Life is Strange is my favorite game of all time, a true next gen title. What I mean by that is while games like Witcher 3, Arkham Knight and the rest top AAA titles are focused on graphics and violence, this one is showing us that new games should be a nice combination of story, characters, gameplay and music that result in an experience that can’t be matched by a book or movie. Whether you like the graphics in Life is Strange or not is a matter of taste, personally I LOVE THEM! But this might just be my opinion and I don’t feel like discussing it any further.
Point is I’m in love with this game, too much actually, to the point where the latest episode left me scarred. This is the first time since I played the episode that I’ve been able to draw. I’m used to being depressed from time to time, I can handle that, but what I felt was more like a deep sadness. Don’t let my experience discourage you from trying the game, just wait until July if you are the type that get immersed in characters, that way episode 4 wouldn’t be that far off as it is now.
I do not get immersed but this game, through its settings, music and main character (who happens to be a lot like I was) achieved just that. I got pulled in so much that I got affected in an unexpected way.
Descartes derives his directional locatives from considerations of human anatomy, as does most of Western culture. The descriptive terms generally used for orientation purposes include left/right;up/down; and forward/backward.[1] The first two sets have been extended also to refer to the cardinal directions, North/South and East/West.
To the degree that they conform to Cartesian coordinates, mandalic coordinates adhere to this schema as well. However, mandalic geometry and the Taoist I Ching upon which it is largely based constitute a system of combinatorial relationships that is rooted mainly in radial symmetry rather than bilateral symmetry. For mandalic coordinates, the principal directional locatives can be characterized as divergentandconvergent, and the principal movements or changes in position, as centrifugalandcentripetal.[2]
One of the important consequences of this alternative geometric perspective is that the frame of reference as well as the complex pattern produced are more integrative than in the method of Descartes. Looked at another way, Descartes is most enamored by specification of location of individual points whereas mandalic geometry is more concerned with relationships of parts - and the overall unification of the entire complex holistic system.[3]
From this one seemingly small difference an enormous disparity grows in a manner reminiscent of chaos theory.[4] Cartesian coordinates and mandalic coordinates can be made commensurate, but remain after all two exclusive systems of spatial awareness, leading to very disparate results arising out of what seem small initial differences.[5]
Image (bottom): Animation of a double compound pendulum showing chaotic behaviour. By Catslash (Own work). [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.[6]
Notes
[1] Such terminology is of little use, despite its biological origins, to an amoeba or octopus, not to mention those extraterrestrials who have been blessed with a second set of eyes at the back of their heads. (We wuz cheated.)
[2] To be more correct, the radial symmetry involved is of a special type. It is not simple planar radial symmetry, nor even the three-dimensional symmetry of a cube and its circumscribed and inscribed spheres. It is all of those but also the symmetry involved in all the different faces of a six-dimensional hypercube and the many relationships among them.
[3] To be fair, Descartes eventually gets around to relating his points in a systematic whole we now know as analytic geometry (1,2). But as great an achievement though it might be, Cartesian geometry lacks the overarching cosmographical implications which characterize mandalic geometry and the I Ching. Descartes’ system is purposed differently, arising as it does out of a very different world view. To paraphrase George Orwell,
“All geometries are sacred, but some geometries are more sacred than others.”
“When the present determines the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future.”
[5] An example of one unique result of mandalic coordination of space is the generation of a geometric/logical probability wave of all combinatorial elements that occur in the 6D/3D hybrid composite dimension specification of the system. I envision this as offering a possible model at least, if not an actual explanation, of the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics. Extrapolating this thought to its uttermost conclusion, it is not entirely inconceivable, to my mind at least, that probability itself might be the result of composite dimensioning. (And for such a brash remark I would almost surely be excommunicated from the fold were I but a member.)
[6] Starting the pendulum from a slightly different initial condition would result in a completely different trajectory. The double rod pendulum is one of the simplest dynamical systems that has chaotic solutions. [Wikipedia]
Please note: The content and/or format of this post may not be in finalized form. Reblog as a TEXT post will contain this caveat alerting readers to refer to the current version in the source blog. A LINK post will itself do the same. :)
Scroll to bottom for links to Previous / Next pages (if existent). This blog builds on what came before so the best way to follow it is chronologically. Tumblr doesn’t make that easy to do. Since the most recent page is reckoned as Page 1 the number of the actual Page 1 continually changes as new posts are added. To determine the number currently needed to locate Page 1 go to the most recent post which is here. The current total number of pages in the blog will be found at the bottom. The true Page 1 can be reached by changing the web address mandalicgeometry.tumblr.com to mandalicgeometry.tumblr.com/page/x, exchanging my current page number for x and entering. To find a different true page(p) subtract p from x+1 to get the number(n) to use. Place n in the URL instead of x (mandalicgeometry.tumblr.com/page/n) where n = x + 1 - p. :)
It’s time for another installment of Ask Iggy , the show where I answer your pressing science and medical questions! Unless it’s about the dead guy. Let’s just…not talk about the dead guy…
