We Played Timothy Leary's 1985 Video Game So You Don't Have To

This video originally aired as Patreon-only content. Check us out on Patreon at www.patreon.com/psymposia

Neşe, Mike, and Normie play and review "Timothy Leary's Mind Mirror."

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from YouTube's captions, then cleaned up by removing filler words, repeated words and background sounds. It may still contain errors.

[00:00] Welcome back. Today we're going to be breaking out some of our Patreon only content from behind the payw wall for you. If you like what you see, you can find exclusive content like this on the end of most of our main feed episodes uploaded to Patreon. There you can also find early access content to most of everything we upload for free here on YouTube. You can also find exclusive merchandise, group chats, and a bunch of other stuff there on Patreon. You can find us there at patreon.com/psymposia. Before we start today's video, I just wanted to shout out some of our supporters here. For the sake of everyone's privacy, I'll just be using first name, last initial, unless you have some kind of interesting bespoke username you want me to shout out here on stream.

[00:51] Today we've got Kyle N, Tad H, Holly H, Michelle M. Kurt S, Joe Obie, Lil Ring, Marty O, and Jim Q. Thank you so much for your support. We couldn't do this without you. Today, we're going to be bringing you a fun one. Mike, Nache, and Normie played through some of Timothy Liry's Mind Mirror game, a video game from the 80s that I would say we gave fairly mixed reviews of. So enjoy. Welcome to Timothy Liry's Mind Mir. That's great. Wait, you have like a great like announcer voice. I can try I can practice it, you know, and use it in real life. We should. Yeah. Like as a character almost like lean into it.

[01:37] Yeah. It's so awkward to like do it without like pretending and making fun though, you know? Look at this. It is very bizarre. Hey, George. George, did you tell them that your birthday is on Saturday? Oh my god. How old is he? 25. One nine. 19. Unbelievable. My cat knocked over my full large coffee today and I was just Oh no. She's just such an [expletive] sometimes, like on purpose, cuz she was laying on my lap and I was like annoyed cuz it was hot and like her claws and so I just like pushed her off and then she jumped on my desk and smacked my coffee off. I was like, "Dude, I'll teach you." [expletive] you. Yeah. But then they gave me a free one.

[02:23] They're like, "Oh, it's okay. It's a spill policy." I was like, "Thank you." Oh, they're just like right there. And I'm a secret. You want to be cute? A I want a cat reaction emoji. He's purring so loud. I like how he's keeping his ears back like cutely. Yeah. Oh, you always going to do it. That's how I hold them. Pathetic. That's what he is. George, you don't look old. Do a smile. [laughter] He just lets you do whatever. Oh, yeah. Oh, dude. My cat would be like biting my face off right now. George, he is the most sweet, gentle that when I get mad with him, I feel bad so fast because I'm like terrible person who has I could never say that about my cat. My cat is so not sweet or gentle.

[03:09] Oh, no. I mean, I love her. She can be sweet, but her personality is generally an [expletive] Okay. Hello everybody. Welcome back to the channel. Last time on the Patreon exclusive, we were playing Jeopardy with Russ's questions on the psychedelic industry and games and things like that. And a game came up as one of the answers called Timothy Liry's mind mirror. So, we thought it'd be fun to do another little recording on playing through at least some of it. We don't really know anything about it. We're going in pretty cold. I have it here on Steam. It doesn't work very well. So, it's going to be an interesting experiment to see how we can screen share it. But, let's kind of talk a little bit about some of the history. So, first of all, it came out in 1985 originally for the Atari 8bit.

[03:58] They ported it to PCs like the Commodore 64, the Apple 2, and now it's just on Steam. It was like five bucks if you want to take a look. But yeah, let's get into it. Let's share here. All right. So, sophisticated head games. Yeah, this is it's telling me I have options, but it looks like I just have to hit return to begin the game. So, let's see what happens. So, no one Oh, okay. Okay. Disclaimer. Several hundred public figures and historical personages. Good to know. So, for people who are only listening, the disclaimer says, "In this program, you will find references and statements attributed to several hundred public figures and historical personages. All such statements attributed to living persons are fictional. They are intended as gentle satire and provocative humor.

[04:46] In no case is there any implication that the statements reflect the true sentiments of the alleged speaker. The 2,000 situations portrayed in the simulations mode are totally fictitious and do not refer to actual events. Thus, return to continue. We'll see about that. A lot's happened in the last 40 whatever years. Do I wish to use a joystick? No, I do not. Can I say no? All right. Here we go. Wow. Is it loading? Am I going into the void? Am I tripping? Can I go [laughter] faster? But we're getting there. All right. Okay. Mirrors should reflect a little before throwing back images. A quote by Jean Cockto. So, is that one of those quotes that's not really?

[05:31] Yeah, I don't know. We don't know. We don't know if it's real. All right, let's pick a play level. Beginner exercises to learn thought modification and use of mind maps. Intermediate suggested topics for mind scoping including some coaching. Master, you're on your own. No coaching. Choose autoplay or interplay. Professional consulting for the psychologist, personnel manager, and teacher or student. Wow, I feel like we're professionals here. We're professionals, right? Do we want any of the initial coaching? What do you think it I don't even know what it could mean. I'm indifferent. I was wondering if we should maybe go through it in order. I was thinking beginner might be interesting just to see like how they frame what's going on here. Yeah, maybe we can like back out of it and then, you know, if we don't like it or whatever, we can I don't know how long this game is either.

[06:19] It might take years. I don't know anything about this. [laughter] I have no idea what's about to happen. Me neither. This is very Yeah. Well, okay. We're beginner to the game. We'll go with beginner for now. Okay. Select our goal. Mind tools, psychological insights, career productivity, learning skills, or mind to play. Significant pursuits, sophisticated headphone, thought games. I kind of like head fun. I think head fun. Mind play. Mind play for a social sophistication. Select a significant pursuit. Religious tolerance, political partying, film and TV madness, pop stars of print, the sound of music, computer games, the sporting life, in-laws and outlaws. We're playing a computer game. Let's do a little computer games. [laughter] Okay. Computer games. Was it Alan Turing who said the computer business in 1986 is like the automobile industry of 1921?

[07:11] You got big manufacturing companies, brash Detroit executives without a clue, nerd engineers, brigades of salesman armies of enthusiast users who are into computers, and of course the business users. They all know the applications of the personal electronic automobile. or do they? Please select an exercise. One, computer stars compare computer industry greats. Two, computer software compare computer games. What do you think? I'm confused about all of it, dude. I have no idea what's going on. Let's do games again. Yeah, we're already on the meta thing. This is like reading a book. I think it mo it's appears to be text based, but I thought I saw some screenshots of it like graphics. Yeah, I think there might be later. We'll see. By 1990, personalized computers clearly were extensions of the mind.

[07:58] Indispensable head tools to clarify thinking and communication. Everyone save a few lovable wood pulp eccentrics drove around in customized headwear programs monitoring their priv private Moss' mind operating systems. Recall the quaint applications of software of the 1980s. Unwieldy, impersonal lumbering data trucks. Wow, this is funny in the age of AI now. Enter the standard program. Enter the name of a software program from the 1980s. Okay. Anyone have anything? Can I say this name? Can I say the G name of the game? [laughter] Doss. DOSs would work. MS DOS. Let's try. Let's see. M. Timothy Larry's Mind Mirror. You're going to [expletive] with this. Oh, it's not going to work. Let's try MS DOS.

[08:44] I don't even know if that's actually from the 80s. It's got to be ideal program. Enter the name of your ideal program. This is weird. Something that's not unwieldy, impersonal, or lumbering. SOX. SOS. Okay. Whoa. Did you hear that? Yeah. Okay. Use these modifiers to qualify the thought you were scoping. Check MS DOS on these scales. Whining. Never, rarely, often, or always. Spacebar flips between plain talk and shrink wrap. Psychological words. Cursor left and cursor right move the scope arrow across the scale. Cursor down moves you to the next scale. Cursor up allows you to revise a scale. Control-r retrieves a subject previously saved. What the hell are you talking about?

[09:30] I don't want a whining operating system. Yeah. Never. Wait. Spacebar flips between plain talk and shrink wrap. What do you think that means? Okay. So, I can just shrink wrap is like a term for Yeah. psychological like normie words. Gotcha. So, complaining is the nice is the psychological way to say whining. Okay. So down goes the next scale. Is it lowkey aka tranquil? I would say often, right? Why not? The word lowkey in the 1980s, I guess. Oh, yeah. Inventive and ingenious. Let's say it's often, right? Cuz it's like if you're too like No absolutes, Mike. It's like sometimes you want some predictability and stuff. Yeah. Yeah.

[10:15] All right. Often is good. Let's see. Free living or social maverick? Go with free living. How much? A kick. For me personally, it'd be between often and always. Yeah, I think that too. Let's see. Social nobody. Insignificant? No, that's kind of antithetical to that. Rarely insignificant. Why would you want to be ins? Yeah. Sophisticated or cosmopolitan? How many are these? Let's Let's go with this one again. Peppy, hyper manic. I would go with never on hyper manic. Well, peppy doesn't mean hyper manic in my opinion, but whatever. Organized and efficient. Something like that. Yeah. I don't know because sometimes if you're like too focused on efficiency, it's at the cost of stuff that ends up being useful but wasn't efficient.

[11:05] So maybe true. Let's put it Let's give it a little meme. I don't think we have any idea. I think the shade just revealed the secret mind. Proper pillar of the community. What does that mean? How are proper How is pillar of the community a shrink wrapped word for proper? Isn't that how like chuna and maps describe? Yeah. What do you think? Rarely. What's the other option? These are the same. I don't really understand the difference between these, but it's to be like Yeah. synonyms in like code systems. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I'm really indifferent about all this here. I I'm just ready to get to the next thing. We're on exercise too still. Sweet or congenial? Always. Always sweet. Closeminded.

[11:51] This is the game, Mike. This literal minded. This is the Mike doesn't realize this. [laughter] Cocky. Never. Okay. How about confident is different, right? What's the alternative? Hottie. Yeah, true. Hottie. Yeah. Like confident without being hottie. Yeah, absolutely. Sad. or melancholic. I would do sad rarely. Yeah. Sometimes it's like appropriate. Yeah. Yeah. Shy and passive. This one. Knowledgeable and intelligent. Always. Gung-ho and wholehearted. Sometimes that's annoying. Let's go this one. Oh, finally. All right. What's next? Now, describe SOS. Okay. These are going to be like AIs that are like going to talk to each other or something. Bossy and dictatorial for SOS. I don't know.

[12:36] We gota you gota sometimes wants to show it's the boss. It's not dictatorial though. We'll go with almost never. Rowdy or rebellious. Yeah, I agree. At least that one. Complete agreement. By the book and narrow-minded. Come on. Those aren't synonyms. Yeah. Get rid of this. Yeah. Get out of our operating [laughter] system. Intense and agitated. Ooh, that's tough cuz I mean intense is can be good, but agitated kind of has a bad connotation. Yeah, we'll do the one. Let's do rarely. Come on. Yeah. Okay. This one again. Most of the time I would say cute and eager to please. Come on. Cute. I would go with Q in right there. Eager to please. I don't like eager to please. So, what do we have to do?

[13:22] We have to do Q. And according to the according to this programming, it's sort of equating cute and eager to please. And if okay but eager to please is really not okay. Do we have to then weigh down as well? Yeah, I think so. It's a really misogynistic framing of cute, you know, like I feel like that's a self-report on L's part. Timothy Lir's idea of cute. Yeah. [laughter] What we're seeing here is like the biases that are put into the operating system. Easily they slip in. I would go Yeah. Okay. Let's do that one. Imaginative and original. Always. Straight arrow and inhibited. Never organized and efficient. Most of the time.

[14:09] Yeah. Didn't we already have this? Yeah, but these are def different entities, right? Different softwares. Happy and euphoric. Oo, somewhere in the middle here. I would say it's in the middle. You don't always want I mean, yeah, it's high middle. If you're always happy, you don't know what happiness is. Yeah, totally. VIP, aristocratic. Probably not very often. Square, small town, but grumpy and hostile. What do you think? I think there's a benefit of being hostile clearly. High middle. Don't want to say often being often hostile. I would go with step. You want to preserve your hostil, right? And for the occasions that it's necessary. Okay. I feel like you ideally don't need to use it all the time.

[14:57] Yeah. I feel like I feel it should be lower than that. Rarely. Do we have to do grumpy or do you switch? They're the same. Grumpy and hostile are the All right. We don't want to be like usually grumpy. No. And never dumb or ignorant. Laid-back, low energy. Those aren't either. That's not fair. Rarely. Yeah. encouraging and nurturing at least almost always, right? Yeah, maybe go back. Oh, well, it's programmed forever. Okay, down. Yeah, because we don't want to be like chat GPT, right? And it's always Yeah. Sycopantic. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. What's next? Here's what you came up with. MS DOS is easygoing, over friendly, visionary, and uninhibited.

[15:45] SOS is enthusiastic, friendly, visionary, and non-conformist. All right, these words summarize the results of your mind scope. A more precise reflection is available in the mind maps of each thought plane. Press return for details. Press control P to print screen. I don't think I need to print this. Okay, the mind maps. This is where I think graphics might come in. Keys F1 through F4 flash the mind maps derived from the thought scales just completed. If a subject is extreme, it's plotted away from the center. If it's moderate, close to the center. Oh, I couldn't tell the difference between common period there. You can view these mind maps anytime after completing the skills. Press return to continue. Okay. The first thought plane you've created is bio energy, I.e. life force, mood, vitality, and temperament. You have scoped simpos as a much as much more energetic than dos.

[16:33] And you have scoped simpos about as cheerful. Press F1 to see the mind map of bio energy. Let's do it. Ooh. Ooh. Okay. Spacebar flips words. Okay. So, this is simpos, right? Oh, one and two. Okay. Yeah. So, MS DOSS is down there. Easy going. I'm not sure I understand the Is this based on the actual MS DOSs? No, this is just what we Yeah. Our answers. Oh, and then what are we comparing it to then? So, one is MS DOS and two is SimpOS based on all which I didn't realize that we were doing today. I didn't either. No, I had no idea. That's why I'm like we're comparing it to nothing. [laughter] Yeah, we're comparing it to our the same thing we just made. Okay, cool. Well, let's return and exit the plot. I guess the first thought plane is that it return.

[17:22] The second thought plane you've created is emotional insight, interpersonal style, and angle of approach to others. You have scoped MSTOS is slightly more forceful than simpos and you have scoped MSOS is much more friendly. Press F2 to see the mind map of emotional insight. F2. Real advanced stuff. I don't remember I don't understand the going in like closer to the target. What do they say about that? Wait, this scale is okay. Well, are we like very So is it like because friendly is opposite irritable? Yeah. So there it's like going on that axis. Yeah. Yeah, I see. Okay. Friendly and over friendly are synonyms, I guess. Cool. So we're I didn't know what we which one we were doing, so I'm very confused. So one number one is MS DOS on this, right?

[18:10] Number two is simposs. And based on we did both of those. So we answer the questions for each and it is now comparing what we've decided each of these softwares traits are. Maybe the first one is Psymposia while we were working with the rest of the field and then we le Yeah, maybe Stimpos is the evolution of All right. What's next? Yes, we already know. It's probably going to do this for all of them. No. Yeah, but I don't know how far this goes. Let's Let's just do it. Let's do this fast. How many? F3. Okay, so they're both innovative and wellinformed overall. Visionary know-it-alls almost. Visionary, not know-it-all. Whatever. Fine. Can I just skip to F4? I can. Social interaction. So, Simpos is uninhibited and non-conformist and MS DOSs is a little bit closer to puran puritanical and moralistic.

[19:06] Fine. F5. Oh, that's it. Social interaction. F4 to see it. I did. That's it. [laughter] I think we can't go further. Is there a way to get back to the original? Yeah. I didn't realize we were programming both of them. Yeah. [laughter] None of us did. So, like all of these answers, it's like a combination of both of these. Yeah. But am I are we stuck? Continue. Aha. Okay. So, that was a beginner mode. Let's save the personality of SOS. We'll choose the A drive. I don't have a floppy disc. Or do I? All right. see what happens. Okay. Well, maybe it's saved. I don't Do we want to play life simulation or return to the main menu? Let's go hard mode. I want to see what's in hard mode. At least this time I know. So So on that one, we were supposed to be when the for the MS DOS, we were supposed to be putting the attributes that we thought it had of the clunky envisioning that clunky system.

[20:02] Yeah, let's do it. What do you think autoplay or interplay means on this one? We're going master. I don't know what weirdness from his mind. Well, interplay maybe is multiple people. I don't know cuz autoplay that would be they would be people sharing a keyboard though, but I don't know. Autoplay. I don't know. What do you think? Master professional consulting. Neither of them are professional. All right, let's do it. Select the area of professional consulting you wish to explore. Wait a minute. This is different. Are these just different game types or they're not like difficulty levels? Just this one. Autoplay one person. Your mind scope and reflect. You were right. It's up to four players. Well, let's do that. Maybe select your team. Oh, I did. Okay. It's funny how it's like it's almost like simulating it being slow like the 80s. Like it obviously doesn't need to blow like that forever.

[20:49] Okay. Player one, Mike. Player two, Neşe. Player three, Normie. Player four, no. You got four or you can just do three? Yep. Looks like I can just do a blank. Now, enter the name of the person, place, or concept you wish to magnify and reflect. Should we do Psymposia again? Psymposia. Why not? We're already here. Why don't we choose a random person? Person, place, or like we could put anybody that we want. Anything. It's like something you want to like think about, right? So, it kind of makes sense to do Psymposia. We could like see how it is different. Okay, let's see. Okay, now everyone but Mike, please turn away from the terminal. Mike, press return when you're alone. I'm alone. [laughter] Oh my god, this is going to You're not going to want to sit through this without looking.

[21:35] Okay, Mike. Mark Symposie on these scales. I'll just do it and you don't get input. Okay. Okay. Lowkey or tranquil? Rarely. Close-minded or bossy? Not very often. Sweet or laid-back? Often. Straight arrow and VIP? Never. Happy or dumb. What? Happy and dumb as this. Oh, those are a different thing. Okay. Happy and euphoric. So this is just the same stuff almost dumb and hesitant never cute and proper. I'm just we're just gonna say often encouraging and sophisticated always by the book and organized. I'm realizing though this is going to be the exact same result. Like we're gonna see those mind map things and have it compare and just have it compare what we all decided it was and then Psymposia as a version of our This is like Timothy Lir's MyersBriggs like scale.

[22:31] Yeah. MyersBriggs by Timothy Liry kind of. Yeah. Okay. We'll just ram through this and see what's what else there is. Okay. Well done Mike. You can take a break. Now it's turn. Shay, press return when you're alone. You alone? Yeah. All right, we're good. Okay. Social nobody or peppy? Wait, social nobody or insignificant? Sorry. Never. Py or hyper manic? Almost never. Bossy or dictatorial? Rarely. Knowledgeable or intelligent? Always. These are different, so it's not going to compare. Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah. Cute or eager to please? Almost never. Free living or social maverick? Almost always. Whining and complaining? Never.

[23:17] Sad and melancholic. I think where you are the almost rarely. Okay. Sophisticated and cosmopolitan. Almost always. Gung-ho and wholehearted. Flaky and disorganized. Almost never. Rowdy and rebellious. Often. Imaginative and original. Always by the book and narrow-minded. You get a lot more than I got. Never. Sweet and congenial. Almost often. Intense and agitated. Often. All right. Well done, Neşe. You can take a break. Now it's Normie's turn. Normie, press return when you're alone. You alone? All right. Let's do it. All right. This is annoying now. [laughter] Okay. Whining. Same things or no? Different. I think it seems to be at least a different order.

[24:04] Yeah. I thought you had a lot more than I had. Maybe I just went through really fast. Anyway, complaining and whining. I think complaining is good, but right there is fine. This one? Yeah, complain. Complaining because things suck. VIP. VIP aristocratic. No. None of that. Pepy and hypermanic. No, none of that. Grumpy and hostile. I don't like this. This one. Okay. Middle. Gung-ho and wholehearted. Almost always. Close-minded and literal-minded. See, that's a new one. I didn't show up yet. In the shade, do you have a problem with this? Closed-minded and literal-minded. I don't think of this. I don't like this. Never. Intense and agitated. Often. Yeah. Shy and passive. Almost never. Proper and pillar of the community?

[24:50] Sophisticated and cosmopolitan? Middle. Cute and eager to please. Never. Ingenious and inventive. Less than often, I guess. Organized and efficient. Right there is fine. Straight arrow and inhibited. Almost never. Sad and melancholic. Rarely knowledgeable and intelligent often. Return to continue. All right. Well done, Normie. Now call everyone. Guys, get back to the terminal. Okay. All right. Let's see. Psymposia as seen by Mike. Enthusiastic, proud, wellinformed, and uninhibited. Psymposia is seen by Neşe. Cheerful, confident, visionary, and ultra sophisticated. Psymposia is seen by Normie. Cheerful, dominating, creative, and uncultured. Control P to print screen. All right, print this.

[25:36] It didn't do anything. Print this and send it to maps. I'm at least gonna take a screenshot. Yeah. All right, we got it. Save the personalities. Play life simulation room. We're here now. Okay, but which one do we choose? Is this the visual thing? I have no idea. Oh, let's look at yours. All right. Oh god. Novice. Play within large wind orbit on mind maps. Step-by-step head coaching directs you towards your thought goal. Experience small win orbits on mind maps. Faster play. Optional access to mind maps. No head coaching. Wizard. No wind circle. Fly by the seat of your intuition. Mind maps available only after you've completed a realm. Experienced fast. Sounds good. Yeah, let's do it. Instead of wizard was like, we don't have any information to go off of, but again, we don't have any information to go off of anyway.

[26:25] So, we probably do the same. Please enter the first name. Most people prefer to use a nickname for their subject when playing Life Simulation, especially if the subject is a concept rather than a person. Please enter the first name or nickname you would like to use for Psymposia. S. Okay, this is it. As simp, proud, wellinformed, and uninhibited. Let's see how consistently you can play this part in your life simulation. Let's see. Here we go. 1985 Spiral. What is it doing? Why do they make it take so long? It's running at eight bits. I don't even know where Atari was. What was it? Safari. Why did I say Safari? I meant you mean Atari. Atari was 8bit. My My brain glitched. Yeah, it's 8bit. All right, S. You are free to explore the first three mind realms. You may choose the realm you wish to enter.

[27:12] Remember, press the F1 through four function keys to view mind maps of the four mind realms. Might come in handy. Return to continue. Okay. Choose the realm you wish to enter. The bio energy realm where life force is destiny. The emotional insight realm. Interpersonal skills are tested or the mental abilities realm. Put your smarts to the test. What do you think? It's your choice, isn't it? Is this is you, right? Let's do mental abilities. I'm going to need your help with this though. I can't do this a lot. How will Sim in the realm of mental abilities? Your intelligence is tested. How will Sim perform? We'll find out. Oh god, this Oh wow. We got to do this all again. You can't speed this up. I don't think so. Oh, at least it is. Oh man, it slows down on the out. Yeah, that's right. [laughter] This is grueling. See if it goes back in now.

[27:57] Yeah, exactly. To impress everybody. See, our attention spans are so [expletive] up now that it's 2026. We [laughter] can't even handle like 4 seconds of spiral. Okay. The realm of mental abilities. Use cursor up and down to choose a zone of mental abilities for your exploration. Press return to make your selection. What am I looking at here? Exit this realm. A literal a literary career. A career in film. College entrance exam or school days. School days. Relive your first day at school. Confront the arcane mysteries of reading and writing. Schoolyard bedim. Your first report card. College entrance exams. Here you are tested in seven dimensions of intelligence and creativity. How well can you simulate the role of simp. A career in film. Fame, fun, fortune await. If you qualify for a job at the Video Corp, how well can you play simp in this glamorous environment?

[28:48] A literary career. You apply for your first job at a prestigious publishing house. How does simp perform on the tests and interviews or leave? I like the idea of schoolyard bedlin. Let's see how Oh, what is that? Hi ya. Stars and starlets. Universal Productions is filming S on the first day at school. They want you to be the star. So, what's the title of your flick? Animal House goes to outer space. Academic excellence. Success in information society. The great brain robbery. Ring of mind thieves nabbed by alert kid. School days. School days. Good old golden rule days. And I guess we can do we can check how our mind maps are to see what would make the most sense. So we need to nail that circle of enthusiasm and cheerfulness it looks like.

[29:38] And then here's number two. Emotional insight. We need to be basically anything mostly proud. Mental abilities. We need to be well informed and social interaction. We need to be uninhibited. So, let's go back. It seems like to me this would be the closest, right? Academic excellence, success in the information society. Is that uninhibited, though? No. Which one was that? That was Does it really matter? Well, you're supposed to We need to Yeah, we need to get We need to get within these circles. Oh, I see. So, Oh, yeah. There's the other ones, too. Okay. So, what was the one that had the We had uninhibited and then there was one that was like more academic. Okay. Enthusiastic.

[30:23] I think it's this one. Wellinformed or know it all. So, it's going to want something like Well, maybe if you wellinformed option for this one, we can just make sure to hit an uninhibited one. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Approaching the Hman Elementary School off Terry Southern Boulevard, one is struck by the scientific purity of the landscaping. Note the stainless steel fence, the crisp cream stucco building suggesting the knowledgeable and disciplined Hman state of mind. Big moment. You have arrived at the temple of knowledge. With these Wow, that's that is a big moment. Within these walls, you will find the sacred books of human wisdom. You're about to become a student, a scholar, the Nobel Prize. Then a high bucks job with a computer firm like giant IBM or mighty electronic arts.

[31:09] Mom leads you to the first grade room. You sit behind a little desk. Mom the traitor jumps ship. Mrs. Ratchet, your teacher, starts welcome a welcoming talk. What does she look like to you? A Sunday school teacher about to pass on the word of the Lord. An intelligent professional ready to teach you the facts of life. A confused, harassed, bubble brain with stringy red hair with the wisest person in the world like a cop or a mad drill sergeant. Oh god, this one feels knowy. But since this is about someone else, Yeah. Does it affect us? Yeah, I think it's saying what does S view this teacher as based on its personality? Oh, interesting. Yeah, that's good reframing here.

[31:55] I feel like this since this is Mike's journey, we should Mike should just go based on intuition. All right, let's just let's do this one. Let's see. She's a in intellectual professional. You've been assigned a desk and issued some rectangular objects. They're pieces of paper covered with black squiggles. It's a woodpe book. An antique fiber-based storage system. How quaint. You find it confusing. Squiggles on paper. You prefer tools and dials. You snatch it eagerly. Knowledge. Someday you'll write books yourself. You look at it with re reverence. You want to memorize every word. Cool people don't lug doors stoppers around. You don't want a computer or you want a computer. Any suggestions? A two or three. Yeah. Two. Two feels closest to the personality, but that's starting to get a little boring. Dean Wormer comes in onto the playground with security guards and Louise, a 400 pound German pig.

[32:46] Dynine trained to sniff out drugs. "What do you want to be when you grow up?" he demands. A basketball player, rock musician, own a club like the Death Star Bar, a brain surgeon, a movie star, the first gay astronaut, a billionaire, a civil servant, narcotics agent, accountant, serving God and country. If I'm smart and well educated, I can write my own ticket, says you. First gay astronaut. Have to. Has anybody read Timothy's Timothy Lur's books? I've read the Yeah. Which one? I' I've read High Priest. I really like that one. And some of his other ones, but not like all the way through. I've read Psychedelic Experience. I think it's the only one that I've read. What's the one that he wrote that has like the brain like an MRI image or whatever? Like an fMRI.

[33:32] I know what you're talking about. I forget the title of it. It's like super short and thin and actually really poorly written. It's almost like he like ghost wrote it and didn't have an editor. I actually have an original of this. Oh, cool. Nice. Were you thinking of Were you thinking of this? No. Is it God? I don't recognize that title. Oh, there's also Change Your Brain. That's the one. Change your brain. Yeah, I've read that one. Yeah, this is from 64. It was weird. It was interesting to like see his perspectives and how like totally outlandish they actually were. Anyway, this is this does seem like his writing is what I was getting at. Yeah. Dean Warmer comes into the playground with security guard Louise. We already did this. As you say these words, your future is being determined.

[34:18] Your teacher is filling out your first report card. F9 to see mind map or return to continue. I'll do F9. Is this going to show us our progress? What the hell? So, so the three is the overall play. Is that progress? I think so. So, we're kind of close. We're kind of close. Not in the circle, though. Okay, let's see what happens. Oh, our report card. Hman Elementary School report card. S, Mrs. Ratchet, grade one. Academics, fill in grade A, B, C, D, or F. Press return when completed. Straight A's. I wouldn't have got straight A's in math. B. I would handwriting. I mean, what are we doing it? I don't know what we're doing. C. No C's. C's get degrees though. Okay, fine. We'll spell ABBA.

[35:04] Oh, more. Okay. Intelligent. A. So I Why am I filling out my own report card based on my own personality? Mannerly. Nah. C. Practical. Yeah. C's get degrees. That's right. Insightful. B. Yeah. Aab. Reflective. A. Be careful, Mike. Organized. C. Wide interest. Original. B. A. A. So, here you are, Einstein, walking home from school. Your report cards burning like a red hot black hole in your knickers. Hi, Mom. Hi, sweeties. How was school? Okay. What happened? Nothing. Weren't you supposed to get your report card today? Curses. The CIA demands that you produce the incriminating documents. What to do? You're unfased. You love studying and always get good grades.

[35:49] They got you wrong. How dare they say you're not manly or sincere. If they have gra If they gave grades for TV watching, you'd be a road scholar. You hand over the card reluctantly. You're not Plato, but you try harder. I'm unfair. Let's go with one. Yeah. Each school day seems How long is this going to be? Each school day seems timeless. This game did not sell many copies. I How? We should find out how many sold. Each school day seems timeless. Record for it. Yeah, there's probably. But one day you find you're one of the big kids. You're almost ready for high school. You hear the other kids in the schoolyard. I'm in school to learn. Cool. Make the deal to reinvent the wheel. Oh my goodness, I forgot my panties. News headlines. God keeps a tape of our every thought, word, and deed.

[36:35] Billy Graham. Colon cancer made president better than ever, claims White House aid. Jealous husband keeps wife chained like dog, claims White House psychic. One kiss and she went down like a sub. Masturbation, pimples, bad breath. Jeez, Tim, this is a schoolyard. Well, sweaty palms, how do you like your school peers? Too wild and confusing. You like things spelled out, right or wrong? Amusing but immature. How do they expect to get into a good college? School's cool except for this weird reading, writing, and studying stuff. Or your mind is jumping. You've love the novelty and funny weird. Amusing but immature. One day, a woman with wild tossed hair roller skates into your classroom. She's Dr. Benway, the school psychologist. You've been wonderful. She gushes to the class. I want you to check a list of darling words and decide whether they describe your school performance here at Halman Elementary.

[37:24] She passes out some papers. Part A. Check each word. Enter Y if it accurately describes your school performance. Enter N if it does not. Press return when you've completed all items. Cheerful. Yeah, we were cheerful. Painstaking? No. Oh, whoops. I have the answer for our question. Yeah. What is it? It's a So this is from a paper that was published in 2016 called the malware technical report. Timothy Lou's mind mirror a malware technical report. Okay. And they say that so this was published by Electronic Arts or put out by Electronic Arts and they say that it sold 65,000 copies in ever or like that's what it says according to as of 2016. Well, it says this is on the Wikipedia page.

[38:11] It says in 1987, Electronic Arts stated that the game sold 65,000 copies. Wow, that's a lot. What does Steam have? I wonder if they have a Do they have rating like the rating store page? Let's see. One user review needs more user reviews to generate a score. It says that on the Wikipedia it says that the reviews were mixed. It says it said that one review said that his concepts were were flawed and the game was self-indulgent, highly repetitive, and the role playing gameplay was not extensive enough to offset the statistics of the game. Couldn't agree more. I'm very bored with it. [laughter] I need to We need to just crush through this. We got to get to the end here. We all like zoom through it. Just do it like completely intuition and see what happens at the end.

[38:58] Yeah, that's what we're doing. You're at home. Dinner is over. You're laying in bed, you fall asleep, you dream, you're growing up, lots of things are happening like Alice in Wonderland. All you think about is boy, girl, sperm, egg, swollen glands. You're going through puberty. God, we're in high school now. Okay. All first and third level students with second period classes in the first du. Please fill out forms from guidance office. Take pencil. Write name of secret crush. Draw a hard round name. Write your names together. Let's face it, the most important issue in high school is the physical appearance. And it's not how you actually look, but how you feel about your looks. Think back. How did scent feel? Very attractive. A dish? A knockout? A spectacular head turner? Yeah, like it or not, everyone's major in high school was lust. What a creep. The everpresent sex factor complicates thinking.

[39:45] Learning concentration as simp. How sexually active were you? Seething untapped, bursting with unfulfilled erotic energy. Retiring, secretly interested, but no action. Antisex, basically moralistic and shocked by sexually behavior. Hot and sexually active. [expletive] a [laughter] can't choose. Right. Everybody's watching. Everybody's watching you. Yeah. Okay. Social approver. Peer pressure. Being with it. Being accepted is on everyone's mind during the anxious adolescent years. How did Sim score on the popularity scale? One of the most popular kids in school. Lots of friends. Few friends. Some feelings of inferiority. Total social isolate. Lots of friends. The teenager mind is dominated by glands, hormones, pherommones, mating, and grooming rituals. How did the everpresent sex factor affect the academic performance of synth?

[40:33] A wrote learner, funny, zany thinker with bad grades. Brilliant, disturbingly original, serious, successful student. Brilliant. I feel like that's like another weird self-report about [laughter] this whole thing is Yeah. This is Timothy Liry's mind mirror. 2001, an overheated teenage odyssey. This is blah blah blah. Do you read me? My mental programs are fine. I'm getting all A's. Forget the mental tests. I'll take all the RDW I can get. I don't know what RDW means. Tell me if RDW is code for a threeletter word ending in X. God, what a crave, dude. No, I don't understand. I'm sorry, but I can't do that, Sim. There seems to be a human error here. Apparently, you cannot think clearly when your RDW circuits are overloaded. Do you copy? Who wants to think? Turn it up, RDW. I copy.

[41:18] Blah blah blah. What's going on? Come on, I hate these silly interruptions. Life simulation computations indicate your ability to think for yourself and question authority during adolescence has been jangled by RDW. To wit subject is beautiful, sexually tormented, popular, and an Einstein. Further attempts at standard measurement impossible. Proceed to the guidance office before some serious career planning. You may need help. It's time to build a fallen farewell to William Subber's high school. Before you begin the next thrill saturated chapters of your adventurous life, please tell me this is the end. Let's say adios to Madonna. Madonna and Shawn, to Ronnie, the teacher's pet, to Dr. Benway, Jack the Ripper, and all blah blah blah, and to poor old bare-chested Bimbo. Yep, you're about to graduate, leaving behind a record of astounding mental abilities and stuff that will never be forgotten, assuming you don't lose your RD.

[42:08] By the way, RDW is the letters in the alphabet before sex. So, R, D, and then W. Did you just like crack that code in your head? It was very weak code. It was a very weak code. TFY QA is think for yourself. Question authority. Wow. Look at you all. RDW RDW. [laughter] So what? I We did it. Oh, we failed. That's what I was saying. We were sexual Einsteins that couldn't What was the result? We failed. He They Right. I'll have to go back and look at that last like that. How do we get back to it? I mean, can I don't think you can. You didn't save it to hard disk. It didn't let me the option. You didn't [laughter] save it to your floppy. I guess I couldn't. Great. Well, what do I do now?

[42:54] How do I get out of here? Exit this realm. I want to exit all these realms. There you go. You're being teleported. [laughter] We're going. So, what's our official Psymposia review of this [laughter] game? My review of this game is this game sucks. I think it's pretty terrible. I would not recommend this game to anyone. I think it's worth seeing what it was. Yeah. I question whether this was even cool at the time. Sold a lot of copies. Oh, whoa. We got Oh, here's our scorecard. Now it's telling us we were successful. We got a 88. What? Apparently. Oh, cuz this was the cuz this was the mental abilities. Yeah, that's pretty good. Yeah, not bad. High B. Okay. Press control G to save the game. Which drive? We'll do A.

[43:39] Yep. Okay. All right. Saved. Yeah. So that over keen, you know, enthusiastic sexualization of teenagers is something that also comes up in his books like High Priest for example. Really? Yeah. Was well I was teaching that one time when I was at the University of Puet Sound and I had a student get like really upset about one chapter in particular because she felt like there should have been like a content warning about the sexualization of teenagers like in that chapter. So yeah, it could affected people. So it does not make me surprised point being to see some of those, you know, sections. Yeah, I mean I guess I agree. It was a horrible game. I've played a handful of like textbased choose your own adventure games throughout my life and this was probably the worst one [laughter] ever played.

[44:31] I think the glorification of sex thing was like way over the top even for like Timothy Lies in the 80s. Like gross, dude. I was I felt gross reading some of those things. [laughter] Just weird. Also, to the point of the review you read, what is like what is this? It's like almost marketed as like this psychoanalytical like you can learn things about yourself or like learn how to understand people's minds better. But this the scores made no sense. Those circles were bizarre and like the synonyms of each trait were super wrong. I'd be curious how they programmed it. I'm going to wonder if we can find the source code or something just to see how they like put different weights in each of those terms. Anyway, awful game. Weird guy.

[45:16] Fun. It's fun to see. Yeah. Thanks for coming to Psymposia's playthrough of Timothy Liry's Mind Mirror. He does an interview. He talks about it. He talks about the game video or I think there's a video where he talks I can't watch that right now. I'm so burnt out on Timothy Larry's mind at the moment. Could be interesting to see though. Yeah, there's so many examples of Liry and people just in the psychedelic field in general who universalize their own like weird personal psychology findings like and they're like, "Oh, this is a core feature of what it is to be human." And they're actually just like spinning around in their own minds. What is it? You want to see him talk about it? How long is it?

[46:01] It's like 2 3 minutes. Okay. I'm convinced now that I see this lady. In the 60s, our next guest coined that famous phrase as he encouraged us to expand our minds with a controversial drug called LSD. 20 years later, he's still after us to explore our minds and expand them. Except now, instead of LSD, it's more likely to be with IBM. Would you welcome Dr. Timothy Liry? Hello, I'm Timothy Liry. Welcome to Mind Mirror. For about two years, I've been working on this software program. It's called Mind Mirror. It allows you to digitalize your thoughts. It's something you use yourself. I like the word appliance because an appliance is something that you use at home and it's for your own personal comfort or your personal entertainment or your personal education. It's basically it's a technique you take your old stereotypes of self or whatever it can be and see it on the screen and then you can massage that and change it.

[46:52] How would I like to be? How was I was a child? How would I be if I was a woman? You get the picture. Suddenly you from this edi concept yourself or there are 3,200 micro events from anyone's life. You're in the womb. Wow. Your first day of school. You're playing all these roles. It allows you to turning thoughts around so you can do all these things. This is based upon my PhD thesis when I was a psychologist at the University of California in 1950. In those days I learned how to digitalize thoughts about yourself and how you'd like to be and your mother and your father with the wonders of the personal computer. Yeah. You can pop your thoughts in your tired old concept. Wash them and dry them and pull them around and you can see my thoughts. I think make us smarter and happier and hopefully funnier. There's nothing that is as exciting and as engaging as mind mental intercourse.

[47:38] Remember the title. It's a mirror. Mind mental intercourse. That's what I heard. You bad. This guy is so blown out. [laughter] That's what I was going to say. I was like, whoa. Like this is coming off like fried. He's so [expletive] gone. Boy, I get a haircut. Right? Or the mirror doesn't say, "Hey Turkey, fix your tie. You have to decide that." No, no. It's your own mind. And we all have these thoughts in our mind made up of these complicated little, you know, we didn't get these graphics. I know what erector set structures and we don't know what they are. Maybe jeez, maybe people don't want to know how they're thinking. Hey, you want a mind mirror? You want to really see what's on your mind? Get out of here. Or you want show me what's on your mind. Your boot up mind mirror. Get somebody. Yeah. The ultimate is you can follow someone, you can sleep with them, have safe sex, of course, and you can get married, but the real intimacy is where you show them your personal database and show you mine.

[48:35] Oh my god, he's selling the game as a sexual thing. Imagine going to an arcade. Imagine going to an arcade and playing this. That's so creepy though cuz it's like it was described as like a party game. So it's like was he envisioning people like just having orgies playing this game on the terminal the most like compatibility based on the outputs was like determining I don't know. Oh my god. Is there to improve you can be anyone that was like do you like broke [laughter] he like broke the fourth wall there for a minute. Yeah. Is it possible to go back and look at that again? Yeah I already did. Bro, I can be anything [laughter] this time. I love my product. You know what my product is? Human mind, human hope, human enthusiasm.

[49:21] You can do anything. You can be anyone this time. What do you guys think? This was like super boomer for the 80s like you know to those kids or was this like cool? I don't think probably kids made that. No, I mean like 20-year-olds or something. Was he on the outs by that point? Was he se seen as like a really washed up like grifter dude just like reaching for relevance? And I've never heard of that. I've never heard of him falling out like in that way. Well, no, but wasn't he at like some point like seen as sort of a I just remember him being cringe when I was young cuz what year did he die? I don't know. It's a good question though. Like what? 1996. Because like during the like decades where psychedelics became very taboo, he probably didn't have as much of a social impact as he did during like the heyday, but I haven't really looked into his later trajectory.

[50:21] I just remember like because he didn't he sign up for that program or that company to like cut his head off and Oh yeah. freeze his head. Oh like preserve it, but then he didn't. But then he didn't. Yeah. Yeah. I remember that. Let's finish this. There's only another little bit. You're the first generation in human history to know how to control your own nervous system and change your own reality. Tune in and take over your own mind. Make up your own mind. You can be anything this time around. You can be God this time around. You've got to be God this time around. I watched the compliance and that's so creepy. It's really creepy how it's going into like the sexualized themes and then straight to like the kids playing Oh yeah. Like a seamless boundary, no boundary like Yeah.

[51:09] Yeah. Do you think people played this based on his sort of selling of it, you know, like with their like hot friends and they're like, "Oh, this is the most intimate we can get or whatever and like just saw got it and were like so disappointed." [laughter] If I had to guess, this is this would have been people that were interested in him that were interested in drugs. Maybe a little cipher punky, you know, because like these guys started to get into computers. I mean, that's what McKenna was doing towards the end of his life with Bruce Damer. I think cyerspace and they were getting like really into the internet and all of this. So, I would Yeah, I think the people that probably are more likely to accept drugs or be into drugs were open to accepting like new tech and playing around with it and whatnot.

[52:02] I think the only way you would get into this game was probably if you were already aware of him and yeah, this isn't like I would say 90% of the people who would even buy this at the time were probably into LSD, right? Like I would imagine. I mean, yeah, but like it's al it's so like his exuberance and hyper hyperbole of it were like so extreme. Like he wasn't this he never said this is a fun game like you're going to be god. Yeah. Right. What the [expletive] Yeah. Yeah. Cuz maybe like you know the type of people that are drawn to like self-development and like coaching and that kind of thing. Like I could imagine that sort of audience of like, "Oh, I'm going to like a biohacking kind of technofuturist kind of community, right?"

[52:51] Yeah. What a bizarre situation. That video is ve very disturbing. That was crazy. I'm glad we watched it. Yeah. And it's funny that the game is so like unexciting. Like it's like the attitude in that video is like, "Oh, it's going to blow your mind." Exactly. Right. [laughter] He also said it took him he'd been working on it for the last two years by the time he did that interview which is seems like a lot for what that is. I would have expected at least some more spirals or anything. Well, there's 2,000 they say like scenarios that you can keep. It said 2,000 scenarios and he said there were like three 3500 or 3200 different like I don't remember how he put it. Trait combinations or something. So, and he like scripted all of the situations.

[53:39] Yeah. Yeah. I guess he wrote all of it. Interesting. Well, well, glad we did that. I never have to do that again. Sharing that with us so our audience not to need to bother. Yes. Please, [laughter] please don't spend $4 on this game. Hey, Mike. So, you said you suggested that we needed a good outro for the podcast. Oh, yeah. So, here's your opportunity. Oh [expletive] I never thought of it, though. I just suggested it. Wait, no. Didn't you have a suggestion? Did I see a S? Something like that. I think you [laughter] did. I think I said Oh, could that be though? That's a little That might be a little more. I'm putting you on the spot to end it. Maybe if anyone has any suggestions for what our sign off can be, you can leave it in the comments.

[54:27] Yeah, there you go. And in the meantime, see you simp. That was great. Thanks. that there.