The Game Loop: Part 1 Mental pipelines

[Federica]

It is interesting because it's like the mystery is applied in the wrong direction, toward the subsensible instead of the supersensible. The intellect effectively says, "There is much more to be found by digging deeper into my familiar computational gestures, we have only begun to scratch the surface of what these gestures are capable of revealing. If we remain humble and allow these gestures to proliferate in the most varied configurations, there is no telling what kind of deeper realities we will interface with, what kind of intelligences will incarnate into them." And of course that is true, in a way, but the deeper realities encountered will be of an elemental nature, the projection of our unexamined being conditioned by past karma. (like the atavistic faculties Kaje posted about elsewhere). The spiritual reality unveiled will be fantastic spectrum of ghosts, demons, and spectres.

Now I think that I have a good opportunity to examine these things from first-person experience, because I was actually one who vehemently believed in the "Strong AI" philosophy (the idea that consciousness is what any computational process, no matter the substrate, feels like)
I'll have to try to reconstruct how everything felt to me at that time and why it seemed so convincing.

That's so mindboggling! But it also gives hope that others may find a similar way...

[Cleric]

I would like to share a video that follows an online Minecraft event where about 1000 players participate.



The video is actually a whole movie. It is rather long, and time is a scarce commodity in our age, so I can't really recommend it as something that is important to be seen. There's nothing there that is in itself of value (in the sense of some message or important idea). There's nothing noble, nothing that should serve as an example for the new culture, etc. But for me, it was a very interesting experience to watch it. Maybe because on one hand it ties with the playful theme of the essay series, but on the other, almost everything served me as a rich substrate for reflection. In other words, the thoughts and ideas that were stimulated as I watched were far richer than what the content directly presents. I realize that this is completely personal, and that's why I cannot recommend it as something in itself, because not everyone will experience it in a similar way.

Maybe one thing that I can share is how I was stimulated to consider more intensely many things from our everyday life. For example, the kids in the event form the most varied factions; they organize, have leaders, have basic jurisdiction, building planning, resource management, and so on. As someone who in his youth has superficially brushed over many aspects of education, to this day I have many holes in my knowledge - there are many things of politics, social science, architecture, institutions, and so on, that are still for me simply part of the flat existential background. When I was watching how these kids role-play through these ideal constructs, I felt almost ashamed how, even though in a playful and non-serious way, they have far more practical understanding of these things than me. Thus, I was stimulated to consider these civilizational patterns in a far more participatory way than is the case when watching the news, for example, or reading history. It was as if some kind of pride was saying, "If these kids can have practical knowledge in these things, am I more unfit than they? I should also consider these inner flows more closely!"

But again, I'm fully aware that all these things are completely personal, so please don't blame me if you watch it and find that two and a half hours of your life have been wasted

For those who are willing to see it, I can say that I did some research (there's an even longer(!) video where the author goes through the whole movie and gives background info) and amazingly, the storyline is completely player-driven in the major arc. There hasn't been any script that the author was trying to force upon the players. Many scenes have been recorded after the event by acting them, either because there was no original footage, or for the sake of storytelling, some events were compressed, temporally rearranged (without this affecting the story's causality), or slightly reframed to make them more suitable for the movie flow. A simple way to see what has been recorded originally and what has been acted is to look for the chat at the lower left. It is present in the real-time recordings of the gameplay, while it is absent where the scene is acted. Most of the voices are recorded from the in-game chat, but some have also been acted in post.

[AshvinP]

I would like to share a video that follows an online Minecraft event where about 1000 players participate.

I finished the whole video mostly for its entertainment value It was surely a compelling story arc that developed from this experiment. I kept on expecting some crude sexual encounters to manifest amongst these teenagers, but was happy to see that didn't happen, or was at least edited out

One thing I kept thinking about when watching was: instead of recapitulating the medieval stage of the intellectual soul and its factionizing tendencies (which of course still carry into our time), what if there was a Minecraft experiment that prefigured the late stage consciousness soul in preparation for the sixth PA epoch of universal brotherly love?

Of course, such an experiment could only work with participants who are already oriented toward that ideal through some deeper knowledge. It would be like an imaginative rehearsal for what needs to spread into wider culture, a much more unconstrained version of what we are doing on this forum. The central institutions would be Christian community-style places of worship and an Academy for higher knowledge (or Waldorf-style education for children). All work would be freely done, and all resources freely shared among the inhabitants. A news organization would report on the significance of World events from a spiritual perspective. And so on. The dramatic story arc would be one of purely inner development, the inner peaks and valleys that are traversed along the way, and how such inner development can be practically navigated and brought to outer expression. Virtual experimentation would then begin to coincide more and more with real-life evolutionary development.

Perhaps this Minecraft world could be tucked away somewhere in the wider Minecraft universe, with restricted access for those who can freely recognize the 'secret symbols' that point toward its entry gate. Then it may serve as a modern-day catacombs for spiritual seekers, when the modern-day 'Roman' authorities inevitably begin persecuting such seekers.

[Kaje977]

I would like to share a video that follows an online Minecraft event where about 1000 players participate.

Thank you for sharing that video, Cleric. I have to say, I could kinda see what you mean, but I think I was entertained by it too, although the story wasn't really that original, of course. I also understand what you mean about pragmatism in regards how the teenagers immersed themselves into the roles. I think it's easier than you think. You have to let yourself be guided by it and just go with it (while still actively maintaining the role identity), and perhaps there's also the roleplay aspect to it, in which you play as authentically as possible in the characters you create for the simulation, through these constructed, possibly even re-enacting certain stereotypes (such as Fluxion playing the classic archetype of a king who believes and is sure that their Island will be destroyed and attacked or 3BelowZero who believes in peace and building bridges (spiritually and physically(in a Minecraft context)). I often used to play role-playing games with myself, alone, as a child or with my brother. Often it was heavy maladaptive daydreaming. I often jumped wildly around the room with my brother, and often came up with the most interesting fantasy worlds, making up dialogues, played several different characters. I think that also helped me to be quite good at it today or to have a certain talent for acting or taking on a role. The only danger, at least what I noticed, is that it sometimes, when I'm too immersed in a role or enjoy it "too much", it seems to become my personality for quite a time. That's usually when I struggle to really know who I am actually right now and it takes a while until I become "normal me" again.

One thing I kept thinking about when watching was: instead of recapitulating the medieval stage of the intellectual soul and its factionizing tendencies (which of course still carry into our time), what if there was a Minecraft experiment that prefigured the late stage consciousness soul in preparation for the sixth PA epoch of universal brotherly love?

Of course, such an experiment could only work with participants who are already oriented toward that ideal through some deeper knowledge. It would be like an imaginative rehearsal for what needs to spread into wider culture, a much more unconstrained version of what we are doing on this forum. The central institutions would be Christian community-style places of worship and an Academy for higher knowledge (or Waldorf-style education for children). All work would be freely done, and all resources freely shared among the inhabitants. A news organization would report on the significance of World events from a spiritual perspective. And so on. The dramatic story arc would be one of purely inner development, the inner peaks and valleys that are traversed along the way, and how such inner development can be practically navigated and brought to outer expression. Virtual experimentation would then begin to coincide more and more with real-life evolutionary development.

Perhaps this Minecraft world could be tucked away somewhere in the wider Minecraft universe, with restricted access for those who can freely recognize the 'secret symbols' that point toward its entry gate. Then it may serve as a modern-day catacombs for spiritual seekers, when the modern-day 'Roman' authorities inevitably begin persecuting such seekers.

Hello, Ashvin. That sounds like an interesting simulation. It wouldn't have to be necessarily Christian community-style institutions, but it would still be interesting to see how it plays out. Through Imagination I can, a little at least (Soul/Feeling), glimpse into how such a community would be like. It would probably be very organic, very adaptable and I assume rigidity would only serve when it comes to certain pragmatic aspects, but less of a given rule set since such a community would most likely intuit the Higher Ideals and Truth which makes fixed codecs, rules and the like no longer necessary. Saps (the one most believed to be the one who killed the other monarchs in the building, although it was Fluxion), in this story, would be, indeed be quite similar, except that his journey would be much more an inner path. So, likewise a Hero's Journey, but an inner journey.

I kept on expecting some crude sexual encounters to manifest amongst these teenagers, but was happy to see that didn't happen, or was at least edited out

By the way, maybe this is just me being slighly too over-aware with some words that trigger something, but I was feeling a bit uncomfortable about your odd choice of words here. I'm not quite sure why or what you mean that you were expecting "crude sexual encounters" in a video of Minecraft aimed at teenagers? Could you elaborate?

[Kaje977]

I noticed that currently Kühlewind's book and this essay series by Cleric seems to work the best for me, by the way. The other essay series worked too, but this one seems more aligned with my "habitual" Self since I'm deeply into computer science, video games, etc. Right now my exam phase has begun, meaning I have to learn for a few exams coming soon for my Comp.Sci studies.

Interestingly enough, although not quite, Agile (softeware) development really feels like an anthroposophical approach to software development. It's not really quite the same, because it is still focused on material aspects. I really appreciate my professor's look on things. He seems wise, although (after talking to him about PoF and recommending the book to him) he does seem to still cling to a puzzle-like abstract thinking. But he definitely seems to have made approaches to looking at things differently, especially since he did indeed incorporate "vertical" aspects into his lectures, especially when it comes to delivering a software product. I wonder whether the original writers of the "Agile manifesto" (see here: https://agilemanifesto.org/) were in contact with certain anthroposophical circles or similar. Indeed, I remember hearing longer ago, that there are companies that follow anthroposophical approaches and the word "agile" was found there too.