Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Video Games Finally
I'm going to start writing about video games. I don't really do this because I don't think I'm qualified. I remember in college I would try to write opinionated essays and end up making the case for what I was arguing against. But this is very personal, I'm going to start writing about a game I just bought, also I might buy an old game and review that. The game I just bought was Far Cry 2, which I'd heard a lot of interesting things about. I'll post a First Impressions later.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
There is No Truth
If this thing has a time posted display you may notice the late hour. I can't sleep and instead of telling my brain to shut up and go to sleep I've decided I'm going to power through to the next sunset then slip off to dream land. I like staying up, it's late hours like this that make me question reality. I was contemplating something about myself. I like to think I'm the first to admit I'm wrong, but people who know me well tell me "no, you're the exact opposite, you fight for your point of view no matter how wrong."
I was trying to figure out why that was, and the reason is because I know a lot of stuff. I like to boast that "I have a general knowledge of all things" and to many peoples annoyance this proves sort of true. I can tell you about half of what you'd want to know about anything. But it's hard separating knowledge from opinion. And this led me to something I've said to annoy people, "There are no facts, everything is an opinion." That's me experimenting with extremism. Now what did I mean?
Well, all we have to mark facts is viewable verifiable phenomena, but how do we know our eyes aren't lying? How do we know we know anything? Let's take something simple, like "The sky is blue" You can confirm that easy enough, look up during the day. And you can make shitty little counter-points like "Well during dusk and dawn the sky changes colors to such hues as pink, crimson, yellow, and darker shades like navy, purple, indigo, black even at night." No, not what I'm talking about.
A long time ago when I was in school I'd grill my science teachers and doctors I'd talk to, anyone with technical knowledge about the world, I've always had a thirst to learn. I was talking with someone about how our eyes see, how white light splits and we perceive the world by whatever fragment of the light is least diffuse when it reaches our eyes. I asked if that actually meant that things were really the color they were, that our perception of the world was in a way a sort of trick. What if the sky wasn't blue, what if that was only our perception? What if in actuality it was gray or white or black or didn't have a color, just a bright place before the stars? How could we know? Our understanding of vision is so entrenched in light that we have a hard if not impossible time understanding other methods of perception.
You see? Maybe the sky ain't blue, maybe we just think that as small minded humans. Who knows?
I was trying to figure out why that was, and the reason is because I know a lot of stuff. I like to boast that "I have a general knowledge of all things" and to many peoples annoyance this proves sort of true. I can tell you about half of what you'd want to know about anything. But it's hard separating knowledge from opinion. And this led me to something I've said to annoy people, "There are no facts, everything is an opinion." That's me experimenting with extremism. Now what did I mean?
Well, all we have to mark facts is viewable verifiable phenomena, but how do we know our eyes aren't lying? How do we know we know anything? Let's take something simple, like "The sky is blue" You can confirm that easy enough, look up during the day. And you can make shitty little counter-points like "Well during dusk and dawn the sky changes colors to such hues as pink, crimson, yellow, and darker shades like navy, purple, indigo, black even at night." No, not what I'm talking about.
A long time ago when I was in school I'd grill my science teachers and doctors I'd talk to, anyone with technical knowledge about the world, I've always had a thirst to learn. I was talking with someone about how our eyes see, how white light splits and we perceive the world by whatever fragment of the light is least diffuse when it reaches our eyes. I asked if that actually meant that things were really the color they were, that our perception of the world was in a way a sort of trick. What if the sky wasn't blue, what if that was only our perception? What if in actuality it was gray or white or black or didn't have a color, just a bright place before the stars? How could we know? Our understanding of vision is so entrenched in light that we have a hard if not impossible time understanding other methods of perception.
You see? Maybe the sky ain't blue, maybe we just think that as small minded humans. Who knows?
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