#VICE (emulator)

[clatterbane]

Ah, the joys of C64 gaming! This time, in an emulator that I'm still getting used to.

On a modern display, so we'll all just have to imagine the experience on my usual (B&W) monitor, back in the day.

At any rate, tonight's little delight is a 1988 abandonware title that I didn't know existed, but had to download when I saw it:

It was released on multiple platforms, and you can apparently also play it through a browser on archive.org.

The soundtrack is based on a Devo album, and Timothy Leary was involved in the project.

As for the video here? This was the second time I loaded the game.

The loading delays definitely hearken back to the good old days, even when you're not relying on one slow floppy drive (or, gods forbid, a cassette drive) and physical disk swaps. This particular game evidently came as 5 disk sides for the C64, so we're no doubt in for a lot more virtual swaps later!

(Is the screen supposed to look like that, or is it just crashing while loading???! Guess we'll have to wait and see!)

I have no idea if it's the emulation, or if the title screen music was that messed up on the original hardware. The rest of the sound so far isn't as blatantly wrong, so it's even harder to tell. May have to look for some videos to find out.

Also very reminiscent of trying to play games way back when: what are the controls? We just don't know! In the absence of a paper manual like everything came with then, let's just poke at a bunch of random keys to see if they do anything!

(Though, when I went looking, I did see that the C64 Wiki has us covered, along with some other gameplay info. Better keep that tab open for reference, or possibly print out the control info to make my own pseudo-manual cheat sheet.)

There appears to be a pointer, which could presumably be moved around if you did have a physical joystick connected? I do not, and the keys that I do have configured to stand in for the joystick do not appear to be working. Again, no idea if that's a configuration issue, an emulator issue, or what. Hopefully get something figured out.

Almost a shame that even if I did still have the crappy Atari 2600 joystick that I used to use with the C64, this laptop doesn't have any compatible ports to connect the thing.

I am also not sure if the "Exit" option which I stumbled upon while I was jabbing at random keys not actually doing anything is an emulator thing, or original behavior. ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

Anyway, looking forward to hopefully getting further into the game once I do get a better idea of the controls.

[smbhax]

An 8 woman fight and other hijinx in a Capcom vs. SNK Pro (Dreamcast/Flycast) max difficulty playthrough ^ _^

Play session: https://youtu.be/jTZChRUDhx8

[doesnotloveyou]

me: 1920s hairstyles were so cool

my mom: only old ladies had that hair when i was a kid :\

1980s wannabes today: i need hair like they had in stranger things!

me: so you want to look like everyone's boring mom from when i was a kid :\

[acceptable-glitch]

[mingos-commodoreblog]

Commodore Emulator VICE Version 3.7.1 released (with macOS fixes)

[perenlop]

just saw puss in boots 2 and um. unironically best animated movie of the year

[teaboot]

Thoughts on Lord of the rings??

Do you have any tips on protected sex between two afab

Lord of the Rings kicks ass, we need more deep and meaningful platonic friendships and healthy male characters in media that don't resort to romance or toxic masculinity to emulate affection and strength, the movies were groundbreaking and remain as incredible accomplishments and a love note to innovation and practical effects

2. For sex between parties with vaginas there are a few things:

If using toys, keep in mind that toy material can be affected by the kind of lube you use. Jelly toys are safe with water-based lube and NOTHING ELSE, or they will start dissolving, and they must not be stored touching other jellies or they will melt together. Jellies are also porous and cannot be used for anal, then vaginal penetration unless a condom is used and swapped- washing will never get all bacteria out. Once used anally, a jelly toy should ONLY be used for anal.

Silicone toys can ONLY be used with water-based lube or specialized hybrid lubes- again, silicone or oil lubes will cause them to dissolve and become porous, but they CAN be used interchangeably for anal and vaginal penitration providing you wash them before vaginal use. Silicone cal also be boiled clean and totally sterilized, whereas jelly cannot be boiled.

Glass and metal can be used with absolutely any lube you want, and can also be boiled clean.

For oral sex, keep in mind that oral diseases such as herpes can be passed on back and forth through genital contact- you can get genital herpes from oral herpes and vice-versa. If this is a concern, I recommend using a dental dam, or if that is not available then you can cut the tip off a condom and then cut it lengthwise to make one fast. Both condoms and dental dams come in flavored options, but with all contraceptives, lubes, and barriers you should check that glycerin is not a high ingredient, because that can throw off PH balance in a vagina.

If you experience any itching, burning, or discomfort when using lube, it is likely you have a sensitivity to the lube you use. Durex I know is especially popular for that. I recommend Water Slide or Fuck Water.

And on the topic of water-based lubes, you can add spit or water to rehydrate if it starts to dry out during, so don't worry about dropping a little cash for the good stuff.

And for fingering a partner, go with what's comfortable, but your hand won't cramp up as fast if you use ring finger-middle finger instead of middle-index.

Lastly, you can buy topical stimulants for clitoral or nipple stimulation- I happen to have a tingling peach flavour nipple balm that I use as a chapstick. Though always read the ingredients- cooling products usually use menthol, and warming products like cinnamon, both in very low amounts, but good to know if you have an allergy.

Oh, and lots of massage oils use almond oil as well, so again, allergies.

And it's perfectly normal to have a small vagina- if you choose to, you can purchase dilator sets for not too much cash, just take things slow- but it's not necessary, obviously. All bodies are good bodies and if your partner is a dick about it you deserve better.

Great question, by the way. Hope I could help!

[darby-rowe]

୨୧; rafe cameron decided to come over

18+ | nsfw | mdni

cw fem!reader, slight dubcon, gagging on fingers, usage of the word “bitch”, creampie

you were forgetting something. rafe had you pinned down with vice grips on your forearms and something kept nagging at the void in the back of your mind. it was plans you had made. important plans, you couldn’t remember.

it was always like this when rafe shoved his tongue inside your mouth, already feeling his bulge ready to bust out of his jeans as he ground against your pelvis like some salivating, hungry dog. it made your mind into a white room. already so dumb with your brain cloudy and unwilling to cooperate with your smart mind.

smart girl you were, but rafe liked you brainless.

brainless, like how your eyes went blank and glassy as his large cock sank deep inside you. the muttering that flooded out of his mouth seemed to enter your ear then out the other, but you could make out him saying stuff along the lines of, “fuck, such a good pussy. such a good fuckin’ pussy.”

rafe wasn’t a gentle lover, either. he fucked you hard and deep, making sure your cervix knew the head of his cock like you knew the back of your hand. gripping your jaw so tight it made you whimper, he told you to “open wide, baby” before shoving his fingers far down your throat in an attempt to emulate the gargling noises you made when his dick was in your mouth.

the sound of knocking at your front door and notifications from your phone coaxed your brain back from its cock-drunk fog. rafe was quick to slap your hand away when you went to grab for your phone, taking it in his own hand and forcing the screen in your face to activate its face id.

“here,” rafe read your text messages with a perplexed yet intrigued tone to his voice. “it’s your friends. seems like they’re at the front door, but don’t worry. ’m almost done with ya. they can have ya after me,”

carelessly, rafe tossed your phone onto your carpeted bedroom floor and quickened the pace. “gonna dump my load in this pussy — mmh — then you can run off with your friends, yeah? c’mon, don’t get all shy now. what? your friends don’t know how you take my dick every single fucking day? don’t get all fucking quiet on me now, bitch. this pussy is mine,”

with you, it didn’t take long for rafe to shoot his warm cum deep inside you, filling you up and letting him watch as his seed oozes out of you. the cleanup was subpar at best, and your hair and makeup were fucked up after spending precious time on making yourself look nice.

god, you hated how inconsiderate rafe could be about your social life that wasn’t entirely about him. like clockwork, however, rafe always decided to come over at the worst times.

[motobug]

A redraw/update of a reference I did back in 2021! This was for my oc Vice and their shapeshifting abilities.

Although Vice can perfectly emulate their target's voice and even their intonations, the 'dead' look in their eyes make everything they do Slightly Off. Especially if they are trying to fool someone close to their target, it will only be a matter of time before they are sus'd out.

[apompkwrites]

the making of a god || scaramouche

masterlist characters: scaramouche (platonic) genre: angst contains: spoilers for chapter 3 act iii, scaramouche spoilers, character death, injuries summary: how did things end up this way? how did you go from a doll to something more? notes: trying to get back into writing genshin :) had my hoco yesterday and my booster shot right before that. i'm so tired but i still finished the new archon quest :D parts: [the making of a god (1)] || [the betrayal of a god (2)] || [the loss of a god (3)]

"hng... ngh... nnn..."

"just a bit longer," was all you could hear. you couldn't see anymore, but that was your normal now. they had long since taken your eyes.

"haaaah... blugh... ku... mm..."

"ah, there we are," he hummed, the poking and prodding at your insides finally stopping. it was a strange sensation, feeling anything that is. you weren't made for this, so why? why did you suddenly feel things?

ah, was it then? perhaps it was.

you could recall the very moment you opened your eyes. a woman with long purple hair stared down at you, here eyes occasionally flicking upwards.

"let's get you sitting up, shall we?" she had hummed, flicking her wrist. as if she had you on strings (which she did, you would later learn), your body moved on its own. you were "sat up" as she called it and the world turned sideways. She seemed pleased with herself as she nodded and, with another flick of her wrist, your head turned to your left.

sitting beside you was a boy, dressed in the same white garb as you. he had the same purple hair as the woman did but his eyes were duller than hers. they were glassy, blobs of tears running down his round cheeks. his face seemed to emulate yours, a wide look of wonder and awe present on his doll-like face. if he looked like you, did you have tears running down your face too?

"now stand," the woman commanded, both of your heads turning back to her. despite her command, neither of you moved. your bodies remained stagnant. and all the woman did was sigh, her hands moving together at the same time. "...i see."

this time, your bodies did move. the woman moved her hands and walked out of the room, you and the other boy following behind her. she stood at a terrace overlooking a world that was... colorful, to say the least. plenty of bright colors that you couldn't identify filled your vision.

and soon it was all you saw as you and the boy were left in a place with many vibrant colors. the woman stared the two of you down before turning away, hurrying off, and disappearing into the colors.

the next time the colors changed, you were finally able to move. the boy helped you up at first. apparently, he figured out how to move by "observing the surrounding fauna" as he claimed, a string dangling in front of his face. what a smart boy.

you clung to his arms, your hands clasped around his in a vice grip. you couldn't feel anything at first except a slight tingling in your fingertips. and then there was a tingling in your feet and a little tickle that was barely distinguishable from it.

"we were given names," the boy began, keeping his hands on your arms to steady you. "m...mother told me. before you woke up." when you didn't respond, he took it as a sign to continue. he reached up and moved the string out of his face and then moved his hand to brush a part of your veil out of yours. "you were called (name). and i... kunikuzushi."

"ku..." your lips moved like his, copying the words that left his mouth just a moment before. "kuni...kuzu...shi. kuniku... zushi..."

"kunikuzushi," the two of you said together. "(name)."

"kunikuzushi. (name)."

kunikuzushi and (name). that was all you knew how to say at first. perhaps you were defective. kunikuzushi didn't like to say that but it was a word you had heard from him. he liked to call you different. younger. precious.

and you only knew how to call him by his name or by the little syllables that made it up. you often yelled out for him as you got used to "walking" as he explained. you waddled around aimlessly, occasionally tripping over the strings that tangled up around your feet and ankles.

kunikuzushi only laughed lightly, helping you back up to your feet and brushing away the "leaves" and "petals" that clung to your veil. and then he would take your hand, promising to keep you steady as you walked away from where you were "abandoned".

you learned a lot of words from kunikuzushi during that trip. you learned a lot of words from your big brother.

"monster" was the first word you learned from someone other than your brother. "monster!" the boy cried out as he held up his hammer in defense. you and kunikuzushi stood in his workplace, hand in hand prepared to learn more from him, just as you did the day before. but why was today any different?

why was he so scared of you two? what did "monster" mean and why was he calling you that. that wasn't your name!

"kunikuzushi. (name)," you had tried to explain motioning towards your brother and yourself. it all had to be a misunderstanding, right? maybe he thought "monster" was your name, right?

"monster!" he hurled his hammer at you, the edge he used to flatten the weapons thumping against your chest. a dull pounding resounded in the spot the hammer had hit.

kunikuzushi cried out to you as you fell, his hand shakily hovering over the hole that now appeared on your body. you whimpered, clutching onto his kimono sleeve. he shushed you, hurriedly covering your face with your veil and scooping you up into his arms, running away as the boy continued to cry out "monster! monster!"

"promise" was the second word you learned from someone other than your brother.

the boy was smaller this time and kunikuzushi had to remind you that, no, this was not the same "monster" boy that caused the hole in your chest. this boy was giggly, holding up his hands to you and kunikuzushi.

"fluff" flowers surrounded the three of you and the boy only giggled more when the fluff was caught in your hair and in your brother's clothes. his laughs grew louder when you pointed at the fluff that also covered him.

"promise to come back?" he asked the day you met him. you looked over at kunikuzushi, your precious big brother who always knew what to say. he glanced over at you before nodding to the boy.

"we promise." and you would "fulfill" that promise as your brother said. you came back the next day. and the next. and the next. the next. the next. the next.

and you continued to return every day, even when the boy was in no mood to laugh, his parents nowhere to be found. you continued to return every day until you didn't need to anymore, having permanently moved into his home because he was "ill".

you didn't know what that meant at first. you figured it was something big as your brother always coddled the boy, especially when he was unable to move like you and kunikuzushi upon your "birth".

"promise... to come back?" he had asked you the last day you saw him.

"only if you promise to be here when we do," kunikuzushi replied. and the boy nodded, his doll clutched in his hand and a little cough escaping his lips.

he didn't fulfill his promise.

the lavender melon your brother cradled in his arms fell to the ground with a thud, rolling to the side as you almost fell to your knees. you managed to stay standing before rushing over to the boy, your hands landing on his shoulders.

"you promised..." you whimpered, shaking him. "you promised... promised, promised, promised...!"

you and your brother left that very night, the only remnants of the house being the small doll the boy had "died" with. your brother trembled as the place you used to live in burnt to the ground, the boy's body still inside.

"let's go," he urged, tugging you over to the path that was covered in snow. he paused for a moment, lifted a conical hat onto his head, adjusted your veil to cover your face, and returned to the road.

it was just you two, he promised. just the two of you from now on.

he promised... and yet here you were. dangling in the air with tubes and rods shoved into your body. it was the same as your birth, your body no longer under your control. you felt like you still had strings attached to your limbs. the hole in your chest was now blocked by a single tube that led to some sort of box if you remembered correctly.

your eyes were taken near the beginning of this "project" as the man called it.

"our god will need them more than you," he explained when you asked. and when you asked why all you felt was searing pain from your body, he would only respond with a single word, "test". when you asked why you could no longer feel your leg, he told you "our god is in need of one."

kunikuzushi, you wanted to cry out. you could still feel tears running down your cheeks. did you look like him when he was first born? kunikuzushi, please!

he promised. he promised it would just be you two. and he betrayed you. did he even know? did he even care?

maybe you could think about that after you slept. you were awfully tired. what a new and interesting feeling.

[aspiringgirly]

a guide to buying girly in america (or anywhere outside of japan, really)

aspiringgirly here with some tips on how to find girly-esque pieces of clothing in american stores! while many pieces from japanese shops are super cute, they're often expensive (before and after shipping costs) and aren't very size inclusive.

this list is going to have some key words to look up as well as stores i've found that have some thing i think are girly.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────

shirts: button up shirt, ruffled button up shirt, puff sleeve shirt, rugby shirt

skirts: maxi skirt (roughly ankle length), tea length skirt (roughly knee length), suspender skirt, pleated skirt

dresses: puff sleeve dress, maxi dress, tea length dress, poplin dress

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────

good key words to type are gingham, pinstripe, or a color.

sometimes shops dont use the same terms for their clothing items, so dont be afraid to try different things to see what comes up.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────

here are stores i have tried these key words on and have found some pieces that emulate the girly style:

Old Navy - moderate prices, always has deals going on and a point reward system for members (the account is free)

H&M - cheaper prices, has a lot of color variety

Khol's - more expensive, things go on clearance very often and has deals, as well as an in-store "cash" for later discounts

Hot Topic - moderate prices, has a lot of collared shirts with ribbons included and patterned skirts, also has in-store "cash" to use later

Forever 21 - cheaper/moderate prices, has plenty of different patterns and colors

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────

dont be afraid to layer items! a lot of dresses can be worn on top of shirts and vice versa. sometimes i wear a skirt over a dress if i like how the top part looks.

there are more shops to look at, and there might be boutiques around your local areas- dont forget to check those places out !

girly is everywhere if you look hard enough <3 and if you buy basic pieces, then you can blend other styles into your wardrobe as well! ☆

[zephiris]

Being autistic feels like having to emulate brain hardware that most other people have. Being allistic is like having a social chip in the brain that handles converting thoughts into social communication and vice versa while being autistic is like using the CPU to essentially emulate what that social chip does in allistic people.

Skip this paragraph if you know about video codec hardware on GPUs. Similarly, some computers have hardware chips specifically meant for encoding and decoding specific video formats like H.264 (usually located in the GPU), while other computers might not have those chips built in meaning that encoding and decoding videos must be done “by hand” on the CPU. That means it usually takes longer but is also usually more configurable, meaning that the output quality of the CPU method can sometimes surpass the hardware chip’s output quality depending on the settings set for the CPU encoding.

In conclusion, video codec encoding and decoding for computers is to social encoding and decoding for autistic/allistic people.

[shakertwelve]

thinking about costumes

the intent with victor was always that his post-gm costume would resemble victoria's pre-gm costume, and vice versa—just by coincidence, but closely enough that catching a glimpse of each other out of the corner of their eye would be weird for both of them. vinny and vixen obviously have the same thing going on.

i don't think it makes sense for victor to be signing up for an actual "villain team" post-gm, but i figure he ends up involved in some kind of parahuman fight club situation, so his costume is repurposed from stuff that was supposed to be gladiator-themed. the lion motif is his equivalent to antares' star motif, referencing his altered form/the shape of his forcefield—antares' stars are the wretch's hands, heracles' helm and cape are the beast's jaws and mane. he's not doing the celestial theme as directly as the other vics are, but hercules is a constellation like antares, so it still fits the pattern.

vinny's post-gm sun/eclipse motif is a reference his old costume's crown, which was itself supposed to evoke his light powers, in the same way antares' stars come from glory girl's tiara which evokes vicky's aura. the eclipse thing is the connection to his altered form, since he was sort of made of two overlapping bodies. equivalently the "v" pattern/arrowheads/fox ears on vixen's first costume became the crescent moons on her second costume, and she was cut down to a small sliver of herself before her body was restored, like how the moon wanes in the sky.

amy's red queen costume isn't based on anything from ward and is mostly just fanciful. to entertain myself, i tried to make her costume progression vaguely parallel adam's, and the same with amelia and annie.

amelia's queen of hearts costume is her trying to look more mature now, losing the doll stuff from dauphine. the rose motif is a reference to alice in wonderland, with the white roses being painted red and all. (all the meebs are using red to represent blood in reference to The Incident—amelia's gets up on her dress because she was literally kneeling in a pool of blood.)

annie's nightingale costume is supposed to look like a nurse's uniform, with the winged heart being her personal icon; she loses the nurse part in her second costume but keeps the wing theme, going less cutesy and more renaissance angel. amy's post-gm costume covers less of her because she's not trying to hide herself anymore; in annie's case, her original costume was more revealing than she was comfortable with, so her post-gm style is the opposite.

adam's first costume is very directly trying to emulate how marquis used to dress, with her second costume still obviously following the estate's royalty theme, but moving more in her own direction. the cloak is lined with real fox fur.

[fangirltothefullest]

fascinating can you do janus since you talked about him?

*cracks knuckles* Absolutely!

Janus is deception, deceit in it's finest- a smooth-talking person who keeps everything close to his chest. In canon his outfit hides everything but his face- which are covered in scales, making it easy to overlook everything else when that's distracting enough. BUT! He's also way kinder than people give him credit for and his goals align with wanting to protect and keep them all safe and happy too.

Janus gives me SO many fun vibes, but to me it boils down to "immaculate presentation hiding frustrated only-sort-of-reformed-villain that wants you to treat yourself to extravagant things because you deserve it". He wants to be a good guy but it feels like it's his nature to be a manipulative shit. He is a femme fatale, a bond villain, a sassy aunt who talks shit about everyone, strange caregiver, and aesthetically he is a diva.

Inspiration 1: That video of the guy who is a good guy talking like a villain

His outfit in the series screams villain but he's CONSTANTLY trying to make good reasonable points so this has to be a good place to think about it first.

Inspiration 2: Femme Fatale

Classy and refined, Femme Fatales use their looks and words and charms to get what they want, often at the cost of other people. Janus ultimately is a femme fatale in that he is trying to get what he wants and he tends to be smooth about it (this breaks sometimes but for the most part).

When thinking about Janus, seductive is a word that works well for him. He leans into that enticing seduction. Don't you want this? Don't you want to be like this or do this? Wouldn't it be so nice to be convinced~? While Roman is an effeminate romantic side, Janus is the one not afraid to wear the dresses and be the diva. Honestly he and Roman would be so good together flaunting dramatic diva takes if they could get past their bullshit.

Inspiration 3: Spy movies and heist movies

Janus dresses in a hat and gloves like he doesn't want to get his hands dirty. Spy movies have such a mysterious and enticing feel to them. To me deception isn't just about lying, it's about convincing people that lies are true for the purpose of achieving something. Obtaining something, changing something, doesn't matter which, spies and Janus go hand in hand in my brain. Likewise, heist movies are all about precision and timing and the perfect culmination of a plan coming together. Ultimately this is what Janus WANTS to emulate. What I think he would WANT to be. Convincing and suave and charming about it. Does he come across this way? Not 100% but it's a good place to look.

Inspiration 4: Lion King

(bottom image source: FantaTara )

Back again with Lion King, but you can't think about Thomas's sides without thinking about Disney. One Disney Villain comes to mind when I think about Janus, and surprisingly it's not Jafar, it is instead Scar. A lion who didn't get the recognition he craved, a lion whose plotting and scheming got him very far. Mark on his face? Check! Smooth-talking? Check! He is more about wits and words than strength and Janus is just like that.

So we have a person who is suave and cunning, talks a big talk, villain-coded, selfish, scheming and wants to help but uses dirty tactics to do so if he has to, all while wearing a very put together outfit.

Inspiration 5: Decadent parties and backroom poker

If Janus has a vice it is partying in excess and living his best life without a care for the consequences other people experience. Old fashioned cocktail parties, wine and booze, illicit backroom poker games and rigged playing cards, gossiping while he drinks his 16th cocktail and yet hiding himself behind a facade of totally having it together.

Inspiration 6: Chess

Janus is always playing a game, and it's a game of wits for everyone he is around. Every word he says and everything he does feels like a plotted out game and everyone else is a player.

Inspiration 8: Biblical stuff

Can't get rid of the biblical iconography with the snake man, but I chose less to look at the snake as "bad evil horrible sinful" and chose instead to look for images I could use to inspire me the opposite way.... angelic figures tending to or being kind with snakes because ultimately a snake granting knowledge isn't necessarily a bad thing to every belief system, so perhaps that vice-chasing isn't so much evil as selfishness is also not evil. A dichotomy that reflects in his scales- they continue down his entire body on that half. They should always be a prominent feature highlighted by the under eye redness. He is not fully human and that should be shown.

Things that became a must for me:

Keeping him fully clothes most of the time. This also gives into the "snakes are cold" vibes.

Must remain sleek and elegant

If he must show skin, the scales have to be shown off

Adding extra features to his outfit- splashes of yellow that remain refined and potentially softer things thrown in to look less threatening under all the outer presentation layers. Even AUs should do this.

Jewelry or accessories must be sleek and minimalist to be less distracting, but overall can be expensive. Hats are allowed to be big but will always slant and will not be too decorated.

Janus must have expressions of suave mystery, enticing allure, or like he's judging your outfit choice.

Hair is not as fluffy or as wavy- simpler and less distracting and cover his human eye because it's not as important.

Often depict him without his hat when trying to make him more approachable- the hat feels like him hiding more. Likewise do the opposite- often depict him cut off in some way to highlight the snake aesthetic and make him seem more mysterious.

So I ended up with this:

[cetaceanhandiwork]

the conversation around generative neural networks is a dumpster fire in a dozen different ways but I think the part that disproportionately frustrates me, like on an irrational pet peeve level, is that nobody in that conversation seems to understand automata theory

back before most of these deep learning techniques were a twinkle in a theorist's eye, back when computing was a lot less engineering and a lot more math, computer scientists had worked out the math of different "classes" of computer system and what kinds of problems they could and couldn't solve

these aren't arbitrary classifications like most taxonomy turns out to be. there's qualitative differences. you can draw hard lines: "it takes class X or above to run programs with Y trait", and "only class X programs or below are guaranteed to have Y trait". and all of those lines have been mathematically proven; if you ever found a counterexample, then we'd be in "math is a lot of bunk" territory and we'd have way bigger things to worry about

this has nothing to do with how fast/slow the computer system goes; it's about "what kinds of program can it run at all". so it includes emulation and such. you can emulate a lower system in a higher one, but not vice versa

at the top of this heap is turing machines, which includes most computers we'd bother to build. there's a lot of programs that it's been mathematically proven require at least a turing machine to run. and this class of programs includes a lot of things that humans can do, too

but with this power comes some inevitable restrictions. for example, if you feed a program to a turing machine, there's no way to guarantee that the program will finish; it might get stuck somewhere and loop forever. in fact there's some programs that you straight up can't predict whether they'll ever finish even if you're looking at the code yourself

these two are intrinsically linked. if your program solves a turing complete problem, it needs a turing machine; nothing less will do. and a turing machine is capable of running all such programs, given enough time.

ok. great. what does any of that jargon have to do with AI?

well... the important thing to know is that the machine learning models we're using right now can't loop forever. if they could loop forever they couldn't be trained. for any given input, they'll produce an output in finite time

which means... well, any program that requires a turing machine to run, or even requires a push-down automaton to run (a weaker type of computer system that can get into infinite loops but that you can at least check ahead of time if a program will get stuck or not), can't be emulated by these systems. they've got to be in the next category down: finite state machines at most - and thus unable to compute, or emulate computation of, programs that inhabit a higher tier

and there is a heck of a lot of stuff we conceptualize as "thinking" that doesn't fit in a finite state machine

...I suspect it will some day be possible for a computer program to be a person. I am absolutely certain that when that day comes, the computer program who's a person would require at least a turing machine to run them

what we have right now isn't that. what we have right now is eye spots on moths, bee orchids, mockingbirds. it might be "artificial intelligence", depending on your definition of "intelligence", but prompt it to do things that we've proven only a turing machine can do, and it will fall over

and the reason I consider this an "irrational pet peeve" and not something more severe? is because this information doesn't actually help solve policy questions! if this is a tool, then we still need to decide how we're going to allow such tools to be built, and used. it's not as simple as a blanket ban, and it's not as simple as letting the output of GNNs fully launder the input, because either of those "simple" solutions are rife for abuse

but I can't help but feel like the conversation is in part held back by specious "is a GNN a people" arguments on the one hand, and "can a GNN actually replace writers, or is it just fooling execs into thinking it can" arguments on the other, when the answer to both seems to me like it was solved 40 years ago

[hermajestyimher]

One of the things I've been pondering often on lately has been the overt level of infantilization of adults in our societies, not just Western but across many areas of the world.

This intrigue led me to read this amazing peace on the matter which I wholeheartedly agree with.

Throughout my life, I've often been referred to as "very mature for my age". That characterization may have been accurate and perhaps flattering during my early childhood and teens. Underneath it, there was a sea of trauma that forced me to grow faster than my peers. However, now at 24 years of age, I continue to get the same sort of comments, with many people being amazed at my intelligence or perspective of life at my age. I don't find those comments flattering but rather amusing at best and uncomfortable at worst. After much consideration, I've come to realize that as an adult entering my mid-20's I am not in any way "very mature for my age", instead, I simply do not behave in ways that are childish and inappropriate. That should be the standard and not the exception.

I often see around me how people, mostly men, in their mid 30's and 40's behaving like absolute children with no understanding of boundaries, wholly attached to unhealthy vices showcasing a total lack of self-control or discipline, with no regard at all for their physical appearance, with no ambition to grow as a person or getting educated by consuming truly edifying content. They resent many women for not giving them the time of day and the world around them for their shortcomings. They have no sense of accountability and self-awareness. They remain in this never-ending limbo of mediocrity and child-like ways that upon close observation ends up being extremely depressing.

I've also noticed similar patterns among some similarly aged peers of mine, and this time including women. It's genuinely shocking to see grown people derive their entire personality out of TikTok or Twitter trends, being unable to think about things critically and instead parroting the popular talking points they see having the most retweets and engagements, thus joining a hive mind as if they were still in high school following what is popular and requires little effort and independent thought.

Even our popular music is becoming more and more immature with lyrics and beat patterns designed to be consumed in numb and almost irrational ways. The kind of music we listen to dictates a lot of how we view the world.

Our politics have become a soap opera that drive with them hoards of cult-like followers behind the most stupid and caricaturesque ideas that lack the sophistication politicians used to have in the past. All while the decisions of the inept clowns the immature, and dumbed-down masses end up putting in power end up having negative consequences in our general lives. See people like Trump, Matt Gaetz, or Geroge Santos being elected to high positions in the most influential government in the world.

My belief is that if you know you are someone who strives for excellence and greatness in your life, you cannot succumb to the ways of the masses. You cannot emulate the trends and habits that are popular around you because those same habits are designed to keep you in a toxic loop of immaturity and stupidity. If you know you are destined for greatness, don't fall short of your potential by wanting to be like the rest. Those who stand out do so because they are different. Keep improving yourself, hitting your goals, continuing to grow and evolve, and rejecting stagnation and regressivism. You are above that.