Warming Up The Brain Farm

(Note: Updated for clarity)

I propose a new drinking game which goes like this.

Pick a suitable hard liquor that mixes well with Coke and obtain a large quantity. The game is optimally played with two teams of two (with Players A and B on Team 1 and Players C and D on Team 2).

Get a large glass (preferably clear) that holds about 6-8 shots. Fill the cup with Coke. The first two competitors (A and C) perform a series of rounds:

1) Stir the contents of the cup and pour out two shots.
2) If a player declines to take the shot, the other team wins the phase, and the game continues to the next phase.
3) Otherwise, both players take a shot.
4) The cup is filled back up using the hard liquor.

As the rounds progress, each shot will contain a higher and higher proportion of alcohol until there's barely any Coke left at all. To win the first phase, one player must pass and the other must take his shot. If both players pass, the game ends in a draw and both players should be ashamed.

For the second phase, the other two players (B and D) square off. Top off the cup with alcohol. The player on the team that won the first round goes first. The two players in the second phase take turns doing the following:

1) The current player decides whether or not he thinks his teammate can drink the entire cup within one minute. If he says yes, he hands the cup to his teammate who attempts to do so. If he succeeds, then that team wins phase two and the game ends.
2) If the current player decides to pass, the cup is stirred, and two shots are poured.
3) If either player declines to take a shot, the other team wins the phase, and the game ends.
4) Otherwise, both players take a shot.
5) The cup is filled back up using Coke.

If a team wins both phases, it's an utter shutout. In case of a 1-1 tie, both sides maintain their dignity.

The size of the cup used can effect the game dynamics greatly. The rules may seem complicated, but all that's really involved is pouring shots and drinking.

Example:

A glass that holds about 7 shots is used and filled with Coke. Players A and C begin by pouring two shots from the glass and taking their shots. They refill the glass back up using Jack Daniels. The glass now contains 29% Jack Daniels. They mix the contents of the glass and again pour out two shots which they drink. The game continues on this way for several rounds. Here's a summary of the amount of Jack Daniels per shot:

0%
29%
49%
64%
74%
81%
87%
91%

After 8 shots, each player has had the equivalent of 4.75 shots of Jack Daniels. At this point let's say that player A declines to take the next shot (which is 93% Jack). Player C takes his shot and then Team 2 wins the first phase of the game.

Now for phase two, let's first add a shot of Jack back to the glass to fill it up, and also pour A's undrunk shot back in. The glass is now 94% Jack. Team 2 won the first phase, so they start this one. The teammates C and D discuss whether Player C can finish the glass in one minute. They don't think so, so two shots are poured from the glass and Players B and D drink. Coke is added back to the glass making the solution only 67% Jack.

Now Team 1, and specifically Player A, has a chance to restore his dignity by drinking the contents of the glass. They decide it is still too much Jack to drink in one minute. So again shots are poured and drunk by Players B and D. The glass is refilled with Coke making it 48% alcohol. Play continues in this manner until the Jack % gets low enough for one of the original players to down quickly.

If anyone has suggestions on improving the game rules, feel free to post them, I'm sure there's lots of better variants.

---

Or you could watch Spaceballs and drink anytime anyone says one of these words: "Spaceball(s)", "Helmet", "Air", or "Schwartz". (courtesy of Terita)

On Free Will

Every human has a decision making mechanism. This mechanism some people refer to as a soul or consciousness, or the machine-like interactions, etc. The mechanism is essentially YOU.

When we say free will, what do we mean? Do we mean that the mechanism is free to do what it wants? That YOU are free to do as you please? Well certainly any human can do what he or she pleases.

Do we mean that the mechanism may be predestined to make a certain decision? That is, given the same set of circumstances, you would choose the same path every time? If we believe that “cause and effect” holds for the universe and there is no such thing as “random,” we must concede this. Even if you had a soul and your mechanism was intangible, would you want to have a decision making mechanism that would make different decisions when confronted with the same circumstances? This would imply that your mechanism had some intrinsic randomness. Is this free will?

I think what people mean when they refer to free will is that they subconsciously realize that they are trapped within themselves. They realize that without some randomness in their decision making process, they are machine like, and are predestined to make certain choices.

The reason that the Uncertainty Principle gives the human race so much hope is that it suggests that the universe is not machine like, and that every interaction only has a probable outcome. This randomness is just the thing a mechanism needs to remove it from its own design. In this way humans can remain free from their own confines.

However, the more free and random our mechanisms are, the less control we have over ourselves. We are defined less as our unique mechanisms and more as the randomness of the universe. You may decide which you want.

But perhaps our decision making mechanisms encompass the idea of a soul, an intangible entity that exists outside the confines of our known physical universe. Some people prefer to believe we have souls, but even a soul would suffer the same problems of free will as a purely physical mechanism. Soul's are also not above being scrutinized with thought experiments.

Would your soul make the same choice given the same set of circumstances? If it always would, then your soul is predestined, and mechanistic. If it doesn't, than your conscious mind must have some random mechanism that affects your decisions. If this is the case, then you would only have some level of vague control over your soul.

Real Time Analysis II

In a previous post I discussed what I think is the most basic concept in time travel. This is the idea that you can not change the timeline. Here are the basic implications of that statement:

1) There is only one timeline which is the result of a totally deterministic universe.
2) All past, present, and future events can not be changed.
3) Any attempts to change the known past or future will result in failure.

This means that if I try to go back in time and prevent myself from being born, I am destined to fail. But if time travel is possible, what's to prevent people from trying? If time travel into the past is possible, one of the following must be true:

1) People will voluntarily decide never to interfere with the known timeline.
2) People's attempts to change the known timeline will meet with failure.
3) The time travel mechanism used to travel into the past will not allow for these changes somehow.

Let's say I want to travel in the past one day and have a conversation with myself. Since I know this did not happen yesterday, I know I will fail somehow in trying to accomplish this. But what's to realistically stop me from doing it? Since it's impossible for me to succeed, something must go wrong:

1) I die before I'm able to talk with myself.
2) Something physically blocks me from approaching myself.
3) The means I am using to time travel malfunctions or breaks.

So why must one of these things happen? Let's say I succeed in talking to myself in the past. Now the timeline is changed (which I already said is impossible), but furthermore, I'd have no inspiration to actually go back and talk with myself in the first place, which would produce the original timeline. These two timelines could oscillate back and forth, each one producing the other. But I've already stated that there is only one timeline, so this meta-stable oscillation must settle into one timeline that doesn't change (more on this later). There is also a hidden stability problem whenever you try to interact with yourself.

If the time travel mechanism is unreliable and only has a probability of success, scenario 3 above is most likely to occur. So, if you try to go back in the past and once you get there you change the timeline, you will not be allowed to go back in the first place and the time travel mechanism will malfunction.

The Yahoogle Blues

So there's been very little response to the Bloodthirsty Pirates problems I posted a little while ago. Ok, there's been no response. I think I've narrowed down the reason for this lack of feedback to the following probable causes:

1) The problems were too challenging.
2) No one cares.
3) No one read the problem in the first place.

Reason 1 may very well be the case, the problems use a complex set of rules and force the puzzle-solver to think through each iteration of the voting process. However, there wasn't a response to any of the problems. Were they all too difficult? This seems unlikely.

Reason 2 seems more likely. Who could be bothered to solve some stupid intellectual challenge? Who has the time as well? This explanation seems to hold a lot of water. However, I enjoy these types of puzzles a great deal and I'd like to think I'm not the only one out there who enjoys logic puzzles. So what's going on?

I dug deep on this one, and my investigation turned up Reason 3, the fact that only 80 unique people have seen my sight since its launch in April, and certainly far less have visited this site in the last two weeks.

So why the lack of interest in this site? Surely this site is the authoritative source on all things Space Cabbagey. Who's running this Internet thing anyway?

Google and Yahoo, my trusted companions who have accompanied me in my ongoing search for information, warez sites, and porn, have let me down. When this site first sprang up, I notified Google and Yahoo that this web address did in fact exist. They both gave me warnings that my notifications would not ensure that my site would appear in their search results. Google also let me know that it would take a look at my site (which is exceedingly small) when it got around to it. Since these websites are essentially the godfathers of the Internet, I decided that patience would be the key.

For the last two months, both Google and Yahoo did not recognize this site, and a search for "Space Cabbage" brought up nothing. Yahoo has still not recognized this site. Instead of my site at the top of the results page, you get 80 hits of irrelevant garbage. What's the hold up? Take a look, it's good I swear!

I am happy to announce that Google finally got the memo and took a look at my sight. It's decided that my site, titled "Space Cabbage" and with a web address "spacecabbage.blogspot.com" should be ranked as link number 27 out of 189. What are these other 26 questionable sites?

Link number five is interesting, although Google says that this page (www.farm-garden.com/growing-vegetables/10/) discusses how far apart to space cabbage plants in your garden, after following the link you discover a blank page with only "hacked by Dante". Ah, just what I was looking for!

Links 11 and 12 are for a message board on Sportbike World (sbw.sportbikes.com/showthread.php?threadid=40656). Apparently someone mentioned the random words "Space Cabbage" in their post. This is quite unfortunate. Don't people know the effects of random utterances on the Internet!

Some of the rest of the 26 links are more valid referring to pop culture uses of space cabbage in everyday dialog (apparently there are some), and to the original creative works that helped popularize the phrase.

Not to diminish the relevancy of these fine sites, but shouldn't a website that's dedicated to Space Cabbage by higher on the list? Now I know that these engines use popularity (how many other pages link to a site) as a factor in determining relevance. This may be ok when I want to find the definitive or official source for something, since the most popular site will most likely be what I am looking for.
However, when looking for obscure topics, the most popular site is not always the most relevant. I know if I was looking for Space Cabbage, I wouldn't want this site to be ignored. If a site is packed with oodles of relevant information, it could be skipped over by search engines like Google if no site links to it. This is unfortunate for new websites, and is even worse for search engine users who don't know what they're missing.

So back to the Pirates problem. I'm not going to post the solutions. However, maybe if someone attempts the problem and posts their solutions in this or the original post, I'll be forced to reveal the answers. Until then though, it may be lost in the archives for a long time until the site is more popular (which may be never).

The Search For More Money: Part II

So I caved and saw Episode III after all. I believe I am justified though. The reviews on www.rottentomatoes.com were very positive, which I'll admit came as huge shock. I said I wouldn't go unless Lucas defeated the odds and actually put in some effort to "clean up the mess he'd made", but the reviews seemed to indicate that this may have actually happened. I am happy to announce after seeing the movie that Lucas indeed put in a lot of effort.

You can always tell when a director is really trying his best, and in Episode III you really get this impression. Maybe this is why my review below is not overly harsh. I have a soft spot for people really giving it a solid try. The movie is Lucas's attempt at redemption for publicly releasing his two previous films. While I can't say he succeeded in this, it was a noble effort and the movie itself does not suck utterly.

First, the good parts. The settings were all really visually stunning, inspiring visions of a crisp, realistic future society. The opening sequence, although a little over the top as far as quantity of spacecraft and laser fire, was pretty decent. R2 has gained the ability to leap out of aircraft (way to go R2!) and we get to see spacecraft land. In one instance, a trillion ton spacecraft is able to gently skid across a runway without tearing up the pavement, I can't wait until we have technologic wonders such as these. In another scene, we see a robotic droid let go of the fighter it was desperately grabbing onto, succumb to the harsh air resistance present at high velocities in outer space, and fall away from the spacecraft. It's details like these that really make you understand the level of thought that went into the movie.

I liked the whole ending sequence with Obi-Wan and Anakin fighting mere feet away from intensely hot dangerous lava that we know in real life could scorch non-jedi flesh from 20 feet away. I like it when we get to see nuances in the powers of the force like this, obviously the jedi's are using the force somehow to combat the heat - is there anything it can't do?! Oh, did I say force? I meant mediclorians. I have to remind myself that it's not force anymore. The movie reminded me twice.

I liked towards the very end when Anakin turns into Darth Vader and learns of Padme's death and yells "Khan!!!" oops wrong movie, I mean "Noooo!!!!".

Unfortunately, there are some bad parts that detract from the overall experience. The acting is awful. The romance, upon which the entire premise of the movie depends, is completely absurd and unbelievable. There is simply no chemistry. Palpatine's metamorphosis into the emporer was entirely ridiculous and unnecessary. Good makeup job guys. Also, all the Jedi being killed by order 66 is stupid. And how could Yoda give up so easily and voluntarily go into exile? And does anyone else feel like all the locales in Episode II and III are contrived set pieces with no interesting context except as a staging area for the next light saber battle? At least C3PO and R2 get their memory erased at the end of the movie, unfortunately, the technology exists in their world, not in ours.

Green Mushroom Award: Magic Carpet

The winner of this month's Green Mushroom Award is Magic Carpet for the PC. The game was released in 1994 and its sequal was released with minor improvements in 1995. Magic Carpet offers not only a unique interface but an original gameplay concept that is refreshing and addictive.

You are an apprentice wizard flying around on a magic carpet. The perspective is first person, and you are able to fly in three dimensions (although up and down is limited) over land, water and villages in an Arabian Nights like world. At your disposal are a variety of spells which you may use to attack and annoy your enemies.



The goal of each level is to kill all the enemy wizards and grow stronger by harnessing the mana (magical energy) of each realm. Each wizard has a small castle which is used as a warehouse to hold collected mana. Wandering monsters roam each level attacking each wizard and castle they come across. By casting damage spells (such as fireball or lightning), wizards can attack enemy castles, wizards and monsters. When wizards die, they respawn at their castles after a small delay.



When monsters die, magical energy is released in the form of balls of mana. Wizards may claim the mana by casting the posession spell on each ball. Hot air balloons are automatically dispatched from each castle to seek out and retrieve claimed mana, bringing it back to the wizard's castle and increasing his store of magic energy. The more energy a wizard has, the more powerful spells he may cast, and the more often he may cast them. Eventually, the castle fills with mana, and can hold no more. When this happens, the wizard must upgrade his castle, increasing its size and the amount or mana it can hold.



The castle is an important part of the game. A wizard hovering over his castle will replenish his magic energy and health at a rapid rate. Also any damage the wizard takes is taken by the castle instead. If the castle runs out of health, it is downsized a level and any mana that does not fit in the smaller sized castle pops out. As the castle takes more and more damage, it continues to decrease in size and more mana falls out. You may re-upgrade your castle immediately if you're flying nearby, but the mana that fell out needs to be retrieved by your balloons again, and in the mean time enemy wizards can claim what was previously your mana. If your castle is destroyed and you die before you can recreate your castle with a spell, or if you die and your castle is destroyed while you're waiting to respawn, then you are banished from the realm and lose the game.



The land and buildings are all 3D, which looks impressive, especially for its time. The water waves up and down and is reflective. Some levels take place in underground caverns with dynamic lighting from specific light sources. However, what's truly remarkable about Bullfrog's 3D engine is the real-time terrain morphing showcased by certain powerful spells. Cast the volcano spell and a cone of earth will rise out of what was an innocent and flat field just a moment ago. Balls of firey molten death spew out and roll into nearby castles and monsters which take significant damage. Other terrain altering spells such as crater, earthquake, gravity well and cave-in all allow you to reshape the square planet you fly over.



The gameplay of magic carpet is fast paced. You often have to make decisions on the best course of action at different times. If all the wizards are teaming up on your castle, should you try to defend it, or should you seek out the enemy's abandoned castles? Should you try to kill more monsters and claim more mana to grow more powerful, or should you attack each wizard head to head?

Levels sometimes play like hungry-hungry hippos, in that you're scrambling to increase your magical energy faster than your opponents. This can be very chaotic and fun. Wandering monsters often throw a wrench into the system too. If a powerful enemy (such as a hydra) discovers your castle, you may need to relocate and start over.



Magic Carpet offers a Descent like first person flying feel and a multiplayer deathmatch feel as well. Since creatures hold the precious magical energy you need to become more powerful, they are able to coexist in the melee and play an important part in the power struggle. As you collect more mana, you are able to cast more powerful spells, until you're commanding volcanos to erupt in the middle of enemy castles. Magic Carpet is truly unique and I'm still waiting for further developments in this sub-genre.