Curiosity Over Pride (FYI: To comment, send an e-mail to scifidink@gmail.com)

Sunday, March 7, 2010

SUDOKU!!!!!!

Sudoku started as a mild amusement on an aircraft, led to a descent into madness, and ended in an uneasy peace.

Its a game with simple rules: a grid with nine columns and nine rows which make up nine nine-spaced smaller grids. So you place numbers one through nine on each row, column, and smaller grid with no duplication of any number in said row, column, or smaller grid. You start off with a few given numbers and deduce the rest.

Such simple parameters, yes? Any moron should be able to do this. And mostly I can. But dailysudoku.com has humbled me (only on the "very hard" level, *gulp*, seriously). While creating the "options" set for a space I've made mistakes. While deducing I've made mistakes. While even typing in numbers I've inadvertently made mistakes. I've thought solution impossible ("they've posted a defective grid!"), but I hit the Hint button and voila.... the defect was pilot error.

Disturbing. Whaddya mean I'm not Merlin?!?! The implications are huge. If errors can be made in gathering data, analyzing data, and basic sensory/motor access in this simple game, then couldn't these mistakes be made in other situations?

Defective, treacherous brain!! If I can't trust it then all is lost! Its the most important tool anyone has. Hopeless, bleak despair.

Must....go....on. Okay, we go to battle with the army we have, not the army we want (cringe at Rumsfeld quoting). So clearly defeciencies must be identified, catalogued, and remedied. Eternal vigilance.

This rambling was intended to lead to a discussion of "belief". Though I try to keep an open mind that the equipment creating the belief may be in error, at some point I have to "buy in" if I'm to get anything done. Some people have appalling low standards for "buy in" and amazingly tenacious unwillingness to reanalyze in the face of new data. There should be some, you know, balance.

2 comments:

Debra said...

Um... low standards according to who ? ;-)
Gotta learn to trust it while not trusting it.
Gotta learn to say... I made a mistake.
To oneself. To others.
That helps more than anything else.

Thai said...

Dink, amen

The Most Fabulous Objects In The World

  • Hitchhiker's Guide To The Universe trilogy
  • Lord of the Rings trilogy
  • Flight of the Conchords
  • Time Bandits

Followers