Thursday Things: Chocolate Cow Edition
17 November 2022. Vol 4 No 46 By Dan McGirt. #171
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“Seriously, America?” Photo by chris robert on Unsplash
On second thought, I’ll stick with checkers
The trope of “if you die in the game, you die in real life” has been around approximately as long as the trope of characters being trapped inside a video game. Often the explanation of the game’s fatal nature is vague or it is some handwave like the game seeming so real that your brain is fooled such that if you’re killed in-game, your brain simply goes along with that and shuts down. It doesn’t make much sense on its own terms — your brain’s number one job is keeping you alive! — but the trope raises the stakes for any “trapped in the game” story.
Obviously it would be possible in the real world to create a game interface that kills you if you lose. It would simply be a matter of player’s interface with the game being programmed to deliver a lethal toxin or electric shock or bullet or whatever if your in-game avatar dies. But no one outside a fictional Bond villain or mad scientist type would actually design such a thing.1
Unless, apparently, you’re Oculus founder Palmer Luckey:
Oculus founder claims he made a VR headset that actually kills you if you die in a game
The founder of virtual reality (VR) firm Oculus claims he has designed a new headset that can kill you in real life if you die in a game.
Palmer Luckey said the device was inspired by Sword Art Online, the Japanese novel series-turned-anime in which players are trapped in an online role-playing game where death in the game means death in the real world because of the killer “NerveGear” headset they wear…
“The idea of tying your real life to your virtual avatar has always fascinated me – you instantly raise the stakes to the maximum level and force people to fundamentally rethink how they interact with the virtual world and the players inside it,” Luckey wrote in a now-viral blog post.
All righty, then.
We’ve discussed before how many scientists and engineers were inspired by the science fiction stories and TV shows to get into science and to make real such fantastic devices as handheld Star Trek communicators, rockets to Mars, tricorders, universal translators, libraries in the palm of your hand, and other technological wonders. You know, things that make life better for billions around the world.
Palmer Luckey watched an anime about a murder headset and decided he needed one. To each their own, I suppose. All I can say is I’m not really into gaming and this does not make me want to take it up!
Science that grey away
If you do decide to don a Luckey Headset of Death, you’ll find the experience stressful. It might even turn your hair prematurely grey. Fortunately, science is here to help.
Scientists discover that stress induced grey hair is reversible
[A] new study from researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons is the first to offer quantitative evidence linking psychological stress to graying hair in people.
And while it may seem intuitive that stress can accelerate graying, the researchers were surprised to discover that hair color can be restored when stress is eliminated, a finding that contrasts with a recent study in mice that suggested that stressed-induced gray hairs are permanent.
Once again, mice get all the good stuff first.
"Understanding the mechanisms that allow 'old' grey hairs to return to their 'young' pigmented states could yield new clues about the malleability of human aging in general and how it is influenced by stress."
“Our data add to a growing body of evidence demonstrating that human aging is not a linear, fixed biological process but may, at least in part, be halted or even temporarily reversed.”
Unless you go gaming with Palmer Luckey, of course.
The details of how scientists uncovered the possible mechanism of stress leading to grey hair are interesting. The article gives a summary.
Changes in 300 proteins occurred when hair color changed, and the researchers developed a mathematical model that suggests stress-induced changes in mitochondria may explain how stress turns hair gray.
You can also read the study itself here: Quantitative mapping of human hair greying and reversal in relation to life stress
How now, brown cow?
Democracy is a system of government in which the people vote to elect their leaders, and sometimes to make other decisions of public importance, such as voting on referenda. One of the prerequisites of a stable democracy is having an informed citizenry, who can give thoughtful consideration to the qualifications and proposals of the various candidates and the issues of the day.
On a completely unrelated note, Millions of Americans apparently believe chocolate milk comes from brown cows
In news that may not surprise some, a massive 7 per cent of Americans allegedly believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows.
This is according to a survey commissioned by the Innovation Centre for US Dairy in 2017, which found that millions of American citizens are somehow under the impression that their beloved choccy milk is a product of brown cows.
You’ve got to figure some percentage of respondents were just messing with the survey takers. Right?
Right?
According to the survey, 16.4 million believe that chocolate milk can be consumed straight from the udder of a brown cow, and a further 48 per cent were not sure where chocolate milk even came from.
Yeah. That’s got to be it.
Thank you!
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Fiction authors excluded. It’s our job to think of such things.