Frank Brown Cloud

League of Legends

On video games, addiction and Infinite Jest: The Movie.

I tend not to read many novels set in the dystopian future (I’m rather more fond of stories set in our dystopian present), but I was recently lent Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One. And it reminded me of an essay I’d been meaning to write, something with the thesis “Infinite Jest: The Movie seems far less dangerous…

April 15, 2015

Frank Brown Cloud

All posts, Psychology, Video games

addiction, computer games, David Foster Wallace, death by gaming, dopamine, dying from video game overdose, dystopian science fiction, Ernest Cline, Infinite Jest, Is marijuana addictive?, League of Legends, psychological rewards, psychology, Ready Player One, video game addiction, what makes good games addictive, withdrawl
On evolution and League of Legends.

Okay, here’s something that I feel like the Cosmos show did nicely – when they showed a tree representing evolutionary lineage, humans were on a branch jutting out seemingly at random to the side. Whereas many popular science presentations of evolution depict humans as the pinnacle – we’re here at the top, and if you…

December 18, 2014

Frank Brown Cloud

All posts, Evolutionary biology, Video games

brain, Cosmos, DIY crainial stimulation, evolution, League of Legends