Free Will? Are we free?

PINBALL GAMES

We live our lives under the illusion of freedom all the while, through government hysterics, physics, and human limitations, we really aren’t free.  Take for instance that time in US history where pinball machines were outlawed.  Yes, that is correct, that exhilarating game that you dispensed all your parent’s money into throughout the 70’s and 80’s on Ocean Boulevard was once outlawed in the early 1940’s.  (Klein 2016)  Considering the massive number of pinball machines in the world can you imagine that people spent time in jail for either owning or playing them?  In contrast, it was legal to own a Tommy gun in the US as long as it was registered. (Nestel and Miller 2017)

If you are unfortunate and have never plunged your life away in an arcade room playing the pinball machines, take a moment to read a bit about the anatomy of the game as described by Topic.com.  If you know the game, skip below to the “1”.

“Pinball has changed drastically over the years, from running exclusively on solenoids and relays—coils of wire that, when energized with electricity, make pinball mechanics move—to relying primarily on microprocessors and circuit boards. Even still, every old or new game starts more or less the same way. “The first three inches of a game are always the same,” Meunier says. “But after that, the ball could go anywhere.”

After the player pulls the spring-loaded plunger, the ball will travel through the shooter alley and enter a mini amusement park of obstacles that impact its path through the game. Modern pinball machines are built from thousands of parts, if you count things like screws and washers, and most come loaded with a few well-known components. These include flippers, the small mechanical wings players activate by pressing a button on the side of the game’s cabinet; pop bumpers, the mushroom-shaped targets that send the ball flying when touched; ramps, to direct the ball to a new area of the playfield; magnets hidden below the playfield to stop the ball or divert its path; a logic board to process the ball’s position on the playfield and keep track of game play and score; a drain, the hole at the bottom of the playfield where the ball goes when you lose; and a tilt bob, a mechanical sensor under the machine that can sense when a player is tilting the machine too far. It’s up to the designer to lay out the components in imaginative ways and create new toys and tricks that can entice collectors and arcade owners to buy a machine.”(Stinson 2018)

1.

The first three inches of a game are always the same according to Meunier.  If the first three inches of the game are distinguished from the remainder of the game, then what is it that controls the beginning of the game and what controls the remainder of the game?

In this game I liken people to be the pinball and the “playfield” to be life.  If you are the pinball, you have no control over the forces that impact you.  You may have an idea due to the abrupt changes of direction, speed, bumper pressure, (life) etc. But you have zero control of what happens to you or how often something happens to you as you are volleyed throughout the playfield.  As the pinball, you cannot change directions on your own power.  The only way that you can change directions is by influences created outside of you which then translate to a change in direction.  You cannot curve.  The only curves in the game are there by design.  As the ball you do not know the designers rules nor can you manipulate them.  You are absolutely bound by Newton’s Laws of Motion.  Especially the second law which “describes the relationship between the mass of the object, the net force applied to it, and the resulting acceleration. The net force is the sum of all the forces acting on the object. If this net force is unbalanced, then the object’s motion will change in the direction of this net force; the net force could cause the object to increase its speed, to decrease its speed, or change direction.” (An Object In Motion 2017) There are times in the game where the ball will experience turbulence such as when it is bounced back and forth between bumpers.  This is not a bad thing though.  As the ball bounces back and forth between the plungers, it receives positive reinforcement as this may be considered a safe place and also a place where points can be racked up rapidly.  As long as the ball is volleyed between the bumpers there is no chance of it going into the drain and ending the game.

In order to be a player of the game you must follow the rules.  The rules are created by the designer and as a player you cannot change them.  The more the player, plays the game, the better the player becomes at understanding when the rules can be broken and how far the limits are before the game “tilts” thus ending the turn.

As the player, you initiate the game by first depositing a certain amount of coinage into the game.  If you do not have money, you cannot play the game. (Technically, you can but that is a different rabbit hole).  The player first initiates the game by shooting the ball through the alley via a pull on the spring-loaded plunger.  Upon drawing back the plunger the spring stores a certain amount of energy and then when the plunger is released it catapults the ball into the playfield.  Considering that the first three inches are always the same this part of the game never changes.  However; a player can determine how fast and how far back to pull the plunger before releasing it.  This has the effect of propelling the ball into the playfield very rapidly or slowly.  Once the ball enters the playfield, the player is limited by rules as to how much interaction he/she can have with where the ball goes.

The player can shake the machine in such a way as to keep the ball volleying between the bumpers or give it a gentle nudge away from the gutter leading to the drain.  The player also learns how to use the flippers which keep the ball in play but can also be used to direct the ball into the direction that gains the most points or earns additional balls/turns to play.   The flippers are also used to strategically keep the ball from going down the drain, thus ending the game and demonstrating the ultimate negative reinforcement.

If you are the ball, you have no free will.  You may be aware that things are happening to you and maybe you might be able to linger in a place for longer than one could expect, but that is it.  You are completely at the mercy of forces that you are not aware of nor do you know from where those forces come.  You only know that there is a beginning and are unaware of how the game will end.

If you are the player, you have no free will.  You want to play the game, but you don’t know why.  You are drawn to it by forces that you are not aware of on a conscious or unconscious level.  You are aware that there are rules because you observed other players which helped you learn that within this environment if you place a coin(s) in the slot there will be a certain result.  The result being that you get to play the game.  The more you play the game the more you become aware of the rules.  You cannot change the rules.  If you had free will, you would be able to change the rules, but you do not, so you are bound to follow the rules of the game.

You are systematically desensitized from the fear of losing the game by having multiple plays per game.  Sometimes the game developer will include opportunities in the playfield which afford you a chance to earn more “plays”.  This can be by landing the ball on a magnet or shooting it through the center onto a second tier of the playfield.  Or maybe trapping the ball in a certain area which can then trigger multiple balls into play.

The game makes certain electronic sounds when it is being played.  These sounds help you to understand where the ball is in play but also help condition you to know what to do next with the game.  For instance, as you pull the plunger back there may be a “falling” sound: there may be an additional “whooshing” sound when you release the plunger and propel the ball into the playfield.  As the ball bounces back and forth between the bumpers you learn that if you gently shake the machine, you can keep the ball between the bumpers to quickly rack up points.

As you rack up points, you receive positive feedback from sounds, movements, and lights coming from the bumpers and possibly from spectators cheering you on.  With experience, you will learn when to shake the machine and with how much force in order to keep the ball bouncing between the bumpers but also to keep it from “tilting” which prematurely ends your game.

The sounds condition you to create a muscle memory so that when the ball hits the bumper the vibrations pass through the machine, through your hands, into your brain through your nervous system and then your response is to shake the machine.  After a while, you’ll become so conditioned that you don’t even have to look at the machine to know when to shake it.

The scoreboards also offer hints of how good or bad you are playing the game.  As your score increases, the music may change or pick up the pace or an electronic voice may be added into the mix.  The lights reinforce your appetite for approval by stimulating your visual cortex and aid to put you “into the game!” If you achieve “the high score” you are rewarded with additional plays or free games.

As the creator of the pinball machine, you desire to make something fun that people will play and enjoy.  You may be creating the game for entertainment or for profitable financial gains.  As you create the game, you consider how challenging to make the game but no matter how challenging you want to make the game, you are also bound by rules.  You are equally bound by Newtons laws of motion and additional laws of physics and design.  For instance, I’ve never observed a pinball machine that was able to operate immersed underwater or a Tron pinball machine levitating over a game room floor.  If you are a parent or guardian who had a teenager anytime throughout the 70’s and early 80’s, the jig is up.  They spent all their college tuition money on that Tron pinball game.  I know it.  I was there with them.

In addition to design concerns, you also must concern yourself with community and government rules.  Which brings us back full circle.  As a designer, do you have free will?  If the extent of your designs are curtailed by government rules, human limitations, and Newtons laws of motion, are you really exercising free will?  Are you really free or are you completely governed by rules that you can’t see?

In the beginning of this discussion, you were instructed to skip to the “1” if you were familiar with pinball games.  Did you skip to the 1 or did you read straight through?  Why did you skip to the 1?  If you are familiar with the game and still decided to read the Topic.com description, why did you not skip to the 1?

Citations:

Nestel, M.L., Miller, Andrea (2017 October 4). What to know about machine gun laws in the US.  [Web log post] Retrieved from https://abcnews.go.com

Stinson, Liz (2018 March 6). Anatomy of a Pinball Machine [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.topic.com

Klein, Christopher (2016 November 15). That Time America Outlawed Pinball [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.history.com 

Bill Hughes, Lynn Mona, Greg Wilson, Steve McAninch, Jeff Seamans, and Heath Stout (2017). An Object in Motion. Technology and Engineering Teacher, September 2017, 10-16. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.lrc-proxy.abtech.edu