Seeking Truth ( Tabula Rasa )

Abstract

Among the very most intellectually sophisticated gameworlds, one sadly terminated by the profit-hungry company that published it, was Tabula Rasa. Set in the near future, it assumed the Earth had been invaded by evil extraterrestrials, and the few human survivors were forced to flee to two distant planets, where they cooperated with friendly natives and began to fight their way back home to Earth. However, the fundamental concept of Tabula Rasa was deeply intellectual, rather than crudely violent, based on the philosophy that the human mind is a blank slate (tabula rasa) that could gather pieces of knowledge from the environment and assemble them into wisdom. In ancient days, the benevolent Eloh alien species—inspired by the Hebrew Elohim concept—had hidden Logos hieroglyphics, one each in a widely distributed set of shrines, which the avatar should seek. Thus, the fundamental principle of the game was ontology, the search for a system of fundamental concepts with which to understand and manipulate reality. The avatar was based on a man who considered himself to be a medical scientist, whose entire life and thoughts are exceedingly well documented, emphasizing lectures he gave at the religious and intellectual resort, Chautauqua, just over a century ago.