Archive for July, 2008
My Nephew
How to solve the Rubiks Cube
A few years ago I picked up a game called “Rainbow Six.” I greatly anticipated this game as it was supposed to have incredible A.I. (a term gamers use lightly) not only with the bad guys but with your team as you achieve various objectives.
I worked hard at it. I did the first several missions and worked them till I got it right and we (my A.I. virtual team and I) had 100% perfection. It was the most fun I had had playing a game in a year or two, what a great time.
Then I met a fellow gamer friend and he revealed to me, that all you had to do to win was play the mission without your team. Solo. He was right, I ran home and played the mission I was currently on and just walked right through it. I never played the game after that.
Enter the Rubik’s Cube. Only smart people can solve this thing. I ‘heard’ there was a formula but it always escaped me, and no one would tell me. Well the magic passed and so did time. Then this past Christmas my Mother In Law gives me a honkin Rubiks Cube for Christmas.
This time the Internet was on MY side. It took about an hour and I had solved the Rubik puzzle. And in triumph and victory I celebrated. After 25 years I had beaten this bad boy. But my celebration was short lived. It was just the six steps, in reality it is simply a mathmatical expression, like an algebra equation, only instead of writing on paper its a physical object. Once you learned its equation the rest is easy. It never was about intelligence, only how to work a problem.
Now its no more fun than math class. It was ruined. Spoiled by its own simplicity. But no, wait, thats not the whole story.
Im that kid that struggled at math, C or B average, at best. But when I got something, I mean really understood the how, why and what that formula was I did ALL the problems not just the Odd ones.
The Rubiks Cube has turned into a great stress reliever for me. I know it can be solved every time I pick it up. All its pieces are present, but the solution is hidden in their arrangement.
When I first learned the Rubiks formula I thought I had lost it, much like I lost “Rainbow Six.” Cheating is a real downer, but the formula isnt a cheat, its the solution.
Maybe if we actually started trying to find solutions to our problems instead of trying to find cheats for them . . .
Thanks Rubik, It only took 25 years but I think I finally get it.