Some years ago, I was chatting with an online friend of mine late at night, and the topic of thinking, and how it affects communication, came up. Writers have as many ways of thinking as they do writing, I'm sure, but this is how my thinking goes (and perhaps yours?), and part of the way my worlds are built. This is an edited clipping from that conversation.
LadyM (names are changed) is a dear sweet person who gave her time to me for no other payment than my time with her; I assume most friendships are like that. :)
Remember that this is written from an ET Perspective, and shows my immaturity.
Koehro: I'm still trying to learn about humans well enough to be able to communicate with them. It seems I'm going to be stuck here for a while. I need to become a part of humanity, I think. There don't seem to be any suitable alternatives :P
LadyM: Well, yes, you do need to be in the swing of things and communicate with others; but from what I have seen, you are doing fine.
Koehro: LadyM, what I say is what I know how to say. There is so much that I am unable to communicate. :( When I went to hell, I experienced an extreme form of this...being unable to communicate on any level.
LadyM: Tell me one thing you can’t communicate to me.
Koehro: I don't have the vocabulary, LadyM. I have thoughts that I cannot explain.
LadyM: Tell me what they are; you don’t have to explain them.
Koehro: It's much like having a different WAY of thinking. Words are symbols put on things, but they have such flexibility of meaning that two people can hear the same sentence and believe that totally different things are being said.
Koehro: I work in the...web, I'll call it. An interlinked matrix, or series of matrices, in multiple dimensions. Each node is an item, and each connection is a set of forces, or factors, between items. Forces can be tapped, changed, re-directed. Items can be created or introduced. I have no way to explain in a reasonable amount of time, what a part of the web means. The only things that language allows me to express, are things of the material world. Even spiritual languages like Sanskrit, can only hint at the existence of reality. So I'm like a man in hell, peeking through a keyhole at humanity, and trying to make friends through that keyhole. Sometimes I find a good friend, one who is not only kind and loving, but who attempts to understand, and shows a degree of understanding. Often that good friend turns out to be my own wishful thinking.
Koehro: That's when I cry the most. Loneliness is my hell.
LadyM: Wait; explain what you just said about the friend. Why do you think that was just wishful thinking?
Koehro: A person seems able to receive my communications to some extent, and responds with word symbols or actions that show evidence of their understanding. So I grow close to that person, and try to communicate more. But eventually, it turns out that the person is not complete, does not have a true understanding, or is malformed or too immature to grasp the meanings I thought they were expressing. I discover that their hearts are not full, that their thoughts are still unit-oriented, that they still strive for death. I can't explain this correctly. I'm sorry.
LadyM: Why do you think this is happening to you?
Koehro: That I can't communicate? Because I don't think in words, and it seems that most people are so accustomed to words, that their minds are restricted to the symbols that can be expressed in words.
LadyM: Well, it of course would be different for them, having never experienced it or maybe even heard of it before.
Koehro: Yes. Society is not made for people like me. But I'm sure there are hundreds on this planet who have similar challenges.
LadyM: Yes, I think you're right. You seem to communicate just fine, really. Is it that you want people to understand what you're going through that you try to reach out?
Koehro: Have you ever studied mathematics, and are you familiar with sets and subsets?
LadyM: I am horrible with math and science; is it like folders and subfolders?
Koehro: Well, the basic concept of a set is similar, except that an item can be in more than one set.
LadyM: The same as copy things can be, too.
Koehro: For example, "fruit" is a set. It includes subsets like apples, oranges, bananas, tomatoes...
LadyM: Yes.
Koehro: And food is a set, that includes edible fruits, but not toxic ones.
LadyM: Yes.
Koehro: Everybody has their own set of symbols, thoughts that they can work with. I have a set, you have a set of these thoughts, in essence, things that we can comprehend. What can be expressed by language is another set. Some of what is in each of our sets is part of the latter. That is, we can talk about some of our thoughts. But not every thing that we think about is expressible, at least with our vocabulary. If a person thinks in words, it is more likely that their thoughts can be expressed through language. Only subtleties or connotations might be missed, or attendant inexpressible feelings.
Koehro: If one does not think in a spoken language, there is a greater possibility of thought occurring that cannot be expressed.
LadyM: So are you saying you only think in pictures?
Koehro: I think in matrices, that include pictures...but also many more things. Even the thought of "picture" includes a matrix with elements that may go into the structure of a picture, whether it's on canvas, paper or in a computer. So when someone says a word, I "hear" so much more than just the word.
LadyM: I want to understand this; I'm very curious!
Koehro: Each word has a context, and potential contexts, as well. Each context is a "set" that includes energies and items.
Koehro: Then, humans lie routinely. So each word and context has other stories that it can be telling, and connections to other possibilities.
Koehro: I evaluate everything I hear this way. As much as my mind can grasp. Sometimes I'm very slow to understand something, because I can't decide which context it belongs in. Often, the valid context is something outside my experience. I'm not human--my mind is not human--so that happens a lot. :(
LadyM: Why do you think that?
Koehro: When I was younger, I considered destroying part of my brain, to try to eliminate that confusion. I felt like Pinocchio, wanting to become a real boy.
Koehro: LadyM...I don't think like a human. There are other, physical aspects, that I'd rather not discuss over a network. :D
LadyM: You don't turn into a lizard after midnight, I hope! lol
Koehro: Not while I'm awake, anyway. LOL!
LadyM: Lots of people have minds that are not the normal, and many have many different problems they endure.
Koehro: Yes, I'm sure there are thousands like me on Earth. Maybe millions. But I believe, as I told you before, that humans came from somewhere else. Oh, wait, maybe I didn't come right out and say it. But there it is. :D
LadyM: Yes, I think you did.
Koehro: If you're curious, the evidence is available. It may take a while to connect enough dots...or "nodes" in the matrix. LOL!
LadyM: I can do connect the dots. lol
Koehro: To recognize them, you'll need to discard the notion that the "experts" who wrote the popular books, are really telling the truth.
LadyM: Ok. So can you tell me some of your truth you have found?
Koehro: Look up Iapetus. Do you know anything about engineering?
LadyM: No.
Koehro: Bridge design, architecture, structural stresses and loading? Do you know what a geodesic dome is?
LadyM: I know what a dome is. lol
Koehro: Hm. Look up geodesic dome, too. What about carbon fiber, molecular monofilaments, skyhooks?
LadyM: Well, I would if I look them up. Why?
Koehro: Those are nodes in my matrix regarding Iapetus. You should also know something about orbital mechanics, electrodynamics, relativity, and theories of the creation of the Solar system.
LadyM: Why?
Koehro: If you had these in your matrix, when you study Iapetus, I believe you would most likely conclude that it is an artificial structure placed in its orbit by intelligent life.
LadyM: And are you thinking you came from there?
Koehro: No. :P It's been abandoned, apparently, for perhaps millions of years. Certainly thousands. I haven't tried to estimate its age, because I don't know what it's made of, or what has really been happening in the Solar system since its arrival. But, it makes Star Wars appear to represent actual history in this star system, rather than in a galaxy far, far away.
LadyM: Hummm...But why would you be concerned about it?
Koehro: Because it is proof that we are being lied to.
LadyM: But we are being lied to about almost everything, or maybe everything; why pick something so far away?
Koehro: So many things, yes. :) But it's a node in another matrix. :D See, this is a keyhole, and I can't even get one small matrix through it in a reasonable time. :(
LadyM: I didn’t get any of the last sentence.
Koehro: The reason language works at all, is because people have learned what words mean.
LadyM: True.
Koehro: I don't think in words. I think in dynamic, linked matrices. It takes hours to explain one node in a matrix, and without an understanding of all the background elements--such as geodesic domes, monomolecular filaments, etc.--I cannot effectively explain it. That's not even mentioning the historical evidence for it.
LadyM: So what you are saying is you just see things differently than the norm?
Koehro: That is an easy way to say it. :D I was trying to demonstrate the difference, though. You are the first person I've given this level of detail to.
LadyM: So it is the difference in how I see and understand things compared to you, right?
Koehro: Apparently. But it's more the way we see differently because we think differently.
Everything You Know is Still Wrong
Sunday, June 23, 2019
Thursday, January 10, 2019
Gankers and Psychopaths
The online world, and MMOs in particular, reveal more about human nature than any real-world test or circumstance. The early Internet meme, that no-one knows you’re a dog online, reminds us that we are anonymous unless we choose to reveal ourselves, at least to the general public. Hackers can find you, and marketers. Facebook and Google know more about you than you know yourself, most likely.
But your online behavior reveals the TRUTH about what kind of person your really are: How will you behave when there are no real consequences?
I play MMOs, perhaps more than my friends think I should. They don’t understand that online friends are just as real as the ones that visit my RL (Real Life) home. I have a world of opinions about life online.
Today, I’d like to talk about psychopaths online. Gankers and the like. PvPers, they call themselves.
Now, for the record, let me make it CLEAR that not all PvPers (Player-vs.-Player) are psychopaths. I don’t have solid statistics, so I’ll be generalizing a lot, but I’d say most PvP is “friendly…” as friendly as a barroom brawl, at least. They may beat the tar out of you, but they’ll offer you a beer and a handshake afterwards. After all, “it’s just a game, man!” Generally, a polite PvP involves a query. Sometimes it’s as polite as “Wanna duel?” It may be a simple “1v1?” (one vs. one) in open chat. It’s likely to be a few light strikes from a weapon. If you run convincingly, they may let you go; if you turn and fight, it’s like dogs. It gets complicated, and varies with each assault. But generally, these guys are fitted out to kill, and nothing else, so anyone trying to play a different game style is at a severe disadvantage.
Psychopaths hide in this environment. I’m going to talk about how they reveal themselves. Maybe YOU are one of them, and haven’t recognized it? Game style is a clue: Most MMOs have a variety of paths to success, and a variety of goals to achieve. For many play styles, there is no “end-game.” They’re playing because they “live” in this world, and they’re exploring it.
I’m a firm believer in PwP—Player with Player—and I feel intelligent life manifests through cooperation, not destructive behavior. (It does seem that humanity is being trained to be warlike, if you look at TV, movies, and video game offerings for examples. Even books.) I’ve played a few MMOs extensively enough to offer an opinion in terms of their designs. I’ll give three as examples of how PvP can be very different.
First, the most sociable is a “game” called Second Life (http://secondlife.com/). It’s free to play, and has a huge abundance of free upgrades to your avatar. PvP is pretty much “opt in”: You must equip an add-on—generally, a HUD (Heads Up Display) of some sort—that keeps score of hits and damage. There are some locations in SL where damage is enabled to any avatar, but it’s very temporary, and limited to knocking attachments off of your avatar and pushing it around. You lose nothing of your player, as the PvP portion is such a small part of the game.
But Second Life isn’t really a game: It’s a virtual world. There are games within SL, but just like RL, SL has no end-game at all. I won’t go into it in detail here; as in the real world, you meet all kinds of characters, and find all kinds of things to educate or entertain you.
Another MMO is Elder Scrolls Online. Again, PvP is opt-in: You go to a region where PvP is enabled by default, or enter a duel mode with your chosen opponent. In general game play, other players do not harm you.
A third is Elite: Dangerous (https://www.elitedangerous.com/), a simulation of hundreds of billions of star systems. Less than a fraction of one percent of the game universe has even been visited, much less properly explored, so there’s a lot to do beside kill each other.
Now, in Elite, things are different: PvP is opt-OUT. You must select solo play, or build a private group of players that agree not to do PvP and select that group when you start the game. Open Play is Dangerous: Any player can attack and destroy you, and you can lose MONTHS’ worth of gameplay. Psychopaths LOVE this: They can really hurt you, by costing you everything you’ve invested in the game since your last “save.” Saves are complex: You must land at a port with appropriate facilities—these are common enough in the inhabited regions, but rare to non-existent throughout most of the galaxy—and sell your exploration data and collect on any earned bounties and intel you’ve discovered on your voyages. The psychopaths love explorers as targets, because they often have no weapons whatsoever, no defenses, and they have a lot to lose when they return from their explorations.
Psychopaths frequently intrude on private groups with intent to harm, and take advantage of Open Play by infiltrating roles as well. One of the most hideous examples is shown here: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/04/elite-dangerous-community-plan-event-upended-by-masterful-troll/
Calling a psychopath “masterful,” and saluting his savagery, is just sick, in my opinion.
These people spend a lot of time defending their play style, and will provide advice on how to survive their hostilities. It’s hard to know the devil when his arm is around your shoulder, eh? The problem is, any ship outfitted to survive a psychopath is not much good for anything else: You have to cripple yourself to have a chance. In E:D, you must exchange cargo space for defenses, and equipment slots that are needed for exploration and mining tools must be sacrificed for shields, shield boosters, over-sized thrusters, and anti-missile defenses. Heavy equipment destroys jump range—i.e., travel speed—in exploration ships.
This makes peaceful living crap, in open play. What these trolls force is a variety of “survival of the fittest” that ruins intelligent development: It makes humanity into a beast, incapable of doing anything but devouring others.
Think about that.
A beast.
Incapable.
Self-destructive.
Stupid.
There is an expedition known as Distant Worlds 2, scheduled for launch on January 13, 2019 (13 January 3305 in the game calendar). Over eight thousand players—myself included—have signed up for this event, which will involve months away from stations, and thus places to save progress. https://www.pcgamer.com/over-8000-elite-dangerous-pilots-are-embarking-on-an-incredible-18-week-journey/ The psychos have already promised to be there, and many are signed up—some in alternate accounts—just to create havoc, according to rumors. Armed escorts will be traveling along with the fleet…but given the example above, how many of those escorts are going to betray the ones they pledged to protect? These trolls love to hurt defenseless people, and even a very large defense fleet cannot prevent fragile explorer ships from being destroyed by even a weak attacker. My favorite ship can be configured to jump over 80 light years in game. Configured with most of the tools I need for exploration and support of the goals of DW2, including moderate defense, it’s about half that.
Because Elite: Dangerous lacks an effective policing system (psychopaths who are killed in game simply re-spawn, and they have nothing to lose as they don’t care about data), and has an “opt-out” PvP philosophy, there is no way explorers can socialize without fear of social diseases: Psychopathic trolls.
Trolls who will turn YOU into a beast.
Incapable.
Self-destructive.
Stupid.
I play MMOs, perhaps more than my friends think I should. They don’t understand that online friends are just as real as the ones that visit my RL (Real Life) home. I have a world of opinions about life online.
Today, I’d like to talk about psychopaths online. Gankers and the like. PvPers, they call themselves.
Now, for the record, let me make it CLEAR that not all PvPers (Player-vs.-Player) are psychopaths. I don’t have solid statistics, so I’ll be generalizing a lot, but I’d say most PvP is “friendly…” as friendly as a barroom brawl, at least. They may beat the tar out of you, but they’ll offer you a beer and a handshake afterwards. After all, “it’s just a game, man!” Generally, a polite PvP involves a query. Sometimes it’s as polite as “Wanna duel?” It may be a simple “1v1?” (one vs. one) in open chat. It’s likely to be a few light strikes from a weapon. If you run convincingly, they may let you go; if you turn and fight, it’s like dogs. It gets complicated, and varies with each assault. But generally, these guys are fitted out to kill, and nothing else, so anyone trying to play a different game style is at a severe disadvantage.
Psychopaths hide in this environment. I’m going to talk about how they reveal themselves. Maybe YOU are one of them, and haven’t recognized it? Game style is a clue: Most MMOs have a variety of paths to success, and a variety of goals to achieve. For many play styles, there is no “end-game.” They’re playing because they “live” in this world, and they’re exploring it.
I’m a firm believer in PwP—Player with Player—and I feel intelligent life manifests through cooperation, not destructive behavior. (It does seem that humanity is being trained to be warlike, if you look at TV, movies, and video game offerings for examples. Even books.) I’ve played a few MMOs extensively enough to offer an opinion in terms of their designs. I’ll give three as examples of how PvP can be very different.
First, the most sociable is a “game” called Second Life (http://secondlife.com/). It’s free to play, and has a huge abundance of free upgrades to your avatar. PvP is pretty much “opt in”: You must equip an add-on—generally, a HUD (Heads Up Display) of some sort—that keeps score of hits and damage. There are some locations in SL where damage is enabled to any avatar, but it’s very temporary, and limited to knocking attachments off of your avatar and pushing it around. You lose nothing of your player, as the PvP portion is such a small part of the game.
But Second Life isn’t really a game: It’s a virtual world. There are games within SL, but just like RL, SL has no end-game at all. I won’t go into it in detail here; as in the real world, you meet all kinds of characters, and find all kinds of things to educate or entertain you.
Another MMO is Elder Scrolls Online. Again, PvP is opt-in: You go to a region where PvP is enabled by default, or enter a duel mode with your chosen opponent. In general game play, other players do not harm you.
A third is Elite: Dangerous (https://www.elitedangerous.com/), a simulation of hundreds of billions of star systems. Less than a fraction of one percent of the game universe has even been visited, much less properly explored, so there’s a lot to do beside kill each other.
Now, in Elite, things are different: PvP is opt-OUT. You must select solo play, or build a private group of players that agree not to do PvP and select that group when you start the game. Open Play is Dangerous: Any player can attack and destroy you, and you can lose MONTHS’ worth of gameplay. Psychopaths LOVE this: They can really hurt you, by costing you everything you’ve invested in the game since your last “save.” Saves are complex: You must land at a port with appropriate facilities—these are common enough in the inhabited regions, but rare to non-existent throughout most of the galaxy—and sell your exploration data and collect on any earned bounties and intel you’ve discovered on your voyages. The psychopaths love explorers as targets, because they often have no weapons whatsoever, no defenses, and they have a lot to lose when they return from their explorations.
Psychopaths frequently intrude on private groups with intent to harm, and take advantage of Open Play by infiltrating roles as well. One of the most hideous examples is shown here: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/04/elite-dangerous-community-plan-event-upended-by-masterful-troll/
Calling a psychopath “masterful,” and saluting his savagery, is just sick, in my opinion.
These people spend a lot of time defending their play style, and will provide advice on how to survive their hostilities. It’s hard to know the devil when his arm is around your shoulder, eh? The problem is, any ship outfitted to survive a psychopath is not much good for anything else: You have to cripple yourself to have a chance. In E:D, you must exchange cargo space for defenses, and equipment slots that are needed for exploration and mining tools must be sacrificed for shields, shield boosters, over-sized thrusters, and anti-missile defenses. Heavy equipment destroys jump range—i.e., travel speed—in exploration ships.
This makes peaceful living crap, in open play. What these trolls force is a variety of “survival of the fittest” that ruins intelligent development: It makes humanity into a beast, incapable of doing anything but devouring others.
Think about that.
A beast.
Incapable.
Self-destructive.
Stupid.
There is an expedition known as Distant Worlds 2, scheduled for launch on January 13, 2019 (13 January 3305 in the game calendar). Over eight thousand players—myself included—have signed up for this event, which will involve months away from stations, and thus places to save progress. https://www.pcgamer.com/over-8000-elite-dangerous-pilots-are-embarking-on-an-incredible-18-week-journey/ The psychos have already promised to be there, and many are signed up—some in alternate accounts—just to create havoc, according to rumors. Armed escorts will be traveling along with the fleet…but given the example above, how many of those escorts are going to betray the ones they pledged to protect? These trolls love to hurt defenseless people, and even a very large defense fleet cannot prevent fragile explorer ships from being destroyed by even a weak attacker. My favorite ship can be configured to jump over 80 light years in game. Configured with most of the tools I need for exploration and support of the goals of DW2, including moderate defense, it’s about half that.
Because Elite: Dangerous lacks an effective policing system (psychopaths who are killed in game simply re-spawn, and they have nothing to lose as they don’t care about data), and has an “opt-out” PvP philosophy, there is no way explorers can socialize without fear of social diseases: Psychopathic trolls.
Trolls who will turn YOU into a beast.
Incapable.
Self-destructive.
Stupid.
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