Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /home/genxtral/domains/billo.ws/public_html/wp-content/themes/fit/bloglisting.php on line 39
Oct 10

Where Did The Game Go?

by Chris Billows in Mental Mischief 0 comments
I recall back in 1992, the first time I opened up my Wintel CPU Unit. I was stunned. The unit was so big, but on the inside it was so completely empty. I saw the hard drive, the motherboard, and the wires connecting everything, Yet where was the games I was playing? I expected to see the land of Illuria (the original Warlords game I was playing) inside the case. Of course, I intellectually knew that the game existed as ones and zeros on the hard drive, but it made me do a double-take. Everything we do on computers and consoles are those ones and zeros being quickly arranged in elaborate patterns. It is simply a series of electrical current that we are seeing on the screen – just like right now. It is truly amazing. 😆 I think that this amazement helped the Matrix movies give the impact they did. They portrayed the question of What is Reality? My experience was like an introduction to the Buddhist concept of Sunyata or Emptiness. When everything is not what we think it is, then why become upset when a game is lost or prideful when a game is won? 😉

Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /home/genxtral/domains/billo.ws/public_html/wp-content/themes/fit/bloglisting.php on line 39
Jan 01

Towards a New Hierarchy of Needs

by Chris Billows in Mental Mischief 0 comments
Dear Reader, The Hiearchy of Needs was originally defined by Maslow as being the pinnacle of his hierarchy of needs. It is a conceptual model that speaks to the height of satisfying our most advanced need, which is our sense of being. On a certain level Maslow is correct. We all need to take care of our bioligical and security needs before we can have the luxury to work on our self-development. But if you evaluate the entire model, it is all about a singular self. There is no recocgnition of the self in the context of a social or ecological world. Sure, Love & Belonging has a social component since that means to Love others and the Belong to others. But if there was no Love or Self-Sacrifice and Protection offered by mothers and fathers, then we as babies and children would not make out of of the bottom level. Man’s Search for Meaning explained this well. At a more fundamental level, our parents and families would not be here if we did not have a society that could take advantage of the earth’s resources. Ecologically we would be nothing if we did not have a hospitable planet and […]

Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /home/genxtral/domains/billo.ws/public_html/wp-content/themes/fit/bloglisting.php on line 39
Nov 08

The Personality Pacifier

by Chris Billows in Mental Mischief 0 comments
We all believe that we have personality. We also believe that this personality is pretty static, that a person’s fundamental likes and dislikes, their tastes, and world-views do not change that much. We are a solid entity that possesses a distinct imprint, kind of like a fingerprint. In 1968, distinguished personality theorist Walter Mischel pointed out that correlations between a person’s behavior in one setting and another are often surprisingly low. Mischel’s analysis revealed that the individual’s behavior, when closely examined, was highly dependent upon situational cues, rather than expressed consistently across diverse situations that differed in meaning. For example, people we label very talkative may hardly talk at all at a formal gathering. If personality is measured by one’s behavior, then we find that personality is indeed more fluid. Another theorist, Richard Nisbett, took this argument farther and argued that personality traits are merely cognitive delusions people create regarding their friends and family in order to give their worlds and their relationships an artificial aura of predictability. Thus the personality becomes little more than a mirage that gives us a sense of comfort. Pretty harsh! 😮 Its a jarring message that rips apart a mostly universal understanding of ourselves. […]

Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /home/genxtral/domains/billo.ws/public_html/wp-content/themes/fit/bloglisting.php on line 39
Aug 06

The Evolutionary Reason for Not Having Telepathy

by Chris Billows in Mental Mischief 0 comments tags: Human Condition, Human Mystery
Do you remember those superheroes or futuristic adventurers who could read minds and would possess an advantage that always allowed them to defeat the villain? I do, and I always thought it would be so cool to have Telepathy. If we could understand what everyone else was thinking, would that not make life easier? There would be no more guessing what your partner, family, coworkers thought. You just would know. It would improve understanding and make communication easier. Sounds like a good thing. But, now I think there are a couple of really good, solid, and practical reasons we did not evolve to have telepathy: Self-preservation and our need for solitude. Our self-preservation would be compromised If we knew exactly what other people were thinking. We would probably go insane if we had no way of shutting out another’s thoughts. Our own minds are crazy enough, so I would not also want to know everyone else’s thoughts. We would hear every stupid, hostile, and inane thought which would have us ending up in mortal strife with everyone. Look how poor communication creates problems already. Solitude allows us to keep secrets, plan in private, mull things over, and ultimately find some […]

Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /home/genxtral/domains/billo.ws/public_html/wp-content/themes/fit/bloglisting.php on line 39
Jul 09

The Components of Talent

by Chris Billows in Mental Mischief 0 comments tags: Change of Mind, Defining Life, Human Condition
I had a discussion with a friend about musical talent. We both love music and discussed why we never ended up playing it. We arrived at different conclusions about why this happened. For me, I remember making a conscious decision when I was about 17 years old to give up on playing music. I loved it but not enough to want to play it. Playing music did not resonate with me the way it would resonate with somebody who needed to play it. I can play music and believe I would have been a competent musician if I put in hours into it. Its just that I have other interests. My friend says that he desperately wanted to play music but just could not. He said that people would show him how to play the guitar but he could not get his fingers to move the right way. It is was such a struggle that he decided that if it is not going to come easy, then its simply was not meant to be. He said that this proves that we both lacked talent. I disagreed with him. Part of the reason for that disagreement is that we lacked a […]

Warning: Trying to access array offset on value of type bool in /home/genxtral/domains/billo.ws/public_html/wp-content/themes/fit/bloglisting.php on line 39
Dec 09

Psychology Cagematch – Maslow vs Frankl

by Chris Billows in Mental Mischief 1 comments tags: Comprehensive Analysis, Human Condition
I was talking with a colleague who is a trained psychologist about different views concerning the human condition. The two views we contrasted were Abaraham Maslow and Victor Frankl, both Jewish, both European, and both having similar philosophies about human purpose, yet really having fundamentally different conclusions about what drives that purpose. Abaraham Maslow believed that humans are only ready to act upon their growth needs if and only if the deficiency needs are met. Once met, the person then moves onto the next stage of need to be met. The theory has eight stages where we progressively move from physical, bodily needs to more metaphysical and spiritual needs. There were 8 stages: 1 ) Physiological: hunger, thirst, bodily comforts, etc.; 2 ) Safety/security: out of danger; 3 ) Belonginess and Love: affiliate with others, be accepted; and 4 ) Esteem: to achieve, be competent, gain approval and recognition. 5 ) Cognitive: to know, to understand, and exlore; 6 ) Aesthetic: symmetry, order, and beauty; 7 ) Self-actualization: to find self-fulfillment and realize one’s potential; and 8 ) Self-transcendence: to connect to something beyond the ego or to help others find self-fulfillment and realize their potential. Courtesy of https://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/regsys/maslow.html The […]
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
Categories