My PAX East panel was accepted. Give it some GB support?

I've spoken about my academic work here before. And attempts to bridge my work with my hobby in forum posts have fizzled as time constraints reduced the effort put into them. But around the middle of last year a colleague and I decided to focus on one larger project bringing our Ph.D. research and love of games together. Here it is:

"The Science of Online Bullying: A Lesson in Diversity"

March 8th at 3:30 pm in the Arachnid Theatre (tentative time and date)

"Oxytocin has been called "the moral molecule." It is associated with trust and cooperation. High levels result from basic things like handshakes at PAX. Reactions to tweets even equal those created in person. But oxytocin has a potential dark side. In large groups it may increase hostility toward those considered outsiders. Join two Ph.D. students for a conversation about the importance of diversity as the science is described then applied to recent cases of harassment in the gaming world."

The description is heavy on science, but that is only the necessary introduction. The more weighty portion of the panel will be philosophical, drawing implications from the science concerning the importance of embracing diversity and what that means. I know we got placed in a time slot on the final day just before everything ends. But even though there will be fewer people around, maybe that means you'll have nothing else going on and will attend. There is the possibility a name or two you have actually heard of in the industry will end up participating, though I cannot confirm anything right now.

So let me know what you think, ask some questions about me and the topic, or generally show some support so I stop thinking only five people are going to come to the panel.

I'm not going to PAX, but that sounds like a really interesting panel. Good luck!

Congratulations on getting a panel! That's really exciting for you. Hope it goes well.

I think it sounds really stinkin' cool. You ought to shoot a note to @patrickklepek via Twitter or something--I'm sure he'd be over the moon to help promote a panel like this closer to the event.

@historyinrust: I spoke with Patrick after PAX East last year. He seemed interested, but I think his recent job move understandably took up his time. But thanks for the reminder to touch base and get a push as the event approaches.

@paul_tillich:

What type of science are you applying to this?

@carryboy: Work from a neuroscience lab known for studying Oxytocin. Though the ensuing story about group behavior is more biological anthropology, as is the case with most broader applications of specific studies.

@paul_tillich: Good luck! If I have time to make it I'll try to do so.

Gonna tag @patrickklepek again to this, as this seems like something he'd be into going to as well

hell, even @danryckert id say would find this fascinating.

Best of luck though duder, if things arent crazy around that time, ill try to make it for the panel, as it does sound very interesting.

I'm actually more interested in the real life versus virtual oxytocin stimulants, partly because of some people who belittle online interaction, or neglect online interactions because "it's not real". Oh, how self-serving.

Any chance you're archiving it?

@gaff: Your interest is exactly on point with the panel. You can obviously see from the description that the real vs. internet binary will be made problematic. As for archives, I have no plans for doing so. I don't currently have the channels for putting it out or audience for receiving it that would make the effort worthwhile. That being said, I told PAX live streaming is fine and the panel has been placed in one of the larger rooms. So maybe you will be able to watch live or later on Twitch. I have no idea how PAX determines such things.

I'm not attending PAX East, but I'd definitely go watch it if I was. Good luck!

That sounds interesting. I would attend if I could, but I can't.

Funny enough, though, that's on my birthday :D

This is some cool stuff. I'm good friends with a Ph. D student working at the Kavli Institute at Columbia, and I'll see if I can drag him along with me to PAX. I still have Kandel's Principles of Neural Science lying around my library, maybe I'll lug it along with me also, lol.

Awww man, of course this is the year I have to skip PAX East because I really don't have room for it in my budget. Good luck on the panel, duder, but sadly I won't be able to attend.

I'm glad some people are excited about this. Thanks for the kind words. I also realized I did not mention who will be involved.

Benjamin Chicka (me): Ph.D. Student, Claremont Graduate University

Andrew Tripp: Ph.D. Student, Boston University

Both our degrees are in what is broadly called philosophy of religion and theology. I work in science and religion. Andrew works in ethics. Part of my education involves formal scientific training, and I work in a neuroscience lab. The main school of philosophy I use in interpreting science and religion is American Pragmatism. Andrew is especially interested in communities and how they are shaped by their stories/shared storytelling. He has written about the parallels between religious communities and comic/gaming/sci-fi (different themes in different papers) communities, and can be seen speaking at story slams around Boston.

Interesting, so it's a philosophical and ethics panel drawing from biosocial (as it would be termed in social sciences) research. This gives me hope that one day I'll be able to do something similar, pitching a panel from the intersection of social science research and games that I think people at PAX might want to see more about.

I think the panel should be great but it's perhaps a bit, as you point out, heavy in science in the description and certainly in the title. I wonder what that means for the audience who doesn't know to expect the full structure and content of the panel as it concerns more of an discussion of the scientific literature from a philosophical/ethicist base.

@bacongames: Yes and no. We both do empirically based research. And there will basically be two halves to the panel, as implied by the title. The first will be a straightforward presentation of some science. The second is an argument about diversity drawn from the scientific data. But even in the transition to philosophy, the data remains central. As far as the description, PAX has rather tight word-count restrictions with these things. We tried to be as clear as possible. It is important that the centrality of the data and the fact that part of the panel will be its presentation had to be made clear, which I think we achieved. But data is not self-interpreting, and the two parts of the title as well as the description moving from science to mentions of lessons drawn from the science should indicate philosophy will come in at some point. But I appreciate the observation. We have a few days to make changes before the schedule is finalized and it is good to know what someone else sees in the description.

But at the end of the day, this is going to be a serious talk but not a presentation for other academics. I don't want to confuse or turn away people by bogging down the description with labels for different academic fields that are probably not relevant for the audience. PAX also encourages people to treat these things like teasers that get people to come to panels and find out the rest of the story. So ours should read something like "come for this science and stay to find out what we are going to say about the meaning of it."

Bumpity-bump

I think @brad might also be interested in this panel as well though I don't know what the schedule for the GB PAX panel is going to be. Hopefully it won't be the same day. Also a bit of a short notice but duders from the GB community coming to watch might be able to help out with being able to archive this talk in some form.

@gaspower: They said the GB Panel will be on Friday.

@paul_tillich: I'll be there! That sounds like a fascinating topic and a novel way of approaching it. I wish you could archive it so it would be easy to share.

Are you both going to be presenting a thesis or a paper on gaming communities or is this panel going to be the extent of your presentation?

@gaspower: That would be awesome. I expect nothing, but appreciate everyone recommending this to the guys.

@corevi: Ah, thanks for clarifying!

I personally can't be there but I hope some GB duders can help out with archiving the talk in some form if possible.

I won't be able to be there but if there's an archived version I'd like to watch as I was a philosophy major and both philosophical anthropology and ethics/morality are two areas I would like to spend more time studying, particularly on how more recent discoveries from the natural sciences has impacted our understanding of them.

@paul_tillich: It's a bit of an imposition, but I'd love it if you could inquire with some GB duders (or anyone else you personally know that will attend PAX) to get someone to do an amateur recording of the panel. Like I said earlier in the thread, I won't be able to attend this year but I'd love to still be able to see the panel.

@thatpinguino: Neither of our dissertations deal with video games. Andrew has published a few papers in edited books about images and the creation of identity, analyzing imagery from comics and games to help better understand some religious communities. There is a good chance we will speak about this in the future, but nothing is currently in progress. But depending on how this goes, I may increase my online presence on the topic. I've had a desire to do more public work for a while, since academics often speak only to one another and never reach real people. I'm not sure what form that will take, but if I start doing more relevant stuff I'll mention it here.

What I'm thinking is this: obviously those who have responded to this post are a tiny fraction of GB users. However, the desire for an archive has already come up several times. If people are really interested, I can inquire with a friend who regularly records and archives videos of theology conferences and get advice for making an archive of this panel. Alternatively, if anyone attending PAX East is able and interested in making a recording of the panel, respond here or send me a message on the site. I'll probably be able to get you in the panel a little early for any setup and to get a good spot for the filming. Responses will be considered in order from those able to make a decent amateur video to anyone willing to sit there and record the thing on their phone.