Thursday, February 02, 2012
Superstition and Programming
So much of my thinking was shaped by programming. People who do not program extensively are missing out on some uniquely valuable mental training. Now that I am back into it, I am noticing my habits of thinking that I owe to programming.
Today's efforts provide one example. I decided to tackle an issue with accessing the correct directory for jinja2 templates. When I switched over from django to jinja2, I could not get it to work without putting template htmls in the main directory. This is an ugly place for them to be. You want them in their own nice little directory. So this need to put them in the main directory - this is like a "superstition". Your brain thinks of it the same way as a superstition. You don't know why it works, but you know it does and you are afraid to change it. What I learned from programming is that this is faulty thinking. There is a real reason. And if you just try, try, try, you will understand it. The world of the program is complex enough to mimic real life, but still simplified enough that complete understanding is possible. You just have to push on through the fear. Don't give up.
So, I pushed on through and now I understand what jinja2 is doing much better. My templates are in the subdirectory where I want them to be. My directory is all cleared out of miscellaneous files and the little test application is working.
After I moved files around and reran the app, the chat was broken. My first "superstition" was that a moved file was needed. I moved them all back! Still broken. So, I pushed on through and figured out what must be broken. After staring at the code long enough, I remembered I had made a change to it last night as an experiment. Obviously, a failed experiment that, once backed out, repaired the function. Same thing with looking at the user profile. My mind jumped to the file move as the cause. But it turned out to be a django/jinja incompatibility.
Programming has made be very non-superstitious in general. I assume that there are explanations for everything. That quirks are just accidents. That superstition is really just a lack of understanding.
Today's efforts provide one example. I decided to tackle an issue with accessing the correct directory for jinja2 templates. When I switched over from django to jinja2, I could not get it to work without putting template htmls in the main directory. This is an ugly place for them to be. You want them in their own nice little directory. So this need to put them in the main directory - this is like a "superstition". Your brain thinks of it the same way as a superstition. You don't know why it works, but you know it does and you are afraid to change it. What I learned from programming is that this is faulty thinking. There is a real reason. And if you just try, try, try, you will understand it. The world of the program is complex enough to mimic real life, but still simplified enough that complete understanding is possible. You just have to push on through the fear. Don't give up.
So, I pushed on through and now I understand what jinja2 is doing much better. My templates are in the subdirectory where I want them to be. My directory is all cleared out of miscellaneous files and the little test application is working.
After I moved files around and reran the app, the chat was broken. My first "superstition" was that a moved file was needed. I moved them all back! Still broken. So, I pushed on through and figured out what must be broken. After staring at the code long enough, I remembered I had made a change to it last night as an experiment. Obviously, a failed experiment that, once backed out, repaired the function. Same thing with looking at the user profile. My mind jumped to the file move as the cause. But it turned out to be a django/jinja incompatibility.
Programming has made be very non-superstitious in general. I assume that there are explanations for everything. That quirks are just accidents. That superstition is really just a lack of understanding.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
A Persistent Browser-Based Games Capability for Psychology, Sociology and Economics Research
A Proposal
Persistent browser-based games (PBBGs) are a popular form of entertainment. Multi-player strategy PBBGs have great potential for research applications. This type of game includes elements of leadership, conflict, planning, cooperation, competition, comparative metrics, and economics. Games can represent real-world systems on a scale that can be studied and instrumented. By changing the parameters of the system the game embodies, and adding and eliminating system features, the effects of real-world policies and systems could be inferred.
These games are not prohibitively expensive to build or operate. Many have very limited graphics and animation and yet are still popular. Typical popular version of this type of game are Eve, Evony, Grepolis and Battledawn. With limited advertising, these games have attracted many thousands of users. The population required for study need not be thousands either. My experience of playing a game that is exceptionally well-designed to model social interaction on cooperation and competition, Kings of Babylon, has convinced me that a player population of 250-500 is more than adequate.
How could these games be developed and used? A partnership between Computer Science, Graphics Arts, and social science departments could be used to develop a game-based capability for use by social scientists. The game technology itself has limited research potential, and could be developed and maintained by undergraduates as part of a game development curricula. But the resulting game platform could be a very powerful tool for social scientists. The features and parameters of the game platform could be used to instantiate game sessions that focus on particular social research questions. By varying them, the effects of different real-world policies could be inferred. The games could be used for a single short game session. But, many of these games have sessions that last weeks, months and even indefinitely. Changes could be introduced mid-session or between sessions. Demographics of the player population could be controlled and, if they are made open to the public, could be very diverse. Most of these games are played internationally, so cultural differences could be studied as well.
What would a representative research project look like? An economics researcher desiring to study the impact of taxation could create a session that included a taxation component in group economies. A one month session could be played with tax set at 10% and be followed by a session with the tax set at 40%. This could be reversed and repeated as often as needed to get a representative sample of behavior. The game would be instrumented to provide metrics on the player behaviors.
Just on taxation alone, it is easy to envision many experimental designs:
1) Effect of lowering and raising the tax rate
2) The effect of who controls the spending of the taxes: leader, leaders, highly-taxed, everyone
3) The effect of graduated taxation vs flat tax
4) The effect of income taxes vs consumption tax
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Why I Play Games
Throughout my adult life, I have played various computer-based games. Since I retired, I have spent a lot of time - maybe too much - playing Kings of Babylon, a persistent browser-based game. Family members might say it is an unhealthy amount of time. I am getting burned out on it now. The game is not being maintained and has lots of problems. I have started playing Battledawn instead. Unless I can come up with a relatively low-key way to play that one, I probably will burn out on that one too. But, it is probably time to move on to some other activities.
During this period, I have often reflected on what the game is doing for me. Because if it was not doing something for me, I wouldn't be playing it. I have played single player games and multi-player games. Both have value for me. So, here are my thoughts:
1) I learn to take risks and compete aggressively in a safe environment. Risk taking and competition don't come very easily to me - because of my gender and personality. Compared to the average woman, I am quite competitive and a risk taker. Compared to the average man, I am not. This has been a hindrance to me in my life and something I have to work at. Now that I am retired and my children are grown, there is no reason not to take risks. I need to get into a risk-taking mindset. The games sharpen competitive skills very effectively. They get you comfortable with competing and risk taking. I will say, that in the team games, I tend to take on a supportive feminine role - nonetheless competitive and risk-friendly. I have come to call this my inner Athena. As Athena, I am a warrior. I am fierce for my team, but I am also clever and generous. It is a good feeling.
2) Learning and mastery is fun. These games present a challenge that requires learning a non-trivial simulation environment. The environment resembles reality enough that you feel like you are mastering some little corner of the universe. It is gratifying to be ranked #1 in this little universe. There is a feeling of accomplishment. That said, when the game gets too easy, it gets boring and this aspect goes away. Multi-player games have less of this problem, because real people are involved. You can never really master real people, can you? Regardless, games will challenge you mind and make you learn strategic and planning skills. I am constantly impressed with their potential for teaching young people these skills. Parents don't realize how valuable this experience can be for a teen. I would encourage parents to play one of these games with their teen. It would be an amazing experience. I plan to play with my 10 year old grandson when he is 12 or 13 and ready to play with adults. Even for me, with twenty years of management experience, I learned some new things.
3) Nothing is quite as rewarding as being part of a successful team, is it? When you play a combat game with a team of people, you bond in the same way that athletes and soldiers bond. You are attacking and defending together. People sacrifice themselves for the team. There is something very precious and heartwarming about this. I have encountered this in real life several times and these are peak experiences for me. In multi-player games, this is much easier to come by. You know the people on your team in ways that you don't even know some of your family. There is a bond formed there. This restores your faith in humanity and makes you appreciate human beings - if you manage to do it. Many players never go there. I feel sorry for them.
4) When you play multi-player games you meet people of many different background, ages, and nationalities. This is pretty interesting, especially if you are someone like me who has lived most of my adult life in a highly educated professional bubble. Sure, it is probably 80 or 90% male. And maybe mostly 15-35 year olds. But they seem to come from everywhere and every possible background. Since I worked in engineering, I enjoy teaming with men. Young men make fun teammates. It has helped me keep a young outlook and get used to the attitudes of that generation in a way I would never have otherwise. I am sure it is interesting for them to find out they can be friends with a 57 year old woman. Don't let anyone tell you that people playing these game are not interacting!! This is very challenging human interaction - beyond what you might encounter in real life.
5) Of course, games are great for relieving boredom or loneliness. Hanging out with twenty people just shooting the breeze and talking smack can be pretty entertaining.
6) Gameplay can be reaffirming. It can make you feel valued and like you are accomplishing something. I missed that feeling of being valued as a manager. I missed the daily, weekly, monthly, yearly accomplishments. There are risks to getting this from games, since games are not real, really. This is the biggest worry I have for myself and other people who are too involved in games. You might miss real life. I don't have the same concern about social interaction. The social interaction in games is very real. But the accomplishment is not. A teen who is failing in school, but ranked number 1 in a game is a disaster in the making!
Throughout my adult life, I have played various computer-based games. Since I retired, I have spent a lot of time - maybe too much - playing Kings of Babylon, a persistent browser-based game. Family members might say it is an unhealthy amount of time. I am getting burned out on it now. The game is not being maintained and has lots of problems. I have started playing Battledawn instead. Unless I can come up with a relatively low-key way to play that one, I probably will burn out on that one too. But, it is probably time to move on to some other activities.
During this period, I have often reflected on what the game is doing for me. Because if it was not doing something for me, I wouldn't be playing it. I have played single player games and multi-player games. Both have value for me. So, here are my thoughts:
1) I learn to take risks and compete aggressively in a safe environment. Risk taking and competition don't come very easily to me - because of my gender and personality. Compared to the average woman, I am quite competitive and a risk taker. Compared to the average man, I am not. This has been a hindrance to me in my life and something I have to work at. Now that I am retired and my children are grown, there is no reason not to take risks. I need to get into a risk-taking mindset. The games sharpen competitive skills very effectively. They get you comfortable with competing and risk taking. I will say, that in the team games, I tend to take on a supportive feminine role - nonetheless competitive and risk-friendly. I have come to call this my inner Athena. As Athena, I am a warrior. I am fierce for my team, but I am also clever and generous. It is a good feeling.
2) Learning and mastery is fun. These games present a challenge that requires learning a non-trivial simulation environment. The environment resembles reality enough that you feel like you are mastering some little corner of the universe. It is gratifying to be ranked #1 in this little universe. There is a feeling of accomplishment. That said, when the game gets too easy, it gets boring and this aspect goes away. Multi-player games have less of this problem, because real people are involved. You can never really master real people, can you? Regardless, games will challenge you mind and make you learn strategic and planning skills. I am constantly impressed with their potential for teaching young people these skills. Parents don't realize how valuable this experience can be for a teen. I would encourage parents to play one of these games with their teen. It would be an amazing experience. I plan to play with my 10 year old grandson when he is 12 or 13 and ready to play with adults. Even for me, with twenty years of management experience, I learned some new things.
3) Nothing is quite as rewarding as being part of a successful team, is it? When you play a combat game with a team of people, you bond in the same way that athletes and soldiers bond. You are attacking and defending together. People sacrifice themselves for the team. There is something very precious and heartwarming about this. I have encountered this in real life several times and these are peak experiences for me. In multi-player games, this is much easier to come by. You know the people on your team in ways that you don't even know some of your family. There is a bond formed there. This restores your faith in humanity and makes you appreciate human beings - if you manage to do it. Many players never go there. I feel sorry for them.
4) When you play multi-player games you meet people of many different background, ages, and nationalities. This is pretty interesting, especially if you are someone like me who has lived most of my adult life in a highly educated professional bubble. Sure, it is probably 80 or 90% male. And maybe mostly 15-35 year olds. But they seem to come from everywhere and every possible background. Since I worked in engineering, I enjoy teaming with men. Young men make fun teammates. It has helped me keep a young outlook and get used to the attitudes of that generation in a way I would never have otherwise. I am sure it is interesting for them to find out they can be friends with a 57 year old woman. Don't let anyone tell you that people playing these game are not interacting!! This is very challenging human interaction - beyond what you might encounter in real life.
5) Of course, games are great for relieving boredom or loneliness. Hanging out with twenty people just shooting the breeze and talking smack can be pretty entertaining.
6) Gameplay can be reaffirming. It can make you feel valued and like you are accomplishing something. I missed that feeling of being valued as a manager. I missed the daily, weekly, monthly, yearly accomplishments. There are risks to getting this from games, since games are not real, really. This is the biggest worry I have for myself and other people who are too involved in games. You might miss real life. I don't have the same concern about social interaction. The social interaction in games is very real. But the accomplishment is not. A teen who is failing in school, but ranked number 1 in a game is a disaster in the making!
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Education
Doesn't it seem obvious that any class that needs computers should just let students bring their own? It's not clear why they even need to be in the room to me. They could all just watch a lecture video and sign on to a chat room to have the class discussion. Wouldn't this save lots of real estate and energy?
It's just a matter of time before we all quit visiting in RL 3D space and have nice media rooms for doing this online in our houses instead.
Doesn't it seem obvious that any class that needs computers should just let students bring their own? It's not clear why they even need to be in the room to me. They could all just watch a lecture video and sign on to a chat room to have the class discussion. Wouldn't this save lots of real estate and energy?
It's just a matter of time before we all quit visiting in RL 3D space and have nice media rooms for doing this online in our houses instead.
Labels: education
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Social Fad?
I noticed this trend when my youngest child was in grade school. It all seemed silly to me and I let him be "free range". Lots of other mothers were dragging their kids around to activities all day long. I would have hated that, so I just wouldn't buy into it. My daughter apparently holds it against me that I was not doing this 35 years ago with her - when no one was. I think it is mostly female social competition that is really being exploited as a consumer trend. It is also part of the mythology being pushed that mothers have a huge influence on how their children turn out - part of "blank slate" psychology and the push to get women back in the home by conservatives.
We'll see how these spoiled and pushed children all turn out, won't we?
I noticed this trend when my youngest child was in grade school. It all seemed silly to me and I let him be "free range". Lots of other mothers were dragging their kids around to activities all day long. I would have hated that, so I just wouldn't buy into it. My daughter apparently holds it against me that I was not doing this 35 years ago with her - when no one was. I think it is mostly female social competition that is really being exploited as a consumer trend. It is also part of the mythology being pushed that mothers have a huge influence on how their children turn out - part of "blank slate" psychology and the push to get women back in the home by conservatives.
We'll see how these spoiled and pushed children all turn out, won't we?
New Puritanism
A prediction: We will enter a new era of Puritanism. All that sex in the media will go away.
This is because cognitive science is finding out that porn and fantasies screw up your sex life big time. The idea that these things seriously affect performance and the pleasure you get out of it are bound to filter down to the masses. Not only that, but the fixes are pretty simple - stop doing it and you will go back to normal in months if not weeks. Maybe all those veils are erotic?
A prediction: We will enter a new era of Puritanism. All that sex in the media will go away.
This is because cognitive science is finding out that porn and fantasies screw up your sex life big time. The idea that these things seriously affect performance and the pleasure you get out of it are bound to filter down to the masses. Not only that, but the fixes are pretty simple - stop doing it and you will go back to normal in months if not weeks. Maybe all those veils are erotic?
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Brainstorming
I am reading a book on how to make great marketing presentations that puts forth the idea that when alone we are good at left brain structuring, but that coming up with insights and ideas - and getting to the heart of things - really is done best brainstorming out loud with a group.
This seems right to me -but, why had I not heard this before. This is an area that would be good to study. Perhaps there is psychological research on it. I've always felt inept or lacking somehow, since I depend on those whiteboard conversations with my colleagues to "get my thoughts straight". I worry that when I retire I will lose this resource and not be able to function as well. I've come up with strategies for obtaining "whiteboard" resources to compensate. But, this makes me think that maybe this is normal and just human - not a personal flaw.
I am reading a book on how to make great marketing presentations that puts forth the idea that when alone we are good at left brain structuring, but that coming up with insights and ideas - and getting to the heart of things - really is done best brainstorming out loud with a group.
This seems right to me -but, why had I not heard this before. This is an area that would be good to study. Perhaps there is psychological research on it. I've always felt inept or lacking somehow, since I depend on those whiteboard conversations with my colleagues to "get my thoughts straight". I worry that when I retire I will lose this resource and not be able to function as well. I've come up with strategies for obtaining "whiteboard" resources to compensate. But, this makes me think that maybe this is normal and just human - not a personal flaw.
Faulty Causation
A nice blog entry about a study on how easy it is to induce faulty causation over at Scienceblogs. Of course, this isn't news. I would certainly update Hume's notion that "causation is a figment of our imagination" to something like "causation is a cognitive model constructed by the human brain to explain and anticipate events". Saying it is imagination implies that it is invalid - a figment. The blog entry seems to be entirely negative about causation - like it's really invalid. Causation is what keeps us from sticking our finger in the fire and petting a lion. It's the more subtle edges of causation where we get carried away. Things that take a long time to play out. Things that we don't understand.
A nice blog entry about a study on how easy it is to induce faulty causation over at Scienceblogs. Of course, this isn't news. I would certainly update Hume's notion that "causation is a figment of our imagination" to something like "causation is a cognitive model constructed by the human brain to explain and anticipate events". Saying it is imagination implies that it is invalid - a figment. The blog entry seems to be entirely negative about causation - like it's really invalid. Causation is what keeps us from sticking our finger in the fire and petting a lion. It's the more subtle edges of causation where we get carried away. Things that take a long time to play out. Things that we don't understand.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
The Soundtrack In Your Head
My son gave me Paul Simon's new album Surprise! for Mother's Day. It's a wonderful album, now one of my favorites, with poetic lyrics, great melody, and fabulous performances. I listen to it often. As a result, it is currently the soundtrack in my head and plays all the time. The songs from the album are "stuck in my head". I get to listen to the songs, abeit in a degraded form while I sit in meetings and take a shower. I seem not to control which song is playing and sometimes the same song plays over and over. I often have a mental soundtrack playing, which does not interfere with my thoughts otherwise.
It would be interesting to study mental soundtracks. Does everyone have this capability? My son claims he does not think he has this. I suspect he does and just hasn't paid attention to it. I would posit that this capability is what makes movie soundtracks seem normal. Why else would it seem plausible that music would be playing while the hero kisses the girl or the car chase is underway?
Music, in general, is a very interesting cognitive mystery. Just what does it do for us? Where did it come from? We enjoy it, but that is an effect, not a cause. I suspect the current uses of music are not the original purpose or purposes. It's probably an artifact. It does not seem to be related to speech - there are people with brain damage that can no longer speak, but who can sing and play music. People with excellent music skills are often better at math than English. It does seem to have social uses - synchronizing group activities. It's also romantic - relating to mating. This would be the same purpose that music has for birds, who sing to attract mates. Of course, sex would be a strong driver for the evolution of a capability. If good singers were more successful at attracting mates, singing would be highly selected for.
My son gave me Paul Simon's new album Surprise! for Mother's Day. It's a wonderful album, now one of my favorites, with poetic lyrics, great melody, and fabulous performances. I listen to it often. As a result, it is currently the soundtrack in my head and plays all the time. The songs from the album are "stuck in my head". I get to listen to the songs, abeit in a degraded form while I sit in meetings and take a shower. I seem not to control which song is playing and sometimes the same song plays over and over. I often have a mental soundtrack playing, which does not interfere with my thoughts otherwise.
It would be interesting to study mental soundtracks. Does everyone have this capability? My son claims he does not think he has this. I suspect he does and just hasn't paid attention to it. I would posit that this capability is what makes movie soundtracks seem normal. Why else would it seem plausible that music would be playing while the hero kisses the girl or the car chase is underway?
Music, in general, is a very interesting cognitive mystery. Just what does it do for us? Where did it come from? We enjoy it, but that is an effect, not a cause. I suspect the current uses of music are not the original purpose or purposes. It's probably an artifact. It does not seem to be related to speech - there are people with brain damage that can no longer speak, but who can sing and play music. People with excellent music skills are often better at math than English. It does seem to have social uses - synchronizing group activities. It's also romantic - relating to mating. This would be the same purpose that music has for birds, who sing to attract mates. Of course, sex would be a strong driver for the evolution of a capability. If good singers were more successful at attracting mates, singing would be highly selected for.
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