Week 1: ending December 31st, 2017
Primary Materials: FLOW: the psychology of optimal experience by Milhaly Csikszentmihalyi
Anchor Quotation: Page 20, Chapter 1: Happiness Revisited
Control of consciousness determines the quality of life. (page 20)
Thoughts in 360 Words (or less):
Inscribed on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, and uttered by the oracle herself, is the phrase "Know Thyself."
Lao Tzu is accredited with saying that "Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; Mastering yourself is true power.”
While this entire chapter finds itself falling into spiritualism more than game design, it keeps itself focused on humanity’s motivation and intentions.
... a phenomenological model of consciousness based on information theory. (page 25)
Consciousness is an arguably rare animal trait. Emergent from biological mechanics, consciousness is the awareness of events and sensory data. It is evolutionary advantageous for humanity to construct narratives— to order and prioritize these data. Exerting control over our consciousness, and of our dedicated attention and participation, is biologically rewarded. It makes us— as individuals and as a collective— more fit.
This “Control of Consciousness” can also be called “Free Will.” It is the epitome of humanity. It is both our most cherished and our most self-defining trait. We are able to prioritize consciousness only because we have free will, and we are justly rewarded for the indulgence, through both biological and sociological mechanisms.
Systems adopting this mechanism’s manipulation has permeated human history (through governmental and economical to religious and cultural movements) because control over consciousness is so prime. It is part of the human condition to strive for this control.
It is not enough to know how to do it; one must do it. (page 21)
Unlike those larger and more complex systems, when games attempt to influence the individual through manipulation over the direction of one’s attention and memory they do so in a strangely confined way. Unlike, say, Marx or Freud whose ideas to “order and prioritize sensory data” were systematized (and thus, perverted and weakened) to spread across societies, a tabletop game’s experiences are shared while, simultaneously, uniquely isolated.
They are yours and yours alone; they live within a particular moment; a nexus of cultural context and personal growth. They have all the power to teach you about yourself and your context within culture with none of the compromise of being diluted through systematization.
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