interweaving ideas
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WOW! vs the Intergalactic Space Whale – A Print-and-Play Cooperative Children’s Game
A hungry intergalactic space whale has wandered upon planet WOW! It has vacuumed up all the animals from the Zoo for Endangered Alien Animals. In this co-op game, our young players will assemble a team of superdupers to venture into the whale’s bowels and rescue the animals by matching various, age-appropriate patterns between alien cards.
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A Humanist Advent Calendar
Boys with Advent Calendars My mother took my siblings and I through a Christmas Advent calendar one year. A new-ager raised Christian, she held a positive view of the Bible. I can’t recall any of the biblical stories from those sessions preceding the chocolates each night, but I do have a fond nostalgic memories of…
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Closest Thing I Have to Religion: Robert McCall’s “The Prologue and the Promise”
Robert McCall’s “The Prologue and the Promise” I was unfamiliar with the name Robert McCall when I first stumbled upon “The Prologue and the Promise,” the mural he painted for Disney Epicot’s Horizons attraction in 1983, but I was very familiar with his visionary artwork. His imaginative futuristic designs feature in 2001: A Space Odyssey,…
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The Dynamic Symbology of Dragon Dice
Dice Dice and More Dice Introduction Games are played in the contexts of rules, play, and culture. A game of chess played a century and a half ago would have a very different context and meaning between players than a game played today. Those players would be more likely to see one color of abstract…
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Ten Mechanics to Make Candyland Bearable or Even Awesome
Chutes and Ladders Actions and Consequences My young kids hate Chutes and Ladders. They hate the complete randomness of spinning that stupid wheel. They hate the complete lack of player agency as there are zero choices to be made. In fact, the game has its origins in teaching children about karma and accepting one’s fate.…
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The Illuminating and Enigmatic Daisyworld Thought Experiment
Daisyworld Simulation I’ve previously written about James Lovelock’s Daisyworld, a thought-experiment meant to support the Gaia Hypothesis. This is the idea that complex ecosystems create a self-regulating environment conducive to perpetuating life. Examples of this include increased plant growth reducing CO2 in the atmosphere or bacteria drawing salt out of the oceans stabilizing salinity levels.…
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Lessons Building a Magic Square Tic-Tac-Toe AI
Magic Square Tic Tac Toe Introduction Adding to my expanding collection of Explorable Explanations (EEs), I’ve been interested in isomorphs of various board games. For example, the game Snakes and Ladders / Chutes and Ladders (a game with zero player agency originally intended to teach Hindu children the concepts of karma and destiny), can be…
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Makers: A Creative Commons Licensed Sitcom About a Nerdy Family
In 2016, I was notified by a friend of a new partnership between Google and The Black List to give grants to screenplays promoting diversity and challenging nerd stereotypes in film. There were articles about it referencing the Computer Science Education in Media program run by Julie Ann Crommett at Google. So I spent a…
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Future Forgers: A Creative Commons LARP for Kids and Parents
CC-Licensed Artwork by Posthuman Studios: “Neo-Porpoise Morph” by Jessada Sutthi “Salamander Morph” by Silver Saaramael “Infomorph Mercurial Investigator” by Daniel Clarke “Flying Squid” by Joe Wilson “Basic Pod” by James Mosingo “Crasher Morph” by Jose Cabrera “Menton Morph Brinker Genehacker” by Daniel Clarke At this moment 7.5 billion human neocortexes are experiencing a world filled…
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The Long Con: Board Games for Young Children
Tower of Board Games An online friend started a board gaming club at his elementary school. Occassionally, he posts pictures of the free games companies send him. Other times he posts photos of his students engaged in play. I asked him about the games and what it was like teaching children so young board games.…
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Celebrating 50 Years of Humanism in Star Trek
The following is the full-length version of a shorter commentary I wrote for The Humanist in 2016. The version at the link has the benefit of editorial oversight and fact-checking. This version is the messier director’s cut: Optimism for the Future It feels like we live in a culture where movie and television studios are…
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Take our Daughters and Sons to Work Day 2016 – 3D Modeling with OpenJSCad
What follows here is an outline of activities we did for TODS Day 2016. Hello World! OpenJSCad 3D Modeling Open JS Cad is a programming environment that allows you to build 3D models that you can print. Controls: Rotate XZ: Left Mouse Pan: Middle Mouse or SHIFT + Left Mouse Rotate XY: Right Mouse or…
