20 Questions - 1 Answer

We have one of these 20 questions games that stays in the car to keep the kids occupied. It can be quite addictive when you start playing it. The concept is simple. The game asks 20 questions, which you answer yes, no, or sometimes by pushing the appropriate button, and then attempts to guess what you are thinking of. It amazes me how often it's correct.

The wife and I went out to eat last night and as we're pulling out of the parking lot I pick up the game and start playing it (she's driving...I don't have the control issues most men have...except with the tv remote). As I'm thinking of something for the game to guess she says, "Oooo, I like that dress." I look up and see two ladies walking across the parking lot wearing dresses so I ask, "Which dress?" She points out the window and says, "That one." Since the two ladies were walking side by side "that one" didn't clear it up any for me. After 14 years of marriage we still have communication issues sometimes, so I decided to clear this up and asked, "Is it the short dress on the girl with the blond hair and or is it the long dress on the girl not wearing any underwear?" Hey, the dress fit well and it was obvious she was wearing a thong, th-thong,thong, thong (read to the tune of the thong song) or going commando! It was the long dress...and yes I got that look she gives me when she's trying to act unamused but I can tell by that little hint of a sparkle in her eye that she really is.

Well, now I have a something for the game to guess...no, not dress...butt. There's no way this little artificially intelligent game will ever guess butt! The questions begin and I read them out loud to my wife as they scroll across the screen on the game. We get tickled at several of the questions asked and have a hoot (hoot?...I'm a dork!) of a time on our ride home laughing and answer some interesting questions. As we do this it's interesting how differently we will answer the same questions without trying to "deceive" the game. One question, "Do you use it at work?" She immediately answers no. I argue that being a firefighter I use mine a lot sitting around waiting for something to catch on fire and she uses hers on the rare occasions that she gets to sit down at her desk during the day. We answered that one, "sometimes." Another one, "Do you put it into something?" I immediately answer no. She argues that when you put on pants you're putting it into something. Good point... we answered that one yes. It asked 18 more questions that we laughed at and "argued" about until it makes it's final guess.

Amy's pointed out to me before that she thinks we answer differently sometimes because we're each looking for something different out of the game. I want to stump it because I like being a little mysterious, misunderstood, and uncategorized; she wants it to guess correctly because she is amazed at the fact that something with "artificial intelligence" CAN do this. When she shared this with me it was like the scales fell from my eyes. I never considered that someone would WANT it to guess correctly. In my mind the whole idea was to beat the game. Neither one is wrong we're just looking for different results.

I guess you could say we want different relationships with the game. I could spend a lot of time and effort to show her that my relationship is better and convince her to do it my way eventually, but would she have the same amount of enjoyment out of the game? Probably not. We are different people.

As husband and wife (the smallest of communities) we have joint desires and expectations of the game, but as individuals we have our own desires and expectations of the game. We enjoyed the game more together as a "community" because of our differences as individuals. We individually enjoyed the game, we enjoyed the game together, and we enjoyed each other through our common interest in the game without giving any thought to who was right or wrong. Maybe because the focus was on the game and not the players.

Oh yeah, you're probably wondering what answer the game guessed...



*BUTT*

Stupid Game!