By: Shawn Alli
Posted: May 31, 2017 (on http://www.shawnalli.com/)
This episode is about video games and its effect on people and culture. Nye mentions that winning can cause the release of dopamine. Yes and no. While dopamine can get released, the cause isn't the game or the physical brain. The initial cause is non-physical feelings/consciousness. If you're happy because you win a game, that non-physical happiness feeling is what causes the release of dopamine. The dopamine doesn't cause your feeling of happiness (see Philosophy of Mind in Philosophy Reborn Part I: Purpose).
Just so we're clear, I don't play video games. While I can understand adults playing video games once in a while, the fact that people do it for a significant amount of time (other than stress relief) is disturbing. The fact that people make videos commenting on how they and others play video games while getting millions of views...is powerfully disturbing. Personally, I believe that North American culture is rotting badly, with video game industry, Hollywood, and the sports industry as the major culprits.
For me, my video game staple as a child is Duck Hunt for the original Nintendo system. You know...where the dog jumps in the bushes and you have to shoot the birds. Good times. Prior to that, I vaguely remember the hype for the Atari console. Yes, these statements do show my age, but I'm not a fragile self-conscious liberal or a woman who's ashamed of her age. You can't ask my age, that's personal. Whatever.
Nye says that over a third of gamers are over 35. That's powerfully disturbing. If these people are playing video games for something other than stress relief, they have no purpose in their lives and are completely lost. However, being lost in life isn't necessarily a bad thing. The good news is that you can only go up from there to finding/creating your purpose. And if you need help I recommend radical dualism (see Philosophy of Mind in Philosophy Reborn Part I: Purpose).
The only game I enjoy in my days of residence in university is Mario Kart Double Dash for Nintendo Game Cube. Working in isolated Aboriginal communities in the Northwest Territories in the past, I order a Game Cube and the Mario Kart game for the kids. Sadly, it can't compete with their sniper shooting games (where I die very quickly, even when I look at the other screens).
Nye talks about the evolutionary advantages of games. I can agree to that. As long as people realize that games have rules, whereas life has no rules. Not understanding this distinction will usually result in a sad life.
Nye says that the science isn't settled whether video games are making people more violent or lazy. While this is a large issue, I'll simplify it and just say that social conditioning in any form can be beneficial or negative. It's more important for a person to understand how their mind and/or actions can be shaped by this level of conditioning and the ideologies that exist behind it.
Derek Muller (a member of Nye's team) goes to the Netherlands to explore the effects of video games. He finds that doctors are using video games to train future surgeons to have better motor skills/muscle memory. While that's great, in the future, those fingers will most likely be replaced by precise robotic ones. I can't wait for those super cool medical capsules to come out. You know, the ones in Elysium (2013) and Passengers (2016).
Nye convenes his panel: Dr. Hilarie Cash (a psychologist), Dr. Shawn Green (a professor of psychology), and Jonna Mae (a gamer). Dr. Green talks about the demands that video games place on the perceptual and cognitive system. What he's trying to say without using the words...is non-physical consciousness. What are the effects of video shooting games (not Duck Hunt) on non-physical consciousness? This is important because this in turn can affect your character, values, and perception of yourself and reality.
Prior to being a full-time gamer, Mae is a nurse. That's an interesting switch. To each their own within ethics. But I believe that playing or commenting on video games full-time only magnifies your lack of purpose in life. Personally, I believe that real person to person socialization is much better than garbage video games.
Mae says that she prefers games to real socialization. While writing is a solitary activity and I enjoy being in my own mind, I like interacting with interesting people to enrich my quality of life. If video games are all you need in this life, then I'm sorry to say...but you have deep issues.
Dr. Cash says that video game addiction can cause addiction for many university students, which in turn causes their grades to fall and eventually leads them to dropping out. Sorry, but I have little sympathy for such people.
Contrary to what you may believe, addiction to anything (alcohol, sex, drugs, or video games) is not a real disease like HIV. It's due to a lack of character and purpose in your life (see The Mental Health Industry in Philosophy Reborn Part IV: Naturally Unhealthy Big Pharma & Big Media).
Nye asks the panel whether video games can cause people to be more violent. Green says that if you're already aggressive it can reinforce that aggression, but it will have minimal effects on less violent people.
It's a tough issue. Most people aren't violent in today's society because there's no need to be violent. This is not a survival of the fittest world. Generally speaking, WE society (in developed countries) is a peaceful culture. And you can prove this in your everyday life.
When you want to cut down branches from a tree that extends into your property and your neighbor says no and fights the issue in municipal hearings or courts...that's how you know that you're living in a peaceful society. When you're complaining about garbage issues instead of real ones, you know that you're living in a peaceful society.
But the question remains. Can such people become violent quickly and easily? Yes. Provide the right stimulus in a particular order relative to a person's psychological profile and you can condition most people to your will.
Nye then shows the culture of professional gaming with big corporate money. The fact that tens of thousands of people will go to a conference hall and watch people compete in video games is powerfully disturbing.
If it's just once in a blue moon, there's no harm. But if such activities are part of your character...may god help you because you have no purpose in your life. If you believe that god or billions of years of evolution created you to play video games as your purpose in life...you're deluding yourself.
The best part in this interview is when Nazeem Hussain (a member of Nye's team) asks Hall if sunlight (reality) can kill a gamer. Hall says that Hussian has to explain to him what sunlight is. In the words of legendary comedian Bernie Mac (1957-2008) Nuff said.
Echo Fox CEO Jace Hall says that video game interactions represent the purest forms of human interaction. Forgive the blunt comment, but that's f*cked up. None of these people realize that they wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a human and a computer program (not AI, just an advanced computer gaming opponent).
Chris prynoski (a virtual reality maker) demonstrates VR to Nye and the audience. And it looks like garbage. If this is the future, I'm not interested. I would take Duck Hunt for the original Nintendo over this any day.
good thing
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