What should we make of this war on Scientology being conducted by the enigmatic internet group – Anonymous? (I hesitate to label them as anything beyond a ‘group’ since they themselves seem to try to resist various kinds of labels (such as hackers)) For those who don’t know, this group has popped up in the last week or two with a number of videos on youtube claiming that they were going to conduct a war against the Church Of Scientology. I’ll come to those videos in a moment. Subsequently, they were able to shut down the Church of Scientology website with a denial of service attack, an act designed to gain them media attention. If their boast to the effect that they are a force strong enough to destroy a powerful institution like the Church of Scientology is accurate, then we should be disturbed enough to ask a couple of very important questions. First we should ask after the nature of such a group. Second, what does it say about our culture that such a group should arise (obviously you need to answer the first to answer the second). And last, is the existence of such a group desirable? I’m going to examine these three questions in order. Anonymous – I believe is the product of a culture starved society that is losing faith in the institutions designed to protect its freedoms and its liberty.
More…
Dmitry Davidov is an internet marketer and adsense guru (although he probably doesn’t agree with that label) that has achieved the dream of self-sufficiency by making money on the internet. In this interview I ask him about the means by which he has achieved his success and the kind of lifestyle this affords him. We also explore in depth some of the philosophic and ethical issues that concern the science of marketing. This is a must read for anyone looking to earn a living on the internet. As anyone who reads this blog might know, I don’t see eye to eye with Dmitry on many things (which makes for a great interview), but his answers are thoughtful, well considered, and insightful. My thanks to Dmitry for the time taken to give me this interview.
More…
Dorris Lessing is the latest of a growing list of notable people who have spoken out against the internet, claiming in short that it makes us stupid. Another prominent example is the author Andrew Keen who argues first that user generated content (along with copyright infringement and the like) is undermining the business models that enable the production of quality content – content that is vetted by professionals. On the other side you have people like Lawrence Lessig who argues in defence of the cult of the amateur and the democratisation of content production. It’s interesting that the internet has produced such divergent interpretations of its contribution. Either it will liberate us from the elite culture makers, or it will doom us to a swill of endless mediocrity where we can’t tell fact from fiction. Either it will be the birth of a new democratic consciousness, or the end of consciousness itself. I’m not going to take a side in this particular debate. It is an old debate as I will point out in greater detail below. However, there is a manner in which the internet may provide for a genuine raising of consciousness, one which is continually overlooked by the pundits. It’s nature is not what you’d expect – and it certainly doesn’t rely on a wholesome belief in the goodness of the average human being.
More…
Gaming will probably become the dominant form of entertainment within the next decade. With games now beginning to hit the mainstream, expectations continue to grow with respect to the entertainment experience provided. It’s no longer enough to throw a couple of monsters in the way of the player’s crosshairs to shoot – a rich visual and narrative experience is expected as well. This creates choices for the game designer that are not decided with ease. In particular, a tension is created between the desire for a rich narrative experience, as opposed to player freedom to determine their own experience. This post will be an exploration of that tension as it plays out in the Half Life series of games. I’ll look at how narrative is constructed in the half life games. My argument will be that while games are capable of providing a rich narrative – this is generally at the expense of gameplay; and secondly, that if this decision is taken then a very strong and rich narrative is required to ensure an enduring an memorable experience for the gamer. The half life series serves as an example of this sort of game – where gameplay aspects are sacrificied for the sake of the narrative. While Half Life 2 had perhaps the best narrative of a game I’ve ever seen, it’s sequels have lost the depth that made Half Life 2 so great. With Valve continuing to limit player freedom (irrespective of their claims for the latest episode), along with the shorter episodic content – this combines to give a fairly shallow gameplay experience – limiting replayability. In what follows I will attempt to demonstrate why I think this to be the case.
More…
One of my interests is in emerging art forms. Various kinds of new media have the potential to be the greatest vehicles of artistic expression we have yet seen. I consider gaming to be one such platform – and have explored the art of gaming narrative previously on this blog (and will do so again shortly). Another emerging art form is the demo – which garners considerably less attention because it lacks a mass appeal. While the demo scene has been around for a considerable amount of time (it grew up around c64 gaming scene where those providing cracks and trainers would preface the game with a short loading screen which would attribute to themselves the credit for the crack), it is yet to fully mature as an art form. Nevertheless, I believe its potential can be seen in recent work by some of the top demo crews on the scene today. This post is a review of three examples of such work. While many will refuse the label of ‘art’ for such work, I will nevertheless consider them as such and provide my review on such a basis.
More…
Carl Sagan has to be one of the greatest popularisers of science we’ve ever had. He fascinated an entire generation with his documentaries and perhaps inspired many of the scientists who work throughout the world today. In the clip below I think we get a sense of the motivation he had for his efforts. He knew full well that the achievements of science and culture could all be swept away in an uprising of the ignorant and the stupid. He deeply felt the importance of his popularising work – and this video shows why.
More…
Update
I’ve written a more extended reaction to these photos and the police operation which you can read: here.
—–
I went into the city today to watch the APEC protest and took some photos. I was absolutely amazed at the size of the police presence and the lengths to which they had gone to prevent the organisation of an effective protest. It seems they had totally surrounded all entry points into Hyde Park where the protesters where trying to gather – allowing them only one entry and exit point. They then set up stations blocking off various streets. It really looks like massive over kill – which will only fuel the negative public perception of the event. We the ordinary folks just watch on in childlike wonder while our leaders swan around playing ‘Nations’ with their friends.
More…
A while back I wrote about the brave new revenue sharing world that is fast approaching. I argued that in order to infiltrate word of mouth distribution channels, companies would begin to share revenue with their users. I predicted that the result would be the total commoditisation of our social lives and I painted nightmare scenarios where we were paid to influence our friends, colleagues and loved ones for the sake of a share in the profit. I want now to explore the deeper connections between those forces which propel us toward this brave new world, and those that resist it. I argue that the revulsion we feel toward the idea stems from a deep philosophical view that has its roots in the Romantic movement. This romantic sentiment is in danger of being swallowed up and destroyed by those forces it has for so long opposed. Is it capable of maintaining its oppositional stance – and is it even a sentiment that we value any more? Or is it now just an empty myth used for entertainment and empty amusement?
More…
Unfortunately I am neck deep in my philosophy work right now and can’t afford the time to write proper full length articles. So instead I will compromise and writer shorter tidbits so that I ensure that I keep posting regularly. They will also be exclusively on the philosophical topics I am researching. Today I’ll look at a particular argument for the existence of objects that don’t exist. Sounding a little spurious already? Then read on!
More…
The Following is a draft of an essay I am working on. I’m not convinced the argument works so if anyone can show me why it’s wrong please do!
Quantified modal logic often plays a central role in the debate between those who believe in the existence of possibilia (possibilists) and those who deny their existence (actualists). Traditional logical and semantic theories, when applied to the subject of modality, make the derivation of the Barcan formulas possible. These theorems serve as an affront to common sense intuitions that deny the existence of objects that are merely possible, or that objects have necessary existence. Recent contributions attempt to either render the validity of the Barcan formulas irrelevant to the broader metaphysical issues, or to sate actualist intuitions in a variety of other ways. I argue that these attempts are failures. The possible worlds framework is the proper theoretical apparatus of the possibilist – but not the actualist. The actualist must find some other apparatus to underwrite their intuitions. I argue further that this is not as bad for the actualist as it sounds, since the possible worlds framework cannot itself be used as a motivation to adopt possibilism.
More…