The big question driving Episode EF12 is … What defines us? What have you done in your life that makes you feel proud? Although it can be anything — from having a satisfying job to a blossoming relationship with a person you love, we often don’t know what defines us. It’s not as easy as its three simple words imply.
Put another way, if you had to give up everything in your mind and only rebuild it with 10% of what’s currently in it, which parts would you consider worthy of keeping? And is it the contents of our minds or our actions that define us? This is a question deeply pondered by the world’s philosophers and the protagonist of Episode EF12 is plagued by a grandiose vision of how we might find an answer to this age old question for everyone.
dedication
DEDICATION: Episode EF12 is dedicated to Hideo Kojima. A revolutionary game designer who’s continually changing the gaming industry and bringing video games to new, unmapped territories.
Kojima is the creator of some of the most successful video games in history. Starting his career back when the gaming industry was relatively new, his peers discouraged him for straying into unknown waters. After stacking up multiple failures in the late ’80s, finally Kojima’s game Metal Gear became a huge success.
The most fascinating thing about Hideo Kojima is his will to constantly break new grounds, no matter the risk. Even now, long after Kojima secured himself a seat amongst the greatest game developers, he isn’t settling down. Usually, each next generation is the one that brings a new revolution in a specific industry. But, in this case, Kojima’s dominance is spilling over.
Shortly after quitting Konami, the video game company Kojima helped to build, he announced Death Stranding, which came out in early November of 2019. Just like his previous work, the game broke new ground by entertaining, confusing, and shocking the audience. The most important factor is that to Kojima, failure or success seems to be just one of the risks of evolution that he doesn’t seem to care about.
HOW HIDEO KOJIMA INSPIRES EPISODE EF12
You might already know that although what we do with our minds defines us, there’s more to the puzzle. Kojima’s work spanning over two decades defines him as a master game designer. But what specifically led to him defining himself in this way, we may never know. The goal of Episode EF12 was to hope to glimpse into the process via the protagonist of Episode EF12 and see how deep the rabbit hole might go.
Hideo Kojima seems to constantly be on the brink of groundbreaking new work, so if you’re interested at all in video games, here are some more deep dive on him to investigate further:
Infuriated by the risk-averse approach of his company, Vihaan Raid decides to design his latest game on his own. A widely renowned game developer known to the gaming world as “Koji,” believes he can entirely change how humans see life with his radical new video game concept. He teams up with a respected psychologist to make sure his vision will manipulate the human psyche as he suspects it will—a critical factor to the game’s potential. As Koji slowly reveals secretive details of his mysterious concept, Isaac becomes more and more suspicious of the game’s true intentions.
Fear is engrained in all of us, but as Erich Fromm described, there are two main types. First, are sadomasochistic characters who kill the fear by being dependent on either controlling or being controlled. Second is the revolutionary character who embraces the fear of being a free human. Similarly, the famous philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche thought there is little to no difference between success and failure when it comes to their functionality. The human mind is engraved with a false belief that success is heaven and failure is hell. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. Sigmund Freud believed our unconscious thoughts and desires define us. Perhaps heaven is a place where our unconscious desires define us, but not control us; and hell … well, just look at the commercials.
references
Erich Fromm, Escape From Freedom (Farrar & Rinehart, 1941)
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Joyful Wisdom (Nietzsche Love of Fate Book Series, 2010), Kindle Edition
Sigmund Freud, Introduction to Psychoanalysis (Martino Publishing, 2009)
episode quotes
Any of these quotes make you think? If so, please support the show by sharing…
While playing the game of life, one mindset is to press ‘Try Again’ until you succeed; the other is to give up and hand your controller to someone else. — The Evolve Faster Podcast (Season One, Episode Ten)
And just like any success, any of our failures can also be either the strongest or the weakest link in our chain. — The Evolve Faster Podcast (Season One, Episode Ten) (EF12)
Being free to do what you want is the only thing you should strive to achieve. To be a free individual, unafraid to embrace the consequences of your actions, no matter how dire, is the ultimate human aspiration. — The Evolve Faster Podcast (Season One, Episode Ten) (EF12)
Your days are numbered—let that alone be the only inspiration you need to live a life of pure satisfaction, one failure at a time. — The Evolve Faster Podcast (Season One, Episode Ten) (EF12)
If we lived our lives more like playing a video game, where we embraced failure and fighting through all the tough levels on our own, maybe we’d all master life more quickly. — The Evolve Faster Podcast (Season One, Episode Ten)
Failing in a video game usually leads to a desire to overcome the obstacle the next time. So why do we so often live our lives desiring a comfortable bubble where we hand the controller to someone else? Because aren’t these failures what most defines us anyway?
Season One: The journey begins as we embark on 11 episodes on big questions relating to MIND. What is the truth? Can we trust reason? Why do we have emotions? Does happiness define the good? What is identity? What is creativity?
(EF1) Trailer: The Evolve Faster Podcast (Extended) Trailer
(EF2) Intro: Life is a Near Death Experience: Welcome to The Evolve Faster Podcast
(EF3) S1-E1: All Aboard the Experience Machine: Destination…Unknown (Season One, Episode One)
(EF4) S1-E2: The Decapitation of Reason: A Skeptic’s Guide (Season One, Episode Two)
(EF5) S1-E3: The Truth is Clay in the Hands of a Sculptor (Season One, Episode Three)
(EF6) S1-E4: Information Mainlining and the Folly of Modern Wisdom (Season One, Episode Four)
(EF7) S1-E5: Sleight of Mind: The Black Magic of Rhetoric (Season One, Episode Five)
(EF8) S1-E6: Without a Compass: All Who Sail the Seas of Identity Are Not Lost (Season One, Episode Six)
(EF9) S1-E7: I Feel Therefore I am: Capsized by the River Emotion (Season One, Episode Seven)
(EF10) S1-E8: The Road to Happiness is Inked in Suffering (Season One, Episode Eight)
(EF11) S1-E9: When the Lights Go Out: The Blinding Light of an Artificial Future (Season One, Episode Nine)
(EF12) S1-E10: Wired to Fail: Leveling Up in the Game of Life (Season One, Episode Ten)
(EF13) S1-E11: The Bloody Fingerprint of Creativity (Season One, Episode Eleven)
(EF14) BTP: Behind the Evolve Faster Podcast - The Making of a Speculative Fiction Meets Philosophical Nonfiction Podcast
(EF15) AMA: Ask Me Anything: About Scott Ely and Evolving a Philosophy for Life
(EF16) BTP: On Creative Writing, Video Games and the Future of the Evolve Faster Podcast (About Antonio Rozich)
(EF17) BTP-EF3: What Am I Supposed To Do Free Will and Other Everyday Problems Behind the Podcast of Episode EF3
(EF18) AMA-EF3: The Mystical Allure of Converting to Buddhism and Speculating about Quantum Mechanics Ask Me Anything for Episode EF3
(EF19) BTP-EF4: Head Transplantation and Finding Inspiration for Speculative Fiction - Behind the Podcast of Episode EF4
(EF20) AMA-EF4: The Declining Value of Information and Taking Risks to Determine What is the Truth Ask Me Anything of Episode EF4
(EF21) BTP-EF5: Should Lying be Made Illegal and the Importance of Figuring Out Why You Believe What you Believe --Behind the Podcast of Episode EF5
(EF22) AMA-EF5: Defeating Fake News and Critical Thinking as the Superpower the World Needs Most Ask Me Anything of Episode EF5
(EF23) BTP-EF6: Scaling Mount Wisdom Without Suffocating Under an Avalanche of Ego Behind The Podcast of Episode EF6
(EF24) AMA-EF6: Is Less Really More When it Comes to the Pursuit of Wisdom or is Ignorance Bliss - Ask Me Anything of Episode EF6
(EF25) BTP-EF7: The Power of Propaganda and Rhetoric to Divide Us and the Quest for a Better World - Behind the Podcast of Episode EF7
(EF26) AMA-EF7: The Impossibility of Honest Politicians and Protecting Our Kids from The Most Insidious Fake News Ask Me Anything for Episode EF3
(EF27) BTP-EF8: Who are You and is it Possible to Upgrade Your Identity as an Adult? - Behind the Podcast of Episode EF8
(EF28) AMA-EF8: Drugs, Consciousness Manipulation and Cheating Your Way To a Better You - Ask Me Anything for Episode EF8
(EF29) BTP-EF9: Waging War Between Reason and Emotions and the Importance of Leaving Things Unresolved Behind the Podcast of Episode EF9
(EF30) AMA-EF9: Emotional Manipulation Tribalism and Using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to Think Before you Feel - Ask Me Anything for Episode EF9
(EF31) BTP-EF10: Dharma Modifying Negative Thinking and the Never-Ending Pursuit of Happiness by Embracing Suffering - Behind the Podcast of Episode EF10
(EF32) AMA-EF10: Mind Control Through a Well Chosen Tattoo and the Unlikely Case of Being Happy Enough - Ask Me Anything for Episode EF3
(EF33) BTP-EF11: The Evolution of Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Creativity - Behind the Podcast of Episode EF11
(EF34) AMA-EF11: On Perfection, the AI Alignment Problem, and the Possibility of Quantum Leaps of Creativity - Ask Me Anything for Episode EF11
(EF35) BTP-EF12: Cryptocurrencies Gaming and Leveraging Failure to Help Us Define Who We Are - Behind the Podcast of Episode EF12
(EF36) AMA-EF12: Pyrrhic Victory and Finding the 10% of Your Mind that Defines Who You Are - Ask Me Anything for Episode EF12
(EF37) BTP-EF13: Where Creativity Comes From and How to Find Your Uniquely Bloody Fingerprint - Behind the Podcast of Episode EF13
(EF38) AMA-EF13: Flow, Creative Improvisation and Other Altered States of Consciousness Ask Me Anything for Episode EF13
(EF39) S2-E0: LIFE, UPGRADED: Welcome to Season Two of the Evolve Faster Podcast
(EF40) S2-E1: Dehumanized: The Search for Self in the Devil’s Looking Glass
(EF41) S2-E2: Transhuman Fallibility: The Existential Risk of a Superhuman Future
(EF42) S2-E3: Civil Individualism: Loneliness Atop Mount Empowerment
(EF43) S2-E4: Evil Urges: The Fiery Duality of Human Nature
(EF44) S2-E5: Reality Unchained: Smashing the Icons of Social Delusion
(EF45) S2-E6: Weaving Society’s Web: Purpose in a Future Without Work
(EF46) S2-E7: Empathetic Distortion: Rigging the Scales of Justice
(EF47) S2-E8: Infinite Regress: Drawing Back The Veil of Perception
(EF48) S2-E9: Checkmate: A Child’s Guide to the Good Life
(EF49) S2-E10: The Domino Effect: The Momentum of an Unstoppable Future