We live in a world of abstractions, where the mind constantly creates and updates mental models to make sense of its surroundings. Memory can be fragile, often fading as we move between spaces, with our internal maps shifting as quickly as we navigate them.1 Simulation is intrinsic to human nature, as is play— a topic I explored just a few weeks ago. Today, I’ll be exploring Hive Synapse Spy Agency, a tabletop game by Austin Lim and Anton Galang, as its background sheds light on the cross-sectionality of neuroscience, science-fiction, and the power of games to envision a new future.

We play to help understand the world around us in a safe environment. It is an adaptive behavior prevalent throughout nature2 that allows a creature to imagine scenarios and test abilities that may aid them when they are met with these encounters.

“Although adults might define as work infants’ struggle to balance and begin to stand or walk independently, infants appear to have intrinsic motivations for achieving these motor skills and show expressions of pleasure in achieving them. Thus, this motor practice appears to be play for infants.” - Garner, B. P. (2021)

So, we create simulations outside our mind in order to form simulations in our mind, all-and-all to understand the world best we can. We are developing creatures, who still use play to grow throughout our lifespan.3  Play is good for the brain.

Read the rest of this article here: https://holisticdice.substack.com/p/neuroscience