Modern Warfare 2 by Flyinace2000

Like millions of others around the world, I’ve been spending way too much time playing Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2 over the past several weeks. Mostly multiplayer. After almost 48 hours of gameplay, I’ve attained the rank of Colonel II and have a score ranking of under 3 million! Woohoo!

Why is this game so addictive?

I think Infinity Ward has perfected the formula for attention engagement with their multiplayer ranking and unlocking system. For the first 30 or so levels, you get a constant stream of new weapon and abilities, a new one every hour or two of playing. Every new weapon has its own ladder of accessories to unlock, from silencers to (the essential) heart-beat monitors. Positive feedback galore. Even if you suck at playing, you still get the satisfactory feeling of advancement just by showing up.

At later levels, the rewards come more slowly, but you are fully motivated to learn to play better in order to get them. The kill-streak system is brilliant: For a continuous run of kills without dying you can deploy powerful game-changing elements, from map-revealing UAVs (after 3 kills) to fearsome player-controlled AC-130 attacks (after 11). This is a powerful motivator to make you learn to play better and refrain from just senseless charging.

The game is chock-full of other psychological motivators. You get medal-like emblems and titles for specific accomplishments (such as killing every member of the opposing team at least once). You can also customize your character’s weapons, “perks” (such as the ability to continuously run), and “deathstreaks” (special helpers when you die too many times in a row).

What can we learn from these motivating techniques to apply to the real world?

Halls of Learning by Josiah Mackenzie

One of my personal passions is to drastically improve our means of education. My initial focus is on college-level education, which represents the largest investment we make before we even enter the workforce. According to Forbes, the average public 4 year program costs $18,000 a year (for tuition, fees, and room and board), while private colleges average $37,000 a year, with elite schools costing $50,000 a year and up. This means you’ll need at least $70,000 for a 4 year program. That’s a lot of money.

So what do we get (or think we get) in return for becoming economic slaves? Let’s try to break-down the total received value from a typical 4-year college experience. Here’s my stab at a list:

1. Knowledge, information, and instruction (60%, ~$49K out of a $70K 4-year budget)

Not surprisingly, I'd expect that the main thing I'm paying for is education.

2. Certification (10%, ~$7K)

There's value in graduating from a known school vs. just reading a bunch of books. The school is saying "yes, we think this person is at a known ability level." By attending, you are in-effect buying lifetime membership in the school’s “brand”.

3. Living and social experiences (15%, ~$10K)

For most people, going to college is also learning to live by yourself for the first time, dealing with diverse people, and making important choices in a controlled environment.

4. Inspiration and motivation (5%, ~$3,500)

Having people who you can look up to, and who will motivate you is valuable. So is having a nice environment, the arts, and similarly motivated people around you.

Can any of these be cut or obtained much more cheaply? Could you obtain most of the knowledge for much less than $49K in much less than 4 years? I think the answer is yes, and we need revolutionary changes.

What do you think?

Photo by Ahmed Rabea

It’s been said many times before, but I wanted to say it again: The modern world owes a huge debt to the humble coffee bean. For me personally, I cannot imagine doing even half the things I do without caffeine. I’m a completely different person before and after drinking a a shot of espresso. I’m sure that it has changed the world much more than any other narcotic.

Cheers to Coffee!

Buying stuff feels so good because it is a form of self-actualization. You work hard, you make good money, and when you buy that new gadget or bauble it’s as if you had worked hard to create it yourself.

… writing this blog post.

What’s interesting is realizing all that the world has been through, and all I have been through, to get to this one simple yet otherwise unremarkable moment.

... because that's the only way it can be.

Since all the forms of intelligence we know arise from nature, they are implicitly bound to the structures and forces that nature places on them from birth. The fact that there is such a thing as the ego or the self, for example, is surely because organisms in nature must be obsessed about self-preservation. I wonder if there are possibly other forms of intelligence, that perhaps we would not immediately recognize as such.

I think this is a central reason why artificial intelligence has been so difficult to create. Since the machines we create are not explicitly programmed or directed to be self-preserving (since there is no need to), there are no forces to create what would be a recognizable ego to us.