In game theory, games can be classified as being of either "perfect information" or "imperfect information". In games of perfect information, all the game data is available to all players at all times. Examples of this include Chess, Checkers and Go, where the pieces on the game board are visible to both players throughout the game and the exact outcome of every move can be determined given enough time and computational resources. Contrary to these are games of imperfect information which rely (often partially) on "hidden data" or "luck" such as most card games.

Just came back from watching this movie and I must say it totally rocks!

Leonardo DiCaprio seems to be going for a different kind of plots; I mean 'Shutter Island' and now this? In 'Inception', DiCaprio plays the role of professional mind-breaker or an 'extractor' who can join people in their dreams and direct the course of events to expose the secrets of the minds he's trying to hack. The twist is when DiCaprio is hired to do something of much more difficulty ... implanting an idea is somebody's mind!


When I watch a movie of this complexity it really makes me wonder whether plot writers and directors take into account the fact that if most people can't follow up on the story line and make the connections, the movie is gonna fail. The way I see it, presenting a content of this complexity on screen either assumes that the average Joe has a grasp of philosophical concepts like Brain in a vat and understand the basic reasoning behind virtualization, or that the movie is gonna play for computer scientists exclusively!

Anyways, not to say that it bothers me, au contraire I find it brilliant that a share of directors cater for those of us who enjoy complex themes. I must also express my admiration for the level of details brought up by the plot (time perception in dreams, inter-reality signaling and the butterfly effect to mention few). The director, Christopher Nolan, is also the man behind Memento and The Prestige.

Too bad I was starving and had some salted popcorn which upset my stomach. Judging by the ads it seems we're on to a lot of good movies this summer!

You arrive at the office in the morning, turn on your computer and while it boots you grab your mug and head to the office corner where you store Nescafe, Coffemate and sugar. You fill in the ingredients of your favorite cup of coffee, put some water in the kettle and heat it up. You then take the kettle back to your desk only to find that there's no mug.

You're really surprised ... who could have dared to touch stuff on your desk let alone take something out?

You begin to make up scenarios in which this could have happened; have you been acting extra nice to people at work so that perhaps one of them thought it was Ok to borrow your mug? did the cleaner think it was junk and threw it away? or is someone in the office trying to play some sick joke?

You panic and decide to take a look around the office to see if your precious mug lies on someone's desk or worse in some bin. Your colleagues notice you going around and ask what's going on. You tell them your mug is missing. They ask when was the last time you used it. You say you've seen it  only YESTERDAY and you stayed at the office till 1am last night and was the last to leave, which means that whoever took it did it overnight.

You keep looking around till you come back to the same office corner where you store your Nescafe ... the same spot where you left your mug exactly 10 minutes ago.