Damn Google

Just when I'd finally got some kind of handle on my solitaire addiction, Google goes and puts up PacMan. And they've made it available permanently (I'm not going to post where, don't want to feed anyone else's addiction--other than letting you know it is, in fact, still available). I'm still pretty bad at it, but I was seriously deprived back in the 80s. Even as young and cute as I was, it was near impossible to pry those boys away from the game in the bar for more than one or two games. When it first appeared on Google a few days ago, I couldn't remember how to play it, much less figure out how to play it on the computer.

Alas, I figured it out. Sigh.

Anyway, there's other stuff on my mind. Apropos of some stuff I'm transcribing, I was thinking about altruism and how there's some folks who think that even altruism is, in fact, selfish, because one of the benefits of altruism can be, perhaps usually is, a good feeling about oneself. A sense of accomplishment, perhaps, or feeling good about being needed...in other words, that there's plenty of reasons why someone might decide to do something good for someone (or perhaps something) else, but that those reasons are invariably selfish.

I don't buy it. I mean, I know that doing volunteer work, for instance, can make someone feel good about themselves. I don't see this as selfish. I see this as having an evolutionary purpose. For humans to do something on behalf of other people who aren't their family members (or tribe), we had to develop a sense of well-being that derives from doing something good without thought for one's own immediate self-interest. (Sure, the argument can also be made that being in the Peace Corps, teaching African children or doing something positive for the environment can have an impact on our lives overall, albeit indirectly--by educating children about the world, they can become better citizens and perhaps less likely to do things that would further hurt us or the rest of the planet; likewise, the planet as a whole may benefit, but we're on this planet, it benefits us and our children and our children's children, etc.

Anyway, that's plenty of pontificating. I just wondered if I could write all that down and have it come out making sense. I think it does.

One more thing. I went to a get-together with friends yesterday. The night before, I had this, I dunno, brain thing where I very briefly, just a couple of seconds, really, thought that I'd be seeing Mouse there, too. It just breaks my heart that it wasn't true.

We'll worry about that little brain blip some other time.