Your chosen image for this week is singularity horrific. Reminds me of the film Idiocracy, if you've ever seen it? (The big question I had with that film was who was behind the scenes propping up the system? Due to the level of stupidity, it should have collapsed centuries before due to lack of maintenance, or invasion by more competent warbands)
Interesting you mention We need to talk about Kevin as well - I've actually seen the film but not read the book, funnily enough, they left out that fun little speech of his you quote - I wonder why...? As I read it, I was also put in mind of the song Vicarious, by Tool: https://genius.com/Tool-vicarious-lyrics
I'm not a visual learner myself, and part of that is because I read remarkably fast. TV, and particularly youtube videos are so sloooow. Even when I did used to watch TV, it was always in the background, whilst doing something else like (ironically) playing video games, or when I was a child, building Lego. I know I've mentioned banishing several times before, but since I started that, I can't even watch 5 minutes of TV. I just cannot stay focused on it, I just keep thinking of more interesting/useful things I could be doing.
As for video games though - yeah, those were a hard addiction to kick when I deliberately tried to stop playing them back in 2018. I used to be what might be termed a 'completionist' - I had to 100% finish games, even if I didn't like them (might have just been a "getting my money's worth" thing). I try to play them now though, and it's like the spark has gone from them, I literally just cannot enjoy them any more - even the 'epic' ones like Skyrim, which I used to love. Astral issues aside, it's probably for the best anyway though, as all more modern video games have become either pay-to-win nightmares (see: any mobile games, anything made by EA), multiplayer hellscapes or indie shovelware that only about 5 people will ever play, but which win 8 baftas for having a gay trans female lead character, with a thinly-disguised parable storyline about refugees. How and why are E-'sports' now a thing as well? (I maintain that if you can hold a pint whilst doing it, and/or hold a conversation, it's not a sport. And yes, I'm looking at you, too, pool and darts)
I actually even have a VR headset (bought in 2019, prior to banishing). It's semi-fun... for a bit... until your neck hurts... or the battery runs out... and provided you can quietly ignore the niggling feeling that it's reprogramming your brain... and persist with it long enough to break your motion sickness reflex... But the overwhelming feeling I got from it was malaise. You finish some 'play' time on it and feel depressed. It's really weird, must be something on the etheric level whereby it slightly sucks the life out of you (and I played it with Wifi off - gods only know what effects a microwave emitter an inch from your brain will have long term). I did used to use it for a pretty good boxing simulator game (which, despite being made by one guy in his spare time and which sells for about $10, is better than 90% of the other games on it) for a while, until old Marky Z decided to make everyone log in with his stupid site every time you switch it on. Yeah, no thanks.
Something to consider as well - all big-budget TV, movies, games and influencer vids are made by multiple people, to cater to certain demographics. In the same way that putting every child in the same class at school does not magically make the dumb kids smarter, that demographic will inevitably be set to the lowest common denominator (even if we are to disregard any malevolent intentions of dumbing down the populace). In addition, being made by multiple people, editors, etc the shows will be "designed by committee", which is a sure-fire way to get a compromise of a product which thrills no-one, but also offends no-one, regardless of its nominal shock factor. (There is a parallel here with the bit in Faust, where he summons a demon, who explains that he is still in Hell, and never left - one sinks down to the level of TV) Like the boxing simulator I mentioned above, videos, games, etc made by one or two dedicated people as a labour of love, tend to be much better, even if by their nature, they will not be to everyone's taste. A bit like books! Or songs. Or a painting. (And so on)
I listened to an interesting podcast the other day which said the average 'cut' on a TV show is only 4 seconds. So the scene completely changes every 4 seconds! And people's attention spans have reduced by 150% since the start of a study into it in 2011.
no subject
Interesting you mention We need to talk about Kevin as well - I've actually seen the film but not read the book, funnily enough, they left out that fun little speech of his you quote - I wonder why...? As I read it, I was also put in mind of the song Vicarious, by Tool: https://genius.com/Tool-vicarious-lyrics
I'm not a visual learner myself, and part of that is because I read remarkably fast. TV, and particularly youtube videos are so sloooow. Even when I did used to watch TV, it was always in the background, whilst doing something else like (ironically) playing video games, or when I was a child, building Lego. I know I've mentioned banishing several times before, but since I started that, I can't even watch 5 minutes of TV. I just cannot stay focused on it, I just keep thinking of more interesting/useful things I could be doing.
As for video games though - yeah, those were a hard addiction to kick when I deliberately tried to stop playing them back in 2018. I used to be what might be termed a 'completionist' - I had to 100% finish games, even if I didn't like them (might have just been a "getting my money's worth" thing). I try to play them now though, and it's like the spark has gone from them, I literally just cannot enjoy them any more - even the 'epic' ones like Skyrim, which I used to love. Astral issues aside, it's probably for the best anyway though, as all more modern video games have become either pay-to-win nightmares (see: any mobile games, anything made by EA), multiplayer hellscapes or indie shovelware that only about 5 people will ever play, but which win 8 baftas for having a gay trans female lead character, with a thinly-disguised parable storyline about refugees.
How and why are E-'sports' now a thing as well? (I maintain that if you can hold a pint whilst doing it, and/or hold a conversation, it's not a sport. And yes, I'm looking at you, too, pool and darts)
I actually even have a VR headset (bought in 2019, prior to banishing). It's semi-fun... for a bit... until your neck hurts... or the battery runs out... and provided you can quietly ignore the niggling feeling that it's reprogramming your brain... and persist with it long enough to break your motion sickness reflex... But the overwhelming feeling I got from it was malaise. You finish some 'play' time on it and feel depressed. It's really weird, must be something on the etheric level whereby it slightly sucks the life out of you (and I played it with Wifi off - gods only know what effects a microwave emitter an inch from your brain will have long term). I did used to use it for a pretty good boxing simulator game (which, despite being made by one guy in his spare time and which sells for about $10, is better than 90% of the other games on it) for a while, until old Marky Z decided to make everyone log in with his stupid site every time you switch it on. Yeah, no thanks.
Something to consider as well - all big-budget TV, movies, games and influencer vids are made by multiple people, to cater to certain demographics. In the same way that putting every child in the same class at school does not magically make the dumb kids smarter, that demographic will inevitably be set to the lowest common denominator (even if we are to disregard any malevolent intentions of dumbing down the populace). In addition, being made by multiple people, editors, etc the shows will be "designed by committee", which is a sure-fire way to get a compromise of a product which thrills no-one, but also offends no-one, regardless of its nominal shock factor.
(There is a parallel here with the bit in Faust, where he summons a demon, who explains that he is still in Hell, and never left - one sinks down to the level of TV)
Like the boxing simulator I mentioned above, videos, games, etc made by one or two dedicated people as a labour of love, tend to be much better, even if by their nature, they will not be to everyone's taste. A bit like books! Or songs. Or a painting. (And so on)
I listened to an interesting podcast the other day which said the average 'cut' on a TV show is only 4 seconds. So the scene completely changes every 4 seconds! And people's attention spans have reduced by 150% since the start of a study into it in 2011.
Mr. Crow