Designing for Truth in Counterfactual Games

This paper brings together two distinct and seemingly irreconcilable threads: first, the place of interactive narratives and games within the broader context of documentary media; and second, the value of counterfactual narrative as a documentary form. I will weave these two threads using my own counterfactual documentary game as the guide. Currently under development in Twine, the game is rooted in archival research about the past yet is about a version of the past that didn’t happen. The game asks the following counterfactual question: what if gene editing technology like CRISPR had been invented in the 1920s and 1930s, the height of the eugenics movement in the United States? The paper begins with a brief discussion of documentary media and documentary interactive fiction. It then offers an overview of eugenics discourse in the early 20th century, focusing on arguments for sterilization of the unfit. The paper next considers some principles of counterfactual game design. Finally the paper shows how the counterfactual game under development challenges the conventions of documentary media by operationalizing archival material, something interactive digital narratives are especially well-suited for

Exploring fishery history in game form: ‘Never again April 18!’

This article studies the ways in which Norwegian fishery history can be explored through games. Using the 1989 closure of the Norwegian coastal cod commons as a case study, issues related to historical thinking and game studies are discussed. The main focus is on understanding history through serious games, but theoretical considerations for presenting the case in any game format are discussed. The case involves a historical resource crisis, and the article traces how a serious game can frame counterfactual imagination for questioning the institutional politics of resource management as well as for producing historical empathy with stakeholders in resource crises

Determinism and inevitability

In Freedom Evolves, Dan Dennett embarks on his second book-length attempt to lay to rest the deep metaphysical concerns that many philosophers have expressed about the possibility of human freedom.One of his main objectives in the earlier chapters of the book is to make determinism appear less threatening to our prospects for free agency than it has sometimes seemed, by attempting to show that a deterministic universe would not necessarily be a universe of which it could truly be said that everything that occurs in it is inevitable. In this paper, I want to consider Dennett’s striking argument for this conclusion in some detail. I shall begin by suggesting that on its most natural interpretation, the argument is vulnerable to a serious objection. I shall then develop a second interpretation which is more promising than the first, but will argue that without placing more weight on etymological considerations than they can really bear, it can deliver, at best, only a significantly qualified version of the conclusion that Dennett is seeking. However, although I shall be arguing that his central argument fails, it is also part of the purpose of this paper to build on what I regard as some rather insightful and suggestive material which is developed by Dennett in the course of elaborating his views. His own development of these ideas is hampered, so I shall argue, by a framework for thinking about possibility that is too crude to accommodate the immense subtlety and complexity which is exhibited by the workings of the modal verb ‘can’ and its past tense form, ‘could’; and also, I believe, by the mistaken conviction, on Dennett’s part, that any naturalistically respectable solution to the problem of free will would have to be of a compatibilist stripe. I shall attempt, in the second half of the paper, to explain what seems to me to be wrong with the framework, and to make some points about the functioning of ‘can’ and ‘could’, which I believe any adequate replacement for Dennett’s framework must respect. Ironically, though, I shall argue that it is the rejection of Dennett’s own framework which holds the key to understanding how to defend the spirit (if not the letter) of his thoughts about the invulnerability of our ordinary modal thinking to alleged threats from determinism

Pitfalls of counterfactual thinking in medical practice: preventing errors by using more functional reference points

Background. Counterfactual thinking involves mentally simulating alternatives to reality. The current article reviews literature pertaining to the relevance counterfactual thinking has for the quality of medical decision making. Although earlier counterfactual thought research concluded that counterfactuals have important benefits for the individual, there are reasons to believe that counterfactual thinking is also associated with dysfunctional consequences. Of particular focus is whether or not medical experience, and its influence on counterfactual thinking, actually informs or improves medical practice. It is hypothesized that relatively more probable decision alternatives, followed by undesirable outcomes and counterfactual thought responses, can be abandoned for relatively less probable decision alternatives.Design and Methods. Building on earlier research demonstrating that counterfactual thinking can impede memory and learning in a decision paradigm with undergraduate students, the current study examines the extent to which earlier findings can be generalized to practicing physicians (N=10). Participants were asked to complete 60 trials of a computerized Monty Hall Problem simulation. Learning by experience was operationalized as the frequency of switch-decisions.Results. Although some learning was evidenced by a general increase in switch-decision frequency across block trials, the extent of learning demonstrated was not ideal, nor practical.Conclusions. A simple, multiple-trial, decision paradigm demonstrated that doctors fail to learn basic decision-outcome associations through experience. An agenda for future research, which tests the functionality of reference points (other than counterfactual alternatives) for the purposes of medical decision making, is proposed

Counterfactual Feedback and Tennis

Physical education teachers must consider the most effective way to deliver instruction and feedback for maximum student learning. Counterfactual feedback assists in engaging visual (internal) and auditory augmented feedback in order to create an optimal learning environment, which will produce the highest skill level in the shortest time possible (Sigrist, et al, 2011). Counterfactual feedback promotes critical thinking as it applies to the performance of a skill. Critical thinking is linked to better decision-making, reasoning, problem-solving, and reflective judgment in individuals (Lodewyck, 2009). Counterfactual feedback relies on the teacher asking a directed question as feedback after a skill performance or after a series of practice attempts. The question should engage the students critical thinking about the specifics of the skill. As the student considers the answer to the question, the feedback information gained from connecting the counterfactual feedback to the intended behavior will allow the student to manipulate or adjust the next performance (Epstude & Roese, 2010). The choice to alter and evaluate the subsequent performance gives the student more control and autonomy which will increase intrinsic motivation to continue the activity. The multiple case study methodology was used with beginning participants. Beginning tennis skills were taught to each of the participants in a one-on-one practice sessions, two times a week for eight weeks. Journal entries, in-depth interviews, researcher observations, and video recordings were used for primary data collection. Data was thoroughly analyzed by initially coding the within case studies, discovering the common themes permeating the responses by each participant. Secondly, commonalities were explored through cross-case analysis by comparing interview answers of the same questions posed to the participants. Results indicated increased self-efficacy, improved critical thinking, and enhanced participants\u27 perception of their ability in tennis. These findings demonstrated the use of counterfactual feedback as a way to increase self-efficacy, critical thinking, and personal perceptions for beginning tennis players. Outcomes from this study will assist physical educators and coaches in acquiring another option for feedback delivery when teaching beginning tennis players.\u2

Employing AI to Better Understand Our Morals

We present a summary of research that we have conducted employing AI to better understand human morality. This summary adumbrates theoretical fundamentals and considers how to regulate development of powerful new AI technologies. The latter research aim is benevolent AI, with fair distribution of benefits associated with the development of these and related technologies, avoiding disparities of power and wealth due to unregulated competition. Our approach avoids statistical models employed in other approaches to solve moral dilemmas, because these are “blind” to natural constraints on moral agents, and risk perpetuating mistakes. Instead, our approach employs, for instance, psychologically realistic counterfactual reasoning in group dynamics. The present paper reviews studies involving factors fundamental to human moral motivation, including egoism vs. altruism, commitment vs. defaulting, guilt vs. non-guilt, apology plus forgiveness, counterfactual collaboration, among other factors fundamental in the motivation of moral action. These being basic elements in most moral systems, our studies deliver generalizable conclusions that inform efforts to achieve greater sustainability and global benefit, regardless of cultural specificities in constituents

Counterfactual Histories and Speculative Immersion: Exploring the Capabilities of Unveiling Historical Wrongs and Institutional Discrimination

This document incorporates the description of the theoretical and practical foundations of my research and studio practice. I have conducted excavations and inquiries about the injustices that occurred in the lower mainland of British Columbia across the 20th-century related to colonialism, racism and gentrification. The historical events that have been studied are mainly regarding the forced removals of Japanese and African Canadians. The research is involved in applying the critical design methodology of Alternative Histories to support communities that have been historically underrepresented. Alternative Histories are a design methodology proposed by British designer James Auger which proposes that it is useful to re-imagine the past in order to re-engineer the present. Through writing Alternative Histories, constructing architectural models, and utilizing rendering and virtual reality technologies, the final thesis project aims to make audiences reconsider the past ideals and losses of Hogan's Alley, a historic Black community in Vancouver that has been erased due to the construction of Georgia Viaduct, a raised highway that connects East Vancouver with Downtown. This project, unexpectedly, contributes to the negotiation between Hogan's Alley Society and the local government on the removal of the Georgia Viaduct and community reconstruction. Ultimately, my research guides the audience to take a historical detour and brings to the surface the problems of colonialism, racism, and gentrification in Vancouver to attract social attention. Through the research, I aim to ask what the capabilities of Alternative Histories are as a position to unveil historical wrongs and institutional discrimination. In conclusion, the research finds that Auger’s alternative histories are actually useful in contemporary design projects

"Wow, I could've had a V8!": The role of regret in consumer choice

decision making;consumer behavior;regret theory