Jonathan Blow on Consciousness, Video Game Design, True Art vs. False, and Free Will

In this episode Curt Jaimungal talks with game designer Jonathan Blow about consciousness, the nature of true art, and how video game design can illustrate a theory of everything. They explore free will, the limits of language, and the way game mechanics express deep philosophical ideas.- 00:00:00 - Introduction- 00:02:46 - Jon recounts people using him for clicks- 00:05:53 - Too many wannabe gurus, lack of instruction- 00:08:00 - Curt's manipulation of formal film aspects- 00:09:34 - Goal of understanding the universe- 00:17:23 - Understanding self vs universe- 00:19:41 - Limits of language and truth- 00:25:10 - Video game design and building a TOE- 00:33:22 - What works in Braid aesthetics- 00:44:03 - Game mechanics vs theme- 00:54:29 - Struggling to explain true art- 00:56:06 - True art vs propaganda- 01:04:01 - Dislike of contemporary art- 01:12:06 - Jon on game reviews and art- 01:32:32 - Specifics of Jon's game design- 01:42:02 - Rupert Spira in The Witness- 01:47:08 - Original ideas are difficult- 01:49:34 - Meditation and insights- 02:00:20 - Materialism vs qualia vs stories vs models- 02:06:25 - Wolfram's physics model- 02:09:21 - Free will is too simple- 02:16:12 - Super Bunyhop & Joseph Anderson review- 02:16:39 - Dunkey?- 02:16:45 - VR interesting but not for immersion- 02:22:54 - Stanley Parable- 02:23:36 - OpenAI applied to games- 02:26:00 - Unreal Engine 5 hype?- 02:31:24 - [ForceField] On Henri Bergson- 02:32:49 - [stef] Subconscious artistic expression- 02:34:41 - [Steven Brent] Games vs other media emotions- 02:36:45 - [Pooja Soni] Games helping mental illness- 02:40:27 - [James R] Mind uploading- 02:43:31 - [Tom] Analytic vs intuitive vs supra‑rational- 02:45:34 - [Chris Merola] Sausage Roll praised- 02:48:42 - [championchap] Aphantasia and design- 02:49:50 - [Brian Mauch] Industry criticism- 02:51:41 - [James Jones] Neuralink- 02:53:37 - [Johannes Norrbacka] Jai language opinions- 02:56:33 - [Lara Lebeu] Connection to non‑duality teachers- 02:59:35 - Societal stagnation point- 03:04:00 - [Mr. K] Kojima speculation- 03:04:16 - [ZenoEvil - Meaning Machines] Braid copycats question- 03:06:31 - [Wes Lord] Burnout and motivation- 03:08:45 - [bc1n0] Beta access request- 03:10:54 - [Michael Bespalov] Hades early access model- 03:13:22 - Playtesting methods- 03:15:25 - [Ivan] Free speech thoughts- 03:21:07 - Weinstein, Thiel, stagnation revisit- 03:26:02 - SCRUM vs Kanban work process- 03:29:49 - [Ruari VK] Why it's called The WitnessSPONSORS:- Brilliant: 20% off at https://brilliant.org/TOE- Algo: supply chain AI at http://algo.comRESOURCES:- YouTube link: https://youtu.be/80f47smhYEI- Jon's talk on video game ideas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCVVLAs9mJU- Jon's talk on motivation and burnout: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7kh8pNRWOo- Iain McGilchrist interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-SgOwc6Pe4- Rupert Spira interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocP6JSyicY0- Patreon: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal- Crypto: https://tinyurl.com/cryptoTOE- PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/paypalTOE- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt- Discord Invite: https://discord.com/invite/kBcnfNVwqs- iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/better-left-unsaid-with-curt-jaimungal/id1521758802- Pandora: https://pdora.co/33b9lfP- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e- Subreddit r/TheoriesOfEverything: https://reddit.com/r/theoriesofeverything Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices