is in fact the one that is stubborn to maintain one function above all others, disregarding differences in contexts and aspects. The propensity of its generic names are "catchy". <- funny pic here

This "catch them all" attractor factor is what makes it dangerous, in terms of herds of ignorants and the obvious impossibility to repay its clients when it comes to it, because it ignores the individual's customized needs.

The archetype of the procedural human is bound to traditional achievements. In fact is bound to anything that has a generic promise of power.

The Dungeons and Dragons lore pose an interesting axis for determining one's temporary moral alignment.

Combined with the procedural archetype (that is still to be defined) we can derive the
- Corporatist Vampire (lawful, evil),
satisfied apparently with anything that the company offers, especially with the reason that most corporations were born from (distributing responsibility, sometimes that is "diluting"), never complaining, using the generics whenever he can cast away the reality, in order to slowly but surely climb the ladder. When on top, the power leeched is his blood, and will do anything to "survive".
Fortunately for the humans, by that time the Vampire is easily recognizable by its lack of humanity and overt disdain for it.

- the Replicant (chaotic, evil)
is never enough organized to get on top of a corporation, but she is a savagely consumer, and has to have the best of everything. Not being very self educated, she's easily seduced by "labels". The Replicant represents the statistics, and she is proud of it. From her point of view, those who don't follow the rat race, are foul ignorants.

- the Codder (*, good)
has the skills of programming but he's so much into it that is satisfied with the constant tap of dopamine that is given by small chunks of code. A code junky you might say, the reward is unequivocally and the legitimacy is "God style", when the code is right, the codder is right, halleluiah! In everything he said or done in the meanwhile! Oh, puhlease! :)

What is interesting, as I was saying, is that we are not in fact segregated by nature, and the fact that one is many, depending on one's context and goals. We sometimes switch to a mode where we are "narrowed" into one slice, but we do have the power to recover. Any concept may be elicited first in any of the realms, but it has a translation, a projection, in all the others. While in procedural mode, we may do the mistake of considering everyone else as objects.


If you somehow missed it, see the Temple Grandin, as an example of one who fought hard for her rights even when the nature apparently "narrowed" her options. Yes it is my favorite depiction of autism from a reality bound perspective. On the same place perhaps with the notorious Rain Man, btw the documentary regarding the real Kim Peek is here and it's sensational ;)

_____________________

Of course I wouldn't forget to mention Dan Ariely's contribution in popularizing the cognitive biases that makes people to act irrational and not knowing it. And to recommend you reading his The Upside of Irrationality if you haven't already read Predictably Irrational.
For an introduction, you may check this video: ...on our buggy moral code

Also you may find Jonah Lehrer's book How we decide a nice weekend reading, and his blog is very interesting too... well, it was in the days before wired.com . Well now, I'm just very perfectionist :)
And if you are into the hardcore of the problem, especially the neuroscience of emotions and why emotions ARE intelligence, do lookout for mister Antonio Damasio

P.S. Index #1

Please do take Ayn with a grain of salt, her sometimes harsh approach especially regarding the "selfish" concept, is merely a "marketing" device, albeit in her case an overused one. She is to be understood from the point of view where she believed in altruism, merely the dissemination of her works and the time invested is proof, but she said altruism is to be elicited by one's own free will, not a concept to be imposed. That, in all regards, remains true, and so many times imposed "good deeds" are in fact the devices of diabolical minds. Arbeit macht frei!
Personally I can tell you that altruism is an innate ability, and perhaps there will be a time to share scientific sources, for now if you are interested, you may dwell here and there. Usually a truly evil person is either on the range of psychopath, ignorant searching for easy "credit" or just "have had it rough" so many times that little demons are bound to manifest.
Nevertheless, Ayn has her place well in a post entitled "Black and White", and her objectivism should be taken seriously, even if complementary to the view that as individuals with limited lives, we are bound to mistakes by the veils of truth.

Let's recap:
We've had some documentaries, about how we see the world, including about the brain, history and natural habitat,
I've shared the joy and challenge of the never ceases to amaze me games, the independent ones
we've listened and had a glimpse at some veins of both true and imaginary stories, always having some good books and movies to complement the journey.

Also, don't forget to check from time to time Phase 1, I've just uploaded the latest versions. That way you'll have plenty of time to enjoy other stories and sources. If you have a request regarding the sources, don't hesitate, but be advised it may take a week to receive the reply.

Black and White

By now I think you've already drilled further into the previous post, and found Alain de Botton's whole collection of books. If not, but you've maybe enjoyed Status Anxiety, know that another show, > the Perfect Home < is not to be missed. Although I find it difficult to agree he's not biased in the last part of the show, I loved it. The second part made me think about the possibility of one to get a doctorate thesis into applying true neuroscience in classifying the notions of beauty in architecture, thus cutting the Gordian knot once and for all. (philosophers tried, and much is to be reused from them, but definitely not yet quite cut it)


In an attempt to mingle the pleasure of writing on this blog with the more practical advance of my game design, if you are interested in the new post probably entitled the Procedural Man, while waiting for it... have you seen Fritz Lang's masterpieces? I started with > Metropolis < and was amazed, continued with The Testament of Dr. Mabuse and again I have been mesmerized. For Metropolis, this version should be the further restored, available only from Nov 16 2010. In regards to other works of mister Lang, I haven't mentioned them because I haven't yet had the pleasure, but the next weekend is bound to the original "M".

In order to mingle the black and white with the architectural theme, have a shot at > The Fountainhead < . If you are not lost, then scoop further into >For The New Intellectual< as an apriori or aposteriori view of Ayn Rand's views, so ahead of those times, unfortunately even of these as we can learn from the current crisis' causes and effects.

Docs

Up to my late 20s I was really not touched by learning history. I could perhaps find an excuse in the fact that being born in a "wanna be" communist country, with strong traditionalism regarding schooling, I was fed up mostly with sterile garbage. Carefully selected and stripped so it would not let room for any "dangerous" imagination, the simplistic point of view narrowed my options to rote learning the order of events up to the "details" of only bare dates. You knew the day and month, you got a good mark, you missed - your chances were almost null because the other information regarding the event was largely generic or nonexistent. After the Revolution, the history teachers remained mostly the same, though I do remember some young temporary students coming to teach for their grades, and injecting some love for the complexity of this... let's call it science and art.

Another welcomed distraction, worth mentioning, was Sid Meier's Civilization, that inspired me to do some research of my own regarding history, as well as to put some effort in programming with a good friend, our first windows object system in dos (what times!) and an editor for a game that sadly was never finished (ZBog, we could've made history!). BTW, the last installment of Civilization is truly a worthy successor.

As history fast forwards, I came across Mr Schama's A History of Britain, a delightful immersion in the history of the island that had so much to tell before somewhat sinking in its own shadow, as all the traditional colossi tend to. I am praising the storytelling style, imagery and cinematic style. If it grows on you too, I think you'll find the audiobooks a wonderful addition latter on, to remind you of the experience.
To amazon buy it, or just check the reviews: > A History of Britain <
Also the BBC's Shakespearian plays are a nice way to augment the experience and to notice the differences. I write down only one more movie that touched me deeply, A man for all seasons, and I make a mental knot to remind me to add others when I'll have the time.

Oh! [update:] The Civilisation series of Kenneth Clark is simply amazing and more broadly than only Britain's story. As for something new, I've got my eyes on an interesting piece, where you can see "first hand": Attenborough, Freud, Jung, Russell and others that made interviews with BBC. Great Thinkers: In Their Own Words , you see.

Power of Art, again by Simon Schama, goes even further with the cinematic ambition, imagining and portraying the very artists depicted in various stances. The artists and their works are described with some critical analysis that is bound to make you wonder and research even further. Or, just to enjoy that you've added some gray matter in art matters.


Now that I've covered some history and praised the storytelling technique of making it digestible, it's hard not to mention Joseph Campbell. His Mythos documentary is both interesting and entertaining, delivering some of the archetypes used to construct the stories from the more popular and mythological point of view.

Strangely still about history somehow, the Nobel's Laureate neuroscientist Eric Kandel's In Search of Memory, delivers besides the thrilling quest for discovering some very interesting facts about our brains, a nice perfume about his own life crossing some major historical events. If you have had the opportunity to see the documentary, please drop me a line where I could find it and how it is in regards to the book herein presented.

If you are interested in a more popular but still very well done documentaries about the brain, I posted some > info here <, where you'll also find a shortcut to amazon for Campbell.


Well now, as the times are still pressuring us with the obnoxious status anxiety, allow yourself a little time for self-deprecating humor eventually watching (if you can find it :) the excellent >Status Anxiety<.

Only then would I allow you to immerse into your wall mounted plasma display, to watch at your discretion the exquisitely Planet Earth documentaries, presented if possible with the warm and enthralling voice of mister... well, Sir David Attenborough

I've heard of the recent Life series, but sadly I had to settle for the time being with the joy of listening to nevertheless wonderful David Attenborough's Life Stories.

If you are still with me and you don't find my long discourse as being Japanese to you, I stop here for the time being. But I just have to mention Japanorama, as a documentary to be seen with your notes pad open, as you'll have plenty opportunities to grab some references that you'll have to search afterwards, it is very compressed and a joy to see.