Quote:
Originally posted by Yorick:
quote:
Originally posted by Firestormalpha:
In otherwords a shadow requires light and an obstruction of light. Without the light you wouldn't know the shadow, and without darkness, could you tell where the light was?
Yeesh, such reasoning makes me dizzy.
Never would've thought this post would come so far, it's kinda fun.
|
It's simple logic man. Think about it. To quote C.S.Lewis, "a fish doesn't know that it's wet, because it's never been dry. It just is".
You know happiness because you've been sad. Light and shadow are not opposite, light and dark are. And yes you need to know absense of light to understand what light it.
We have a concept of life because we know of death. We have a concept of self because we know others. We have a concept of happiness because of sadness, rest/tiredness, satisfaction/hunger, companionship/lonliness, wet/dry etc etc etc
This is in my experience the reason for negativity. It enables us to know positivity. [/QUOTE]Death is not the opposite of life. Death is a continuation of the cycle, and cannot teach us about life. It can teach us about living, and to appreciate every breath that we draw, but not about the concept of life. Not everything fits into the "wet fish" analogy.
I don't think that video game/VR addiction can either. After all, we're not born addicted to anything, except maybe a quest to learn, especially in the first few years, until our reasoning centers kick in. Then it's a matter of what kind of influences we had previously how much that desire sticks with us.
It's been my experience that addiction is a learned behaviour. Even a baby born addicted to cocaine learns that behaviour from it's mother, who learned it somewhere else. I'm not basing this on any kind of research either, but on personal experiences in my life. I've been in treatment centers. I've been involved on a personal level with AA/NA programs. In fact, I was in charge of making sure that NA literature got into hospitals and prisons for a year and a half, working inside of an NA program while the State had me brainwashed to think that I was a drug addict.
A gaming addiction may or may not be the same as a heroin addiction. I'd say that it's not the same on so many levels, while it may have parallels. It's like comparing football to soccer though. Depending on what part of the world you're in, they both have the same name, but they are vastly different animals, with very obvious differences. I have yet to hear of WoW addicts requiring hospitalization to get off of WoW. While there are reports of people that die playing games, they didn't take a single shot, flop on the floor, and die. I've seen this up close and personal with heroin, and cocaine.
I've yet to hear about WoW addicts tweaking at the window, afraid of (insert some game monster here) coming to attack their home. While they may lose touch with reality in a very real sense, they, for the most part, are still rational beings. They won't go into the toolbox of somebody that is guilty only of being their friend to pay for their electricity, or their WoW account to play. Nor are they likely to appear on the local convenience store vid camera using a firearm to rob it. Very different animals here.
Oops, kinda got away from my point here. Sorry. Migraine is bad today, and the medicine is making me ultra loopy. Learned behaviour. Will somebody that is addicted to video games suddenly become addicted to something else if they had never played a game? This question applies to any addiction, BTW, but for the purpose of this discussion, I'll let it stand where it is. I don't think there can possibly be an emphatic yes here.
To the point of VR immersion/reality. Since nobody will be born "jacked in", they will already know the difference. The only time the "wet fish" analogy can apply is if they were born, Matrix style, "jacked in". So they will have RL input into the VRL experience, and will make the comparisons, and whether one likes to believe this or not, some may actually prefer it.
Outside areas in NWN's 1 and 2 aggravate my head, but not to the extreme that having even a couple of 40 watt bulbs do, let alone actually being outside, even on a cloudy day like today. So a VR surrounding might be the best for me to get human interaction. These boards work to some extent, when I must have human contact. Even if I don't see it as being an "I need it", but more of an "I want it". I admit that wanting something bad enough can make you think you need it, but there is a difference, and with video game addiction compared to a chemical addiction, that distinction is very real.
I'm not sure this post even makes sense to me, so I hope there is something constructive in there.