Fun and...

[andrewducker]

Yesterday I played various games with Hugh, Meredith and surliminal - including Robo Rally. Things were going well until we came to explain the rules to Meredith/surliminal - which basically involve being dealt 9 cards and choosing 5 of them to give as instructions to a robot. These cards can be Move Forward(1, 2 or 3 spaces), Move Back, Turn Left, Turn Right and U-Turn.

At which point both of them burst out laughing at the thought that we expected them to be able to cope with such ridiculous ideas.

I, myself was stunned. I know that some people (and statistically, more women than men) aren't so good at spacial awareness - but this seemed so simple, especially as the directions are on the cards as large arrows, that I couldn't understand how anyone could have a problem with it. However, surliminal was _still_ amused by it today, so here's a poll...

[Poll #572922]

(I'd like to point out the bit above where I expected them to be fine with Forward, Back, Left, Right, Turn Around...)

Comments

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

In my experience, boys like robots more than girls do.

Perhaps that is the problem.

[andrewducker]

Girls don't like Robots?

Does...not....compute...

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

This unit also had logic failure when reaching Theory Alpha, but rewiring circuits 3435-t and 691214-q solved all problems, leaving this unit with no logic failure, but instead a warm feeling of satisfaction in my lower chest-unit and a pleasant desire for Don Johnson.

[dapperscavenger.livejournal.com]

I find the whole notion of the game a little silly, but I wasn't there :p

I would also like to point out that as I am in control of rather large vehicles on a daily basis, one would hope that I could master the basic ideas of left and right.

[dapperscavenger.livejournal.com]

Just looked up the game. Looks kinda fun. The only issue with the direction cards that I could see was - does a 'rotate left' card mean rotate on the spot or rotate left and move 1 space left also?

[andrewducker]

It means rotate on the spot.

And I'd hope you'd know your left from your right. But Lilian drives a car with only a certain amount of terror-inducing mistakes, and she can't.

[dapperscavenger.livejournal.com]

Yes, but there's a small difference in driving an iddy-biddy car to, generally, places that you already know the location of, as opposed to driving a much larger vehicle that does not like corners, pavements, bollards, railings or other vehicles to several places that you have never even heard of before.

I get paid to get lost and then found again repeatedly, on a daily basis. I have found that I have developed a very strong sense of direction. When faced with a choice of left or right, where there is no roadsign or other such indication of which would be the correct way to turn, I would now choose correctly about 90% of the time. I believe it is something I have learnt to do, rather than an innate talent.

[andrewducker]

I believe it is something I have learnt to do, rather than an innate talent.

Doesn't surprise me at all. Did you know the brains of taxi drivers are measurably different after they've learnt "The Knowledge"?

[dapperscavenger.livejournal.com]

No, did you read a paper on it, or was it in a newspaper?

[andrewducker]

Numerous papers, a few years back. Here's the BBC's coverage:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/677048.stm

[dapperscavenger.livejournal.com]

I like this quote:

"I never noticed part of my brain growing - it makes you wonder what happened to the rest of it"

[flickgc.livejournal.com]

bytepilot once got me playing that. I think I lasted about two goes before I gave up entirely and just played cards completely at random....

[dougs.livejournal.com]

I'm fine with spatial awareness, but incapable of planning moves on a robot's behalf anything like five moves ahead.

[hfnuala.livejournal.com]

I love RoboRally. I will admit it's a rare game where I can manage more than about 3 rounds without miscalculating, though. But that's the fun of the game.

[andrewducker]

Well, yes, if I don't shout "Nooo! I'm walking straight into a big pit!" at least once per game, it's a waste :->

[sneerpout.livejournal.com]

I'm quite good at spatial awareness, especially in a car. I am particularly nauseating when reverse parking, to the extent that my father* and I have competitions as to who can park most smoothly and perfectly outside his house.

*He's an Advanced Driver and lots of other things after a lifetime in the polis.

[i-ate-my-crusts.livejournal.com]

Evidence that I am spatially dense:

I have to actually have all the physical bits lined up in place (propped with sticks and people holding them for me) in order to work out the directions for IKEA furniture.

I can never, ever work out what something looks like in 3D from a description.

I have to turn the map around to be in the same direction I am before I can navigate.

The concept of torque, in high school physics, had me CRYING because I couldn't visualise it. I still can't visualise it. I might've done pure maths at university except for that and my STUPID physics teacher who told me that girls weren't logical and couldn't do physics, making me assume I was just too dumb to get it. Moron.

On the other hand, my landmark navigation is exceptionally good, and I always get good scores on the spatial portions of IQ tests. IQ tests are 2D, though, my problems all arise in real, live, 3D.

[diotina.livejournal.com]

I am pretty good at remembering directions etc and can map things out in my head pretty accurately. Not excellent at reading a map but not bad either - and use and remember landmarks a lot, which I think ensures that I never get really lost.

[terminalmalaise.livejournal.com]

I always found that a big part of the fun of Robo Rally is watching when someone miscalculates and their whole turn goes spectacularly wrong. :)

Re: spatial

[wolfieboy.livejournal.com]

My biggest problem is that while I've got a very good spatial sense, I fake knowing my left from my right. Most people seem to know such things inherently while I had to have special tricks for it. It helped when I thought of them as clockwise and counterclockwise.

[azalemeth.livejournal.com]

With the above poll, have you ever considered that women may be more honest about their spatial awareness skills then men? :P.


Besides, they're robots! How can you not like robots?

[stillcarl.livejournal.com]

Woah! The poll results sure show there's a difference!

Hmmm - why is there no LJ memories button here?

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

"Alright" is not a word.

[andrewducker]

If it's good enough for Bob Dylan and Gertrude Stein, it's good enough for me :->

The current status of alright is hard to assess. It is very common even in edited writing--some studies have suggested that it is more common, which seems unlikely. Many people and many periodicals use it regularly. Yet it is still loudly condemned (your spell checker, like most, is designed to reject anything that's even slightly problematic). Depending on your linguistic philosophy, it is either an outright error that is distressingly widespread, or a perfectly standard usage that is unnecessarily condemned.

it says here.

As someone who most definitely falls on the side of descriptive (i.e. not prescriptive) side in the Great English Language Debate, that's good enough for me.

[pickwick.livejournal.com]

My take is that in some situations "alright" is, er, alright, but not others. But it's a Monday morning, so I have no idea how to figure out which situations.

(Oh, fyi, the BBC style guide *currently* says it's bad and evil, but this is being Looked Into.)

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I don't mean to be accusatory, and I'm not naming names, but I can see at least two people who answered "I'm fine with spatial awareness" who deserve to be laughed off LJ for claiming that about themselves.

Oh noes!!111! The int0rweb lies!11!1

[andrewducker]

Says the person who claimed to be both male and female...