A Long Awaited Journey

I have been meaning to do something like this for some time now, but only now have I gotten around to it. I am starting another blog.

The mandate of this blog is essentially "Etarran reflects on the universe in whatever way he sees fit," and that's all very well, to be sure. However, politics-philosophy-gaming-dinosaurs-metaphysics-physics-mathematics-literature-psychology-sociology-and-anything-else-that-strikes-my-fancy was beginning to be a bit too much to handle, and is, I feel, leeching focus from any of the individual issues that I discuss. Furthermore, the project I have in mind for the new space is somewhat more ambitious than can really fit in a blog dedicated to other things, and demands its own space.

So you can (mostly) scratch out the "gaming" section of the above list.

The Games Of Castles is intended to be a space for me to discuss games: gaming culture, gaming as a hobby, individual games that strike my interest. But, more than all this, it is intended to be a place where I can catalogue games: campaign logs, setting information, story and character and plot and background, all woven together into what is hopefully a cohesive and interesting whole. Roleplaying games, after all, are in many ways like writing a story - and what good is a story if you don't share it with anyone?

Mangling Defenseless Objects

Psychology is the study of human thought on an individual level. Sociology: thought on a cultural level. Philosophy: thought on a cosmic level.

The so-called "social sciences" begin and end with the study of human thought, in each situation and of each consideration to which it can be applied.

Sometimes, though, I think we have it wrong, we philosophers, we pretentious liberal-arts majors studying the Fundamental Truths of the Universe According to Dead Racists. Sometimes, I think the best way to examine human thought is with a math problem.

Here's an interesting one, which some of you may have encountered before. It's called the Mutilated Chessboard problem, which makes it both educational and hilarious.

Imagine a chessboard with two squares, each in an opposite corner, removed. Now, take 31 dominoes, each of which covers exactly two squares. Place them on the chessboard such that the dominoes cover all 62 squares, or explain why this is impossible.

Take a moment to try to come up with the answer before I tell it to you. It's an interesting little problem, and actually much harder than it looks.

....until you figure out the trick.

What is the fundamental property of a chessboard? 64 squares, alternating black and white, so that no two adjacent squares are of the same colour. Thus, the two squares removed when the chessboard was mutilated (ideally in some kind of horror-movie sequence involving a psychopathic grand master) must have been the same colour. However, any given domino must cover two differently-coloured squares, which means that the problem is impossible.

But that's not how most people would go about solving that problem, is it? I would guess that the vast majority of people, on being handed a chessboard, a knife, and 31 dominoes, would start by putting dominoes on the board and trying to see if some sort of pattern emerged. Humans are programmed to be experiential, rather than logical - in most cases, we prefer to touch, rather than think, to do, rather than see.

Maybe that's why people so freqently make obviously bad decisions. Sure, if you thought about it the right way, you'd know that the Xtreme stunt/questionable relationship decision/substance abuse isn't really the cleverest of ideas - not the optimal solution to the problem - but sometimes, you just have to spend an hour playing with dominoes before you figure it out.

Etarran Sums Up the American Federal Election

Actually, unlike the Canadian election, I have some things to say about this one.

Though I am of course tempted to spend this post going "woo Obama yay Obama yay!", and just generally painting a big Fuck You Republicans sign all over the internet, I imagine that will be amply taken care of by those both more numerous and considerably louder than I am. I desperately hope that an Obama presidency can do some things to stem the tide of failure and disaster that seems to be issuing forth neverendingly from the Western world, but that remains to be seen. Though I - surprisingly, given my general cynicism with regards to politicians - find myself able to believe that his ideals are good, I also must make note that, as with any leader, ideals must give way to issues of practicality and popularity. I wish the world would recognize that, in general, at least, ideals of peace and environmental sustainability and diplomatic foreign policy and other hippy nonsense are matters of practicality... but of course it cannot do that until the proponents of these ideals start treating them that way.

So, while my initial feeling about an Obama presidency is a matter of cautious optimism, rather than furious elation, there is something from the 2008 election that I am legitimately ecstatic about, and that is the voter turnout.

Despite the fact that an Obama victory was predictable from early in the election, which necessarily reduces turnout, especially in the West, we managed to get a voter turnout over 65% - higher than it's been since 1908. Now, obviously, this could be better, but I think it is trending in that direction. Unlike the Canadian election (voter turnout 59%), in which lackluster leadership, rampant apathy, and general justifiable political malaise have conspired to render half the population voiceless, American voter turnouts have done nothing but rise over the last twelve years. In a world in which each successive generation has been less politically involved than the last, with my generation plunging to new lows of uselessness (28% youth turnout last election, as opposed to 46% this election), this is highly encouraging.

Maybe, just maybe, we can yet prove ourselves worthy of democracy.