10 November 2006
In researching this article, I came across the two listed citations from Alfred’s and Chaucer’s translations of Boethius’ De Consolatione Philosophiæ. Then, last night while reading a New Yorker article ("Game Master," by John Seabrook, 6 Nov 2006) about video game designer Will Wright, designer of The Sims, I came across another Boethius reference:
The designer must play God, or at least the notion of God in Boethius’ "Consolation of Philosophy"–a god that can anticipate the outcome of the player’s actions and yet allows the player the feeling of free will.
I love The New Yorker. Where else would an article about video games contain a reference to a 6th century Christian philosopher.
(For those of you who are wondering, diegogarcity is a term coined by Aldiboronti on the Wordorigins discussion forum for the coincidence of just learning something new, such as a new word, and then seeing it in several places immediately afterwords. It is a play on serendipity, as Serendip is an old name for Sri Lanka. For this concept, Aldi chose another Indian Ocean island as the namesake.)
