A few weeks ago I got done reading a book: The Future of the Mind by Michio Kaku. In it, the author tried to make sense of consciousness and in one bold chapter even went so far as to describe the possible consciousness of aliens. From outer space. Including reasons why none of them have (as far as I know) visited Earth. One tantalizing theory is that aliens, being thousands of years more advanced than us humans, are spending time on their home planet with their equally advanced virtual reality simulations. The idea being aliens with such a neat technology would want to use it rather than, say, explore the galaxy for other sentient beings.
Or, as I would say, the aliens would rather play videogames.
As a gamer, this makes perfect sense. Let's look at Star Trek, for instance, and their Holodeck. If people had access to a machine that can create any scenario they wanted and have it indistinguishable from real life, then why bother with real life? I'm surprised these people even bothered to go flying around in space at all. After all, there are dangers all around the universe. Just ask any old redshirt. It's much safer sticking with virtual reality.
Yet, in our day and age, real life still trumps all. Would I rather fly to Japan and see it for real? Or would I rather 'go' there with an Occulus Rift program (assuming one does exist)? Of course I would rather fly there. Sure, it's gonna be more expensive, but you get what you pay for. Seeing things with your own eyes, touching them with your own fingers and tasting the food with your own tongue trumps anything and everything VR could offer. At least, for now.
Already, there are glimpses of the future and I'm not talking about the Facebook acquisition of Occulus Rift. Although that does how how serious some people in the world are about virtual reality. I'm talking about games like the upcoming Akiba's Trip. It takes place in Tokyo in a place called Akihabara, a place I have seen with my own eyes. Yet, it offers players a chance to do the extraordinary: strip vampires (don't ask). That's something I can't do in the real thing.
There are other medium to show where VR might be headed. The novel 'Ready Player One', is one of the most exciting I've read despite sounding like a glorified fan fiction at times. The book gives one very plausible scenario of what a VR centric society might be like. It's not all roses and rainbows. Or, you can watch the movie 'Her', which my girlfriend and I did just recently. It's a great movie about a real man falling in love with a virtual artificial intelligence. No, it's not VR, but it does show how a flesh and blood person can form real attachments with a machine.
Bottom line is: if you think video games now are immersive (or addictive), oh boy, you ain't seen nothing yet.
Monday 16 June 2014
Monday 9 June 2014
Final Fantasy Freedom
No, it's not a newly announced title from Square Enix. Yes, it's about Final Fantasy 14. And yes, it is what you think it is, but I will write it out in a long drawn out fashion anyway.
As my long time readers must know, I've been... ahem.... addicted... to Final Fantasy 14 for the better part of a year now. It's a great game. A fantastic game. But, it came at a cost. Corpses of games are littered all over while I was enjoying FF14. To this day I have yet to even start Metal Gear Solid Ground Zeros or Dynasty Warriors 8 Extreme Legends. Of the games I did start, Conception II and the new Professor Layton still languish in limbo. It was a miracle I was able to beat Infamous Second Son.
As with all good things, the Fantasy foray came to an end. There wasn't much of a choice - two weeks in Tokyo means two weeks without FF14 it's as simple as that. In this sense, I was very lucky. The night my subscription ran out was the night before the flight. I was able to enjoy FF14 almost up to the minute when I can't any longer.
Fast forward a month and I'm back from the trip. But... still haven't logged back onto FF14.
And it's liberating.
Prior to the trip, the game had it's claws in me real bad. It's just the way it is. The game is designed to be played a bit each day. If you don't, you miss out on various bonuses and as hardcore as I was, missing out was not an option. Of course, there's also the matter of subscription. For about 15 bucks a month, can I afford to skip out on even a single day? The answer, until we had to fly to Japan, was no.
Yet, having gone cold turkey for two weeks straight, the spell has been broken. The urge is gone. I can go on with my life without Final Fantasy 14. I felt free. Games are opened to me again. Since I came back, I've dabbled in Child of Light. Now I'm sucked into Watch Dogs. Only difference is, Watch Dogs will eventually end. I'm looking forward to starting Murdered: Soul Suspect and Mind Zero when it does.
That's not all, I can blog again. You may have noticed my blogging frequency increasing. This Wednesday, I also promised my girlfriend I'll build models instead of playing games. I can do this because I'm free from Final Fantasy 14. Weekends, I feel more comfortable hanging with my friends or hanging outside the house with just my girlfriend and I. Watch Dogs can wait. It can't leave me behind.
Officially, I'm on 'break' from Final Fantasy 14. At least, that's what I've been telling everyone. But I think, effectively, it's over. Though I do not bar myself from returning - one day, I might want to go back, just to see - for now, it's so long... and thanks for all the pugils.
As my long time readers must know, I've been... ahem.... addicted... to Final Fantasy 14 for the better part of a year now. It's a great game. A fantastic game. But, it came at a cost. Corpses of games are littered all over while I was enjoying FF14. To this day I have yet to even start Metal Gear Solid Ground Zeros or Dynasty Warriors 8 Extreme Legends. Of the games I did start, Conception II and the new Professor Layton still languish in limbo. It was a miracle I was able to beat Infamous Second Son.
As with all good things, the Fantasy foray came to an end. There wasn't much of a choice - two weeks in Tokyo means two weeks without FF14 it's as simple as that. In this sense, I was very lucky. The night my subscription ran out was the night before the flight. I was able to enjoy FF14 almost up to the minute when I can't any longer.
Fast forward a month and I'm back from the trip. But... still haven't logged back onto FF14.
And it's liberating.
Prior to the trip, the game had it's claws in me real bad. It's just the way it is. The game is designed to be played a bit each day. If you don't, you miss out on various bonuses and as hardcore as I was, missing out was not an option. Of course, there's also the matter of subscription. For about 15 bucks a month, can I afford to skip out on even a single day? The answer, until we had to fly to Japan, was no.
Yet, having gone cold turkey for two weeks straight, the spell has been broken. The urge is gone. I can go on with my life without Final Fantasy 14. I felt free. Games are opened to me again. Since I came back, I've dabbled in Child of Light. Now I'm sucked into Watch Dogs. Only difference is, Watch Dogs will eventually end. I'm looking forward to starting Murdered: Soul Suspect and Mind Zero when it does.
That's not all, I can blog again. You may have noticed my blogging frequency increasing. This Wednesday, I also promised my girlfriend I'll build models instead of playing games. I can do this because I'm free from Final Fantasy 14. Weekends, I feel more comfortable hanging with my friends or hanging outside the house with just my girlfriend and I. Watch Dogs can wait. It can't leave me behind.
Officially, I'm on 'break' from Final Fantasy 14. At least, that's what I've been telling everyone. But I think, effectively, it's over. Though I do not bar myself from returning - one day, I might want to go back, just to see - for now, it's so long... and thanks for all the pugils.
Wednesday 4 June 2014
Another Reason Why the Japanese are so Thin: The Subways
Okay, I'll give away the punchline right here. The second reason why the people in Tokyo are so thin is because they walk alot. BUT, the subway has a lot to do with it. Here in Toronto, the Transit Commission has been taking a lot of flack for... well... sucking. It's not until I had a chance to see another city for myself, however, that the contrast sunk in. Compared to Tokyo, Toronto's transit system is like a child.
Here, the TTC has maybe four lines and I'm being generous. In Tokyo, there are over a dozen. We're not talking rinky dink affairs with five or six stops like our Sheppard or Scarborough line. We're talking routes that span halfway across the city or more. These lines also cris cross each other at regular intervals, so transfer between subway systems are incredibly easy. It also means there's alot of places in Tokyo you can reach just by riding the trains. Indeed, that's what we did. Everywhere we went was by train. We never had to take a bus or a street car or even a taxi.
But the thing is... what do we do once we reach our destination by train? Why, we walk! And that's the point of this blog. Tokyo's transit is so efficient and far reaching that owning a car is probably optional in the city. We see so many people taking transit that I'm convinced it's the default mode of fast transportation. So my guess is that the people of Tokyo do what we did. They walk to the subway, get where they are going, then walk the final steps to their destination. That's a lot of walking. For some places on our itinerary, we had to walk 15 to 20 minutes to get to. Most, however, are within 5 minutes. We got lucky with our hotel which has a two-line junction station less than a minutes walk apart!
But what if, you say, it's too far to walk? What if you live in the middle of nowhere but still must take the train? Well, there's the bus. But there's also something else.
Bikes! I think this is the second half of the equation. A lot of people walk in Tokyo, but a great many also bike. There are so many bikers that pedestrians are constantly threatened of being run over. In fact, it's nearly happened to us multiple times. Bike racks are also everywhere outside train stations and a lot of times are filled to capacity. You can see such example of bikes on the right side of this picture. People just leave them there and hit the train station. So even if you cannot walk to or from a station because it's too far, biking is always an option.
That's not all. The train system itself is ripe with opportunities to do a little walking exercise. Remember how I mentioned the multiple lines and how you can transfer between them at certain stops? Well, imagine if you have a stop that's a junction for two, three or even four different lines. The station itself would have to be huge, wouldn't it? And that's exactly what we saw. Alot of the bigger stations are comparable to the PATH we have in downtown Toronto. It's a maze of shops and hallways leading hither and yonder. And what does that mean for the citizens' health? It means a lot of walking. In some of these big stations, to transfer from one train to the next you often have to walk several hundred meters. This is true for subway entrances, too. We've seen signs for the subway in places where you still have to walk several hundred meters for the nearest train.
Tying neatly into my last blog, a lot of these stations are quite vertical with multiple floors. This means riders are also taking a lot of steps. Alot of stations even have stairs with no escalators. You walk up or you don't go up at all. These are rare, however, but be prepared to really have to travel even if you are within a subway station already.
And this concludes this blog. I've still go one more reason why the people of Tokyo are so fit, so stay tuned!
P.S. Below is something the TTC sorely needs. These platform gates open and close only when a train is on the other side. Rush hour in Japan can get packed, so my guess is they are there so people don't fall onto the tracks by accident.
Sunday 1 June 2014
I Miss Japan a Little Too much
Close friends of mine are probably pretty sick of hearing this, but I miss Japan. Alot. After spending a mere 10 nights at the place, I feel what most likely is homesickness since arriving back in Toronto. The weird thing is, I've never felt homesick in my life and have never missed any one geographic location before. After immigrating from Hong Kong back in the early eighties I haven't felt much for land of birth. After moving out from my old place in which I spent 20 years of my life I never got much urge to go back despite all my memories there. Japan is the first and only physical location I have ever gotten misty eye over.
That's not an exaggeration. I missed Tokyo so much I've shed tears over it. One day, last week, my girlfriend showed me the Dragon Quest Slime coin purse I got her in Akihabara and it was all I can manage to hold back tears. The tears came later on at work. This happened twice, actually. The second time was triggered by a Choro Q figure (basically a cute car, or in this case, a train) of the Narita Express - the train we took from the airport to Tokyo. I saw the toy in the morning and got teary over it after getting to work.
So yes, this is serious stuff. Because both instances happened at work it would seem that I don't actually miss Japan. Rather, I just miss NOT having to go to work. There is merit in the theory, but I think there's more. Giving it some thought, one conclusion stands out. If Tokyo were a person, the personification of the city would be of someone very much like myself. The city is civilized, clean and most importantly, quiet. Not a day goes by in Toronto without some jerk ride by in either a noisy motorbike/car or blasting bass from their car stereos. In Japan, nobody makes any unnecessary noise. The people riding subways are quiet as mice. Speaking of mice, even the cats we saw in the cat cafe neither meow or purr. And the city is steeped in geek culture. Yes, Toronto has it's expos and conventions but in Tokyo, geek districts are around 27/7. The people there aren't ashamed of it too. I've seen men in suits show up at places like Gundam Front.
Leaving Tokyo is like parting with myself. Like splitting apart. While on the jet plane back to Toronto, I'm convinced that a small part of my soul got left behind in room 621 of the Higashi Shinjuku Hotel. Every morning since then, this little spark would visit the places it knows so well. Maybe Yodabashi Camera in Akiba, or the 901 building in Shibuya, or J-World in Sunshine City. At night, it might go to Artnia, or visit the kitties in the cat cafe at Shinjuku. Then it would do that all over again the next day.
Eventually, this little spark would fade and disappear. Perhaps it would find it's way across the ocean where the big soul lives. But this too, would be a sad event because it would mean nothing remains of me in Tokyo and all that's left are fond memories.
P.S. When I first thought of writing this blog, the idea itself was enough to make me sad. Actually writing the blog, thankfully, didn't do much. I think... maybe... finally... I don't miss Japan so much anymore.
That's not an exaggeration. I missed Tokyo so much I've shed tears over it. One day, last week, my girlfriend showed me the Dragon Quest Slime coin purse I got her in Akihabara and it was all I can manage to hold back tears. The tears came later on at work. This happened twice, actually. The second time was triggered by a Choro Q figure (basically a cute car, or in this case, a train) of the Narita Express - the train we took from the airport to Tokyo. I saw the toy in the morning and got teary over it after getting to work.
So yes, this is serious stuff. Because both instances happened at work it would seem that I don't actually miss Japan. Rather, I just miss NOT having to go to work. There is merit in the theory, but I think there's more. Giving it some thought, one conclusion stands out. If Tokyo were a person, the personification of the city would be of someone very much like myself. The city is civilized, clean and most importantly, quiet. Not a day goes by in Toronto without some jerk ride by in either a noisy motorbike/car or blasting bass from their car stereos. In Japan, nobody makes any unnecessary noise. The people riding subways are quiet as mice. Speaking of mice, even the cats we saw in the cat cafe neither meow or purr. And the city is steeped in geek culture. Yes, Toronto has it's expos and conventions but in Tokyo, geek districts are around 27/7. The people there aren't ashamed of it too. I've seen men in suits show up at places like Gundam Front.
Leaving Tokyo is like parting with myself. Like splitting apart. While on the jet plane back to Toronto, I'm convinced that a small part of my soul got left behind in room 621 of the Higashi Shinjuku Hotel. Every morning since then, this little spark would visit the places it knows so well. Maybe Yodabashi Camera in Akiba, or the 901 building in Shibuya, or J-World in Sunshine City. At night, it might go to Artnia, or visit the kitties in the cat cafe at Shinjuku. Then it would do that all over again the next day.
Eventually, this little spark would fade and disappear. Perhaps it would find it's way across the ocean where the big soul lives. But this too, would be a sad event because it would mean nothing remains of me in Tokyo and all that's left are fond memories.
P.S. When I first thought of writing this blog, the idea itself was enough to make me sad. Actually writing the blog, thankfully, didn't do much. I think... maybe... finally... I don't miss Japan so much anymore.
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