The game

You may of heard of 'the game'. For anyone who hasn't, the rules of 'the game' are quite simple.

• You first accept that you are a competitor in 'the game'.
• From then onwards when you think of 'the game' you have lost 'the game'.
• Every time you lose 'the game' you restart not thinking about 'the game'.
• The objective is to not think about 'the game' for as long as possible.

Easy, right? Wrong. In fact, I think it's impossible, and here's why:

When an individual, x, starts to play 'the game' they are forced to think about 'the game' in order to understand that they have started to play 'the game'. X therefore has lost 'the game'. In losing the game, they are forced to again, think about 'the game' in order to accept their loss of the game. This then renders them a loser as they have thought of 'the game'. You might, however, argue that to think of 'the game' at this point is not strictly a loss as x has not accepted that they have restarted 'the game' and therefore cannot be considered live in 'the game' so cannot have yet lost 'the game'. In which case, x accepts their initial loss and restarts 'the game'. In doing so, they are forced to think of the game, ipso facto they have lost 'the game'. This then completes a self-perpetuating, auto-catalytic, cycle of failure due to the very rules of 'the game' themselves.

If you are to model this flow into a diagram, you might argue that x's round does not start until they have first stopped thinking about 'the game', which first occurs when they start their round. Therefore, it might be considered possible to not be thinking about 'the game' when 'the game' begins. However, from an applied, realised approach, this is not possible as a thought lasts for more than an infinitesimal time in the novel property of matter known as consciousness. The abstract concept of time flow of course being one of the 'hard problems' in the fundamental understanding of consciousness; but now isn't the time to get into that, because I have neither the expertise, nor the will to explain consciousness tonight. As such, the thought which initiates 'the game' (in which is contained a though of 'the game' as an intrinsic property of the initiator function) will run over into the round, invalidating 'the game' and resulting in a loss. But due to biological variation, the time between starting a round and realising that you have invalidated 'the game' varies between people. If an individual takes longer to realise this, they are deemed 'slower' (and hence qualitatively termed more stupid). But of course, the longer this realisation takes, the longer you have lasted in the game. Hence, the less intelligent you are, the better you are at the game.

To conclude, you have to be stupid to be good at the game.