Randomness
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== Games of Chance == | == Games of Chance == | ||
| − | Life itself is full of randomness and the inexplicable, and it is no small wonder that children and adults alike incorporate chance into their daily lives, as if to tame it. Games of chance are one of the four fundamental categories of games that all humans play, according to the French cultural historian Roger Caillois. Whereas ''agon'' are competitive games dependent upon skill, ''mimicry,'' games of imagination, and ''ilinx'' are games causing disorder and loss of control, ''alea'' are games of chance. Craps, roulette, the lottery -- these are games in which the outcome is unpredictable. Taken from the Latin name for dice games, ''alea'' "negates work, patience, experience, and qualifications" (17). All is said to depend on luck. There are no assignable causes. | + | Life itself is full of randomness and the inexplicable, and it is no small wonder that children and adults alike incorporate chance into their daily lives, as if to tame it. Games of chance are one of the four fundamental categories of games that all humans play, according to the French cultural historian Roger Caillois. Whereas ''agon'' are competitive games dependent upon skill, ''mimicry,'' games of imagination, and ''ilinx'' are games causing disorder and loss of control, ''alea'' are games of chance. Craps, roulette, the lottery -- these are games with unpredictable outcomes. Taken from the Latin name for dice games, ''alea'' "negates work, patience, experience, and qualifications" (17). All is said to depend on luck. There are no assignable causes. |
In his ''Arcades Project'' on 19th century Paris, Walter Benjamin devotes an entire section to dice games and gambling, a curious assemblage of notes and extracts with sources ranging from Casanova to Friedrich Engels. "Gambling," Benjamin quotes Anatole France as saying, "is a hand-to-hand encounter with Fate" (498 [O4A]). Every spin of the roulette wheel is an opportunity to show that fate smiles upon the player. Fortunes rise and fall in the blink of an eye, the roll of the die, or the cut of the cards. Every gambler knows this, accepts it, and even relishes it. | In his ''Arcades Project'' on 19th century Paris, Walter Benjamin devotes an entire section to dice games and gambling, a curious assemblage of notes and extracts with sources ranging from Casanova to Friedrich Engels. "Gambling," Benjamin quotes Anatole France as saying, "is a hand-to-hand encounter with Fate" (498 [O4A]). Every spin of the roulette wheel is an opportunity to show that fate smiles upon the player. Fortunes rise and fall in the blink of an eye, the roll of the die, or the cut of the cards. Every gambler knows this, accepts it, and even relishes it. | ||
