i read andrew’s blog with excitement, read response on 2+2
snag on This is wrong. The only reason it [poker] is unpopular with the very religious is because it specifically says in the Bible that gambling is wrong and you shouldn’t do it. It’s as simple as that to them. It would be a tall order to try to convince an elderly religious grandmother that poker was, in fact, not like gambling at all.
That is our challenge. We take it on. Poker is not gambling. Poker is learning life. Poker is freedom to play a game we love online. Poker is a way we can agree on internet democracy.
you of the christian right who honor the word of the bible, we ask you to consider that americans had not invented the game of poker when the bible word gambling was written. gambling meant betting on a chance outcome like the roll of dice.
seek the spirit you are looking for in the game and you will find it. approach the mystery in your brain. let it beguile you please you teach you lead you on. come on grandma, play poker, it’s not gambling, it’s pricing, it’s bluffing, your kids can teach you how.
saw the poster for is2k7 yesterday leaping out with light and clear message
civil rights with ogletree and terry lenzner and pictures from selma
a2k tomorrow at yale
invitation to barney frank to come and keynote
play the hand of government
how would you work things out
back to 2+2 snag again on a comment on foucault’s blog
It flat doesn’t matter if poker is a game of skill. That’s not the point.
big point to me
the reason to single it out
that distinguishes it from gambling
transcends gambling to a higher plane of logic mathematics and human understanding
foucault is the avatar who speaks the words and sets the tone
describes the meeting like a roman a clef
foucault writes:
It wasn’t really a panel or a public event, it was about a dozen people in a room strategizing and sharing ideas. In addition to the people I mentioned there were a few HLS students who also played poker, a guy who did AI research, an Israeli lawyer who I think represented some poker sites (he didn’t seem to speak English that well and didn’t say much), a reporter from the Wall Street Journal, and a woman who was studying lying or something. Not all of these people were there at the same time. As I said, it was pretty random that I ended up being there at all, and I was mostly just listening, though I occasionally tried to steer the conversation in a more productive direction when I felt we were getting bogged down in a pointless disagreement or dead-end strategy.
who were these people
can we connect foucault’s description with the info on the wiki
***
here’s from yinglan off my gmail
Yinglan Tan
to me, Michael_YAP
1:23 am (5 hours ago)
Michael,
I trust your visit to the West Coast was productive. Drawing your attention to the East Coast, I had interesting chats today with two distinguished faculty at the Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School.
Professor Charles Nesson, William F. Weld Professor of Law and Founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, is enthusiastic about “Poker University”, a vehicle for game theory to be accessible to every youth, played in the digital space with links with internet democracy.
[snip]
Prof Nesson has expressed an interest to visit to Singapore in the summer and continue the dialogue with you, I shall leave it on your end to connect with him.
[snip]
Michael Yap runs the Interactive Digital Media Initiative and is also Deputy CEO of the Media Development Agency.
Warmly,
Yinglan