Chess Limit

I can never remember anybody teaching me the game of chess though I can only assume my Dad taught me to play when I was young, in fact I do not remember to learning to play Draughts either (that's Checkers to everyone outside of the UK).  The thing is chess has a lot of potential moves in a single game, a chap called Claude Shannon estimated the number using game theory back in the 1950's when computers were the size of office blocks and cars were made out of real iron.

...10¹²³ moves.  As a comparison, the number of atoms in the observable universe, to which it is often compared, is estimated to be between 4×10⁷⁹ and 4×10⁸¹.

What I find ironic is the chess problem below all those moves reduced down to a handful (assuming you have 5 fingers).

In a chaotic system the possibilities are endless and the thing about chess whilst the rules are pretty strict there are some loopholes due to basic assumptions.  Are you playing to win or are you playing to create chaos.

A lot of bad things happening in Germany at the moment and the recent failed coup in Turkey suggests chaos is in the driving seat, did we put chaos there or was it a backseat driver?

What are the basic assumptions that create the loopholes in our system?

Does chaos have a navigator?

Where Anything is Possible

Next Thursday is the EU referendum and sorting all the arguments is a complete nightmare but lets start by looking at the bigger picture that is currently evolving from the EU camp first the German finance minister threatens Britain that we would not be allowed to enter the single market if we left and now the French minister Mr Macron says:

"Leaving the EU would mean the 'Guernseyfication' of the UK, which would then be a little country on the world scale. It would isolate itself and become a trading post and arbitration place at Europe's border."

It seems to me that the EU are doing their best to scare us and perhaps they think it is a little bit of reverse psychology in that they pushing us away to make us stay.  No offense to the voters out there but that is probably a little too clever for anyone to pick up on.  The last time Germany made threats we ended up with two world wars and I am sure nobody in their right minds wants to see that again.

What does it mean to be in the single market (good and bad):

• Free movement of goods - no customs at borders, goods are inspected at the traders premises
• No tax on goods - that's a good thing.
• Free movement of capital - this is brilliant news for terrorists far easy to conduct Money laundering.
• Free movement of services - which includes Internet purchases, how much do you buy from Internet because it is cheaper?
• Freedom of establishment - Set up a company anywhere in the EU (barring non-profit) great for avoiding paying taxes (sometimes)
• Digital Single Market - Internet, Telecoms (no more roaming charges), Delivery rates, copyright
• Free movement of persons - That means anyone in the EU can work, play or retire anywhere else in the EU plus there are no border controls.

The key issue is Freedom, remove these freedoms from the EU and you get a Police state.  Leaving the EU means leaving those freedoms behind will that change our internal freedoms hopefully not but by leaving we would be entering unknown territory effectively swapping the order of freedom with the chaos of freedom.  Chaos is where anything is possible good or bad.  Which would you prefer to do stay safe in the status quo or risk everyone's freedom, are we that selfish?.

Should we leave then other countries may decide to leave too which could create a snowballing effect to the breaking apart of the EU.  We would back to the 1940s (or worse the 1920s and the depression) and you only need one country to get too ambitious.  History repeats itself again and again, humanity makes it look easy.

Then you will have World War III, it is as simple as that (by 2030).

We all live on the planet for a short time and we are all abysmal at getting along with one another.  Mostly because we want more.

When I first started writing this article I was prepared to be swayed to the leavers side, I thought rocking the boat would be a good idea that chaos in a limited form would be okay but when you follow the simple logic through, the future prospect of a war in Europe is too great to ignore.  I have not directly experienced war (only the desensitized knowledge of what I see on the news) but my parents have.  They do not talk about it, why would want to talk about something that made you feel completely helpless.  In World War I we lost a complete generation of men and women, the second version was far worse.  A lot of the voters in this country have never known war and probably do not see it as a potential future threat but it is very real.

The problem is that most people do look that far ahead maybe five years maximum me included in fact I barely look a year ahead.  With a decision like this you have to look at least twenty to fifty years ahead which could be quite easily beyond many the current voters life spans but it is not beyond their children's.  When I give to charity it is always a children's one because they are our future, should we vote to leave then we could be taking their future from them.  How selfish are we?

There are arguments on both sides but this is the only one that really matters.

Chaos without Order is Anarchy and that only leads to a death.

Ingress - Its Full of Triangles!

Note: this is not a review!
 
I have been playing Ingress which is a GPS augmented-reality based game on my Smart-Phone for the last two years and I have finally got to the point where it no longer holds any appear for me whatsoever, it has become more habit now than any enjoyment.

The game itself is very simple and has a quite addictive game play to it which will keep you happy for at least two years (in my case) or a few months in others.  Besides the game itself it has a fairly strong social element which had a definite appeal to me, I always like meeting new people plus it does get out you of the house walking in the fresh air.  Other forms of travel are also used:

• Cargress - (walking can be slow)
• Traingress - (Greener especially when you do not own a car)
• Busgress - (This occurs when the trains are delayed)
• Helicoptergress (for those richer players)
• Swimgress (for those that have dry suits)
• Boatgress (for those that are either richer or have a friend with a boat)

The game is played all over the world, it also has big events called Anomalies normally centered in several big cities around the world.  You can have many as six hundred players in each city battling it out.  Apparently there are seven million players world wide as opposed to World of Warcraft that have just over five million although I suspect the fresh air in World of Warcraft is probably virtual.

Sounds amazing doesn't it? Well Yes and No, I went to Cardiff in 2015 for the Shonin event which was extremely well organized and I did love the social side however the game itself I was bit bored with to be honest.  It was completely different to the normal game you play which I definitely preferred at the time.

There is a story to game which is sort of simple, two factions one called the Resistance aka Smurfs (Blue) and the other called the Enlightened aka Frogs (Green).  The Frogs are fighting for a bunch of green bug-eyed aliens called the Shapers who are meant to bring enlightenment (hence the name) to all humanity.  The Smurfs are against that idea although I understand there is another bunch of aliens on the side of the Smurfs which is where the story becomes a little more complex.  The problem I have with the story is that whatever the players do in the game it appears to have no effect upon the story line.  Although I could be completely wrong on this aspect since I have not delved deeply in the back-story since the early days of my play.

This guy lasted two months and much of what he says I agree with:

http://www.baconfatlabs.com/2014/09/leaving-ingress-my-ascendency-and-decline-as-an-agent/

However I have not quit yet just playing a lot slower, I am level 14 and there is only two levels to go.  Then its maxing out your badges none of which have much allure.

The upshot is that I have met a lot of new people and made some good friends in the process. The game play was good while it lasted, I liked the strategy of it.

Without giving too much away I have found it curious that Enlightened players tend towards more a chaotic style of play whereas the Resistance are more ordered.

Irony strikes again!

Smoke and Mirrors is Stranger than Fiction

I have recently read an article on Scott Adam's blog (creator of the Dilbert cartoon) about how science is an illusion using quantum mechanics as its base along with a cognitive scientist called Donald Hoffman who explains it (The Evolutionary Argument Against Reality) so much better than Mr Adams but not simpler.

I decided to post a comment on the article based upon both articles as I saw it, a more simplistic view:

Basically this is quantum theory taken to the nth degree. Atomic particles pop in and out of existence when we "observe" them or not as the case maybe. The cat is either dead or alive or most probably scratched its way out of the box having a night on the tiles leaving the radium wishing it had decayed sooner then at least it would have a dead cat as company.

Thinking this through does stuff at a quantum level fail to meet up to classical physics because it is for most part unobserved by conscious organisms whereas in the macro-verse that we live matter is under constant eyes whether they be human or otherwise.

Donald Hoffman suggests that there is consciousnesses all the way down that they create the reality we see and feel. Taking this theory to its logical conclusion (I could be wrong) if all of reality does not exist then these consciousnesses must exist outside of this reality otherwise the consciousnesses could not exist either.

Have I taken a complex idea and simplified it too much probably. I'm not a scientist just a part time unpaid out of the box thinker.

I post also second additional comment:

 ...however if you allow for Brane-World Scenarios then these consciousnesses could exist in a different Brane and if the consciousness were made up of particles (Idtrons perhaps) that were without mass with a spin of 2 like the hypothetical particle Graviton then they could pass between Branes or affect them. 

A whole Brane (Idverse) reality consisting of consciousnesses that create our physical world by observation alone.  Each of consciousness connects to a living organism whether it be human or not.

This reminds me of Philip Jose Farmer's series Riverworld (1971-83) whereby artificial souls (wathans) were created by an ancient alien race.

Logic is not a illusion if the consciousnesses are connected to us.

Then the whole of Donald Hoffman's ideas was refuted in this article by one of the world's best theoretical physicists Lubos Motl (never heard of him myself but I don't travel those circles).  I realised however this would potentially make an interesting baseline for new Alternate Reality Game so I set about writing the basics down.

The title for my game was Apex Ids:

Consciousnesses made up of Idtrons inhabiting a Brane world (Idverse), they grow by connections to living organisms in other brane worlds, starting from the microbe to intelligent life and beyond.  What is evolutionary best route for the Ids?

The basic idea is that at the beginning of the multiverse Idverses only contained one consciousness (Id), this first one grew so large that it no longer could interact with living organisms of our type of reality but it could still influence our reality through nature and whispering into the minds of the rich and powerful.  The first Id spawned other Ids as per Donald Hoffman's theory, now the question is how would these Ids grow (well used plot devices):

• Love/Peace/Harmony - speed growth in a Id
• Chaos - slows growth in a Id

The Apex Ids would have grown slow large that their best route for staying alive would be to control the growth of the Ids below them therefore I decided to go for a revolution of lower Ids against the Apex Ids, revolutions are all about taking control from the ones in power.

My revolutionaries were called The Church of Eon that on surface were all about peace and harmony but at the deepest levels intended to topple all the major governments of the world using people given super powers by use of drug therapies to enhance their physic abilities.  The basic goal of the Church was to stop all wars and get everyone to live in peace thereby starving out the Apex Ids.

Youtube is always an excellent resource for writing and ideas, my intent was to point the players at links to do with creating super powers which was fine until I came across this one:

Mind Science Kept Hidden - Documentary

This sounds fine until 4:50 minutes in at which point we are in conspiracy theory territory, I suppose it not be surprising that my fiction should mirror this "documentary" since I had recycled the usual suspects of any revolution.

Original thought doh!

Upon reflection I decided to drop the game and post it here instead, I still like its concept from a fictional perspective but it has lost its appeal for me.