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Purpose behind the online environs
About Truespace Archives
These pages are a copy of the official truespace forums prior to their removal somewhere around 2011.
They are retained here for archive purposes only.
Purpose behind the online environs // Roundtable
Post by Leif // Jun 1, 2008, 6:47pm
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Leif
Total Posts: 276
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What is the purpose and drive behind the online environments.
After all, it is just a computer screen and some other input/output devices connected to a computer.
What spurs the enormous drive behind the computer driven virtual reality technologies.
Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary of American English's definition of the word "virtual" is truly curious.
> |
Post by splinters // Jun 1, 2008, 7:02pm
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splinters
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What is the purpose of posting on a forum? After all it is just a computer screen with faceless people typing into their computers, nothing like real life....
What is the purpose of life? Is there a god? How long is a piece of string?
Only you can answer these questions...:rolleyes: |
Post by jamesmc // Jun 1, 2008, 8:52pm
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jamesmc
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>
What is the purpose and drive behind the online environments.
After all, it is just a computer screen and some other input/output devices connected to a computer.
What spurs the enormous drive behind the computer driven virtual reality technologies.
Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary of American English's definition of the word "virtual" is truly curious.
>
Hmmm, a philosophical question?
Imagination drives or at least stimulates a lot of inventions. Curiousity is mixed in there as well.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Then one asks themselves, why is it necessary?
A scientist needs help in furthering his biological project along. It involves microscopic structure that is described, but the concept of how this structure integrates with function is baffling.
This scientist has found that these micro-cellular structures dictate what function in producing inter and intra-cellular interaction that fight muscular distrophy.
Last year, this scientist met another scientist and the biggest problem they were having was communication.
One of the scientist was a trueSpace user and aware of real time environments. They solved their communication problems by joining together online in constructing a micro-cellular structure to look for a solution.
Short on funds, they contact some philanthropists to view their work. Since it was online, everyone could literally do a virtual walk through of what the scientists were trying to do.
Convinced by the presentations, funds were presented and the study went to chemo-pharmoceutical discovery in the real world. The scientists furthered their status by introducing the real world solution to their cyber solution.
Two scientists, great distances apart found a method that works and a solution to a crippling disease.
Now that it was standard, medical universities tied into the online structure created by the scientists and were able to learn online in a real time environment. Future scientists thought of other ways of treating diseases and the application went further into the function of the brain, learning and how we know things.
The Future:
A one-to-one real time robot miner searching for a mysterious component in the earth projects itself into the real time environment. It can be viewed and controled through the environment in which no human can survive.
Engineers from Russia look at damage from a Typhoon 5000 kilometers from their location. Since the damage has been mapped in real time, the engineers help the small country re-build and re-structure the country without having to travel to the country, saving time and expense.
At least that's my take on it... |
Post by W!ZARD // Jun 2, 2008, 12:18am
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W!ZARD
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That's an interesting question on many levels - particularly, as James has noted, on a philosophical level.
There are surface purposes and uses for the online environment as James has illustrated and as I found out at the last Animators meeting where I was able to partake in a fascination demonstration of realtime animated textures courtesy of SteveBe.
On another level altogether the question "What is the purpose and drive behind the online environments" leads to a further question, namely, "Why does there have to be a purpose and a drive behind the online environments?" Or, if you prefer, "is there any reason why there should be a purpose?".
A human action is generally motivated by what we percieve as a reason or drive - so it is arguably natural for us to think in terms of reason and drive or motive for actions that are not actually human at all.
We live in an entropic universe where energy always seeks the path of least resistance in the same way water always flows downhill. For energy to flow there must be a high energy state, a low energy state and a medium of transfer.
In this case the energy involved is information and it always flows from a high information state to a low information state. Information and the transmission of information is subject to the same Darwinian laws of selection and survival of the fittest as every other complex system known to man. Infomation technology started with cave paintings, jungle drums and smoke signals, evolved into heliographs and the Pony Express until the more efficient telegraph system occupied the information ecology. Telegraphs did not survive the fitness test when faced with telephones and radio. - the Fax machine is not winning the survival of the fittest in the competition with email and electronic web based information transmission.
Already, the internet as we know it is dying from over population and under resources - the telephone based technology that comprises much of our current internet cannot cope with the amounts of information todays video rich internet traffic generates. Already a fibre optic grid capable of data transmission speeds thousands of times faster than todays internet is being built around the world - todays internet is as doomed as the dinosaurs to be replaced by something better able to transmit the information.
The laws of entropy and thermodynamics mean this is inevitable - but there is no evidence of a purpose behind this growth in complexity and content.
Coming back on topic there is no need for a purpose behind the advent of shared spaces than there is of a need for a purpose behind, say an Aardvark!
As information seeks the path of least resistance, like water flowing downhill, it will scour out a path to the lowest level - some of that information will inevitably flow through shared spaces and virtual technology because it can - just as water flows through a canyon because it can - without any human purpose or drive, just a natural and mindless response to the presence of pressure differentials and a transmission medium.
A picture is worth a thousand words, it can carry far more information far more efficiently than words - a moving picture is worth 1000x1000 words - the added dimension of time carries far more info than a static 2d image - the next dimensional leap is 3d, worth 1000x1000x1000 words. Dynamic, interactive 3d virtual spaces can carry vastly greater amounts of information than any other media - in the same way that the telegraph was more efficient than the Pony Express, 3d immersive environments are orders of magnitude more efficient than the nearest rival - the 2d internet.
Thus a 3d internet has no purpose behind it - it is simply a logical and inevitable growth in the evolution of data transmission - and because it is so much better at transmitting information it will easily win the survival of the fittest. The 2d web is as dead as the Dodo - it just doesn't realise it yet!
The future is 3 dimensional |
Post by TomG // Jun 2, 2008, 4:09am
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TomG
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Words change their meaning over time to be sure, and there are probably many words where an 1828 definition doesn't apply today (that said, no idea what the definition is, you didn't say).
EDIT - ah here it is from an online source "Being in essence or effect, not in fact; as the virtual presence of a man in his agent or substitute" - so it DOES apply :) The 3D worlds are indeed about capturing the essence of meeting together without the actual fact of meeting together. And there, the meeting is indeed of the agents / substitutes for the "real us". So seems to fit very well with what follows about why virtual worlds exist and have so much time and effort spent on developing them, as sometimes the essence or effect is useful, when there is no way we could manage the "in fact" meetings. END EDIT
The drive is that people are visual. We work best in contexts that make sense to us, and that really is not 2D words on a page (or screen). That's an artificial context, adopted because it was the best way we could find to capture "experience" based on technological limitations.
However, "experience" is about seeing, moving around, touching, lifting, throwing, interacting. Words in 2D try to capture this and awake that "experience" in our mind's eye.
But how much better to get closer to that experience! Why not skip the translation from symbols on paper into something visual in the mind's eye alone, and actually make it visual in the first place. Best yet, make it like the real world, where we can walk through it, and interact with it.
This makes it easier to digest, easier to understand, easier to work with - it also makes it more engaging, people are more caught up in it since it is more like the experiences their bodies are designed for. We are constructed to experience things a certain way, so why not enable our communications and interactions across distances to more closely resemble what our bodies are designed for?
That makes things more instinctive, more fun, more engrossing.
As for why communicate in virtual spaces, well sometimes it is just not practical to communicate physically. So why limit yourself to the phone, or the letter, or the email, or the pre-rendered animation - why not get together in a space that "makes sense" to the human mind to do your communication over distance?
The scientist's working together on a project is a prime example. Too often work has to be done in isolation because one person is in one city, one state, one country, one continent, and other people are in others. People do collaborate over such distances, but it is slow and tricky - why not make it faster, and easier?
People used to get together and play text based games, those still exist but are almost gone now, as folks are drawn instead to multiplayer graphical games. Mostly 3D. I mention this just because it bears out the fact that the 3D shared environments are indeed more "instinctive" for people. More people can "just get it" than when it comes to bringing things to life in the written word alone, or still images alone.
And this is what drives people to create those worlds, because they are simply better at allowing people to get together and communicate.
And why all this online collaboration and communication?
People don't want to just communicate with who they live next door to, or who they work with. They want to meet and communicate with people who are linked by interest, by personality, rather than just linked by geography. It used to be that you could only get to know people who you were placed next to, all a matter of chance. Now that boundary is being eroded, and you can meet like minded people from any country, and have friends, work mates, colleagues, researchers, etc, from the world over.
The push for virtual realities is to make that experience ever more like actually meeting that person, to remove as many of the disadvantages that come with never being able to meet that person face to face, or as least remove as many as can be removed.
Makes sense to me :) I am a long way from my birthplace now, but I can keep in touch with my family and friends much more easily than ever. I work from home, so have a much smaller circle of physical acquaintances than those who work in an office, but that matters less now that my acquaintances can be "met" online. I have met, and am friends with, lots of people now that I would never ever have even heard of prior to the days of online communication.
So I think it is a great and wonderful thing :)
HTH!
Tom |
Post by Norm // Jun 2, 2008, 6:51am
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Norm
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Our arms, legs, hands, feet, fingers and senses are just input/output devices as well :)
... After all, it is just a computer screen and some other input/output devices connected to a computer. |
Post by Leif // Jun 2, 2008, 3:03pm
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Leif
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just a computer screen and some other input/output devices connected to a computer.
>
I was about to write 'or is it ?' at the end there.
This topic is huge.
Edit: Interesting replies! |
Post by Leif // Jun 13, 2008, 10:56pm
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Leif
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What about this:
Trapped in a virtually reality world with no one but Mancuso in sight, every man and woman that enters the Day of Wonders is tempted by Mancuso and his temporary gifts into recieving the mark of the beast on their right hand. (from http://www.amazon.ca/Apocalypse-Revelation-Andre-Van-Heerden/dp/8901732173
This film deals with the issues of who will own you soul. It is more of a thoughtful movie with good suspense. I especially enjoyed the "virtual reality" aspects. If you are into computers or enjoy computer games, this part of the story will intrigue you. (from http://www.amazon.com/Apocalypse-Revelation-Andre-Van-Heerden/dp/8901732173 |
Post by transient // Jun 14, 2008, 12:13am
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I had the mark of the beast on my hand, but the last time I went through the self-service scanners at Big W they charged me 666 dollars for a Mars bar.
I've since had it removed. |
Post by Dragneye // Jun 14, 2008, 7:10pm
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Dragneye
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Leif wrote: - What is the purpose and drive behind the online environments...
..What spurs the enormous drive behind the computer driven virtual reality technologies?
Two reasons for starters: we are social creatures by nature, and, can now entertain and be entertained, by an audience that is thousands of miles away; individuals, and customers, that we would never have access to. It's a logical outgrowth of our breeding.
But...
Though I love philosophical conversation, I'll keep it simple. I just read some very nice, even poetic answers, so, I'll try a more direct, deeper dissection, a cleaner purer view. Ultimately, the 'enormous drive' and main 'purpose' is due to... Attention; plain and simple. "Oh please look at me, oh please talk to me, oh please... buy from me". Who has time to chat in the chatrooms for example, if they have well honed social skills, and enough friends to boot. They may use the net to send a quick email/note, but others use the net as a life, where they can be more than themselves with hardly any effort, and worse, where they can hide. Now being shy or ugly is not an impediment, and being rude is fine, cuz you're a thousand miles away.
A generalization yes, but a succint, and pure answer.
Some (winks @ W!Z for example; with your latest lil dilemma), keep their composure and manners intact, just like in real life, regardless of distance; others... (see above paragraph).
So in closing... yeah, it's about attention. It's now easier, and safer, to get it (or give it). |
Post by Leif // Jun 19, 2008, 8:36am
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Leif
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We live in an entropic universe where energy always seeks the path of least resistance in the same way water always flows downhill.
Even when browsing CGchannel this (http://media01.cgchannel.com/header/03_devil.jpg) banner sometimes appear on top. It seems dragons, monsters and demon shapes are attractive to many CG artists. I just can't help thinking like this.
There seems to be energies (drives) that seeks minds and means to express themselves. The spiritual is indeed interwoven in the virtual.
Which indeed is described in Websters:
Virtual: 1. Potential; having the power of acting or of invisible efficacy without the material or sensible part. |
Post by 3dfrog // Jun 19, 2008, 11:07am
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I recently made an animation of a demon, but i am no satanist by any means. I also made an animation of a frog skipping around a flower :) I think people like to express all sides of reality and fantasy and spirituality. I think there is spirituality in the virtual world because it exists in the real world and virtual world is a reflection of ourselves. I think virtual world is what you make it, I just go to the online meetings in truespace and hang out in kaneva very rarely. I don't see any implications of the virtual world swinging one way or the other, because I just use it for learning and entertainment. I am not seeking deep meaning it. But I think for some people maybe they do. Maybe you should write a book about it. It's kind of interesting. |
Post by W!ZARD // Jun 20, 2008, 12:44am
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W!ZARD
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Even when browsing CGchannel this (http://media01.cgchannel.com/header/03_devil.jpg) banner sometimes appear on top. It seems dragons, monsters and demon shapes are attractive to many CG artists. I just can't help thinking like this.
There seems to be energies (drives) that seeks minds and means to express themselves. The spiritual is indeed interwoven in the virtual.
Which indeed is described in Websters:
With all due respect to Lief I believe it is making an arbitrary and unnecessary distinction to say "It seems dragons, monsters and demon shapes are attractive to many CG artists".
Dragons, monsters and demon shapes may well be attractive to CG artists but this remark understates the case in my opinion. It's my experience that Dragons, monsters and demons are an integral part of human consciousness and so they feature in the works of artists and visionaries of all sorts.
I've seen these themes in all sorts of art. The Tiger Balm Gardens of Singapore and Hong Kong, the carvings on Katmandu's ancient temples (designed ostensibly to frighten away the Lightning) and the ancient animal headed deities of Egypt and Ancient Babylonia all exhibit images of monstrous beings.
Whilst a Spiritual explanation holds a certain degree of appeal I can think of a far more reasonable and sophisticated explanation. Studies have shown that humans are basically born with the ability to recognise human faces. A mother is far more likely to respond to a child who recognises her. A child capable of recognising human faces is more likely to be raised to breeding age than one who does not recognise faces. Thus facial recognition has a very real survival value - Darwinian selection does the rest.
The ability to recognise faces is hard-wired into our nature. This pattern recognition capability is the key to human memory and language as well but I'm desperately trying to keep this short!!:D
We have all seen faces at the window that are created by totally random patterns of light and shadow accidentally tripping this facial pattern recognition ability. We have probably all experienced seeing a friends familiar face in a crowd only to discover we are mistakenly looking at a total stranger.
It is this pattern recognition capability that actually makes art possible.
A dog looking at the Mona Lisa just sees random splodges in a frame (even though dogs can usually recognise their masters easily enough). Studies have shown that along with facial pattern recognition humans are predisposed to be attracted toward symmetry, proportions corresponding to the Golden Mean of 1 to 1.6 and also to structures adhering to the Fibonacci ratio.
These are the mathematical laws underlying life on Earth - being able to recognise the difference between a friend and an enemy or dangerous predatory animal through the recognition of these patterns is vital - those that don't recognise these mathematical shapes get removed from the gene pool fairly quickly!
The artist seeks to create a representation of what s/he sees. The artist is also often striving to leave a memorable impression on the audience. They will automatically be drawn to those proportions that the human eye readily identifies or in the case of abstract art will deliberately avoid or distort those proportions. Most art falls somewhere between those two extremes - the representational and the abstract - and therefore often combines recognisable elements from disparate sources in combination.
Centaurs, Minotaurs, Gryphons Dragons, Humans with animal tails or birds wings or elephants heads etcetera - all these are classic devices from both mundane and religious art from throughout recorded human history. The combination of recognisable, familiar human proportions with unusual distortions or animalistic proportions causes an unconscious response in people. The usual in combination with the unusual is a powerful way to attract human attention - we think "is this dangerous or not?" and are compelled to look closer. (Think about this next time you find yourself watching an ad break on the TV).
Darwinian Selection means it is inevitable that these recognisable yet unreal patterns are universally powerful. Which artist will have more success? The artist who paints the ordinary in ordinary ways or the artist who paints the ordinary in extraordinary ways? Which missionary priest has the most impact on the ignorant villagers? The priest who tells a good story or the priest who tells a good story and shows an uplifting picture of a man with eagles wings (an Angel) or a scary picture of a distorted human shape with a pointy tail and angry red skin (a devil)?
This is why religions are universal among cultures with little scientific understanding. This is why more blockbuster movies are about superheroes and super villains than they are about totally ordinary guys doing totally ordinary things.
A spiritual explanation is surplus to requirements. For a person with an effective understanding of Darwinian Selection, the laws of thermodynamics and the ways that order arises from chaos spiritual theories lack substance. We are all attracted to the combination of the usual with the unusual because it has direct survival value - people who are not attracted to this are more likely to die young and so delete their genes from the gene pool. A simple and elegant explanation that does not require gods, ghosts or imaginary friends - even though these types of explanations hold exactly the same fascinating appeal as Winged Men and Demons.
Just because we can see shapes in the clouds that look like something else doesn't there is some else other than a perceived shape in the clouds.
At least, that's how it looks to me...... |
Post by Steinie // Jun 20, 2008, 12:59am
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Questions that need no answer:
Is it bad taste to eat a Mars bar in Church?
Why didn't MY kids recognize me when they were born?
To show light you need dark, no big guy upstairs without the bad guy downstairs. Is that why we use the word RATskeller for a bar downstairs?
Leif, do you ever talk about cooking, cars, zoo animals or even hmmmm trueSpace? |
Post by Leif // Jun 20, 2008, 3:59am
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This is indeed interesting! What got my attention early on was the extremely violent 3d computer games like doom and quake, the 3d card names like voodoo, etc etc etc. Even the last GFX card I bought, to fully use dx9 shaders, has a dark warrior on the top of the box. So, to me, there's no doubt that the bias of the commercial drive behind gaming and hardware is toward the dark.
Edit:
Summer Picnic Contest - WINNER! (http://www.caligari.com/products/truespace/ts3/resources/winner20030603.html) <-- This is my favorite trueSpace image. I just like it. It is a winner, I don't care what anyone else says about the matter :) I just had to edit this in, as I am fully aware that there are many lights, be it virtual or real! |
Post by TomG // Jun 20, 2008, 5:06am
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TomG
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This falls into the games (or 3D in general even) as art category. I could go on for a while on this, and maybe I will in my blog as it happens :) However the theory is this.
One of the easiest emotional responses to invoke is fear. It is quite hard in the context of a game to generate emotions like happiness, sorrow, and other more subtle emotions that movies and books have had decades or centuries to perfect. In games, seems we are still stuck (for the most part) at the sledgehammer emotions of shock, fear and suspense.
They are easier I think because they are physically based. We have to fear the tiger in the jungle or the snake in the grass. Triggering the adrenaline response remains one of the most basic responses to bring about in a viewer. Things like happiness, love, compassion, etc, are not quite so based in simple physical reality, and so I think are harder to elicit in games. And of course people tend to walk the easy path.
Of course there is more to it than that, and in the end I have no objection to blowing away some minions of evil in a game, but I do look forward to games finding their feet and becoming better at expressing emotions.
Oh and I think the same is true in 3D art in general (or perhaps for all art in general still ;) ). Animations are more open since they can tell a story, but static 3D art often tends toward the horror, or the scantily clad female, again going for simpler emotional responses. It can be harder to explore other emotions. The Rendering Emotions course was interesting on that, seeing how the elements were chosen in the picture to convey and express a particular message.
Maybe one of our Monthly Modeling Challenges can go for an emotion as their topic, that could be fun :)
Tom |
Post by TheWickedWitchOfTheWeb // Jun 20, 2008, 7:25am
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TheWickedWitchOfTheWeb
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I think a major factor side by side with Tom's reasons is that the 'darker' people, creatures, whatever quite simply look more interesting and exciting. The imagery is more appealing to the eye in general.
A classic example, take Star Wars. Who's the more visually fascinating of the two sides - Luke, who's just a bloke in a robe, or Darth Vader, who is visually compelling? I think the answer is obvious, and the merchandise shows it! |
Post by jamesmc // Jun 20, 2008, 11:02am
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The reason that there are so many monsters, demons and etc by CG artists is that it's easier to create a monster than a human.
At least that's what I tell myself in Zbrush when I add some unnecessary geometry on a human and suddenly the project pivots and becomes a 'horned demon' with scaled skin and claws.
Yeah, I'm willing to admit it, others just aren't. If I screw up, I make it something else, much easier to call it an alternative form of art, than a screw up. :cool: |
Post by Jeff99 // Jun 20, 2008, 3:37pm
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the carvings on Katmandu's ancient temples (designed ostensibly to frighten away the Lightning)
This may have more significance to the above topic than most would imagine. There is an entire cosmology that is very scientifically well researched and supported that can offer a completely new and unexpected explanation for the deep seated fears that reside in "man's" psyche.
This is known as the Electric Universe theory (EU), or Plasma Cosmology. And the marriage of EU theory and Mythology (that is again very well researched and supported by objective data), offers very exciting new insights into these matters.
I won’t say more now, but I invite the inquisitive to following these links and explore this for yourself.
Lightning-Scarred Gods and Monsters
http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2005/arch05/050412scarface.htm
Plasma Cosmology
http://www.plasmacosmology.net/index.html
Mystery of the Cosmic Thunderbolt
http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2004/arch/040928cosmic-thunderbolt-1.htm
The Origins of Doomsday Anxiety
http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2005/arch05/050914doomsday.htm
Have fun! -Jeff |
Post by Jeff99 // Jun 20, 2008, 4:30pm
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Jeff99
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And here's more links to study the possible origin of dragons and fear and even religon.
Plasma and World Mythology
http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2005/arch05/050509plasma-mythology.htm
Mystery of the Cosmic Dragon
http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2004/arch/040810mystery-cosmic-dragon.htm
Plasma in the Lab and in Rock Art
http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2005/arch05/050506plasma-rock-art.htm
Plasma Formations in the Ancient Sky
http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2004/arch/041231predictions-rock-art.htm |
Post by Leif // Jun 20, 2008, 5:03pm
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Leif
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fears
Let me quote a widely known and very well written letter:
"There is no fear in love; but perfect [matured] love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."
It is far more challenging to create art that conveys true Love than it is to create art that conveys fear and hate, just as it is far more challenging to construct and make than it is to tear down and destroy.
Love is why I favor the referred winner image. Love what I look for.
It is wonderful to be fear free :) |
Post by W!ZARD // Jun 20, 2008, 10:40pm
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W!ZARD
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Toms post here has got me thinking and I've been mulling it over all day.
Kate and James posts echo my own thinking but again I'd like to suggest we are not really looking at the bigger picture (so to speak:D).
Where else is is the combination of the normal with the abnormal, the logical with the illogical, reflected in Humanity in a context that isn't "dark"? How about the Cartoon Channel? Cartoons present a very distorted view of our world and a great deal of them are directed toward humour. In fact, humour only works when something familiar and well known gets suddenly twisted into a new and unexpected direction at the punchline. Looked at this way then we can see that distortion of normal human perception can be used for both the light and the dark side (I starting to sound like Yoda! - Another distorted humanoid).
Science Fiction is another area where distorted versions of people (or exaggerated aspects of human nature) can be looked at and learned from.
*******************************
The rest of this post is somewhat OT but seeing as Lief started this thread I felt it warranted my opinion.
@Lief - "It is wonderful to be fear free " - Dude, that is seriously scary! Someone who is fearless does not know when to stop doing dangerous things! I'm glad you are not driving a car around my neighborhood! A person who feels the fear and does it anyway will do it more safely and with more regard for his fellow man - people with no fear care about no-one but themselves.
Fear is a necessary part of being human - a person with no fear has no respect for other people or for their own safety - as the saying goes, "Fools rush in where angels fear to tred" so even Angels experience fear.
People experience both fear and love - if you want to portray them as opposites then the point of balance must be half way between them (The Buddhist Middle Way). Balance cannot be achieved at the extremes (which is why Christ is shown as suspended at the centre of the cross rather than hanging from the end of one arm!) a person who is free of fear is equally as unbalanced as a person who is free of love. |
Post by Leif // Jun 21, 2008, 4:45am
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As for wizard's nice reply, for further info on fear free living; see kcm resources and videos, linked to in my signature. One president said the only thing to fear is fear itself. Well don't fear fear either :cool: |
Post by W!ZARD // Jun 21, 2008, 11:37pm
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W!ZARD
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As for wizard's nice reply, for further info on fear free living; see kcm resources and videos, linked to in my signature. One president said the only thing to fear is fear itself. Well don't fear fear either :cool:
Sorry Lief - I won't be visiting those sites. There are perfectly good biological reasons why the fear response has survived Darwinian Selection - mainly that it is a useful survival attribute and a necessary part of being completely human. Advocating living without fear is as ludicrous to me as advocating living without love, or living without lungs for that matter. We experience fear because it's necessary for our survival in the real world - imaginary friends however are not.
This thread is called 'Purpose behind the online forums' - lets stick to that topic shall we? |
Post by Leif // Jun 22, 2008, 3:26am
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Wow :jumpy: |
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