“Philosophy begins in wonder. And at the end, when Philosophic thought has done it’s best, the wonder remains” ~ Alfred North Whitehead, Modes of Thought, 1968
“Pleasure is essentially a feeling of contentment that one achieves whenever information in consciousness says that expectations set by biological programs or by social conditioning have been met. Pleasure improves the quality of life by helping to maintain order but it cannot create new order in consciousness. Pleasure does not produce psychological growth. Enjoyment results when a person has not only met some prior expectation but also gone beyond what he or she has been programmed to do and achieved something unexpected. Enjoyment, in other words, is characterized by a sense of novelty or accomplishment. ~Csikszentmihayli, Flow: the Psychology of Optimum Experiences, 1990
“Hence they built artificial compartments (Skinner boxes) Where every aspect of the animal’s external environment could be controlled and systematically manipulated. The behaviorists simply were not interested in the unobserved events that went on inside these organisms and they did not believe they could ever contribute to a scientific understanding of behavior.” ~ Jaak Panksepp, The Archeology of Mind, p. 62
Play is a self-induced engagement in novel, consequent opportunity, and is easier seen and done than explained. We know what it looks and feels like but struggle to define it when asked. Such is the nature of simple yet necessary functions. Play is built into us all, social animals can’t survive with out it. Boredom and apathy are the mortal enemies of enjoyment and play and the innate expectancy for achievement and creative satisfaction is the antidote for both. Actual opportunities for interaction can be gamed and turned into achievement, creating an expectancy for play.
Think dog training and one thinks about control, success, rewards and punishments, variable reward schedules, quadrants, etc. Reinforce the behavior, right? Learning through play is possible but requires philosophical tuning. You can’t be gifted a game with a scripted and defined set of rules, do it to the letter and consider it play. How is the dog doing with it? Does the dog know the game or are a bunch of things simply happening? Is it fun?
Games are based on the chance for a subjective experience of achievement. In dog training there are 3 subjects. The Dog, the Handler, and the Team. The Dog | Handler | Team nexus each have a subjective experience and if we all experience consequent novel opportunity and achieve more than 30% of the time, we are good we can experience the spontaneous, creativity of honest play. We do the thing, have a legit shot to get it done, and the chips will fall where they may. This freedom to fail allows each of our nexus to go after performance fearlessly and puts achievement at the forefront. Play is an unfolding sequence of actual opportunities to be achieved, not a list of goals to be met.
The greatest baseball players fail nearly 70% of the time. Michael Jordan missed more than 50% of his shots This rep is not the do or die situation you think it is. An honest game where we all know the drill yet it’s still live and unpredictable? That delivers results and then some. Achievement and opportunity are the point of play. Opportunity begets achievement. Achievement begets the expectation for more.