On movement and thinking

In ancient Greece, communication was understood as an oral dialogue between people. It was also assumed that physical movement stimulated dialogue and the process of thinking. Aristotle and his pupils walked around while discussing philosophical problems. In the Middle Ages, a shift occurred from dialogue between subjects to communication between a subject and an information storage device, that is, a book. A medieval book chained to a table can be considered a precursor to the screen that "fixes" its subject in space.

Manovich, Lev. The Language of New Media. pag. 104. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2001.

Griffiths Consistent Histories

'Griffiths' consistent history approach was introduced in 1984 to create coherent narratives from quantum information. A Griffiths' history is constructed from a succession of more or less random quantum measurements taken at different moments. Each measurements defines a specific physical mass at a precise moment with reference to a specific set of values. As an example, in a time t1 an electron moves at a certain point in space. At a time t2 it is situated at a certain point in space. At a time t3, it has a certain spin value. From this collection of measurements it is possible to construct a history which is logically consistent. It cannot be said to be true; simply that it can be sustained without contradiction. Under a given set of experimental conditions, a finite number of all possible histories can be recreated using Griffiths' method, these are called Griffiths Consistent Histories. In these, the world behaves as though composed of separate objects each having fixed, intrinsic proprieties. However, the number of consistent histories that can be created from a single set of data is generally greater than one. As a being you are self-aware, and this consciousness allows you to hypothesize that the story you've created from a give set of memories is a consistent history, justified by a consistent narrative voice. As a unique individual having existed for a particular period and been subjected to an ontology of objects and proprieties, you can assert this with absolute certainty and so automatically assume that it is a Griffith's history. You make this hypothesis about real life, rather than the memories of dreams.

Houellebecq, Michel. Atomised. pag. 75. Vintage U.K., 2001.

Simple interactive pygame

Here is the simplest interactive game written in pygame, I have seen so far:

#import pygame and the system library
import sys, pygame

#initialize
pygame.init()

# set the window properties
size = (400,400)
screen = pygame.display.set_mode(size)

while 1:
# enable window quit button
for event in pygame.event.get():
if event.type == pygame.QUIT: sys.exit()

# clean screen
black = (0,0,0)
screen.fill(black)
# draw new circle
color = (50, 220, 100)
radius = 8
pygame.draw.circle(screen, color, pygame.mouse.get_pos(), radius)
# update display
pygame.display.update()
# delay
pygame.time.delay(100)


Pygame is a cross-platform set of Python modules designed for writing games.

The simplest example I could find was Python Pygame Introduction or Help! How Do I Move An Image?, by Pete Shinners which are too long for my taste. To achieve more complex graphical interactions you definitively want to learn how to use sprites.

try out