Only a Game

Twenty Years Today

Dear friends,

Only a Game turns twenty today, although since I've posted only one thing in the last year (and that was an interview elsewhere) you could be forgiven for thinking that 'the game' was over. But I still pop by here to answer comments, and any long form essays that don't get accepted elsewhere eventually end up here (there was in fact one last year, albeit more than a year ago). Ultimately, though, this project is effectively over, I just refuse to turn off the lights.

If you're interested in what I've been up to elsewhere, here are some of my favourite themes I've explored on Stranger Worlds since last July:

July 2024: Escaping Information, Returning to Truth

1. Lost in Information
2. The Spectacle of Unravelling Truth
3. Frontiers of Rationality
4. The Truth of Ourselves
5. Orbiting the Truth

October 2024: Thinking About Thinking

1. Why Robots Cannot Think
2. A Caricature of Science
3. Beyond the Hive University
4. Escaping the Ruins of Society
5. Return of the Citizen Philosophers

January 2025: Hijacking the Future

1. Smash All Crystal Balls
2. A Cure for Dragon Sickness
3. The Disestablishment of the Medical Priesthood
4. Beneath the Artificial Earth

June 2025: Meet the Antiheroes

1. 2100BC: Gilgamesh
2. 1667: Satan
3. 1870: Captain Nemo
4. 1961: Elric of Melniboné

If you're not already a part of Stranger Worlds, why not give some of these short reflections a read...? I'm doing my best work in philosophy right now, and the 750 word (3-minute read) format is both challenging and rewarding to work with. Give it a try!

With unlimited love to anyone who reads this,

Chris.

The Virtuous Cyborg on Ideas That Matter

I had a wonderful chat with Gregory B. Sadler of the Ideas that Matter podcast, and the video of our conversation is now available in the devil's own alimentary canal, YouTube. Although we riff around my book The Virtuous Cyborg, our conversation covered a lot of ground, and is full of interesting ideas. Check it out!

Nineteen Today!

Only a Game is nineteen years old today! What an adventure it has been. As I type this, I am sat in the very room where I typed the first blog entry nearly two decades ago - although at the time, it was a bedroom, and now it is closer to a miniature library with only a small scattering of books and boardgames on the shelves. Over those years, this blog changed in many ways, but it is still a fun place for me to throw out collections of words that have no home elsewhere. To everyone who played a part in this journey, I wish you well wherever you may be.

Café Américain: Information Is Not Truth

I'm back in Café Américain this week with an essay entitled "Information Is Not Truth". Here’s an extract:

If we reduce “truth” to mere factual statements, we eliminate not only any hope of touching upon the profound truths that lie at the heart of arts and philosophies, but also the sense of truth that each of us can express through our discourse. That we must try to discover the worthwhile truths was once the central tenet of the sciences, and perhaps the very reason that religion came to be viewed as their opponent, since truth within Christian traditions was supposedly 'revealed'. Truth is not information in any substantial sense, for while informational statements may be factually true, and may provide evidence for or against some truth, information itself is merely data until it is transformed by human practice into reality. 

You can read the whole thing over at Café Américain.

June Speaking Gigs

If you happen to be in the UK, I have two speaking gigs in June, as follows:

• The New Normal (Café Américain Launch Event)
  Friday 21st June 2024 at Verdurin, 2 Clunbury Street, London N1 6TT
  A panel discussion about censorship, in which I rather expect to be the most left-leaning of the panellists! Should be a good discussion.

• “Adventures in Moral Horror”
  Philosophy in Pubs National Annual Conference
  Saturday 29th June 2024, 2-5 pm, Empire Room, Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool
  An afternoon of drinks and philosophy! I am thrilled to return to the Philosophy in Pubs annual conference, which is always a pleasure, and this year I’ve geared my topic expressly to foster interesting conversations at the tables.

I note that, despite now living in the United States, I have still not been invited to talk about philosophy here, except the aesthetics of videogames (I did a university tour, “The Meaning of Play”, back in 2017). If you would like to invite me to something, I’m always in favour of talking! I’ve given talks and keynotes on four continents, and would be especially thrilled to give a talk in Antarctica, if any penguins are listening...