When I was five, I watched as a Filipino man split his thumb in half lengthwise and move the tip back and fourth. This was my first experience with Magic. Later, I would repeat the trick with my index finger, except there would be gushing blood and the screams of children. As for the Filipino man, he didn't really cut his finger in half. Even at five years old I understood that there was some kind of trick at work here. He did it again, obviously pleased at himself for being able to so easily delight the kid he's babysitting. Do it again, I asked.
Again, he brought his two hands together, split his right thumb using his left index finger, and separated the two parts. He made his bisected thumb jiggle a little, clearly indicating that his finger still worked as it should, in spite of the obvious distance between the pieces. He brought his thumb back together and made it whole, then showed me another Magic trick. He correctly guessed, every time, which card I had drawn from a deck of playing cards, without him seeing which one I took. Again and again, he repeated the trick for me until I could take it no more and begged him to show me how it was done. And the thumb thing, I had to know how that worked.
Later that year, my father took me to a Magic Show. Oh boy, a REAL Magician! It was a grand affair - dressing up nicely, taking a drive into the city, buying the tickets and walking into the theatre - groups of children ran up and down the isles between the seats, echoing my own excitement. Except I didn't run around and squeal like children do at that age, it just wasn't proper. Pushing down the spring-loaded seat that snapped back up if left alone, I sat down and waited. My father sat next to me. I fidgeted with various thing...
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...erstood. The personal relationship between the words on a page and the person reading it, for example. The way you lose all sense of time when you're engrossed, really pulled in, to a game or comic book or movie. The word "qualia" is used to describe the "subjective quality" of conscious experience. The taste of your favorite food, the beauty in a pleasing arrangement of colours. What you find find in a video-game.
Daniel Dennett writes that qualia is "an unfamiliar term for something that could not be more familiar to each of us: the ways things seem to us."
With something as immediate and involving as a video game, the Magic is quite personal. And as unique as the person playing. Every time I see the scar on my left index finger, running from the tip of the finger, through my fingerprint, down to my palm, I wonder if I should have said no to that Filipino man.
in the end magic is magic, and one does not explain it so easily. That is why it is magic.”
As a child, I experienced a world of imagination where I was able to do anything I
Out of This World is an outstanding card effect that many magicians have improved upon and performed with their own unique twist, including me. Out of this world has been billed as “The Greatest Card Trick of The Last Century,” and also “The Trick That Fooled Winston Churchill.” According to Curry a magician by the name of Harry Green performed Out of This World for Churchill, the effect fooled Churchill so he demanded it be shown to him again. Harry Green did so, he performed it six more times for Churchill and left him completely baffled every time. The method is simple yet deceptive, and it is truly a classic of card magic. So now with much excitement, I present to you my re-telling of Paul Curry’s Out of This
Jackson’s Knowledge Argument, while relying on the validity of epiphenomenalism, manages to stand to arguments of physicalism. The ability of conceivable ‘zombies’ to register qualia without experiencing it responds to the claims of acquaintance arguments. Furthermore, beliefs that qualia would provoke physical changes and reactions are accompanied by flawed assertions of attempting to capture the nature of causation. Qualia and the necessity of non-physical knowledge to their existence provide valid arguments to upholding dualist beliefs.
Witchcraft is said to be the most widespread cultural phenomenon in existence today and throughout history. Even those who shun the ideas of witchcraft cannot discount the similarities in stories from all corners of the globe. Witchcraft and its ideas have spread across racial, religious, and language barriers from Asia to Africa to America. Primitive people from different areas in the world have shockingly similar accounts of witchcraft occurrences. In most cases the strange parallels cannot be explained and one is only left to assume that the tales hold some truth. Anthropologists say that many common elements about witchcraft are shared by different cultures in the world. Among these common elements are the physical characteristics and the activities of supposed witches. I will go on to highlight some of the witch characteristic parallels found in printed accounts from different parts of the world and their comparisons to some famous fairytales.
Access consciousness: Also called A- consciousness. A state is said to be A-conscious when its content is available to other parts of the brain to be used in reasoning. Unlike qualia, A- consciousness is something we can explain to our fellow human beings. For example- perception, sensation etc. as information that can be used in modifying behavior.
“Most reported effects of videogames – particularly in the popular press – appear to centre upon the alleged negative consequences… Research has consistently shown that playing computer games (irrespective of genre) produces reductions in reaction times, improved hand-eye co-ordination and raises players’ self-esteem,” (Griffiths p. 47), states Mark Griffiths in his article, “The educational benefits of videogames”. When people think of video games, they often tend to think about the negative side effects that video games can have on a person. Will Wright in his article, “Dream Machines” also defends video games by providing positive effects that video games have on those who play them. Wright presents
Not every video game causes post game aggression, but documented in his article, “Players who enacted in-game violence through a heroic character exhibited less postgame aggression than players who enacted comparable levels of in-game violence through an antiheroic character” (Sauer 205). As a graduate of Radboud University, Isabela Granic brings to light the reasons why the youth actually benefit from playing violent video games. For example, in her article, “The Benefits of Playing Video Games,” Granic illustrates the fact that children gain social skills, highly efficient motor skills, and the understanding of the human body as a whole. Noted by the author, “Whereas adolescents and adults often use self-disclosure and direct discussion with close friends to resolve emotional issues, children use play to work them out through pretend-based narratives enacted either alone or with others” (Granic 67).
Renner, T., Feldman, R., Majors, M., Morrissey, J., & Mae, L. (2011). States of Consciousness. Psychsmart (pp. 99-107). New York: McGraw-Hill.
There is much persistent debate throughout culture these days concerning video games. Common questions asked are things like ?Where should the lines be drawn in terms of content? and What audience, if any, is this appropriate for? As lawyers fight, bizarre crimes are blamed on video games, constant studies take place, and technology continues to evolve, the video game world continues to thrive and be extremely profitable. While there is near-constant focus on the supposed ?negatives? of games like simulated killing, drug use, or sex, most people, especially those completely outside of gaming circles, fail to acknowledge that gaming of any kind can possibly have positive effects on players. While increased hand-eye coordination is a common benefit attributed to gaming, one particular study conducted revealed a mixed bag of possibly positive and negative effects.
Well, let's take a look at the brain. From being in class, my awareness about what I'm doing, what I'm seeing, what I'm hearing, what I'm thinking has come to reflect upon not just what, but how is it all being done by my brain. This morning I woke up, my eyes opened, I looked out my window, I saw the sun rising, it was this beautifully deep yellow/orange color. I thought, "How beautiful" and I smiled with a sense and feeling of wonderment. It could be said that I experienced nothing out of the ordinary this morning. Yet, if I could narrate these few activities in terms of the networking of neurons resulting in my eyes opening, my sight of the sun, my ability to perceive its color, my inner acknowledgment of its beauty and the emotions that sight evoked in me, you would be reading for a very long time and what I did this morning would indeed present itself in quite an extraordinary light. It is in recognition of this, with respect to the brain's aptitudes, that Howard Hughes in his paper, "Seeing, Hearing and Smelling the World" quoted May Pines in expressing, "We can recognize a friend instantly-full face, in profile, or even by the back of his head. We can distinguish hundreds of colors and possibly as many as 10,000 smells. We can feel a feather as it brushes our skin, hear the faint rustle of a leaf. It all seems so effortless: we open our eyes or ears and let the world stream in. Yet anything we see, hear, feel, smell, or taste requires billions of nerve cells to flash urgent messages along linked pathways and feedback loops in our brains, performing intricate calculations that scientists have only begun to decipher"(1).
Impressions are given sensations that arise from "unknown causes". Remember that what we know are our impressions, according to this trend. Whether there is something that corresponds to these impressions is unknown, for we don't know real being, we know impressions (a la Descartes).
Jayson, Sharon. "Study the Player, Not the Video Game; Virtual Violence May Have More Effect on Certain Personalities." USA TODAY [Ohio, USA; Ontario, Canada] 15 Sept. 2011, Final ed.: 3D. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.
...know that excessive playing of video games can cause decreased social skills, deterioration in health and increased aggressive behavior. That doesn’t mean video games are bad that just means when we our self’s play video games or our children we should take the extra step in preventing these possible problems. Children and younger adults love playing video games for an extended period of time so maybe it would be better taking short breaks during a long session of game play to prevent hurting your eyes. Also chop you up some healthy snacks so if you get hungry while playing your game you have something healthy to eat instead of just junk food. Always remember when playing a violent video game to leave everything you see in the game. These just maybe a few things to remember when playing video games and to prevent future problems that playing video games can cause.
We have seen magic as a form of entertainment, from making someone disappear, to sawing a girl in half. But all great illusions have an explanation. “Magic, as we have seen, is about power- a seemingly magical power used and expressed by a skilled actor to create the illusion of miraculous happenings’. But the most mysterious part of magic is how these miraculous happenings are performed. The real power of magic lies within the native effects themselves (Blackstone, 117).