(Photo credit: https://www.mobygames.com/game/game-gear/pac-man/promo/promoImageId,57172/)
Pac-man is a video game in which a player controls a yellow creature called Pac-man going around a maze and eating the small dots. The goal of the game is to help Pac-man finish eating all the dots in the maze. The challenge of the game is the ghosts running around the maze. The ghosts will chase Pac-man once they see him. If Pac-man is caught by one of the ghosts, he will lose a life. Pac-man has three lives within a level. If he loses them all, the player will lose the game.
Pac-man is a two-dimensional world. The player has the superior view of the maze. He or she can observe all the ghosts, dots, and Pac-man. The player witnesses all of their existence. Unlike the player, Pac-man is unable to see them all. Although Pac-man is in the game, he can’t observe what is happening in the maze as much as we do. He can only witness, acknowledge a thing when he faces them. This reminds me of the principle “Esse est percipi” of the philosopher George Berkeley.
“Esse est Percipi” means “To be is to be perceived”. Berkeley didn’t believe in the existence of matters, which represents immaterialism. According to Berkeley, our perceiving mind and ideas were the only things that exist (BBC, 2015). In other words, he assumed that we recognize an object not because it exists external to our perception. If a matter doesn’t exist, then why do we feel hurt when we kick a big rock?
Berkeley explained that our sensory experience with the rock verified its existence (BBC, 2015). Sensory experience consists of hearing, touching, and actions that physically interact with a thing. Because we can perceive our sensory experience with our mind, we can acknowledge the existence of the rock by seeing and kicking it. If a tree falls and nobody is there to see it, how can we verify the existence of this phenomenon?
In this case, Berkeley claimed that if something exists but we don’t have any sensory experience with it, God would be the one who witnessed it (BBC, 2015). This means God’s sensory experience will verify one’s existence when we are unable to do so. However, according to Berkeley, we don’t directly discuss with God about what happened to the tree. Instead, we look at the fallen tree and assume that God saw it fall.
(Photo credit: Painting A Portrait of Glory (Ephesians 2:10 KJV)
The dots are the only thing of which Pac-man can be aware. In the game, the maze is built up with small dots lying on most of the paths. Each path has a chain of dots lying on it. Because one dot is behind the other, it’s easy for Pac-man to keep track of them. In other words, there is always a high probability that the dots are in front of him. This set-up helps Pac-man face and eat the dots everywhere he goes. He perceives this sensory experience in mind, which helps him verify the existence of the dots almost consistently.
On the other hand, Pac-man can’t verify the existence of the ghosts running in the maze at the beginning of the game. The reason is that he hasn’t had any sensory experience with them. Assuming that Pac-man faces a ghost in the middle of the game, when he runs away, he won’t be able to verify that the ghost is still chasing him or if the ghost is moving. However, that doesn’t mean the ghost no longer exists in the game. According to Berkeley, when Pac-man sees the ghost again, he will learn that the ghost is still running around the maze. This phenomenon happens because the player has witnessed the movements of the ghost since the last time Pac-man and it met.
Eurus Thach.
References:
[BBC Radio 4]. (2015, Aug 6). Esse est Percipi - ('To be is to be perceived') [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iBryNYU49Y.
