#Iterative development model

[louistonehill]

A new tool lets artists add invisible changes to the pixels in their art before they upload it online so that if it’s scraped into an AI training set, it can cause the resulting model to break in chaotic and unpredictable ways.��

The tool, called Nightshade, is intended as a way to fight back against AI companies that use artists’ work to train their models without the creator’s permission. Using it to “poison” this training data could damage future iterations of image-generating AI models, such as DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion, by rendering some of their outputs useless—dogs become cats, cars become cows, and so forth. MIT Technology Review got an exclusive preview of the research, which has been submitted for peer review at computer security conference Usenix.   

AI companies such as OpenAI, Meta, Google, and Stability AI are facing a slew of lawsuits from artists who claim that their copyrighted material and personal information was scraped without consent or compensation. Ben Zhao, a professor at the University of Chicago, who led the team that created Nightshade, says the hope is that it will help tip the power balance back from AI companies towards artists, by creating a powerful deterrent against disrespecting artists’ copyright and intellectual property. Meta, Google, Stability AI, and OpenAI did not respond to MIT Technology Review’s request for comment on how they might respond. 

Zhao’s team also developed Glaze, a tool that allows artists to “mask” their own personal style to prevent it from being scraped by AI companies. It works in a similar way to Nightshade: by changing the pixels of images in subtle ways that are invisible to the human eye but manipulate machine-learning models to interpret the image as something different from what it actually shows. 

Continue reading article here

[mechncheese]

your designs are so peak! dyou think youd be willing to share some of your process for how you develop the looks you make?

Sure thing ! I'll take you on a journey into my mind's eye

Long text post ahead in case anyone's interested in my designing process

I start off with references-- lots of references. I pull inspiration from more than one iteration for a character ! For Brainstorm specifically I took the most inspiration from IDW Brainstorm with aspects from G1 like his darker/greener color.

Red Alert's darker color palette is also based on the TFA design with heavy IDW influence. First Aid's little doctor's coat was inspired by the Bayverse Crosshair's coat. Ratchet's design is based on his Prime, G1, IDW, and Cyberverse iterations but I took the most inspiration from his Prime design (I think Prime Ratchet is also my favorite Ratchet so I might be biased)

Before I begin designing anything, I map out the character's silhouette, it gives me a feel for the shapes I want and how they'd stand out in a lineup. Here's Wheeljack for an example.

Then I start the first draft/sketch. I just draw on top of the silhouette and adjust as I go, I'm mostly going based on what feels right to me.

Since a lot of the bots I was working with had White and Red color palettes I had to use different accent colors to break it up and I wanted to emphasize their shape language. I try to keep things from blurring together too much. I also used various off-white colors (it's very subtle) and different shades of red.

I also pull inspiration from figurines/model kits from gundams specifically-- honestly I do this mostly for the legs, I struggle a lot with making the legs look right so I look at Gundam legs for references on knee articulations and the ankles.

a lot of it is trial and error and it usually takes me more than one attempt before finalizing a design. Let me show you the monster that is my first Brainstorm attempt.

Good fucking god I have no idea what the hell I was thinking, literally the first thing I said to myself as I was finishing this was "Oh my god he is UGLY, I cannot keep him like that" he was not working out so I went back to the drawing board and worked small.

Here was my second draft of Brainstorm, I was thinking about his personality as I was working on him which I think helped a lot. Chaotically natured, I incorporated a lot of sharp shapes and I darkened his color palette to a sea green to let the red and yellow/orange accents stand out. It also emphasizes his more sinister personality while the broad yellow-accented shoulders paired with the extra red accents kind of give him this "show-off" and "full of himself" vibe.

My previous mistake was that the blue was far too bright and the orange and red were just clashing too much. Also his wings being flat against his back just did not fit him. I think I was too afraid to break to mold with Brainstorm-- Like there was this line between "This is not Brainstorm enough" or "This is too far from being Brainstorm" and then I remembered his very wise words

Then I just started to get adventurous and experimental and bam, we have Science AU Brainstorm. The major takeaway from this is don't be afraid to get wild with your designs.

In contrast, Since Prowl and Brainstorm will be seen around each other a lot, I kept Prowl's design less flashy and his palette limited, pulling heavily from IDW Prowl. It also fits his personality, he's much more serious and orderly. So when they're seen in the same drawing, there's this nice design compliment between Brainstorm and Prowl.

Another oopsies I did was initial First Aid attempt where I made his accent color orange for some reason. It looked really bad and I ended up changing it to blue which worked a lot better.

But yeah ! That's my general design process ! Play around, have fun and don't be afraid to get experimental and try some new things for designs !

[reasonsforhope]

"In a first-ever human clinical trial, an mRNA cancer vaccine developed at the University of Florida successfully reprogrammed patients’ immune systems to fiercely attack glioblastoma, the most aggressive and lethal brain tumor.

The results in four adult patients mirrored those in 10 pet dog patients suffering from brain tumors whose owners approved of their participation.

The discovery represents a potential new way to recruit the immune system to fight treatment-resistant cancers using an iteration of mRNA technology and lipid nanoparticles, similar to COVID-19 vaccines, but with two key differences: use of a patient’s own tumor cells to create a personalized vaccine, and a newly engineered complex delivery mechanism within the vaccine.

“Instead of us injecting single particles, we’re injecting clusters of particles that are wrapping around each other like onions,” said senior author Elias Sayour, M.D., Ph.D., a UF Health pediatric oncologist who pioneered the new vaccine, which like other immunotherapies attempts to “educate” the immune system that a tumor is foreign.

“These clusters alert the immune system in a much more profound way than single particles would.”

Among the most impressive findings was how quickly the new method spurred a vigorous immune-system response to reject the tumor, said Sayour, principal investigator at the University’s RNA Engineering Laboratory and McKnight Brain Institute investigator who led the multi-institution research team.

“In less than 48 hours, we could see these tumors shifting from what we refer to as ‘cold’—very few immune cells, very silenced immune response—to ‘hot,’ very active immune response,” he said.

“That was very surprising given how quick this happened, and what that told us is we were able to activate the early part of the immune system very rapidly against these cancers, and that’s critical to unlock the later effects of the immune response,” he explained in a video (below).

Glioblastoma is among the most devastating diagnoses, with median survival around 15 months. Current standard of care involves surgery, radiation and some combination of chemotherapy.

The new report, published May 1 in the journal Cell, is the culmination of seven years of promising studies, starting in preclinical mouse models.

In the cohort of four patients, genetic material called RNA was extracted from each patient’s own surgically removed tumor, and then messenger RNA (mRNA)—the blueprint of what is inside every cell, including tumor cells—was amplified and wrapped in the newly designed high-tech packaging of biocompatible lipid nanoparticles, to make tumor cells “look” like a dangerous virus when reinjected into the bloodstream to prompt an immune-system response.

The vaccine was personalized to each patient with a goal of getting the most out of their unique immune system...

While too early in the trial to assess the clinical effects of the vaccine, the patients either lived disease-free longer than expected or survived longer than expected. The 10 pet dogs lived a median of 4.5 months, compared with a median survival of 30-60 days typical for dogs with the condition.

The next step, with support from the Food and Drug Administration and the CureSearch for Children’s Cancer foundation, will be an expanded Phase I clinical trial to include up to 24 adult and pediatric patients to validate the findings. Once an optimal and safe dose is confirmed, an estimated 25 children would participate in Phase 2."

-via Good News Network, May 11, 2024

-video via University of Florida Health, May 1, 2024

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

So the TTOU universe has AI in it -- not magical sci-fi AI, but what we'd likely get if we just kept iterating on the learning models we currently call AI. And I semi-regularly receive frustrated messages from techbros who (incorrectly) explain AI development to me and get mad that in my imagined future, making a big enough large language model doesn't magically turn it into Lieutenant Data.

This is the sacrifice I make for you people. This is what I endure to bring you this world.

[foodfightnovelization]

More Foodfight! Material DISCOVERED

That's right, I'm back. Just like I prophesized in my last post, yet another treasure trove of Foodfight! goodness has been uncovered, and this might be one of the strangest to date...that's right, official Foodfight! Cinnamon Sleuth Cereal was sold at Albertsons back in 2007, over five years before the movie finally came out!

Okay, not really, but I had you going for a second, right? So, this IS a proposed packaging design for actual Cinnamon Sleuth cereal, but it never went into production, it never made it to stores and there was certainly never any actual cereal to be eaten. This, among several other designs and a collection of behind the scenes material, was sent in recently by a Foodfight! crewmember, who explained they were mockups created to show off possible tie-in products. I'm not sure why they chose Albertsons for these mockups but it's likely they were in talks with them at the time and wanted to show off designs including their branding. In any case, I just had the Cinnamon Sleuth box printed because I thought it'd look cool next to my collection of Foodfight! merchandise, and I wanted to see if anyone would be convinced this really existed.

I've included all the designs above in case you want to print your own- there are several more including another cereal, brownie packaging and milk cartons. Curiously, the milk cartons have Farmland Dairy logos on them, with Farmland Milk actually appearing in the finished film at several points. I'd say this confirms my theory these mockups were created to show to companies they were already actively working on deals with, but I can't say for certain that was the case.

Equally curious are these character sheets from 2002, seemingly showing off almost every model created during early production. There are so many fascinating layers to this- Sunshine is still a human instead of a catgirl, showcasing a very different model to the one seen in the initial trailer, and Maximilius Moose is still a dog named Panzer Pup, both aspects that were changed once the decision was made to change Dex to a dog. However, it may be that Dex's human design was edited out and replaced after the fact, given Dex's model here appears to be the one from the finished film (you can tell by the weird hands). In any case, it's fascinating to get a closer look at all these characters- while the majority of the models for the main cast were found recently (see my last post for more on this), there are a bunch of side characters here we've only seen brief glimpses of before, including the Pringles man and the scantily-clad Cherry Waifer. The most fascinating to me however are the Red and Yellow M&Ms- I've read through their scene in the movie's script, I've seen multiple versions of the storyboard, even rough layout animation in the workprint, and it's only now I'm FINALLY getting to see their actual character models and how they would've looked in the Foodfight! artstyle. Sure, they more or less look exactly as they did in M&M commercials that aired around the same time, but it's still amazing to actually see these characters modelled and rendered after analyzing so many different iterations of the scene as it went through development.

The crewmember in question also sent a folder containing over a hundred stills which while at first glance appear to be from the finished movie, are actually subtly different in multiple ways- usually lighting, facial expressions, or background textures like the sky or color of a hill. A lot of these are labelled "fix" which makes me speculate if after the movie was completed, the crew went back and tried to touch up the animation to make it look more appealing before release. Is there a slightly better looking version of Foodfight! somewhere out there in the world? Who knows, but really it would've been like trying to polish a turd. The movie was already ruined by then, and I don't think any number small changes would've done much to salvage it. However, that does bring me to my next interesting point...

There are also storyboards dated May 2011, depicting an alternate opening to the movie giving a much more cinematic introduction to the main characters. It's crazy to think they were still working on storyboards so late in production, but there IS actually a reason for this. I unfortunately can't upload the entire sequence due to this site's image limit, but what you might notice are a lot of characters being described as "flying over the audience", "flying into the camera" or knocking things "into the audience", with some of the boards having "(3D)" written in parenthesis next to them. It's my belief that very late into production, Kasanoff wanted the movie to be 3D, made popular by the then-recent Avatar, and this new opening sequence full of flashy 3D effects was drawn up to show off what they could do with the technology. It's not clear if any of this was ever actually animated, but imagine going to see a movie that advertises itself as 3D but only the first minute contains any 3D elements. Of course, Kasanoff requesting this is only speculation on my part, but given how the movie was ruined by the crew having to cater to his whim of directing the whole thing with motion capture (made popular by the then-recent Polar Express) it's no stretch to assume the 3D opening sequence was a similar situation.

There's a ton more that was sent to us as well, so much so that I could never hope to talk about all of it. However, it should be on archive.org at the time of writing this if it isn't already, and you can now access everything Foodfight! related through the official Foodfight! collection on there!

That's right, so much Foodfight! material has been uploaded over the past year that the Internet Archive gave it its own archive, allowing you to find everything in one convenient place (including my scans of the novelization and Deluxe Sound Storybook). It'll also be updated periodically whenever something new is found, so it'll always be the home to all things Foodfight!. Whether you're wanting to take a look at some concept art shown in ROTTEN: Behind The Foodfight, read through an early draft of the script, or check out something I've talked about on my blog, it's all here at your fingertips.

I don't think there's ever really going to be an end to the depth of the Foodfight! rabbithole. I thought I was done a year ago when I finished analyzing the novelization, and look at everything that's been found since then. Every time I think I'm out, this movie pulls me back in. So...in my next post I'll FINALLY show off my collection of Foodfight! merchandise and talk about what this movie means to me, but that doesn't mean it's the end for this blog. Whenever I say I'm done with Foodfight! I end up jinxing it, so if I try to conclude things now in a few months some CD will show up with a bunch of lost footage on it, I'll get mailed concept art of a bunch of characters we've never seen before, or it'll turn out Larry Kasanoff was actually D.B. Cooper the whole time. So as long as there's something new to discuss, as long as there's a Foodfight to be fought, I'll keep updating this blog from now until forever. You better duck when they launch the cream pies!

[catalyswitch]

Was talking with wife recently about AI and the ways it's incredibly stupid and I am reminded of the time a few years ago the Execs at the place I worked previously wanted to incorporate AI into our workflow in order to help materials development. They wanted to make sure that the company was "utilizing the latest technology to make us more productive" so they partnered with a company that uses AI/ML to predict chemical structures in order to enhance performance based on our desired properties. My boss and I kinda thought this was stupid when it was first announced, but we were still unprepared for how bad it was really going to be.

The problem of course here is that what a computer thinks is good and will perform well does not often make sense according to the laws of physics. So more often than not the computer would spit out extremely specific and nonsensical structures that it believed would increase performance. These structures could range from completely impractical to sometimes downright impossible to actually make, so for every set of predictions we got back we had to first filter all the nonsense and then select a set from the ones that could be made and tested in a reasonable amount of time. In addition, they emphasized that the more data that they have the better the predictions would be, so the pressure was on to synthesize and validate as many molecules as possible as quickly as possible. This was a huge drain on time and energy because again some of these structures were nontrivial to make. Not that the computer people would be able to tell the difference. But still the executives were excited about it so we gave it a try anyway. The idea was that we would start by making a bunch of different materials and test the results and then feed those results back into the machine to predict better structures based on the ever growing data pool.

The funny part of the story, of course, is that with every iteration, the performance got worse. This was not surprising to me. The mechanisms that dictate performance in this field are not fully understood even now, and there are still many papers coming out every year adding more knowledge to the field. Additionally, the predictions weren't being made using some fundamental understanding of the mechanisms at play, but by training an algorithm using a pool of existing literature. You're just not going to get good results by "midjourneying" chemistry. We did around 3-4 iteration cycles with them over that year contract and every time the performance of the structures that it had predicted were worse than the last set, sometimes dramatically so. And they would tell us "no no, the data set isn't really big enough to give good results yet" and "once the model has tested enough structures it'll get better" but it didn't in that period. And it's possible that on a long enough timescale it might be possible? But, the reality was that we had a whole year of time and resources essentially wasted because our CEO thought that some tech guys in SV could use AI to do chemistry and didn't believe us when we said it was stupid.

And you know what? We figured out something that worked really well less than six months after dumping them and getting to do it our way again.

[leehama]

Hi, I love reading And Another Lovely Day a lot and loved seeing the behind the scenes and extras in the recent update! I wanted to ask what inspired you to write it? There’s not a lot of stories with a-spec characters as leads so I was wondering what prompted you to write a story like this.

Hi there! tbh, I've avoided answering this question because AALD was one of those stories that changed so much from its initial idea and has roots in multiple other stories of mine so it's hard to explain/trace! This is going to be long, but I think it went something like:

I was considering making the main character of another story of mine aroace, but even though it made her more interesting, suddenly removing the romance plotline threw off the the motivations/characterizations/storylines of other characters, so I decided against it--but now I had this aspec character concept floating around in the back of my mind

For another story of mine I wanted to make the MCs editors at a romance comic publisher, but it was getting to be a little too much about them being editors/working on comics than their romance/silly hijinks, so I paused developing it--but now I liked that setting

And eventually the two concepts converged: I liked the juxtaposition of aspec leads who had jobs producing love stories because it felt very romcom (there are lots of romcoms about romance writers whose own love lives are lacking, right?). And when the term "non rom-com" popped into my head, I latched onto it!

Initially, Nora and Elliot were romance comic publisher employees who bonded over a common interest in food--but it felt like it overlapped a bit too much with Gourmet Hound (and in terms of exploring sexuality and food, series like She Loves to Cook, And She Loves to Eat and What Did You Eat Yesterday? do it better than I ever could)

(Nora was the editor for Grier's comic series, while Elliot was in the advertising department alongside Isaac--they'd be forced to work together when Elliot was assigned to an ad campaign for Grier's comic) (Their meet-cute was the two of them agreeing to share a Valentine's couple's special at a cafe across the street from their office)

So instead of comic publisher employees who connect over their love of food, they became teachers who connect over their love of comics! I went through a lot of iterations of possible jobs and interests, but this combination felt the most approachable to me (also I had a ton of school-related assets laying around from the magical-girl-becomes-high-school-teacher project that never came to be lol)

So I didn't really set off to write a story about aromanticism or asexuality, nor to write a story with aspec leads. But also, in general, I can't really write from a place of "I want to provide xyz representation" or "I want to make this story relatable for xyz type of person"--because I'm not a skilled enough writer to do that without readers being able to immediately pick up on it lmao (and I feel like a lot of readers balk against stories that are too transparently or clumsily attempting to teach them lessons/model good behavior/be relatable!)

[amerricanartwork]

RW Headcanon: "Pebbsie Privilege"

Here’s a headcanon I’ve had in the works for a while, and now I finally want to share it! It's shorter than some of my others, but I hope you'll still find it amusing!

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

So firstly (and I plan to expand on this more later) I headcanon Five Pebbles is someone who cares a lot about his appearance, though not in a prissy or snooty sense and more in a “likes being the smartest and most sophisticated one in the room” sense. That means, more so than the average person, he generally doesn’t like being teased, ignored, belittled, condescended to, or otherwise disrespected, and very understandably so if you ask me! But it also means there exists a very special ability when it comes to interacting with Five Pebbles that almost no characters have. 

It’s no more than the ability of someone to refer to Five Pebbles as “Pebbsie” while he’s in earshot without getting death-glares from him. Looks to the Moon, who first started using it, affectionately calls this ability “Pebbsie privilege”, and she ends up being one of the only characters who has it (besides Innocence, who in my portrayals eventually gets it too). Though even so, Pebbles originally got rather flustered when she called him that alone, much less in front of others, considering it's definitely a very cutesy nickname. In fact, poor Pebbles really didn’t like being called “Pebbsie” because one of his least favorite ways of being treated is like a child (which includes being thought of as "cute" in any way). This unfortunately happens to him a lot though since he’s part of the newest iterator generation and tends to have lots of uncommon ideas rarely taken seriously by the older models, and this treatment only amplified as he grew more stubborn and arrogant. 

To elaborate on the origin, Moon developed the nickname pretty much on an impulse — quite a rare thing for her to act on actually — of wanting to hearken more to her role as “Big Sis Moon” and show love to her little brother. Soon after she started using it though Pebbles would pull her into private chats and urge her to drop it to save his dignity. Not wanting to hurt her brother in any way, it didn’t take long before she apologized and stopped using it, and basically got her "Pebbsie privilege" revoked. In the current time she secretly still likes calling him that in her mind, but knowing how much he dislikes it she always feels pretty guilty afterwards, despite them being no more than thoughts at that point. While not a major issue in-and-of itself, this situation was actually a small step in worsening a long-time fear Moon has, though that’s a headcanon for another day…

On a (marginally) more positive note however, after Moon’s collapse and the worsening of Five Pebbles’s rot, along with him generally reminiscing about the things he used to have (as part of yet more character headcanons I’ll elaborate on some other time), he actually began to grow fond of the nickname more and more. Yet he also couldn’t also shake the growing heartache the memories brang, as he came to see it as a reminder of his sister’s never-ending love for him and the better times he now regretted taking for granted and trying so hard to escape. While I headcanon he handles it differently in Downpour’s canon, in the worm-off-the-string AU story I’ve got so far, Moon slowly regaining her “Pebbsie privilege” and Pebbles appreciating it and no longer taking it so seriously (though he still forbids its usage in public) could serve as a small, yet sweet indicator of character growth for both of them.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Aaaand another RW headcanon done! I wanna mention, though, now that I’ve got more of an idea for the aforementioned AU I really want to start posting more of my headcanons for the Local Group, since the character interactions, histories, and ultimate character growth is perhaps one of the most important elements of that story so far. I’ve spent at least a couple weeks creating almost 40 pages worth of character notes, and while this particular one started out as just a little side-headcanon, I ended up tying it into all of that. Hopefully I can start sharing the main parts of these headcanons soon!

[adorkastock]

Hello! I was looking for some standing poses yesterday, using all three sites, and I ended up just having to kind of blindly scroll through the “General poses” DA folder and clicking on the “more like this!” deviations in the side bar. I ended up snagging a pose or two from you and a cluster from JoonPubStock, I think her name is.

I was specifically looking for poses I could use for costume design/ideation, where I could draw a fairly neutral front-ish pose that still had a little personality in like, how the hips were canted, arms folded, head tilt, etc, that I could draw and then come up with clothes ideas on like, layered tracing paper or something. Character design lineup/paper doll kinda thing. I think I ended up using one of your OG Sailor Moon poses as a jumping off point, since they are more static, though they had a little too much anime sass for me to use for my character. :(

Next time you’re doing file maintenance stuff, could I request adding “standing” to the list of pose types/subfolders/tags? And, if it’s not too much trouble for the next round of website iterations, being able to filter using multiple tags at once? Like, being able to specify that I want to look at single, female, slim, standing images instead of having to look through each category individually.

Thank you so much for all the work you and your team do, as well as the network of pose artists you collaborate with! And thank you for offering so much of it for free, and for the other tools you’ve developed and shared. As an unemployed, disabled, non-university-student artist, these resources are really, really valuable. I appreciate you!!

I hear you but there's a few challenges with this because *most* poses are standing. It's the same reason I don't tag myself as a model because it's mostly me. But maybe I can still help by directing you to something like my Character Reference Sheet Pack or maybe even some of the standing poses in the free Anniversary Pack. There's also the old 3D model packs which might be *too stiff* for this but could be a jumping off point. The farther back you scroll on in the DA archive the more static the poses will get because I didn't have a camera good enough to catch much movement or action. Here's a few from Shoots 1-25 that might be helpful for the type of thing you're looking to do. I am SO helpful the stock is useful! 🥰 Hope this helps and Happy Drawing!

[white-hole-station]

[Headcanon]

The space program took a whole month off of development after Tektite's accident, so that Slate could have the time to perfect their leg. They'd already been working on articulated flaps for in-atmosphere steering for Feldspar's ship - conserves fuel to not use jets for that - and hey, an artificial ankle is just another type of flap to articulate, right?

Gossan wasn't so sure - especially with Slate's full-tilt approach to experimental engineering, at odds with Tektite's trepidation - but all of the founders agreed that the program could wait until their neighbour was back on their feet. And to Slate's credit, Gossan had never seen them show as much sheer methodical focus, before or since. This was somebody's limb here, after all: their ability to move of their own accord, their ability to get out and about in the community and do the things they love, their ability to still feel like their body is their own. Slate was hardly about to phone it in, or risk any wild experiments when it came to Tektite's comfort and requirements.

It took several iterations, and several difficult test walks around the town square gripping Slate's arm, but together the pair of them worked out a final model that's been serving Tektite well to this day.

(...Of course, the dedication and focus that so pleasantly surprised Gossan only made Slate's awkward avoidance of them after their own accident sting even more. Was it really that hard on their poor guilty conscience, to think about doing something similar for a friend, instead of darting their gaze away just short of Gossan's face?)

[codemerything]

A structured way to learn JavaScript.

I came across a post on Twitter that I thought would be helpful to share with those who are struggling to find a structured way to learn Javascript on their own. Personally, I wish I had access to this information when I first started learning in January. However, I am grateful for my learning journey so far, as I have covered most topics, albeit in a less structured manner.

N/B: Not everyone learns in the same way; it's important to find what works for you. This is a guide, not a rulebook.

EASY

What is JavaScript and its role in web development?

Brief history and evolution of JavaScript.

Basic syntax and structure of JavaScript code.

Understanding variables, constants, and their declaration.

Data types: numbers, strings, boolean, and null/undefined.

Arithmetic, assignment, comparison, and logical operators.

Combining operators to create expressions.

Conditional statements (if, else if, else) for decision making.

Loops (for, while) for repetitive tasks. - Switch statements for multiple conditional cases.

MEDIUM

Defining functions, including parameters and return values.

Function scope, closures, and their practical applications.

Creating and manipulating arrays.

Working with objects, properties, and methods.

Iterating through arrays and objects.Understanding the Document Object Model (DOM).

Selecting and modifying HTML elements with JavaScript.Handling events (click, submit, etc.) with event listeners.

Using try-catch blocks to handle exceptions.

Common error types and debugging techniques.

HARD

Callback functions and their limitations.

Dealing with asynchronous operations, such as AJAX requests.

Promises for handling asynchronous operations.

Async/await for cleaner asynchronous code.

Arrow functions for concise function syntax.

Template literals for flexible string interpolation.

Destructuring for unpacking values from arrays and objects.

Spread/rest operators.

Design Patterns.

Writing unit tests with testing frameworks.

Code optimization techniques.

That's it I guess!

[threestarsaboveclouds]

I am wondering, how do you and how did the citizens previously inhabiting Zenith conceive of star groupings?

Through their positions in actual space or on their positions on the celestial sphere? (Or another way?)

Allow me to expand on my questions and on my motivations to ask them. You may also simply answer my above questions, if the answers to what I write below takes too much of your resources to transmit.

A lot of civilizations without access to astronomy observation instruments group stars based on their closeness on the celestial sphere. A common phenomenon is that imaginary lines are drawn between stars and the resulting shapes are used for ease of remembrance, to then aid in navigation and telling the date*. To give these shapes cultural significance is common as well; from tying into legends and religious tales, to believing the position of star groupings relative to the horizon have a precognitive meaning or are able to affect peoples mood or personality. Even as civilisations develop technology to better perceive the actual spacial arrangements of stars in space, the cultural significance often sticks around.

And well, all of that explaination of what is common is to ask; were the ancients an exception to that norm?

And if such cultural significance of star groupings based on their positions on the celestial sphere did exist in their civilization; did the cultural significance of star groupings "stick around" until the end of their civilization? Since the ancients civilization lasted longer than other documented civilizations, I am curious to know if those cultural significances got lost or changed as their civilization went on.

Did the population of Zenith differ in their perception of the stars/star groupings from what was the norm among ancients? I ask since I would imagine the population that lived in and around an iterator whose purpose is to observe the sky would have different academic and cultural knowledge about stars than the average ancient.

Thank you for your time, I hope this message finds you well.

*though I am not educated enough in astronomy to know whether telling the date through the position of stars on the celestial sphere is possible because of a planet's axial tilt, or because of what phase the planet's orbit around its star is in. Or a combination of the two?

(OOC: Just randomly thought of a question that might be interesting to answer, for TSAC in canon and for you to possibly worldbuild around! So I thought I'd ask it. Thinking of how a non-human advanced civilisation might conceive of constellations or if they've moved to a different way to commonly group stars definitely gets my sci-fi-worldbuilding gears turning! And you as someone more knowledge about astronomy might find it even more interesting than me. So yeah. Hope you have fun! Wishing you a good day :D)

TSAC: Star groupings were a vital part of the mythology of my creators. Scholars of bedrock-horizon archeology also believe that any civilizations that came before might have had similar beliefs, but concrete evidence of this has long since been subsumed by the Void Sea.

Early on in my creators' history, the stars were used in a similar manner to those you mentioned; they were used to aid in navigation, track the passage of time, and predict the most optimal times for planting and harvest of crops. However, spiritual significance was imparted upon the stars as well.

My creators placed great importance upon the Great Cycle and its manifestations; one of which being the cycles present in the sky. Early astronomers believed that the Sun, Moon, and other celestial bodies were all attached to fixed spheres which moved around our planet. The most distant of these spheres was the Firmament, to which the stars were affixed.

Before advances in astronomy enabled precise measurements of the movements of celestial bodies, this model of the universe was considered praxis. The Spheres represented the cycle in its purest form, with each celestial object perfectly repeating a daily cycle of rise and set, life and death, with no deviations from this expected pattern. Thus the stars were treated with great reverence; and my creator’s ancestors used the shapes laid out in the night sky to tell tales that represented their values.

These stories often varied between groups, but the overarching mythology was largely the same. The society of my creators placed great importance on the concept of ascension, and believed that to ascend, one must let go of five worldly Urges that bound the physical form to the Carnal Plane. These five Urges were associated with five different constellations, each associated with their own parables.

The First Urge, Violence, is represented by the constellation of The Outlaw, associated with ferocity, raw emotion, and revenge. According to myth, the Outlaw claimed the ability to slay any living creature, and set out upon this task, leaving a trail of destruction and bloodshed in their wake. They were only stopped by the venomous sting of a tiny crawling creature, ultimately leading to their death. This tale was meant to caution against becoming blinded by violence and bloodlust.

The Second Urge, Lust, is represented by the constellation of The Martyr. The Martyr is associated with fertility, life, and creative vigor. Their mythology is varied across cultures, but is often associated with a tale of two lovers, one of whom was cast into the Void Sea as a form of ritual sacrifice. The remaining lover, stricken with grief, resigned themself to a life of hermitage, and spent their days composing music. These melodies were said to have drawn up the Martyr from the Void, and allowed them to visit their lover in their dreams.

The Third Urge, Companionship, is represented by The Allies. They were said to have voyaged the seas of the world, always remaining at each other’s sides. Their last voyage took them to the Void Sea, where they ascended together. The Allies represent trust and protection, and were often revered by travelers who wished for safe passage and hoped to be welcomed upon reaching their destinations in unfamiliar lands.

The Fourth Urge, Gluttony, is represented by The Nectar Bearer. The Nectar Bearer represents abundance, indulgence in excess, and joy in consumption. The Nectar Bearer, as the name implies, possesses an overflowing vessel of sweet nectar, a popular beverage among my creators, which was often enjoyed during festivities. The Nectar Bearer, being an avatar of excess, was also considered in early mythology to be the cause of seasonal floods, as its appearance in the sky coincided with the approach of the rainy season. The resulting floods brought both destruction as well as rejuvenation to fallow fields. (However, the mass construction of iterators has since made this prediction of the yearly flood cycle irrelevant, due to their disruption of the global climate.)

Finally, the Fifth Urge, Survival, is represented by The Shield Bearer. The Shield Bearer represents the will to survive, shared by all living creatures. However, in order to ascend, they must relinquish their shields and expose themself to the fullness of the world, allowing the wholeness of reality to flow through them. Similarly, my creators believed that they needed to allow themselves to become vulnerable in order to spiritually ascend above and beyond the Carnal Plane.

These myths were largely metaphorical, of course, and were repeated not as fact, but as allegories to provide guidance towards achieving Ascension. The Five were considered the most important, but other constellations were also chosen to represent the core values of my creators. Among these are The Monk, The Hunter, The Saint, The Chieftain, The Wanderer, The Scholar, The Nomad, The Warrior, The Pilgrim, and The Mother. 

The Five were all located either on or close to the Ecliptic, the line traced out through the sky by the Sun and Moon. There was some cultural belief that the location of the Sun near each of the Five on one's day of birth would determine which of the Urges an individual would be bound to most strongly… though this was never backed up by empirical evidence. Similar astrological beliefs persisted long after the scientific renaissance brought on by the Void Fluid Revolution, but it was considered more of a spiritual matter than a concrete scientific one.

The citizens of my city, Zenith, rejected the concept of astrology… at least early on. The Classical Firmamentalists were more concerned with studying the physical cycles of the observable world, and how they were connected to the larger Cycle of the universe. They believed that if they could decipher the true nature of the Celestial Spheres, then they would also gain an understanding of what may lie beyond the Carnal Plane.

However, as the city’s original founders departed for the Void, they were slowly replaced with a New Wave of Firmamentalists whose beliefs began to evolve. Not only could an understanding of the physical world unlock the secrets of ascension, but it could also be used to make predictions of the future, contact the past, or even travel between the Carnal plane and the realm of Dreams, outside the bounds of the Firmament. This interpretation of the Celestial Spheres was… far from my founders’ vision, to say the least. There was little evidence to support these New Wave theories, but they grew in popularity as time progressed.

@mebis-art-dump

Part of the appeal to the New Wave Firmamentalists was an effort to use the cycles to accurately predict the future. They built on the beliefs of Classical Firmamentalism, namely, that the Universe was built upon finely-tuned cycles and epicycles from which reality emerged. They were in agreement on this. Where they diverged, however, was the New Wave belief that these cycles could be manipulated to one's own ends, in order to achieve favorable outcomes. They aimed to achieve this through extensive study of the movement of the stars, combined with elaborate rituals, intense meditation and training, and even indulgence in hallucinogenics during their extravagant ceremonies. It was all rather excessive, in my opinion.

I continued with my duties, regardless. The New Wave Firmamentalists could draw whatever conclusions they wished from my data, it didn’t make a difference to me. The High Council priests eventually caught on to my disdain for the topic of astrology, and danced around it during their interactions with me as best as they could. It was painfully obvious that they viewed me as little more than a tool to meet their ends, despite their efforts to conceal this sentiment.

...

I apologize, I did not mean to divert this discussion to personal matters.

… the constellations and their associated myths mean very little to me. If anything they are a simple curiosity, and provide me with a standard method of dividing the sky into different sections which can be traced back to ancient records. I have thus far found no evidence that prediction of the movement of the celestial spheres can allow one to manipulate or even escape the Cycles. If this were the case, I suppose I would have achieved ascension myself a long time ago.

Though, the old scholars who believed such things found their own way out, didn’t they. And here I remain.

[remedyturtles]

not a single person here who's worthy

@tmnt-write-fight gift fic for @duckythetoddscout for their first prompt:

Batman crossover- Dick Grayson (any age), or any other batkids really, meeting the turtles. Any iteration.

wordcount: 2844

this is the absolute peak of self indulgence, as i've been into batfam for over ten years, so this prompt sung to me. i really hope you like where i took this haha :) title from idle worship by paramore. warnings for kinda panic attack but otherwise nothing big.

[]

If asked, Leo would claim that he'd borrowed one of Donnie's tablets so he could watch deep-dive video essays.

And he did. Sometimes. But mostly, he'd poked Donnie into info-dumping about the different tracking apps he'd developed so Leo could set it up and watch for anything... weird.

It was a totally normal reaction. Even though he'd had to listen to Donnie explain that blah blah blah mathematical model of a four dimensional continuum measuring relativistic effects -- whatever. What mattered was, Donnie had a map of New York corresponding to a graph of time-space-junk, and if it spiked, shit was happening. And it was so totally normal of Leo to sleep with that graph playing on the tablet next to his head. Just to make sure that nothing weird was going on. Right?

Yeah. Right. So totally normal. Which was why he told absolutely no one about his quiet little obsession, and why he more often than not laid awake staring at the screen instead of sleeping.

He'd grown used to the little anomalies, after sneaking out multiple times to check on blips. He'd yet to find any connection, whether it was latent mystic energies or some weird science thing due to gravity, he had no idea. Leo stopped having an irrational lurch of panic in his stomach at the small fluctuations on the screen. However it did not prepare him for the huge spike he saw at two thirty in the morning when he should've been sleeping after a long night of patrol. He'd almost convinced himself to fall asleep, too, when the screen suddenly lit in a red flare twenty times the size of any anomaly he'd seen so far, right in middle of Soho.

Leo's blood went cold. His brain ran through multiple possibilities, as his body moved, grabbing his swords and lighting up in an instant -- portalling directly to the coordinates.

The air was sparking when Leo emerged. Crackling pops of electricity fluttering to the ground. And despite what Leo's brain was anticipating, there was no pink fleshed aliens, there was no mechanical suits lit with red, there was only a groan from the rooftop, distinctly human and annoyed.

For a too-long moment, Leo's brain sprinted to catch up with his body, as he'd left his sense in the sewers. He was still wearing the hoodie he'd slept in and his swords were cooling down from his frantic portal. He was barely awake, despite the stop-start surge of panic, and it was damn lucky that there wasn't some alien waiting here for him, as he was woefully unprepared. And alone. What had he thought he was going to do?

"Well, shit." The person laying on the roof said. He was crackling with his own electricity, sparks fading slow, and appraising Leo with a watchful eye.

Which. Now that Leo was pivoting to the human beside him, was dressed quite… unique. A black body suit, with blue stripes arching finger to finger over his shoulders. And a mask on his face, hiding his eyes completely, with a head of dark hair. When Leo looked at him, he grinned. 

"Hi. Are you the welcoming committee?" The stranger asked. 

"I'm…" Leo shook his head, gathering his bearings, and extended his sword out to face the intruder. "Something like that. Who are you? Where did you come from?"

Bemusedly, the stranger raised his hands up, showing himself unarmed. "I'm not recognizable? Have I landed somewhere that doesn't have heroes?"

Heroes. Leo's hand shook for a moment, as his body struggled to keep the sword up. That was a concept Leo really didn't want to think about, especially not at two in the morning when he'd been scared half to death thinking for a split second that the Kraang had returned and he was a failure to everyone who ever had the misfortune of believing in him. 

"That's… we don't have anyone like you." Leo decided to answer, instead of claiming himself to be one. 

"Is everyone in this universe green?" The hero asked, cheerful about it. Even though Leo could tell he was still sizing him up, shifting into a better position. 

"Not many." Leo said, flat. "Mostly human. Like you are, I'm assuming."

"Human. Unless you ask my brother after I've subjected him to the fifth Disney movie in a row, at which point I'm apparently considered a monster. Any chance we could lower the sword now? I'm promise I'm one of the good guys. Here, let me introduce myself. I'm Nightwing." Heedless of the sword, Nightwing stuck out his hand to shake. 

Leo juggled conflicting desires, wanting to stay on guard versus wanting to play along and gain information, and compromised by lowering the sword but not taking the hand.

Nightwing didn't actually seem to expect him to, pulling away just to lean back on his palms and look at the skyline. "Woah, is this New York? It's been ages since I've been here, but you don't forget that view."

"Where are you from, then?" Leo prodded, keeping his sword at his side, ready. Tense. Feeling small and kind of stupid in the hoodie that was too big for him with the effortless sheen of the costume before him. 

"Gotham City."

"Never heard of it."

"Strike two for alternate dimension. That's fine. I won't be here long anyway." 

"No?" Leo wondered.

Nightwing seemed to be enjoying the view, unbothered by his armed welcoming party and no longer sparking with energy. "We were fighting a gentleman who installed a dimension hopper into his weaponry, so there's contingency plans in place. As soon as my family is done kicking his ass they'll swing by and pick me up. I give them… twenty minutes. Maybe half an hour, if Babybird and Little D get arguing without me to break it up."

Leo couldn't help but glance around at the scenery, trying to see what had enraptured the hero so much. All he could focus on was the construction cranes and the holes in the skyline where they'd lost infrastructure during the invasion. If Nightwing truly hadn't been to New York in a long time, maybe he didn't know the difference. Or maybe it was different in his universe altogether. 

"Your whole family are heroes?" Leo asked instead.

"Everyone of them." Nightwing's mouth twitched at the corner. "Even the ones who maybe should've waited a little longer before getting into the family business, but who am I to judge?"

Leo got the impression he'd been doing the gig a long time himself, just from the lazy grace that he carried in the suit. Reluctantly, he let the swords relax at his sides completely.

"Those are beautiful katannas." Nightwing complimented. 

"Thanks." Leo said reflexively. He held up the blades, marvelling for a moment how the ninpo markings disappeared and left no trace.

"You popped over here pretty quick. I wasn't expecting my appearance to make any waves. The last time this happened I ended up taking a nap on a beach for a couple hours. Welcoming committee, protector of the universe, whatever you wanna call it." 

Leo was already shaking his head. "That's not me. I just… I stole some of my brother's tech and I was just watching for any time-space bullshit and caught the wave you made. So I portalled over to make sure it wasn't something coming to take over the world, or whatever. It's stupid."

"Doesn't sound stupid." Nightwing smiled at him, and it kinda hurt for some reason. "Well, hey, you better stick around and make sure I don't take over the world in the probable-twenty-five minutes I spend in this universe. Have a seat, kid, pull up some roof." 

"I'm not a kid." Leo protested, but slowly lowered himself to sit, folding his swords over his knees and tugging at the edge of his big hoodie. 

"You're what, seventeen?" Nightwing guessed, right on the money without even trying. "Same age as my second youngest brother, though he's probably a bad example on what does and does not constitute a kid since he was briefly the world's youngest CEO of a multi-billion dollar company. The point is, I'm twenty-four, and I've been doing this hero biz for more than half my life, and I can give you some hot tips if you want."

"I'm not a hero." Leo immediately denied, tongue feeling big in his mouth and heart going too-fast. 

"You don't need a fancy suit to be a hero. You just need to show up when things need protecting." Nightwing gestured at him. "And look at that! Here you are."

"Not me." Leo's face burned and he didn't want this guy to get the wrong idea. "Maybe my brothers are heroes, but I'm the screw up. I'm just trying to… make up for my mistakes." 

"Ah." Nightwing's smile tinted a new colour. Shaded sad. "Listen, kid. What's your name?"

"I don't have a superhero name like yours." Leo said. 

"Hell, there's no secret identity to protect here. My real name is Dick. Well, Richard. But my friends call me Dick." 

Oh come on. Leo had to do it. He quirked a little smile and asked, "How do you get Dick from Richard?"

"You ask nicely!" Dick crowed, delighted. "Oh, thank you! No one ever sets me up for that one anymore."

Leo chuckled, shoulder loosening, and said, "It's Leonardo. Just Leo is fine though."

"Da Vinki?" Dick memed in a pretend gasp. 

He couldn't help but laugh again. "Yeah, that's me. All my brothers and I are named after renaissance artists. Or, alternatively, by our colour coding. So I'll answer just as fast to 'blue'."

"Hell yeah blue." Dick wiggled his blue finger stripes at him. "Got a red brother? Mine is a pain in the ass. I love him but if he 'borrows' my motorbike without asking one more time I'm gonna make origami out of his classic lit collection."

"Red brother, yeah. That's Raph. I'm probably more of a pain to him than he is to me. And he's not into books, that's Donnie. Books and tech." 

"Ah, tech is all Tim. The walking contradiction – genius level IQ who dropped out of high school. Picture a kid skateboarding in a suit to his board meetings. Though I'm not sure what colour we'd assign to him now, probably yellow since Jason's got a pretty firm hold on red." Dick tapped off his fingers, looking fond. 

Leo hummed and said, "Yeah, Don's purple, and my youngest isn't yellow but orange. Mikey's like that too – bright like the sun. Loves with everything he has. Joy and warmth and all that."

Dick burst out laughing so hard he had to hold his stomach, and dramatically wiped a tear away. "Oh, boy, yeah. No. The similarities very much end there. Our youngest is a baby assassin who we have to remind daily that he cannot maim people for minor inconveniences. But he's doing great, really. He's come so far from where he started. And despite the severe exterior, he really loves animals and art."

"Hey, there's something. Mike loves art. Actually, do you wanna see? I've got pictures on my phone." Leo tapped his foot at top speed, a little excited, because he never got to interact with normal people who didn't already know Mikey and get the opportunity to show off his talent like this. 

"Hell yeah I do." Dick shuffled closer, leaning in to see his phone and exclaiming over the bright pieces Leo had treasured in his camera roll. Then Dick showed off some remarkably lifelike pencil art pieces done by his youngest brother on his own phone, as well as the zoo of animals apparently he kept. Including a cow? 

"Are you the oldest?" Leo asked, when Dick made a comment about 'all his baby siblings'.

"I am. There's more of us, a couple sisters and another brother, but I'm the oldest of all of them." Dick didn't seem too concerned. "Let me guess, you're the second oldest?"

"Depends on what order my twin and I are deciding on for the day, but yeah. Raph's the oldest." Leo said with a shrug. 

"That makes sense." Dick said. 

Leo scowled and tried to elbow him. "What makes you say that?"

Dick dodged effortlessly and huffed. "You remind me of my second oldest brother. He feels like he has a lot to prove. And no idea that we don't need him to prove it, we'd just rather he was there."

Leo wrinkled his nose. "Dude. Come on. You don't have to put me on blast like that."

"Sorry." Dick laughed. "I'm a detective. And I'm really bad at turning it off, especially when I jump into a alternate dimension faced with a kid in a hoodie and a sword who's shaking way too hard to be doing okay."

Shit. That was a bad first impression. Leo groaned and covered his face with his hands. 

"Can I ask you one thing, though?" Dick wondered. 

"Might as well. Dig the knife in." Leo mumbled. 

"Why did you come alone? If your brothers are more like heroes than you, why is it just you in the middle of the night?"

"I wasn't thinking." Leo said, too quick, and it wasn't really the truth. He sighed. "I told you, I'm just trying to make up for my mistakes. They… they didn't need to be dragged into this if I could just fix it myself." 

"Hm. Well, get ready for the hot tip, because once I'm in big brother mode there's no stopping me. I told you that being a hero is showing up when people need protecting, but being a hero for a long time is not showing up alone. You shouldn't be wandering around New York by yourself to face an unknown threat, especially if you're not ready for it." Dick leaned in closer, rather serious. 

Leo shook his head, annoyed, turning away and tugging at the end of his sleeve. "Now you're really reminding me of Raph. Now all you need is a hot temper."

"Oh, believe me, I've got that too." Dick winked, but there was a severity that rang true. "But that's not necessary in this moment. If I'm your Raph and you said that you're more of a pain to him than he is to you, then yeah, you're my Jason. But listen. I don't care that Jason's made mistakes. Because that kid suffered more than anyone could believe, but he came back to us, and he is trying. And there's no amount of pain that he could cause me that would ever eclipse how much more I love him."

That was… seriously uncomfortably close to his own experiences. Just thinking about the idea of suffering sounded a lot like the snap of a portal closing him into hell. And coming back from it, and trying to be the hero he never could. 

"You don't have to prove anything to them." Dick said, quietly. "They'd just rather you were there. And if your tech brother is half as good as mine, he probably knew the moment the energy spiked and I bet they're wondering where you are."

It was that moment that Leo realized he'd left his phone in his bedroom, plugged in and charging, and if they had been trying to contact him he'd have no idea. He groaned and covered his face again. "Shit."

"Go home." Dick said. "My ride'll be here any minute." 

"Yeah. Yeah." Leo shook his head, like he was trying to shake out the cobwebs. There was no way Donnie hadn't realized what he was doing with the tablet now, he was going to have some explaining to do, especially at the part where he ran off to deal with a threat entirely alone without telling anyone where he was going. He gave Dick a sideways glance and said, "Your Jason loves you too, you know. He's stealing your motorbike so you'll have to talk to him. We always listen more when you're yelling because that's when we think you're telling the truth."

"Maybe I'll yell at him more how much I love him, then." Dick shrugged, amused. "Get it through his thick skull."

"Thanks for being patient." Leo said, and realized in that moment he probably really needed to verbalize that one to Raph. 

"Thanks for coming home." Dick replied, sadder. 

Behind them, the rooftop shimmered with a different portal.

"Ah, great timing. They're early, someone must've gotten antsy." Dick grinned, hopping up to his feet with an acrobatic stretch. "Hey, Leonardo?"

"Yeah?" Leo said, getting up too.

"It was great to meet another hero." Dick saluted, approaching his portal.

Leo's mouth was dry. He nodded back, and said with a small croak, "Yeah. You too."

He watched until Dick disappeared. Then before he could summon his own portal, he heard three voices gasp, "Leo!" before he was tackled to the ground. 

His hands were shaking again as he held onto them. He didn't really have to go home, when home came to him.

[memorandum]

...EXPERIMENT: BEGIN ! I commend you for finding this file. In the chance of my death, I must ask you continue to document ASU-NARO agents. Do whatever you must to extract our desired results. Don't worry—they've already signed away their lives.

{ This is an interactive ask blog, set one year prior to the Death Game! Run by @faresong }

☕️ KOA MYOJIN ;; Adopted heir of the Hiyori/Myojin Branch. Japanese/Vietnamese; 11 years.

KOA MYOJIN is the replacement heir for Hinako Mishuku, Myojin's biological granddaughter. Being raised with this knowledge hanging over her head has resulted in a rather cynical mindset wherein she views those around her, up to and including herself, as pieces in a larger game. A mindset reinforced by Mr. Chidouin in Myojin's absence, for he had faith in her where Myojin did not—seeing her solely as a mandatory last-resort to continue his reign of power. But of course, even a pawn can become a queen.

🎃 RIO RANGER (LAIZER PROJECT) ;; Experiment of the Gotō Branch. Doll, Japanese model; 20 years.

RIO is an experimental project spearheaded by Gashu Satou simulating the deceased Yoshimoto heir. It was initiated with its basic personality, and to compensate its limited emotional range, this iteration of AI technology was granted a much more adaptive program compared to M4-P1. As such, he has taken to mimicry of the researchers which surround him in all their crudest forms. Despite denouncing humanity, his development has certainly been typical of one. The candidate AIs are proven promising.

🐉 SOU HIYORI ;; Heir of the Hiyori/Myojin Branch. Japanese; 22 years.

SOU HIYORI is the heir of the Family and inherently quite skilled at keeping appearances—only if it benefits him. He obeys Asunaro with the sneer of someone who thinks himself something above it, and has recently taken great lengths to abandon its ruling through the rejection of his individual humanity. It is a bastardization which requires admirable resolve, but implies him to be a much larger threat if left unchecked. Thus, Mrs. Hiyori arranged plans for his execution on the day Myojin and herself are simultaneously incapacitated or dead.

🦋 MAPLE (ITERATION M4-P1) ;; Experiment of the Gotō & Hiyori Branch. Obstructor, Japanese model; 26 years.

MAPLE was the first Obstructor to be granted emotional programming, and is the final Obstructor to be decommissioned. However, this fate has been put on standby due to the new researchers intrigue in her, insisting she exists as a base from which all other AI programs were spawned and must be archived properly. Until her execution, Maple tends to menial tasks within the laboratory she resides and spends her idle time pining for Hiyori and wishing to learn more about humanity through the researchers who care for her.

🩸 KAI SATOU ;; Patriarch of the Gotō Branch. Japanese/Wa Chinese; 26 years.

KAI is a reserved patriarch whose reputation precedes him. Though once thought denounced, he's rumored nonetheless a controversial figure in Asunaro's midst—however, all can agree him to be a vengeful, resolute person lent the power of God.

💉 MICHIRU NAMIDA ;; Lieutenant of the Satou Family, Gotō Branch. Korean; 28 years.

MICHIRU is a revered researcher within Asunaro's newer ranks, having quickly rose to a position of respect for her ruthless pursuit of seizing humanity's destiny with her own two hands. Without being absorbed by the superficial desire for power, many recognize her dedicated state of mind to be reminiscent of the natural way Mrs. Hiyori assumed her role under Asunaro's whispers of guidance. There is importance in the fact that the Godfather's right hand regards her as a peer, where he otherwise dismisses his own kind by blood, by culture.

🫀 EMIRI HARAI ;; Lieutenant of the Satou Family, Gotō Branch. Japanese; 29 years.

EMIRI is a new researcher and serves as the connecting point between Asunaro's primary facility and civilian life. For all her resentment buried inside one-off remarks and festering within herself, she throws herself to her work with the drive of a passionate someone who has lost all else. Someone who perhaps hungered for life.

(￣▽￣) MR. CHIDOUIN ;; Godfather. Japanese; 44 years.

MR. CHIDOUIN aligned himself with the Gotō Family's lost heir after his father's untimely death, uniting the two families in a manner he hoped would justify the suffering once inflicted upon them—but particularly his wife, who had been cast out by her own. Despite, or as he had claimed, for his being extremely capable of detaching to arrange the larger canvas upon which Asunaro's story is written, he takes a personal pride in being the one to groom and inevitably cull its important pieces.

⚰️ GASHU SATOU ;; Captain of the Satou Family, Gotō Branch. Japanese; 62 years.

GASHU is a remarkably candid researcher with a scrutinizing eye for detail. Despite regarding most with unrelenting cynicism, he places his remaining shreds of hope in a choice few. Whether they reinforce this worldview and finally break him is a decision entirely in their hands.

[tangentiallly]

One way to spot patterns is to show AI models millions of labelled examples. This method requires humans to painstakingly label all this data so they can be analysed by computers. Without them, the algorithms that underpin self-driving cars or facial recognition remain blind. They cannot learn patterns.

The algorithms built in this way now augment or stand in for human judgement in areas as varied as medicine, criminal justice, social welfare and mortgage and loan decisions. Generative AI, the latest iteration of AI software, can create words, code and images. This has transformed them into creative assistants, helping teachers, financial advisers, lawyers, artists and programmers to co-create original works.

To build AI, Silicon Valley’s most illustrious companies are fighting over the limited talent of computer scientists in their backyard, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to a newly minted Ph.D. But to train and deploy them using real-world data, these same companies have turned to the likes of Sama, and their veritable armies of low-wage workers with basic digital literacy, but no stable employment.

Sama isn’t the only service of its kind globally. Start-ups such as Scale AI, Appen, Hive Micro, iMerit and Mighty AI (now owned by Uber), and more traditional IT companies such as Accenture and Wipro are all part of this growing industry estimated to be worth $17bn by 2030.

Because of the sheer volume of data that AI companies need to be labelled, most start-ups outsource their services to lower-income countries where hundreds of workers like Ian and Benja are paid to sift and interpret data that trains AI systems.

Displaced Syrian doctors train medical software that helps diagnose prostate cancer in Britain. Out-of-work college graduates in recession-hit Venezuela categorize fashion products for e-commerce sites. Impoverished women in Kolkata’s Metiabruz, a poor Muslim neighbourhood, have labelled voice clips for Amazon’s Echo speaker. Their work couches a badly kept secret about so-called artificial intelligence systems – that the technology does not ‘learn’ independently, and it needs humans, millions of them, to power it. Data workers are the invaluable human links in the global AI supply chain.

This workforce is largely fragmented, and made up of the most precarious workers in society: disadvantaged youth, women with dependents, minorities, migrants and refugees. The stated goal of AI companies and the outsourcers they work with is to include these communities in the digital revolution, giving them stable and ethical employment despite their precarity. Yet, as I came to discover, data workers are as precarious as factory workers, their labour is largely ghost work and they remain an undervalued bedrock of the AI industry.

As this community emerges from the shadows, journalists and academics are beginning to understand how these globally dispersed workers impact our daily lives: the wildly popular content generated by AI chatbots like ChatGPT, the content we scroll through on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, the items we browse when shopping online, the vehicles we drive, even the food we eat, it’s all sorted, labelled and categorized with the help of data workers.

Milagros Miceli, an Argentinian researcher based in Berlin, studies the ethnography of data work in the developing world. When she started out, she couldn’t find anything about the lived experience of AI labourers, nothing about who these people actually were and what their work was like. ‘As a sociologist, I felt it was a big gap,’ she says. ‘There are few who are putting a face to those people: who are they and how do they do their jobs, what do their work practices involve? And what are the labour conditions that they are subject to?’

Miceli was right – it was hard to find a company that would allow me access to its data labourers with minimal interference. Secrecy is often written into their contracts in the form of non-disclosure agreements that forbid direct contact with clients and public disclosure of clients’ names. This is usually imposed by clients rather than the outsourcing companies. For instance, Facebook-owner Meta, who is a client of Sama, asks workers to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Often, workers may not even know who their client is, what type of algorithmic system they are working on, or what their counterparts in other parts of the world are paid for the same job.

The arrangements of a company like Sama – low wages, secrecy, extraction of labour from vulnerable communities – is veered towards inequality. After all, this is ultimately affordable labour. Providing employment to minorities and slum youth may be empowering and uplifting to a point, but these workers are also comparatively inexpensive, with almost no relative bargaining power, leverage or resources to rebel.

Even the objective of data-labelling work felt extractive: it trains AI systems, which will eventually replace the very humans doing the training. But of the dozens of workers I spoke to over the course of two years, not one was aware of the implications of training their replacements, that they were being paid to hasten their own obsolescence.

— Madhumita Murgia, Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI

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So I don't usually get involved in class balance discourse but recently I stumbled across this video and it made me realize something about D&D's game design, specifically WHY casters get access to room/encounter clearing amounts of damage while martial characters are stuck with their low damage iterative attacks.

See, since d&d was one of the first things to emerge from the primordial soup of ttrpgs there were a lot of developments in game design that we take for granted today that simply didn't exist as concepts back then. One of these was asymetricality: the idea that different players at the table might be using their own set of mechanics to interact with the game at different levels.

Today we understand that while our DMs/GMs/Storytellers/Directors are fellow players, the game is FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT from their perspective and the mechanics they have access to should probably reflect that.

I've complained before that d&d's monster making system is nigh unusable because it expects you to do a lot of extraneous work for a creature that's going to be dead in three rounds. This is because the game has traditionally modelled monsters in nearly the same way that it models player characters, which seems like the most backwards bit of game design ever until you remember that d&d evolved from wargames, where having a unified system with clearly defined math was important for maintaining competitive balance.

Magic is unbalanced for the same reason that monsters are over-complicated, because it expects the party and the dungeonmaster to be using the same mechanics despite their fundamentally different play experiences.

Think about it: however much fun it is to make things explode Fireball and it's big brother Meteor Swarm are not well designed player spells. They're really USEFUL for a DM looking to deal a lot of damage to a relevant level party, but encounter balance starts to go out the window once the players get their hands on them.

So how do we fix this? Honestly, not sure. I'm really interested in how the 5e successors are taking advantage of the asymmetrical nature of the GM/Player dynamic, as everyone's seemed to have independently learned the lesson that there should probably be a different set of mechanics depending on whether you're behind the screen or not.

For D&D itself though, I think it's one of those things that I'm going to need to tinker with for a while and up my game design skill. Learning where the game breaks down teaches us how to improve it. Currently I'm experimenting with retooling player HP and making counter-magic a LOT more common to make the use of those big encounter-ending spells more tactical. I might also take a look into it if I ever feel like tangling with the spell economy.