Divertissement - Pascal

Blaise Pascal argues that, to avoid thinking about their condition, people continually devote themselves to diversions and activities, which he calls divertissement, solely to distract themselves from reflecting on their own existence.

He writes: "I have discovered that all human unhappiness comes from one thing alone: not knowing how to remain quietly in a room. [...] I wanted to discover the reason and found that there is a real one: it lies in the natural unhappiness of our weak, mortal condition."

HOW IT WORKS. Pascal’s thought focuses on the difficulty of stopping to think about the human condition. Now you can do this simply and literally: by pressing the pause button, you can choose to stop and reflect, then resume the game (the divertissement) whenever you wish.

DEBRIEFING: Divertissement - Pascal

By pressing the pause button, you interrupted the game to reflect on human nature.

Usually, however, the "pause" button is used to move from one activity to another, remaining within the cycle of divertissement.

By interrupting the game and trying to reflect on the human condition (recreating the experiment suggested by Pascal, alone in a room), you may have found it difficult to focus on it, even when making an effort.

Or you may have had a different experience: connecting with the thought described by Pascal, then moving away from it when you resumed playing.

This simulation lets you live through the experience described by Pascal: interrupting a divertissement, reflecting on human nature and then returning to a distraction.

At the end, you can draw your own conclusions about what you experienced.