audaxdreik

Hope you enjoy! It's getting referenced so much these days, I think I'm due for a reread myself.

I know OP's rules say no picking one of the three already, but these are such good points I can't help but agree. I'm also biased from years of using a PlayStation controller. Even though I haven't owned a PS console since PS2, I've still been using the PS4 & 5 controllers for PC gaming.

I think legibility and avoiding overloading symbols is top priority and the PlayStation glyphs achieve this admirably. On a pettier note, I've never liked seeing a prompt with a big, red B button pop up on screen telling me to do something, it's very immersion breaking. While the PlayStation prompts aren't exactly diegetic themselves, they're at least less non-diegetic I guess, if that makes sense?

I won't argue symmetry vs. non-symmetry of control sticks as I don't really think there's a correct answer here, it's very preferential. I obviously prefer the symmetric, but I think there's a reason the DualShock has undergone only minor changes since it was first introduced in check notes 1997?! JFC, that's almost 30 years ...

Yeah. I mean, I don't want to police the internet, I get why this situation is darkly humorous to a lot of people.

But it's worth considering what you're laughing at and why, because the joke could soon be on you or someone you love.

Sarah Z did an amazingly prescient and compassionate take on this over 2 years ago with The Rise and Fall of Replika.

I urge everyone to try and approach this with some level of compassion and understanding; even though it seems ridiculous to most of us they are actively preying on the emotionally vulnerable to profit. In the same way that "you are not immune to propaganda", the ability of AI tools to parse language and wield emotional payloads in a calculated manner (something a lot of us already refer to as "the algorithm" in various ways) shouldn't be underestimated. Even when you're not directly using those tools yourself, they could be used against you. Dead Internet Theory and AI posting chatbots are already a part of this.

People using AI companion apps are juts the leading edge, the volunteers. I urge you to take the danger seriously and please have some compassion for your fellow human beings, especially the vulnerable.

Part of what makes these models so dangerous is that as they become more "powerful" or "accurate", it becomes more and more difficult for people to determine where the remaining inaccuracies lie. Anything using them as a source are then more at risk of propagating those inaccuracies which the model may feed on further down the line, reinforcing them.

Nevermind the fact that 100% is just statistically impossible, and they've clearly hit the point of diminishing returns some time ago so every 0.1% comes at increased cost and power. And, you know, any underlying biases.

Just ridiculously unethical and dangerous.

This hints at another problem with general AI I don't really see being discussed a lot; voice assistants with low-key personality and names (Alexa, Cortana, etc.) already filled that niche, at least in perception.

Most people don't live the exciting lives AI execs keep pitching. We're not planning our kid's birthday party while ordering a dozen expensive cupcakes and scheduling a trip to Italy. We need an egg timer. And like, somebody to Google that Tim Burton film whith the guy with scissor hands, you know, what's it called. Or if you're really spicy, maybe invoke Wolfram Alpha for something.

A tiny bit of natural language parsing (still impressive in some respects) and some clever voice tech was sufficient. We didn't need a lying machine that hallucinates and boils lakes.

Which is to say, it's about devaluing human art and labor. Always has been. They keep forcing it down our throats. Our buy in isn't necessary, it just makes the conquest cheaper if we submit.

What aspects of crypto have been integrated into everything?

Absolutely incorrect. Bullshit. And horseshoe theory itself is largely bullshit.

(Succinct response taken from Reddit post discussing the topic)

"Horseshoe Theory is slapping "theory" on a strawman to simplify WHY there's crossover from two otherwise conflicting groups. It's pseudo-intellectualizing it to make it seem smart."

This ignores the many, many reasons we keep telling you why we find it dangerous, inaccurate, and distasteful. You don't offer a counter argument in your response so I can only assume it's along the lines of, "technology is inevitable, would you have said the same if the Internet?" Which is also a fallacious argument. But go ahead, give me something better if I assume wrong.

I can easily see why people would be furious their elected leader is abdicating thought and responsibility to an often wrong, unaccountably biased chat bot.

Furthermore, your insistance continues to push an acceptance of AI on those who clearly don't want it, contributing to the anger we feel at having it forced upon us

Last book: The West Passage by Jared Pechaček. Delightfully surreal fantasy; highest recommendation. Almost purposefully confusing at times, it wants you to infer the bizarre structure of its world through the mysteries it presents rather than ever try to over-explain itself.

Current book: Everything Must Go, The Stories We Tell About the End of the World by Dorian Lynskey. Also strong recommend. I've been feeling rather apocalyptic lately due to the everything and some dramatic life changes I'm going through and this is having the intended effect. By taking an unflinching, academic (yet sometimes humrous) look at various eschatological stories they become demystified and help reduce the anxiety. Do we really believe we'll be the lucky generation to witness the closure of all things? Probably not. But also ... maybe?

If you've ever seen Thank You for Smoking and appreciated the dark political satire, check out Boomsday from Christopher Buckley by the same author, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boomsday_(novel)

Cassandra Devine, "a morally superior twenty-nine-year-old PR chick" and moonlit angry blogger, incites generational warfare when she proposes that the financially nonviable Baby Boomers be given incentives (free Botox, no estate tax) to kill themselves at 70. The proposal, meant only as a catalyst for debate on the issue, catches the approval of millions of citizens, chief among them an ambitious presidential candidate, Senator Randolph Jepperson.

It's been a decade or more since I last read it, but I remember it being pretty funny and insightful.

This got me through so many shifts working in a call center. Could download PuTTY and run it from my user folder without admin permissions and then connect to one of the servers.

Been awhile since I played, but I remember my first ascension was Draconian Skald. I think the rules have changed quite a bit, but I used to love Troll Monk of Cheibriados, too. Stoneskin + Stoneform and a shield of reflection absolutely WRECKED the Elven Halls. For every step I'd take the elves would get like 4-5 turns and fire off a volley of arrows. I'd take practically no damage and a large portion of them would get reflected back and kill the elves themselves. Literally just waltzing through the place. Slow is life.

Transmuter used to be a lot of fun, too, but they changed it significantly over the years. I remember playing as a Felid one time and I died while in spider form. Because Felids get several lives, I reincarnated on the same level, ran back to my corpse and condensed it into a poison potion to chuck back at enemies.

I find it to be one of the simpler roguelikes to learn, but it takes awhile to master and there are some very cool interactions once you get the vibe.

Oh yes, I think Peter Watts is a great author. He's very good at tackling high concept ideas while also keeping it fun and interesting. Blindsight has a vampire in it in case there wasn't already enough going on for you 😁

Unrelated to the topic at hand, I also highly recommend Starfish by him. It was the first novel of his I read. A dark, psychological thriller about a bunch of misfits working a deep sea geothermal power plant and how they cope (or don't) with the situation at hand.