Tag Archives: Candy Crush

The Tragic Satisfaction of Always Feeling Good

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“If it feels good, do it.” So the entire cast, all still naked, proclaims at the end of 1978 comedy porn Debbie Does Dallas. A bold end for the genre, but a sad one for us.

18th-Century philosopher Helvetius was all about hedonism: “Human beings are motivated solely by the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain. We have no freedom of choice because self-interest is the sole spring of judgement, action and affection.”

This is nothing new and nor will it ever get old. The idea is that we are our own worst enemy in this game, social media exposing our infantile selves. Why face misery and pain when you can save crush candy or save a king?

Neither does AI pull punches on the topic “Humanity’s hedonistic tendencies degrade cognitive ability, civic engagement and political will to address collective threats.” Sounds like time to take action, doesn’t it?

“Even in our sleep, pain which we cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of god.” (Aeschylus, Agamemnon)

In other words, either we figure out how to deal with the pain of living or else we’ll need Deus Ex Machina to get us out of the incinerator.

Digital Debate at Grub Street Writer’s Conference in Boston

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I need to investigate any possibility of publishing my bad side and so attended a Grub Street Writer’s Conference town hall debate on the viability of internet publication. 20140502_133530I was bored at first, with the conversation focused on metadata and using key words as effective search terms. 20140502_162951My interest was suddenly piqued when Vook VP Matt Cavnar confessed, “We live in a utopia and post-apocalyptic world at the same time. We are truly in the end times.”

Author Steve Almond, a self-proclaimed “digital immigrant”, added: “The digital world is being used by us to foster our distractions.”

The digital proponents remained true. Rachel Fershleiser of Tumblr: “The digital world is just an opportunity to meet strangers in your underwear.” topless_chicks_playing_computer_games_640_04And to the question of whether quality reading was really being done on phones, she admitted that indeed it was “Books versus Candy Crush.” candu crushIn the end, as persuasive as many of these pundits were – innocently stating that “rich snippets” were in fact “engineered serendipity” – I was ultimately terrified by the willingness of so many to be plugged into the machine. the-matrixAnd I thought about writing about that.