6th Grade Singularity

"We all have a place for improvement in our minds
from the dark corner where the fear waits to be called upon and the machinelike chain of
ideas ever going around.. around so swiftly so swiftly yet slowly.
and the memory in the middle which no one understands until the last moment, slowly
dripping away farther to the back of the mind where all finished thoughts eventually go.
yet the room is only half lit for one side has not yet been born and sits there waiting for

evolution to occur."

I remember how pornographic these words had felt, furiously typed on the family PC late one night. 5th grade? 6th? Printed it out so I'd always have a copy, hid it in my cabinet so it would never be read.

Well there you go: the post-human ____ of a kid on a computer in 1994*. I wonder what the kids are worried about now that the singularity is a such given.

Maybe they aren't as convinced that we'll improve.

-Cos

What are some ways to tap into compulsion circuits in social game design?

Xianhang Zhang, I design for social interaction

14 votes by Seb Paquet, Jüri Kaljundi, Yishan Wong, (more)

• Intermittent reward
• Occasional oversized payouts - Quora does this really well. Occasionally, an answer you write will "blow up" and get a disproportionate amount of upvotes. You start to get addicted to discovering the process that caused it to happen but, since the process is essentially random, you continually answer in order to chase that original high.
• Steady stream of accomplishments
• Constant action required
• Appointment mechanics

Probably the best places to look are casino design and advertising design respectively.

3 Comments • Thank • Not Helpful • Sep 23, 2010

Those are actually methods for tapping into compulsion circuits, but doesn't identify the circuits themselves. I've changed the question to fit your answer :)

Seb Paquet • Sep 23, 2010

What do you mean by "appointment mechanics"?

Amal Dorai • Oct 7, 2010

Are these truly the "best" places to look, Xianhang? Casinos ruin lives and advertisements manipulate. Play should be a freeing experience.
Those of us who have the resources to design "for" social interaction must acknowledge our responsibility to cultivate healthy psychological states. Anything else is black magic.

Dr.Cosmos • Delete • 11:15am

The State of the Art

"For whatever failings or false starts the pundits may heap on augmented reality, it’s just too useful to be left behind. We want to see the world for what it is, rich with data & paths & affinities & memory."

"When architecting augmented reality platforms it should be paramount that the open internet is the core model. AR is simply a way to draw the net out on to the phenomenal world. As such it needs a common set of standards."

"The marketing money will dry up so it’s imperative that the young platform companies collaborate to coordinate the standards under the hood, freeing them up to differentiate by the unique experiences & services they build on top. This may seem inevitable (or impossible, depending on your half-cup disposition) but look at virtual worlds – another technology that might be stronger if there were common standards & open movement across experiences."

http://www.urbeingrecorded.com/news/2010/10/13/is-ar-ready-for-the-trough-of-disillusionment/

Mediated Holograms

I am now working for a company that sells software tools which allow artists/architects/computer wielding humans to build applications in which a viewer to led to see 3D illusions in their world. The objects are not really there, but people react to them as though they are.

(Granted, computer code exists while it's running, never say that it doesn't or your grandchildren will call you the 2050 equivalent of a racist)

But now, in order to sustain himself, Dr. Cosmos must explain why perfectly decent people need to use "Augmented Reality" to make money. This involves personally influencing marketers to invest in their own ability to digitally steer human emotions around events, experiences or brands.

Pretty cool!

But this web-log has traditionally been a forum for my disagreements with the misuse of media towards purposes of persuasion and control! I cannot say for certain that AR will make the world any better.

But it might.

It could allow us to share our thoughts in a more harmonious way. To create levels of cognitive balance unexperienced since the creation of the spoken word by providing our race with a better way to share the hallucinations/machinations of its respective personalities through time.

Wait okay hold up. So then why should advertisers be allowed to deploy AR-powered mass mobilizations? Why would we give them the tools to create reality-fortified propaganda?

Because thats what they get for their donation. Their patronage. Through their support of this essential experiment in human communication, corporate creative is helping to save the world one project at a time.

Buy it.

-Cos

Sometimes

I wish there was a website where I could go and experience the pure informational sensation of the internet condensed into one place. A blended flashing smoothie of video game trailers, emails from valued people, videos of uncanny events... every node of stimulus out there packed into a clickable KABLAM. Satisfaction.

Then, with the click of a button, I could relay my recent experience out to every person in the world, all at once. The sensation i sent out would then be so wonderful and affective that everyone in the world would click their "like" buttons and trigger holographic lucky charm marshmallows to rain over me and my computer.

But... I can't shake the feeling that I'd grow tired of their marshmallows. I'd probably start searching for better ways to display my torrent of social affirmation such that it was "cooler", and thus more likely to inspire further likes. Heck, I'd probably get tired of the KABLAM site itself after awhile and be left with a longing desire for more... a feeling that the internet had let me down.

Is this it?

I'm growing tired of my knee-jerk search for affirmation from the internet. Every idea I encounter becomes valuable only in its ability to be spread out to the masses. Is this the nature of memes? Of ideas? Must they exist only to be communicated?

Perhaps thought has always been tailored to attract the reward of a few "likes".

Do me a favor? Don't click the like button, don't forward the link. Don't quantize me this time.

Because that's what we do, what we've always done: categorize ourselves, the world and the way we see it into ways that are measurable, improvable and thoroughly fictitious.

Long story short: I deactivated my facebook account so I could start living again. I'm moving to San Francisco.

II. Conceptual Obligations: (a.k.a. Dr. Cos' wordy philosophical prescript)

This project's existence will have lasting effects on the future of gaming, art and the human experience. As we aim to shape the future of outdoor gaming and reality manipulation we must remember to grant users as much cognitive freedom as possible within the goal structures we create. The goals we set are made to inspire creative thinking and enjoyment, nothing more. Misuse of design to inspire players to invest their time, thoughts, emotions and labor with us inappropriately could lead to the dangers of addictive escapism, compulsion, manipulation and cognitive control. These dangers should be kept in mind by all those constructing what is essentially a new world for people to live in. That said, the player chooses to participate and not everyone will react positively to what we make. Let us strive to inspire fun and play in the greatest number of participants as we can and to avoid creating unncessecary methods of manipulation and deciet ( or borrowing irresponsible designs from historical political and social goal systems).

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Properly addressed, these dangers should not distract us from the task of construction: change is inevitable and we will only learn by doing. Those working on this project have been given an important opportunity to build it well. With that said, let's change the world.

: |

"This could evolve into a very interesting sub-culture of hardcore gamers."

-things that didn't matter enough to make it into the pitch.