Looking at minetest as a neuroscientific research tool

[Alvaro_Q_Mind]

Hello Everyone,
I'm a teacher and a neuroscience enthusiast and researcher. I am looking for a nice environment to build some decision making tasks for students. I've been a linux user for 10 year on an off and a commited one for last 4. I was playing with command blocks and the server.log file in minecraft but I actually prefer a free-Software solution, also there is no linux education edition. I'd like to implement a research task in a school where I do some after-school science lessons and I was trying to use a virtual world to create an optimal experience.

I've just discovered Minetest but it feels that it might get the job done.

Could anyone give me some advice on checking the minetest server files? Why are them in my playonlinux's virtual drive folder? Is there any kind of command block or similar mod?

Thank you all in advance

[ywwv]

hi alvaro "Q" "Mind" . does that stand for "Questioning" "Mind" . like,. a mind that asks questions?

you can code in LUA here. it is musch more convenient.

tell us about your virtual world and decision making tasks. what are you researching? this might sound contemptuous. but scientists are required to be ethical. so it would be prudent to give a general outline as part of our due diligence before you are given help

[Alvaro_Q_Mind]

Sure! Last year I've been doing a research on how flow emotional state correlates with 'better' decision making, in rugby (I'm a rugby coach also). This new season I'm restarting after-school lessons that I had to close because covid19. In that lessons I try to get science and science related tools to people. Emotional education, Self consciusness, give importance to care, take care of the planet and natural spaces, gender roles... All these topics through techs (robotics, 3D printing, programming...) science and arts.

While I'll do my normal lessons, I'm also wanting to make a research work with Informed consent of the families of course. The research would be something on the same topic as last year. How flow emotional state influence decision making, but this time, relating these results in a educational environment. I'm basing my studies on the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and others. Works like this: flow: the psychology of optimal experience.

Related to the task I'm building, it need to be autonomous to let me go on with the lesson so it need to have some kind of log for the answers. It could be a paper and pencil classic survey but it would be awesome and also a new paradigm to be able to implement something like that in a voxel environment. So main mechanics would be to have to make some choices between different paths/buttons and meanings and to be able to log those answers.

PS. 'Q' comes from Quantum. I'm a physicist and neuroscientist trying to get those two things closer.

Than you for your help and sorry for my English. Hope you can understand.

[runs]

Hello Everyone,
I'm a teacher and a neuroscience enthusiast and researcher. I am looking for a nice environment to build some decision making tasks for students. I've been a linux user for 10 year on an off and a commited one for last 4. I was playing with command blocks and the server.log file in minecraft but I actually prefer a free-Software solution, also there is no linux education edition. I'd like to implement a research task in a school where I do some after-school science lessons and I was trying to use a virtual world to create an optimal experience.

I've just discovered Minetest but it feels that it might get the job done.

Could anyone give me some advice on checking the minetest server files? Why are them in my playonlinux's virtual drive folder? Is there any kind of command block or similar mod?

Thank you all in advance

Mesecons Mod has a command block.

[ywwv]

Sure! Last year I've been doing a research on how flow emotional state correlates with 'better' decision making, in rugby (I'm a rugby coach also). This new season I'm restarting after-school lessons that I had to close because covid19. In that lessons I try to get science and science related tools to people. Emotional education, Self consciusness, give importance to care, take care of the planet and natural spaces, gender roles... All these topics through techs (robotics, 3D printing, programming...) science and arts.

While I'll do my normal lessons, I'm also wanting to make a research work with Informed consent of the families of course. The research would be something on the same topic as last year. How flow emotional state influence decision making, but this time, relating these results in a educational environment. I'm basing my studies on the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and others. Works like this: flow: the psychology of optimal experience.

Related to the task I'm building, it need to be autonomous to let me go on with the lesson so it need to have some kind of log for the answers. It could be a paper and pencil classic survey but it would be awesome and also a new paradigm to be able to implement something like that in a voxel environment. So main mechanics would be to have to make some choices between different paths/buttons and meanings and to be able to log those answers.

PS. 'Q' comes from Quantum. I'm a physicist and neuroscientist trying to get those two things closer.

Than you for your help and sorry for my English. Hope you can understand.

I understand. i'm vaguely familiar with the research done on this in relation to an office setting . it sounds like you have a lot of work for yourself. a minetest game generates a lot of information. I imagine filtering insightful data from the noise to be a harder task than creating the actual content. but I can see the value in this omnipresence .

there is no need to use primitive tools like command blocks. minetest allows extensive server side programming to define most things in the game and . callbacks exist for most player interactions that can then be logged into some kind of database.

this is a little . off topic but im interested in the invention described in US patent 6506148B2 . It just expired 3 months ago and the fruits of this knoweldge can now be picked by men other than its creator. This might be an interesting area of research that could be integrated into existing products or developed into new products . I would like to know what you think of this . its not every day that you are able to have an audience with a. neuroscientist and physicist and I lack the depth of knowledge in both these feilds that you surely possess to fully understand this idea.

I think your english is proficient and legible. there is no need to worry about that

[Alvaro_Q_Mind]

Sure! Last year I've been doing a research on how flow emotional state correlates with 'better' decision making, in rugby (I'm a rugby coach also). This new season I'm restarting after-school lessons that I had to close because covid19. In that lessons I try to get science and science related tools to people. Emotional education, Self consciusness, give importance to care, take care of the planet and natural spaces, gender roles... All these topics through techs (robotics, 3D printing, programming...) science and arts.

While I'll do my normal lessons, I'm also wanting to make a research work with Informed consent of the families of course. The research would be something on the same topic as last year. How flow emotional state influence decision making, but this time, relating these results in a educational environment. I'm basing my studies on the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and others. Works like this: flow: the psychology of optimal experience.

Related to the task I'm building, it need to be autonomous to let me go on with the lesson so it need to have some kind of log for the answers. It could be a paper and pencil classic survey but it would be awesome and also a new paradigm to be able to implement something like that in a voxel environment. So main mechanics would be to have to make some choices between different paths/buttons and meanings and to be able to log those answers.

PS. 'Q' comes from Quantum. I'm a physicist and neuroscientist trying to get those two things closer.

Than you for your help and sorry for my English. Hope you can understand.

I understand. i'm vaguely familiar with the research done on this in relation to an office setting . it sounds like you have a lot of work for yourself. a minetest game generates a lot of information. I imagine filtering insightful data from the noise to be a harder task than creating the actual content. but I can see the value in this omnipresence .

there is no need to use primitive tools like command blocks. minetest allows extensive server side programming to define most things in the game and . callbacks exist for most player interactions that can then be logged into some kind of database.

this is a little . off topic but im interested in the invention described in US patent 6506148B2 . It just expired 3 months ago and the fruits of this knoweldge can now be picked by men other than its creator. This might be an interesting area of research that could be integrated into existing products or developed into new products . I would like to know what you think of this . its not every day that you are able to have an audience with a. neuroscientist and physicist and I lack the depth of knowledge in both these feilds that you surely possess to fully understand this idea.

I think your english is proficient and legible. there is no need to worry about that

I was thinking on some simple solution for the log file search like writing a command that says in the chat: ###<Player name> has pressed button <Button number>. After that looking for every line witch starts with ###. How would be that actual command in minetest language?

Actually I would need three commands in a chain. 1-Put some mark on the log like above. 2-Give the player the result of her/his decision. 3-Teleport the player to the next situation. In my mind it would consist on 3 decision making situations concatenated. I'm trying with mesecon and a specified log file but actions from command blocks doesn't register on the file.

I will do some research on that patent and I'll tell you my opinion soon. Do you know if it has been done?

Thank you all

[ywwv]

Sure! Last year I've been doing a research on how flow emotional state correlates with 'better' decision making, in rugby (I'm a rugby coach also). This new season I'm restarting after-school lessons that I had to close because covid19. In that lessons I try to get science and science related tools to people. Emotional education, Self consciusness, give importance to care, take care of the planet and natural spaces, gender roles... All these topics through techs (robotics, 3D printing, programming...) science and arts.

While I'll do my normal lessons, I'm also wanting to make a research work with Informed consent of the families of course. The research would be something on the same topic as last year. How flow emotional state influence decision making, but this time, relating these results in a educational environment. I'm basing my studies on the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and others. Works like this: flow: the psychology of optimal experience.

Related to the task I'm building, it need to be autonomous to let me go on with the lesson so it need to have some kind of log for the answers. It could be a paper and pencil classic survey but it would be awesome and also a new paradigm to be able to implement something like that in a voxel environment. So main mechanics would be to have to make some choices between different paths/buttons and meanings and to be able to log those answers.

PS. 'Q' comes from Quantum. I'm a physicist and neuroscientist trying to get those two things closer.

Than you for your help and sorry for my English. Hope you can understand.

I understand. i'm vaguely familiar with the research done on this in relation to an office setting . it sounds like you have a lot of work for yourself. a minetest game generates a lot of information. I imagine filtering insightful data from the noise to be a harder task than creating the actual content. but I can see the value in this omnipresence .

there is no need to use primitive tools like command blocks. minetest allows extensive server side programming to define most things in the game and . callbacks exist for most player interactions that can then be logged into some kind of database.

this is a little . off topic but im interested in the invention described in US patent 6506148B2 . It just expired 3 months ago and the fruits of this knoweldge can now be picked by men other than its creator. This might be an interesting area of research that could be integrated into existing products or developed into new products . I would like to know what you think of this . its not every day that you are able to have an audience with a. neuroscientist and physicist and I lack the depth of knowledge in both these feilds that you surely possess to fully understand this idea.

I think your english is proficient and legible. there is no need to worry about that

I was thinking on some simple solution for the log file search like writing a command that says in the chat: ###<Player name> has pressed button <Button number>. After that looking for every line witch starts with ###. How would be that actual command in minetest language?

Actually I would need three commands in a chain. 1-Put some mark on the log like above. 2-Give the player the result of her/his decision. 3-Teleport the player to the next situation. In my mind it would consist on 3 decision making situations concatenated. I'm trying with mesecon and a specified log file but actions from command blocks doesn't register on the file.

I will do some research on that patent and I'll tell you my opinion soon. Do you know if it has been done?

Thank you all

you need to write your own server side lua mod . it will be able to invoke a lua callback that can then log the interaction , give the player feedback, and then teleport the lpayer. you can open files in lua and do everything there. it is much more convenient.

I don't know if it's been done. it was patented for the last 20 years. so i'm not sure how the inventor has exploited his monopoly. but I haven't seen anything like it. I'm looking forward to your . thoughts on it