Confuse a Mineral by JJason Recognition
December 30th, 2007 5:55 PMBefore we can begin, we must consider exactly what this task entails. What do we mean by a mineral? And what do we mean by confuse? First - a mineral. Let us first consider a hypothetical situation: Image a man who'd had his brain removed and put inside a robotic body. If we were to confuse him, perhaps with an poorly designed series of signs, what would we say is being confused? Obviously, a person - it's the brain that feels confusion. So even though the confusion is entered via mechanical and electronic means and the evidence of the confusion is delivered by the electronic motors of the robot, it's still a human being confused. Surroundings, transmission mechanisms, and reporting mechanisms don't matter, only the ultimate source of the confusion.
Now that that's established, let's look at the term "mineral." In 20 questions meaning of the term, as in "Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral?" a mineral could be defined as many physical objects that aren't animals or vegetables. But the adoption of such a wide definition would render this task almost meaningless. So I have chosen to go with the definition that something is a mineral if it's geological in nature.
Finally, let's look at confusion. Wikipedia defines confusion as "loss of orientation (ability to place oneself correctly in the world by time, location, and personal identity), and often memory (ability to correctly recall previous events or learn new material)." This seems like a perfectly sufficient definition to me.
With all that established, I may reveal my subject mineral:
My Apple Ibook! You might be thinking "that's no mineral." But think again! Although much of it is plastic and liquid crystals, the bit which I will be confusing will the be CPU. The CPU is made of microprocessors, which are made of semiconductors, which are made of Silicon! And if you say that Silicon's not a mineral, then you're wrong.
Step Two Confusion
Following the above stated definition of confusion, I set off to induce a loss of orientation in my computer, by denying it the ability to correctly place it's in time,
location,
and personal identity.
Next I denied it the ability to recall previous events
and to learn new material.
That's one confused computer.
IBook.jpg
This ain't my Ibook. It's just an Ibook.
airport.tiff
No wireless internet can help you now, computer!
1969.tiff
My computer will have a hard time placing it's self in time once I told it that it was 1969. Also note that I've turned off the automatic date & time, thereby denying it the ability to realize that the information I've given it is false.
cameroon.tiff
I am not actually in Douala, Cameroon. My computer was confused about my location.
senor.tiff
Senor Icecream is not my name and not the identity of the owner of this computer. That is a confusion of personal identity.
screen.tiff
My computer is not a Windows machine.
history.tiff
My computer will have a hard time remembering my browser history now that I have deleted it.
clearmenu2.tiff
My computer will have a hard time remembering what were the recent items now that I have deleted them. As for what's going on in the background of this picture, I'll let you figure that yourself.
remember.tiff
My computer will have a hard time forming new memories about my computer history now that I have prevented it from doing so.
5 vote(s)
Terms
1pointvoteforpasteralongevity9 comment(s)
Hey, are you in the Boston area? Let me know if you want to get together for some tasking in the new year.
I'm in the Boston area at the moment although I'll be leaving in a week. But until then I'd be all over that scene.
Something like a disk defragmenter ran in reverse would be pretty sweet for this task.
Hmm... you didn't really confuse the computer, you just made it more confusing for you to use the computer.
If you had actually confused the computer, it would cease to function properly, and that would be a shame of a thing to do to a spangly Macbook.
Still, kudos for having the balls to complete this task. Works for me!
P.S. 14 tasks? Easy. Glasnost for the win.
Well, it has to be 14 tasks that nobodies done before. I think. Lincoln said something like that. Which is to say that it's 14 new tasks completed, not 14 new praxis completed. Which is a bit harder.
Glasnost Tasks completed: 3703
Impossible Exchange Tasks completed: 3717
Pretty sure there haven't been that many unique tasks approved. I think someone (Lincoln, maybe, but I'm too lazy to look it up) made the suggestion that we pick non-completed tasks to make up the gap, but more as an incentive to actually complete some of those tasks before they're retired.
A shame that the end of the era deadline rushed it a little bit (I really like the idea of defrag in reverse ;) But congrats on doing it, and for supporting Glasnost in unique tasking!
Behind the Praxis:
My original plan for this Praxis would've included a trip to MIT Museum to confuse the robots there but the logistical problems of getting a camera mean that there's little chance of me getting there before the new year. So I figured - the points that this'll get me will be worth anything for less than 36 hours, I'll just submit it as is.
Also, I probably wouldn't have completed this task if I hadn't seen in Spidere's Document Growth that Glasnost's total task complete falls short of Impossible Exchange's by a mere 14 tasks. To fail to surpass our ancestors, especially by such a small margin, seemed like a glaring tragedy that I had to do something to set it right. So I took an idea that I'd had and filed away to do if I ever felt like it (I do far too much of that) and completed this uncompleted task, making the margin slightly smaller. I doubt that the gap will be closed by midnight tommorow, but as I've always said: If I only did things that suceeded, I'd never get anything done. :)