Presentation
Now that I have a good amount of research in regards to my topics, I now need to condense all of this information down into a digestible, 8 minute presentation. The main challenge to approach with this is being selective with all of the information I've learned - there are many different things I am interested in in regards to my topics, so isolating those things specifically while also giving a clear picture of what the topic even is is actually quite difficult. I think the best plan of approach is to try to organise the presentation in priority order, going from least favourite to favourite, which would be: Alchemy -> Weather -> Norse Mythology -> Simulation Theory.
I'm not particularly fond of only having 8 minutes to do it because there are so many things I want to talk about but here goes nothing.
Alchemy:
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Importance of metals
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Hierarchy of metals
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Chrysopoeia (transmutation)
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How it is technically possible but highly impractical
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The Philosopher's Stone
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What it does and what it actually is
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Elixir of Immortality
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What it does, what it's made of
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Panaceas
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What it does, what it's made of
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Weather and Natural Phenomena:
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I'm going to list off natural phenomena revolving around awe specifically since these will be way more interesting, I won't waste my time speaking about mundane forms of weather.
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Inspiration from No Man's Sky
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How unscripted encounters evoke awe in an otherwise mundane game.
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Glowing Oceans
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How it occurs and the life behind it.
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Coloured Sandstone
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How it forms, factors necessary to reveal.
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Volcanic Lightning
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How it occurs
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Norse Mythology:
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Myth of creation
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Ymir, Audumbla and Buri
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Muspelheim, Niflheim, and Gunningagap
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Cosmological beliefs
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The nine realms and Yggdrasil
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Ragnarok and its subsequent events
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Norns instigating Ragnarok with winter
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Nidhogg breaking free
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Fenrir breaking free, slaying Odin
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Jormungand releases tail, he and Thor slay eachother
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Skall and Hati catch up to and consume the sun and moon
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Surt and his army will erupt from the sky
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World sinking into the ocean, cosmos ends
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Runes
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Different variations
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Specific runes having specific meanings
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Inherently magical nature
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'Alu' and its meaning, inscriptions
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Runes as a consequence of existence, higher meaning.
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Odin hanging from Yggdrasil for 9 days to understand them
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Simulation Theory:
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Cultural interpretations of illusory reality
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The Butterfly Dream
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Maya
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Teotl
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Who would simulate us and why?
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Creator God
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Post humans
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Something abstract
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Hacking the simulation
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Implications of modifying reality for our benefit
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Body modification
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Rewriting physics
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Curing disease
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Murder
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How could we break free of the simulation?
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Would we be a virus if we did?
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With these talking points in mind, I think it's going to be really difficult to actually speak about my interests without needing to give context and a foundation for the audience to understand. For example, I don't think I can talk about Ragnarok without giving the audience an understanding of the Norse myth of creation and Yggdrasil, so it's going to be hard to cover everything.
Introductory Slides
The introductory slides are simple enough, I'm going to give the name of the topic and give a little snippet as to why I chose that specific subject.
I chose Alchemy for its connection to magic and the occult, I chose Weather/Natural Phenomena because I was inspired by awe and No Man's Sky, I chose Norse Mythology again for its connection to magic, as well as the mysteries behind runes and the gods, and I chose Simulation Theory for the existentialism it brings, as well as the implications it has on the way we see our own reality.
Alchemy
For metals, I'm not going to go into too much detail as I'd be speaking about it for too long.
Specifically, I want to address how Alchemists believed that these metals all had their own spiritual meaning, how they were structured hierarchically (with gold at the top, and elements like copper far below).
I'll also briefly mention how the metals were often represented by astronomical symbols and icons.
I'll then segue into Chrysopoeia, or transmutation to begin speaking about the core concepts of alchemy.
I won't need long on this slide, as it simply a matter of telling the audience what it means, and how it was one of the ultimate goals of alchemy (to transmute metals into gold). I'll also briefly mention how transmutation has connections with spirituality and becoming 'better' and 'more pure'.
For the Philosopher's Stone, I'm going to go over how it was a major concept in Alchemy; how it was believed that it would grant unending wisdom and knowledge.
I'll briefly mention that it wasn't actually a stone, rather a liquid substance that took on a striking red colour.
For the elixir of immortality, I'll briefly go over how it was sought for its immortality granting effects.
I'll briefly mention the Chinese white hare in the picture, and how there are other variations to alchemy.
For Panaceas, I'll mention how it was a common belief that a 'miracle cure' existed that could cure any disease or ailment.
These slides and their commentary absolutely doesn't cover a lot, nor does it go into detail, but I feel like it's necessary to quickly go over the most basics aspects of alchemy to avoid eating up too much time for the subjects I'm more interested in, so I think this should suffice.
Weather and Natural Phenomena
This slide is all about laying the floor for why I'm so interested in natural phenomena.
Unscripted encounters in video games (I'll use No Man's Sky as an example) can create incredibly impactful moments in otherwise mundane experiences due to how rare and unexpected they are.
I'll briefly go over how this is why I wanted to look into more awe-inspiring things.
For the glowing ocean page, I'll go over how this phenomena occurs when certain types of plankton are agitated by the oncoming waves, and (if I have enough time) I'll quickly run over how bioluminescence actually works.
I'll quickly go over how it is otherworldly and completely out of the ordinary, and how that can invoke awe.
I'll mention how the rainbow patterns are caused by different minerals forming as layers over thousands of years, and how erosion has exposed them.
I'll go over how volcanic lightning forms (static electricity being built up through the dust within the plumes) and how rare this type of phenomena is.
Norse Mythology
For the Norse creation myth, I'll go over how the three realms of Muspelheim (the primordial world of fire), Gunningagap (the void before the universe) and Niflheim (the primordial world of ice) came together to begin the Norse myth of creation.
As a note, these pictures aren't the ones I meant to use for this, I copied the pictures from a simulation theory slide so I could keep the dimensions consistent but I forgot to change it before I did the presentation.
For this part of the creation myth, I'll mention how Ymir was the first being, formed by fire meeting ice, and how Audumbla provided Ymir with nourishment, as well as how Audumbla freed Buri, the ancestor of all gods, from salty rime stones by licking him free.
I'll mention how Buri had a child named Bor, and how Bor was the father of Odin.
For Yggdrasil, I'll speak about how it is the place that holds the cosmos together, and how it holds all of the nine realms within its structure.
I'll mention briefly what beings inhabit each realm and a little bit of context behind the inhabitants. For example, I'll say that Asgard is home to the Aesir tribe of gods and how it is the highest of the nine realms.
For the Ragnarok pages, I'll briefly go over a few of the major events that will occur and the implications said events have on the cosmos.
For runes, I want to speak about how there are a few major variations of the runic alphabet, and that each rune has a specific meaning tied to it as well as their respective letter.
I'm also going to use the phrase 'alu' as an example while talking about runes being used for magical purposes.
Finally, I want to talk about how runes may be a consequence of the universe, and how Odin himself had to hang from Yggdrasil in solitude for 9 days just to read them.
Simulation Theory
I'll begin simulation theory by outlining what it actually is, and how 'simulation' doesn't necessarily mean 'digital' or 'computerised'.
I'll mention that it is absolutely nonsense and false, but that I still find it interesting to question the nature of our reality and that it may not be what it seems.
Next, I'll talk about how simulation theory is not actually a new concept - I'll talk about how people have questioned the true nature of reality and how it is filtered by our brains for millennia.
I'll speak about three ancient concepts: The Butterfly Dream, Maya, and Teotl to outline how a few different cultures perceive the potentially illusory nature of our reality.
This slide is about the purpose behind a potential simulated reality, and some of the potential beings behind such a simulation.
I'll touch on the potential motives each of the three beings would potentially have, and whether or not a god could exist as a result of the simulation, or whether god would exist as the one running it.
To finish, I'll talk about the most interesting part of simulation theory, to me.
I'll speak about how it could be possible to modify ourselves, down to our very genetics. We could erase people, give ourselves superpowers or even rewrite physics.
I'll also speak about 'breaking out' of the simulation, and how we'd be more like a virus than a person.
Reflection and Peer Feedback
To put it simply, I felt that the presentation went quite badly - I wasn't able to even begin talking about the final slide and I found myself tripping over my words because there is so much to talk about in such a short space of time. I know short-form presentations force us to be quick and concise, but I had to sacrifice a lot of the things I'm actually interested in in order to give the audience context and a foundation of understanding. Perhaps that was just the wrong decision and I didn't need to do that, but I felt as though it would just confuse people if I didn't. I definitely dawdled a little bit going over Norse creation and Alchemy; I tried to give a little more information than necessary, leading to me running out of time. That's something to learn from however.
Next time, I think I won't actually give a foundation to the audience. Instead, I'll actually talk about what I'm interested in and see how that goes instead.
While each person was presenting, we used Node Noggin to give feedback and potential research avenues. I personally did not like this at all, and would have much preferred a few minutes for people to actually ask questions and talk about it verbally. Looking at the feedback on Node Noggin isn't entirely helpful for that reason, as I found that there is a lot of useless information here that is either just reiterating what I spoke about, or things I don't really understand because I didn't get the chance to have dialogue with the person giving feedback. Unfortunately, some genuine feedback regards things I've already looked into (e.g causes of natural phenomena, meaning behind each element in alchemy, looking into Loki and the Norns).
There are, however, a few titbits of things I didn't consider prior to conducting research. I like the suggestion of looking into the types of simulations humanity has actually created. It seems like a common sense thing to research into, but for some reason I kind of glossed over this when I should've actually looked into it. The feedback I find valuable is:
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Simulated realities that already exist
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Procedural generation (not entirely sure how its relevant, but I think its worth looking into)
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Visiting Old Wardour Castle or Stonehenge for runes (even though Stonehenge doesn't have anything regarding runes, at least when I went there)
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Adam suggested making sure that I look into the actual science behind simulation theory (there isn't actually that much, but I already have some scientific research so furthering that shouldn't be too hard)
Obviously I won't actually use the feedback for topics outside of simulation theory, but it's helpful nonetheless.
The final part of this exercise was to vote on the topics we, as the audience, we most interested in in regards to the presenter. Simulation theory got the most votes, but I think people voted more than once, so alchemy may have won out actually. Regardless of what people voted for, I was always going to go with simulation theory, but its nice to know my peers have a good interest in the topic as well, so I know I'm going forward with a strong topic.