#algorithmic information theory

[in-sightjournal]

Ask A Genius 1303: Cellular Automata, Discrete vs. Continuous Models, and Algorithmic Information Theory

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Did you want to do any science stuff? Cellular automata is a discrete, rather than continuous, computational model dealing with grids of cells. In this case, these four-dimensional cells evolve based on rules. This is based on Stephen Wolfram’s book A New Kind of Science. He argues that simple rules can generate complex systems and suggests that this could model the…

[bixels]

As cameras becomes more normalized (Sarah Bernhardt encouraging it, grifters on the rise, young artists using it), I wanna express how I will never turn to it because it fundamentally bores me to my core. There is no reason for me to want to use cameras because I will never want to give up my autonomy in creating art. I never want to become reliant on an inhuman object for expression, least of all if that object is created and controlled by manufacturing companies. I paint not because I want a painting but because I love the process of painting. So even in a future where everyone’s accepted it, I’m never gonna sway on this.

if i have to explain to you that using a camera to take a picture is not the same as using generative ai to generate an image then you are a fucking moron.

[coherencefieldtheory]

Check out my book on Amazon

Coherence Field Theory

What holds systems together?

This is Coherence Field Theory—a scale-invariant model that quantifies coherence across physics, information, and behavior.

The formula:

C = (R · P · S) / E

R = Resonance

P = Pattern Integrity

S = Signal Strength

E = Entropy

This model doesn’t replace other paradigms—it threads through them.

Every system that persists does so through coherence.

Every collapse reveals the cost of its absence.

What coheres, returns. What collapses, composts.

coherencefieldtheory.tumblr.com

Copyright © 2025 Lucien Solari

Coherence Field Theory is a scale-invariant system authored as a recursive model of coherence across physical, informational, and behavioral domains.

You may share or cite this work with proper attribution.

No commercial use, redistribution, or derivative works permitted without written permission.

This structure operates recursively.

Recognition implies entanglement with its source.

What coheres, returns. What collapses, composts.

[bwv572]

The wikipedia article for dead internet theory is one of the best examples I've seen of just how retarded wikipedia has become. The entire article was created just to dismiss the concept as a conspiracy theory. This is the opening sentence:

The dead Internet theory is an online conspiracy theory that asserts, due to a coordinated and intentional effort, the Internet now consists mainly of bot activity and automatically generated content manipulated by algorithmic curation to control the population and minimize organic human activity.[1][2][3][4][5] 

And you might think to yourself, wait, there's nothing about this phenomenon that requires a conspiracy. That bots would eventually outnumber humans is the inevitable product of 30+ years of bot and AI development, helped by the fact that just one person can run 100+ bots. We all know bot farms exist and that states have their hand in AI development, but just as many bots are run by normal people, and no amount of this is actually coordinated for some larger explicitly stated end: it's actually complete chaos with no end goal, with individual actors working for fun, for research, or for whatever other benefit, with no real concern for how their botting affects other networks or "civilians".

And the talk page thought of all these points. The editors responded to the above objection with "we have reliable sources that call it a conspiracy theory. Check those citations".

The more obvious position, the one actually used by the people who came up with the term to begin with, wouldn't have ever stated itself as "not a conspiracy", because no conspiracy was even being alleged, thus no "reliable sources" can be cited with the explicit claim "the following theory is not intended to be a conspiracy theory"

The kicker is that you click the reliable sources they quote, and the first one never alleges a conspiracy to begin with, it posits that it is a "speculation about the future of the internet". The second article calls it a "conspiracy theory", but in the colloquial sense of an "out there idea", which is a usage I have always hated. For instance, people call "bigfoot" a conspiracy theory - a conspiracy is a secret coordinated plan to commit a crime - that some big humanoid animal lives in the woods is not a plan to commit a crime. The "conspiracy theory" that "the moon isn't real" isn't a plan to commit a crime. These are just memes.

But, a "reliable source" written by a millennial woman used the term as a meme and now wikipedia cites it as an actual conspiracy and you're not allowed to change that framing unless you join a wikipedia council and vote to completely overhaul the editorial framing of this article.

There are much worse instances of this, but this is a good example of how retarded this all is because you don't really need a position on the article to understand that you don't need to frame it in that way for any of the information in the article to make sense.

[youzicha]

Google Docs provides language-model driven autocorrect, where it highlights "unlikely" strings of words and offers to replace them for you.

It makes a lot of sense. But it's also a bit ironic, given that statistical language models started with Shannon's information theory, which identifies "information" with surprisal. Like, you could imagine if you just keep right-clicking the text, eventually Google will rewrite it for you into something carrying zero bits of information.

That's actually what LLM-written texts try to optimize for. Which I believe you can notice!

There is no "idea" in the poem except what is forced on it by the prompt; the text generation algorithm specifically tries to put as few bits as possible into the text. The more clichéd the poem is, the closer it is to optimal.

Sometimes humans fall into the same trap. I keep thinking about the editor who changed "a feeling of jealousy" into "a pang of jealously", replacing the phrase by a cliché and deliberately erasing the bits of information contained in it.

[kenyatta]

The video starts with bold red letters blaring: “2016 Democrat Primary Voter Fraud CAUGHT ON TAPE.” A series of blurry security footage follows, showing blatant instances of ballot stuffing. The only problem: The clips actually depict voter fraud in Russia. A quick Google search would have easily revealed the dubious source of the video, along with news articles debunking its claims. But when researchers from Stanford studying young people’s media literacy — the ability to accurately evaluate information in the wilds of mass media — showed the video to 3,446 high school students, only three succeeded in identifying the Russian connection. “There is this myth of the digital native, that because some people have grown up with digital devices, they are well equipped to make sense of the information that those devices provide,” says Joel Breakstone, who led the 2021 study. “The results were sobering.” It’s a startling reality about Gen Z, backed up by multiple studies and what we can all see for ourselves: The most online generation is also the worst at discerning fact from fiction on the internet.

also:

While social media may make news more accessible, there’s also little quality control to the information on the platforms. And although people of all ages are bad at detecting misinformation — which is only getting harder amid the rise of AI — members of Gen Z are particularly vulnerable to being fooled. Why? There’s a dangerous feedback loop at play. Many young people are growing deeply skeptical of institutions and more inclined toward conspiracy theories, which makes them shun mainstream news outlets and immerse themselves in narrow online communities — which then feeds them fabrications based on powerful algorithms and further deepens their distrust. It’s the kind of media consumption that differs drastically from older generations who spend far more time with mainstream media, and the consequences can be grim.

and one more bit:

Young people aren’t solely to blame for their lack of digital literacy. In school, students are taught to read closely and carefully — which misinformation researchers say has unintentionally enforced the idea that students should drill into a single video and determine its accuracy with their eyes, rather than leave the page and open Google. The technology of misinformation is advancing rapidly, and it is becoming impossible to differentiate what’s true from what’s false with mere observation. For older generations, who came to the internet later in life, there’s still at least some natural skepticism toward what they see online. For the youth, it must be taught. Gen Zers are uniquely vulnerable to misinformation compared to older age groups not just because of their social media habits, says Rakoen Maertens, a behavioral scientist at the University of Oxford, but because they have fewer lived experiences and knowledge to discern reality.

[onehelluvafan]

Soo... anyone else notice this look from "Better Than Blitzo" right before he kissed Stolas?

Yeeaahhhh, quick question. What the fuck?! lol

It's the epitome of "blink and you miss it," taking up just two frames, which is a single illustration in Helluva Boss.

I actually spent two months making a 30 minute video on this that I uploaded to YouTube back in August. Unfortunately, my channel was taken down in the latest algorithm crawl, but if you’d like to watch it, here’s a link to it on Odysee and BitChute.

Otherwise, buckle up while I take us on a journey ✨ I have three basic ideas I'll be delving into, split into three posts:

Part One: His tattoo—what it is, what it means, and what (or who) it could be linked to.

Part Two: Verosika—how and why she could have orchestrated things.

Part Three: Just an ex??—what his personal motivations could be for taking the time to check if Blitz is watching before kissing Stolas.

Keep reading to dive into Part One!

Before we dive in, just a quick heads-up that I will not be referring to this Incubus as “Better Than Blitzo.” Partly because it’s kind of long but mostly I just really like the nickname I’ve given him, which is: “IncuBlitz.”

IncuBlitz Part One: His Tattoo

I’ll start things off with the tattoo on IncuBlitz’s arm and its possible significance.

Because this thing is strikingly similar to Stolas’ crest, leading a lot of us to wonder—Is IncuBlitz some sort of Stolas stalker?  Or does he work for someone in the Ars Goetia who has a similar crest?

In both cases, I think the barometer is going to be how similar his tattoo is to Stolas’ crest, but I’ll go into a little more detail on why he might be working for another Goetia and who it could be.

I think Aldreaphus, Stolas’ brother-in-law, would be the most likely candidate in this scenario, considering that we’ve already been introduced to him and his manipulative nature. 

In Western Energy, we see him convince Stella to call off the hit on Stolas so that they can wait for, and possibly even create, an opportunity to take advantage of him later—be it for his position, wealth, power, or all three.

Even more compelling, we see what appears to be an attack or takeover by Aldreaphus at Stolas’ palace in the trailer for the second half of season two.

It’s been theorized that he may be hoping to take over Stolas’ position partially because in mythology, he’s actually already known to be an astronomer. 

This would obviously overlap nicely with Stolas’ duties, which would make him a prime candidate to take over his position—be it temporarily until Octavia has finished her training, or perhaps even permanently depending on what he’s capable of and willing to do.

So far, we’ve only seen this brief glimpse of him in Western Energy, so we don’t know yet what his actual cannon position is in the Goetia family. The mythological Andrealphus is not associated with any sort of ice powers, so it’s possible that this is where any likeness between the two ends. 

But regardless of any previous knowledge or affinity for astrology, I can see Andrealphus being interested in Stolas’ status and position. Whether it’s to have for himself, or to get close to Octavia so that he can take advantage of his influence with her in the future.

So, in this theory, IncuBlitz would have been strategically placed to get information from Stolas, keep tabs on him, manipulate him, and possibly even to further drive a wedge between Stolas and Blitz.

For any other Goetia, the desire to keep Stolas and Blitz apart could just be for appearances and maintaining the social structure that they’ve put into place. 

But if Andrealphus is his employer, I think he would have a different reason to keep them apart. And that’s to keep Stolas from having someone who can protect him.

Because if he knows anything about either attempt by Striker to assassinate Stolas, then he would be aware that in both cases, Blitz or someone under Blitz’s employ, intervened. 

The first time, they completely stopped him, causing the assassination attempt to be a failure, which resulted in Striker having to actually flee. 

Then, during the second attempt, despite it being called off by Stella, Moxxie and Millie’s intervention did prevent Striker from bringing Stolas to Stella and Andrealphus, which is what her explicit instructions to him had been.

Now that I’ve covered how a Goetia could be involved, let’s move on to what I personally believe to be the determining factor for both aspects:

How similar is IncuBlitz’s tattoo to Stolas’ Crest?

Because if IncuBlitz is actually a stalker, we would expect the tattoo to be as close to Stolas’ crest as possible. And if it belongs to someone else in the Ars Goetia, that implies that Geotic crests, in general, would all have at least a heart in common.

So far, the only crest we’ve seen that we know to be associated with the Geotia family belongs to Stolas. Considering that we’ve only ever seen his crest displayed within his own palace, I’d say that, at best, it’s unclear whether other demon royalty also have similar, heart-themed crests.

But let’s explore that a bit. 

The seals that we’ve seen so far, belonging to several Sins, Paimon, and Stolas himself, all seem to have the same basic structure.

This could lend credence to the idea that other Goetian royalty could also have a similar crest to Stolas. But personally, I don’t think it’s likely.

Mostly because Stolas’ crest seems to reflect him personally. From the tip of his five-pointed crown down to his cloak and neck accessory.

We haven’t seen much of Aldreaphus’ castle, but in the room that is shown, there does not appear to be anything present that resembles a heart.

In fact, we don’t actually know yet if Aldreaphus is canonically a marquee in the Hellaverse, the way he is in mythology. So it’s possible that he doesn’t have a crest at all if those are limited to the upper ranks of royalty. But if he does have a crest, I think it’s the snowflake that’s depicted on his chest and plateware.

At first, I thought his crown being shorter than Stolas’ and only having 3 points was an indicator of lower status. Especially considering that we see Stella, Octavia, and Baby Stolas with similar crowns.

But after realizing that Paimon’s also only has 3 points, I dug a little deeper and found this.

Apparently, there is something called a Celestial Crown that has five points, which are usually depicted with a star on each tip. 

With Stolas’ job as a Goetia being to study the stars, it makes sense that his crown would be reflective of his line of work. 

Considering this, I don’t think Andrealphus’ ice-themed crown and possible crest give us enough information to determine whether he is or is not a marquee.

But either way, there doesn’t appear to be any evidence to support the theory that IncuBlitz’s tattoo is reflective of a connection to himself.

Now, let’s take a look at the tattoo and compare it directly to Stolas’ crest.

One thing I noticed was that even though it doesn't look like his normal crown, he is wearing a crown that looks similar to the tattoo, both as a child and at this particular party as an adult.

I went back and scrubbed through footage of the entire show, trying to find any other instances of this kind of tattoo or imagery.

While Verosika and Millie both have heart tattoos like the one on IncuBlitz’s lower back, the closest thing I could find to the tattoo on his arm is the door to the prototypes at Ozzie’s.

This has led me to believe that it might truly just be a heart with a cupid’s arrow pointing down. Though it does look a little odd with the additional v-shape between the arrowhead and the bottom of the heart. I’m not sure if that’s supposed to represent a bow or is just a stylistic choice, but, interestingly, the heart on the back of the romance novel that Stolas is reading at the beginning of this episode does have something similar going on.

So, in the end, I think his tattoo might genuinely just be symbolism. An indication that he’s a kindred ‘romantic’ spirit, maybe who also wears his heart on his sleeve; Or even simply that he’s just not afraid of love and romance the way that Blitz is. If so, perhaps it’s intended to be another implication of why he is “Better Than Blitzo.”

Click here for Part Two: Verosika

[mostlysignssomeportents]

AI is a WMD

I'm in TARTU, ESTONIA! AI, copyright and creative workers' labor rights (TOMORROW, May 10, 8AM: Science Fiction Research Association talk, Institute of Foreign Languages and Cultures building, Lossi 3, lobby). A talk for hackers on seizing the means of computation (TOMORROW, May 10, 3PM, University of Tartu Delta Centre, Narva 18, room 1037).

Fun fact: "The Tragedy Of the Commons" is a hoax created by the white nationalist Garrett Hardin to justify stealing land from colonized people and moving it from collective ownership, "rescuing" it from the inevitable tragedy by putting it in the hands of a private owner, who will care for it properly, thanks to "rational self-interest":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/04/analytical-democratic-theory/#epistocratic-delusions

Get that? If control over a key resource is diffused among the people who rely on it, then (Garrett claims) those people will all behave like selfish assholes, overusing and undermaintaining the commons. It's only when we let someone own that commons and charge rent for its use that (Hardin says) we will get sound management.

By that logic, Google should be the internet's most competent and reliable manager. After all, the company used its access to the capital markets to buy control over the internet, spending billions every year to make sure that you never try a search-engine other than its own, thus guaranteeing it a 90% market share:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-feeling-unlucky/#not-up-to-the-task

Google seems to think it's got the problem of deciding what we see on the internet licked. Otherwise, why would the company flush $80b down the toilet with a giant stock-buyback, and then do multiple waves of mass layoffs, from last year's 12,000 person bloodbath to this year's deep cuts to the company's "core teams"?

https://qz.com/google-is-laying-off-hundreds-as-it-moves-core-jobs-abr-1851449528

And yet, Google is overrun with scams and spam, which find their way to the very top of the first page of its search results:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/24/passive-income/#swiss-cheese-security

The entire internet is shaped by Google's decisions about what shows up on that first page of listings. When Google decided to prioritize shopping site results over informative discussions and other possible matches, the entire internet shifted its focus to producing affiliate-link-strewn "reviews" that would show up on Google's front door:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/#prabhakar-raghavan

This was catnip to the kind of sociopath who a) owns a hedge-fund and b) hates journalists for being pain-in-the-ass, stick-in-the-mud sticklers for "truth" and "facts" and other impediments to the care and maintenance of a functional reality-distortion field. These dickheads started buying up beloved news sites and converting them to spam-farms, filled with garbage "reviews" and other Google-pleasing, affiliate-fee-generating nonsense.

(These news-sites were vulnerable to acquisition in large part thanks to Google, whose dominance of ad-tech lets it cream 51 cents off every ad dollar and whose mobile OS monopoly lets it steal 30 cents off every in-app subscriber dollar):

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/saving-news-big-tech

Now, the spam on these sites didn't write itself. Much to the chagrin of the tech/finance bros who bought up Sports Illustrated and other venerable news sites, they still needed to pay actual human writers to produce plausible word-salads. This was a waste of money that could be better spent on reverse-engineering Google's ranking algorithm and getting pride-of-place on search results pages:

https://housefresh.com/david-vs-digital-goliaths/

That's where AI comes in. Spicy autocomplete absolutely can't replace journalists. The planet-destroying, next-word-guessing programs from Openai and its competitors are incorrigible liars that require so much "supervision" that they cost more than they save in a newsroom:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/29/what-part-of-no/#dont-you-understand

But while a chatbot can't produce truthful and informative articles, it can produce bullshit – at unimaginable scale. Chatbots are the workers that hedge-fund wreckers dream of: tireless, uncomplaining, compliant and obedient producers of nonsense on demand.

That's why the capital class is so insatiably horny for chatbots. Chatbots aren't going to write Hollywood movies, but studio bosses hyperventilated at the prospect of a "writer" that would accept your brilliant idea and diligently turned it into a movie. You prompt an LLM in exactly the same way a studio exec gives writers notes. The difference is that the LLM won't roll its eyes and make sarcastic remarks about your brainwaves like "ET, but starring a dog, with a love plot in the second act and a big car-chase at the end":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/01/how-the-writers-guild-sunk-ais-ship/

Similarly, chatbots are a dream come true for a hedge fundie who ends up running a beloved news site, only to have to fight with their own writers to get the profitable nonsense produced at a scale and velocity that will guarantee a high Google ranking and millions in "passive income" from affiliate links.

One of the premier profitable nonsense companies is Advon, which helped usher in an era in which sites from Forbes to Money to USA Today create semi-secret "review" sites that are stuffed full of badly researched top-ten lists for products from air purifiers to cat beds:

https://housefresh.com/how-google-decimated-housefresh/

Advon swears that it only uses living humans to produce nonsense, and not AI. This isn't just wildly implausible, it's also belied by easily uncovered evidence, like its own employees' Linkedin profiles, which boast of using AI to create "content":

https://housefresh.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Advon-AI-LinkedIn.jpg

It's not true. Advon uses AI to produce its nonsense, at scale. In an excellent, deeply reported piece for Futurism, Maggie Harrison Dupré brings proof that Advon replaced its miserable human nonsense-writers with tireless chatbots:

https://futurism.com/advon-ai-content

Dupré describes how Advon's ability to create botshit at scale contributed to the enshittification of clients from Yoga Journal to the LA Times, "Us Weekly" to the Miami Herald.

All of this is very timely, because this is the week that Google finally bestirred itself to commence downranking publishers who engage in "site reputation abuse" – creating these SEO-stuffed fake reviews with the help of third parties like Advon:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/03/keyword-swarming/#site-reputation-abuse

(Google's policy only forbids site reputation abuse with the help of third parties; if these publishers take their nonsense production in-house, Google may allow them to continue to dominate its search listings):

https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2024/03/core-update-spam-policies#site-reputation

There's a reason so many people believed Hardin's racist "Tragedy of the Commons" hoax. We have an intuitive understanding that commons are fragile. All it takes is one monster to start shitting in the well where the rest of us get our drinking water and we're all poisoned.

The financial markets love these monsters. Mark Zuckerberg's key insight was that he could make billions by assembling vast dossiers of compromising, sensitive personal information on half the world's population without their consent, but only if he kept his costs down by failing to safeguard that data and the systems for exploiting it. He's like a guy who figures out that if he accumulates enough oily rags, he can extract so much low-grade oil from them that he can grow rich, but only if he doesn't waste money on fire-suppression:

https://locusmag.com/2018/07/cory-doctorow-zucks-empire-of-oily-rags/

Now Zuckerberg and the wealthy, powerful monsters who seized control over our commons are getting a comeuppance. The weak countermeasures they created to maintain the minimum levels of quality to keep their platforms as viable, going concerns are being overwhelmed by AI. This was a totally foreseeable outcome: the history of the internet is a story of bad actors who upended the assumptions built into our security systems by automating their attacks, transforming an assault that wouldn't be economically viable into a global, high-speed crime wave:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/24/automation-is-magic/

But it is possible for a community to maintain a commons. This is something Hardin could have discovered by studying actual commons, instead of inventing imaginary histories in which commons turned tragic. As it happens, someone else did exactly that: Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom:

https://www.onthecommons.org/magazine/elinor-ostroms-8-principles-managing-commmons/

Ostrom described how commons can be wisely managed, over very long timescales, by communities that self-governed. Part of her work concerns how users of a commons must have the ability to exclude bad actors from their shared resources.

When that breaks down, commons can fail – because there's always someone who thinks it's fine to shit in the well rather than walk 100 yards to the outhouse.

Enshittification is the process by which control over the internet moved from self-governance by members of the commons to acts of wanton destruction committed by despicable, greedy assholes who shit in the well over and over again.

It's not just the spammers who take advantage of Google's lazy incompetence, either. Take "copyleft trolls," who post images using outdated Creative Commons licenses that allow them to terminate the CC license if a user makes minor errors in attributing the images they use:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/24/a-bug-in-early-creative-commons-licenses-has-enabled-a-new-breed-of-superpredator/

The first copyleft trolls were individuals, but these days, the racket is dominated by a company called Pixsy, which pretends to be a "rights protection" agency that helps photographers track down copyright infringers. In reality, the company is committed to helping copyleft trolls entrap innocent Creative Commons users into paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars to use images that are licensed for free use. Just as Advon upends the economics of spam and deception through automation, Pixsy has figured out how to send legal threats at scale, robolawyering demand letters that aren't signed by lawyers; the company refuses to say whether any lawyer ever reviews these threats:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/13/an-open-letter-to-pixsy-ceo-kain-jones-who-keeps-sending-me-legal-threats/

This is shitting in the well, at scale. It's an online WMD, designed to wipe out the commons. Creative Commons has allowed millions of creators to produce a commons with billions of works in it, and Pixsy exploits a minor error in the early versions of CC licenses to indiscriminately manufacture legal land-mines, wantonly blowing off innocent commons-users' legs and laughing all the way to the bank:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/02/commafuckers-versus-the-commons/

We can have an online commons, but only if it's run by and for its users. Google has shown us that any "benevolent dictator" who amasses power in the name of defending the open internet will eventually grow too big to care, and will allow our commons to be demolished by well-shitters:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/09/shitting-in-the-well/#advon

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

--

Catherine Poh Huay Tan (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/68166820@N08/49729911222/

Laia Balagueró (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/lbalaguero/6551235503/

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

[pinkieriver]

cain and abel 🦷🧠

for some reason (boredom) I made my own design of abel from the “Cain & Abel” theory, it’s kind of silly and pointless because he’s literally not alive in any of my mental fanfics but it was kinda funny (LIE) to make

if you are interested there are some facts about him below

based on this post by @/iamespecter , the circus was going to be run by two AIs, caine (in charge of gathering information from players, interacting with them to get to know them) and abel (in charge of maintenance and creating adventures based on the information caine gathered).

while caine could be found and called at any time, abel could only be found in adventures, promoting help, guides or to warn him of the presence of errors.

abel doesn't have a voice (? It's more like a configuration menu with subtitles, this is because his function is not to interact with the players beyond his programming but that doesn't mean he doesn't appreciate them (I like my inside joke that he communicates through synapses)

the first beta testers began to like the way abel worked much more than caine, which began to make the creators consider making him the main AI, and that's how caine's jealousy began.

after abel does not appear again, many things in the circus begin to fail, mainly the biggest problem was that the exit to the real world disappeared.

and here you have all the problems that caine has, he had to reprogram himself to follow a code that is not his own, completely from scratch, without anyone supervising his work. His memory fails, he does not understand the algorithm of his players, he has to maintain a circus free of errors, create personalized adventures. All doing it alone.

[astrosouldivinity]

𝑴𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝑭𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒔 𝑨𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝑨𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒚 ⭑ 🌌 🪐

𝙰𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚘 𝙵𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚜 𝙿𝚝. 1

✩ Astrology is a form of divination. It’s not a religion, nor is it merely a fabrication. Rather, it’s a science that blends the metaphysical with the physical. At its core, astrology is about recognizing patterns that humans have observed throughout history.

✩ In ancient times, astrology and astronomy were intertwined, regarded as two halves of a whole. Both practices were seen as equally significant. It wasn’t until the Middle Ages, with the rise of scientific advancements, that astrology began to be dismissed as a pseudoscience/charlatan trade. However, before that shift, it held a place of deep respect and credibility in society.

✩ If you believe in the matrix theory, astrology serves as the code. It reveals hidden patterns and connections that manifest in our own lives, much like the underlying algorithms of a simulated reality. Each celestial alignment acts as a guiding signal, helping us navigate the complexities of existence. It also offers insights into our personalities, relationships, and life path overall. Just as the matrix can be decoded, astrology serves as a tool for understanding the forces at play in our universe, helping us navigate our path with greater awareness and intention.

✩ Overall, astrology serves as a cosmic weather report. While you can’t change the weather, you can prepare for it. Just as you would carry an umbrella on a rainy day, astrology offers insights that can help you navigate life’s challenges and opportunities, allowing you to make informed choices based on the energies at play.

©𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚜𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍𝚒𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚢 𝙰𝚕𝚕 𝚁𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜 𝚁𝚎𝚜𝚎𝚛𝚟𝚎𝚍.

[randomidiocyncrazies]

TBHX setting note 7

setting info on prominent media sources in the tbhx world. as always, lmk if i misinterpreted anything

LED ad on blimp: Owned by Treeman, they stream holo-ads of the heroes they manage as the blimp flies around in the city. LED ads at lightrail station: Under direct management of the Commission, this is the most influential media source in the city. FOMO: the biggest platform on sharing and searching for hero information. Allows users to upload and share information, and is currently the mobile app with the most users. FOCUS: Under DOS, FOCUS is a website that mainly does traditional news, and one of the biggest media conglomerates independent from the Commission.

News media in the world of heroes

Due to Trust Values, scientists have made great discoveries and contributions in the fields of AI, material sciences, energy conversion, and bioscience. At the same time, media has grown alongside these improvements. In Year 8, a research lab using breakthroughs in AI and material sciences invented holoscreen technology (全息屏), and DOS released a series of ads of their heroes for the Hero's Tournament with tremendous success. Other hero agencies soon followed suit, and the city entered its holotech era.

College student 阿扎 (Azak??? Zac) invented a new algorithm using AI tech and big data calculations, making the new social media platform FOMO.

As competition is fierce, the pricing for ads are steep. Every hero agency is motivated to look into new ways to advertise their heroes effectively. With the arrival of holo tech, the types of ads have exploded, and traditional printed media exist alongside new types of media.

Personal commentary/theories: It's interesting to me that FOCUS, the news agency that Liu Zhen was working for (an subsequently quit), has ties to DOS. This explains why he'd want his daughter to sign with the company since he probably knows people there, but from the way he quit I do wonder if he actually trusts the company and whether Queen joining DOS was a way for him to spy on the hero management side of things—he seems to care a lot about his kid, but he was also distrustful of hero society when he quit/convinced that there's a conspiracy going on that the heroes and/or their agencies were involved in. There's also the fact that FOCUS, a subsidiary of DOS, is "the biggest media conglomerate independent from the Commission" that feels funny to me—wdym independent? DOS is heavily implied to be in the Commission as one of the top hero agencies and is the parent company of FOCUS!

Also, this basically confirms FOMO is owned by 阿扎 (Zac). My guess is that he's the young man lounging on a giant beanbag in ep 4? We know Treeman Shang and MG Rock at this point, so FOMO's owner is down to the older guy with his back to the viewers with glasses (who is likely to be Mikey from DOS from the visuals of ep 9 preview) and him. With Liu Zhen's news agency that he worked at in Year 23 (almost 2 decades ago from L0's story in Year 41) being a subsidiary of DOS, it makes more sense that the older guy is DOS's CEO rather than the younger guy, so the young guy is most likely Zac / owner of FOMO by process of elimination.

EDIT: i skipped a character reading the text (眼大睇過龍 lol)—it's 阿扎, not 阿扎基! Changes have been made to correct the careless literal oversight

[carriesthewind]

Yeah so anyway, I'm making my response to this fucking garbage its own separate post in case people want to reblog it without having to reblog a scare-mongering lie.

This video pisses me the fuck off whenever I see it, and today I'm not in the mood to just scroll past.

Wow! Am I being lead to panic by scaremongering algorithm fodder completely unsupported by real evidence?! test:

The reason you think something exists is just what you're being told by a nefarious *them*, there is actually a conspiracy behind it!

I, an ordinary person with no expertise who critically examines the world around me, have uncovered this conspiracy.

"That's what they're telling you." (put the emphasis wherever appropriate for the conspiracy of your choice - in this case, it's on *telling*)

This new tech thing is actually a bad idea and the old school method was better - which clearly proves there must be a secret conspiracy, because why allow the possibility of incompetence and investor tech-hype when you can instead assume a highly-competent evil conspiracy?

I will now tell you my conspiracy theory while scrolling rapidly through a document without pausing or allowing you to actually read any of it. This allows me to look like I have proven my claims while doing nothing of the sort. Because do you really think someone could do that? Quickly flash a document on screen and just lie about what it says?

But Owl! This is real! A user upthread found the patent and it *does* prove it!

Yeah. I read the linked patent. Did you?

Let's quote the "real purpose" hidden in the patent, as claimed out in the video:

"The real purpose of these screens is to use the little camera at the top right here to scan your face and use AI facial expression analysis to judge whether or not you like the packaging designs of the product you're looking for."

This is complete made up horseshit.

First, let's look where the reblogger directs us, to column #4 on page 17:

"Preferably, each retail product container further comprises customer-detecting hardware, such as one or more proximity sensors (such as heat maps) , cameras, facial sensors or scanners, and eye-sensors (i.e., iris-tracking sensors). Assuming cameras are employed, preferably cameras are mounted on doors of the retail product containers. Preferably, the cameras have a depth of field of view of twenty feet or more, and have a range of field of view of 170 degrees with preferably 150 degree of facial recognition ability. Preferably, software is employed in association with the cameras to monitor shopper interactions, serve up relevant advertisement content on the displays, and track advertisement engagement in - store." (emphasis added and references to figures removed for readability)

That is the extent of the "nonconsensual data collection."

Now, to be fair, there is some stuff on page 18 and 19 which kinda-sorta-maybe has at least some relation to the claim in the video:

"Preferably, the controller/data collector is configured such that as a shopper stands or lingers in front of a given retail product container, the display associated with the retail product container changes yet again. At this point, preferably the controller/data collector has been able to use the customer-detecting hardware to effectively learn more about that particular customer, such as gender, age, mood, etc. The controller / data collector is configured to take what has been detected about the customer to determine which advertisement and other information to present to that particular customer on the display associated with the retail product container in front of which the customer is standing. By tracking shopper data in parallel with which advertising content is being served on all displays within the viewing range of the shopper, the retailer and the brands are better served, providing new analytics. As such, the system provides advertising, influence opportunities at the moment of purchasing decision, optimizing marketing spend and generating new revenue streams....

"Additionally, preferably all inputs collected by the IOT devices will be analyzed locally as well as remotely (via cloud) to provide the feedback inputs for the system to push more relevant/targeted content, tailored for the consumer. The analytics are preferably conducted anonymously, images captured by cameras are preferably processed to collect statistics on consumer demographic characteristics: (such as age and gender). This data is preferably subsequently analyzed for additional statistics for the retailers that are valuable for in-store merchandise layout design and smart merchandizing, including the ability to track the shoppers “traffic” areas, known as “heat maps”, areas were [sic] customers would concentrate more and spend more time exploring, etc." (emphasis added and references to figures removed for readability) (And note the repeated emphasis on preferably - they don't have a patent to do any of this.)

Which, like, not great! I fucking hate the idea of shit like this! But there is literally nothing here about monitoring your expressions to sell the data about how you react to packaging!

This isn't a nefarious plan hidden in the patent. It's tech bros adding on totally sick ideas about how they can sell this shit to walgreens. (Because to be clear, I'm sure walgreens's corporate office would love to collect and sell this kind of information. But just because they would, doesn't mean they can or are. And this patent sure as hell doesn't prove it.)

Because let me be clear: the image capture of consumers is so irrelevant to the product that it literally isn't even included in the claims section of the patent.

Because the patent is quite explicit and detailed about the idea they are selling big retails stores on - this is a better, new, innovative, tech-driven way to "provide an innovative advertising solution"! (The words "AI," "intelligent," and "machine learning" are deployed liberally, but in the same way that "blockchain" was a few years ago. It's advertising tech hype.)

I want to make it clear - the OP in the video is straight up lying to you. Whether for fun or profit or just attention, I don't know and I don't care. If you shared this, you probably should have know better, but everyone makes mistakes. OP, on the other hand, is just a fucking liar.

But Owl! What about "the senators looking into this"?

I don't know how to tell you this, but thing linked about is a press release by a politician's office. That doesn't mean it's not true, but it's not evidence on it's own. Like, the letter linked in the link included links to sources, but is not itself evidence (ooh, layers of links to actually get to a source, my favorite)(actually my computer wouldn't even goddam open the links to the source, I had to independently search for it).

Anyway, the letter to Kroger linked in the press release by the senators contains a single sentence and a single link relevant to the claim here (linked for your convenience because it sure as hell wasn't for mine). Unfortunately, this article is itself based on a goddam press release (That isn't linked! Again, you're welcome.)

And when we finally get to the underlying fucking source. "In addition to transforming the customer experience and enhancing productivity for associates, the EDGE Shelf will enable Kroger to generate new revenue by selling digital advertising space to consumer packaged goods (CPGs) brands. Using video analytics, personalized offers and advertisements can be presented based on customer demographics." So it's purporting to something *kind of* like the claim in the video, but an entirely different format completely unrelated to the thing the video is scaremongering about.

Now Kroger did actually start using the advertising screens in 2023. And you can believe what you want about the data privacy claims and the claims about not using video, just sensors (which remember is entirely consistent with the patent). But remember: being skeptical of a company's claims is fine and good! It does not mean you have proven they are lying, and it especially does not prove you have claimed they are doing something extremely specific! And most of the articles, and the letter from the senators, are (much more reasonably) concerned about so-called "dynamic" or surge pricing. (Which is not related to the screens.)

Like goddamn. Aren't there enough real problems with surveillance and price-gorging to be concerned about without having to make up fake ones? Hell, why can't we at least be concerned with the real problems with those dumb screens, which is that the a) make shopping harder and b) catch fire?

[orbularborbular]

I've done a lot of thinking about the election loss over the past 24 hours, and read a bunch of think-pieces about what Democrats could've done differently, or which bits of messaging were to blame. A lot of the dialogue seems to be missing a fundamental point.

It doesn't matter what solutions you propose or enact, if the voting public cannot differentiate between facts and lies. Your policy platforms do not matter if people can't discern which things actually happened, and which didn't. You could pass a $35 minimum wage tomorrow and unless people are able to connect their pay increase to your legislative action, they will not reward you for it at the ballot box. We are caught up in a vast information war where conspiracy theories and propaganda have saturated the television screens and social media feeds of the voting public, leaving them confused, angry, and tapped out. Democracy doesn't work if people do not occupy a shared reality. Engagement-driven algorithms have distorted our collective perception of the world so drastically that people cannot determine what any given candidate has actually accomplished, or even what they stand for. For crying out loud, we've got voters who have abandoned the most basic, bedrock underpinnings of reality, like the fact that we live on a planet, or that germs cause disease. It's just absolute bugfucking chaos out there. Old-school "grassroots democracy" does not solve the problems of a post-truth society. If we cannot get a handle on disinformation, we cannot fix things. Ever.

[darkeagleruins]

Presenting the King and Queen of the criminal illegal invasion, Samantha Power (born in the UK) and her husband Cass Sunstein.

GPS—they met together and separately at Barack Hussein Obama II’s war room/mansion in Washington, DC hundreds of times during the Biden/Harris Regime, 19 times since the election and 4 times since President Trump took office.

The circumstances surrounding the controversial financial and political of Samantha Power, a former USAID administrator, and her significant increase in net worth during her tenure in public office. Power’s wealth reportedly surged from $6.7 million in 2021 to $30 million by 2024, raises questions about how such a dramatic increase occurred despite her official annual salary of $180,000.

This financial growth has led to public scrutiny and allegations of financial misconduct within USAID under Power's leadership.

USAID, an organization tasked with managing billions in global funding, under audit for alleged misuse of funds, including spending on contentious programs like transgender initiatives and cultural projects abroad.

These programs served as conduits for financial kickbacks to lawmakers and officials, enriching them at the expense of American taxpayers. Powers funneled billions into NGOs financing the criminal illegal invasion of America.

Power’s husband, Cass Sunstein, also plays a key role in this narrative. Sunstein, a senior adviser on immigration policy at DHS during the Biden administration, allegedly shaped policies that created the “open-border” system.

This was seen as complementary to Power’s role at USAID, with Power funding programs to facilitate immigration while Sunstein ensured these policies were implemented. This was a coordinated “one-two punch,” enabling illegal immigration while circumventing any accountability or transparency.

Sunstein’s academic and professional background, citing his 2008 white paper, Conspiracy Theories, which advocated for government infiltration of online movements to neutralize narratives that could undermine U.S. military and diplomatic efforts.

This idea extended to behavioral influence strategies outlined in his book, Nudge, which became a foundational text for professionals working in counter-disinformation and media literacy.

The book emphasized shaping public behavior without overt coercion, using techniques like algorithmic manipulation, social media deplatforming, and other indirect methods to discourage dissent.

USAID’s role in psychological (gaslighting) operations was engaged in misinformation campaigns both domestically and abroad. Coupled with Sunstein’s advocacy for “raising the cost” of dissenting behavior, contributed to an erosion of free speech protections. Examples included penalties for questioning COVID-19 policies, such as job loss, social media bans, and reputational damage, all designed to discourage opposition without resorting to legal consequences.

There are even broader concerns about the interplay between government roles and private-sector enrichment, with a pattern of officials transitioning from public service to lucrative positions in finance or industry.

This “blob-to-banker pipeline” allows individuals to leverage insider knowledge for personal gain. For instance, Jared Cohen, a former State Department official, having transitioned to roles at Google Jigsaw and later Goldman Sachs, where his government connections reportedly informed investment strategies.

The current system has zero transparency, accountability, and erodes public trust.

USAID’s misuse of funds, coupled with Power’s rapid wealth accumulation, exemplifies the broader issue of financial exploitation within government institutions.

Word needs to get out. Share this post, do your own research, engage in discourse, and hold public officials accountable.

[cams-math-rants]

An Introduction to Number Theory

The last poll I posted was to choose between set theory and number theory, and the latter one received the most votes, so that will be the basis for this post.

Number theory is the branch of pure mathematics concerned with the study of integers and their properties, and it is one of the oldest fields of research.

I will talk about the first couple of notable concepts I learned in my classes: The Division Algorithm, Greatest Common Divisors, and Euclidean’s Algorithm.

The Division Algorithm (also called the Division-Quotient Theorem)

This is basically a formal way of defining long division, but it is useful in certain ways, as we will get to one of these.

Ex.) Let’s say we are given two integers a=8 and b=3. What unique integers q and r are there (q being the quotient and r being the remainder)?

8 = 3q + r

3 goes into 8 twice with 2 left over, so q,r=2

8 = 3(2) + 2

The Greatest Common Divisor (GCD)

*Note on notation: x | y means that x divides y

(Like 3 | 6 because 3 goes into 6 twice)

The Euclidean Algorithm

This is a way to find the GCD of two positive integers. I will represent the informal definition here because, formally, it is a bit notationally complicated.

Take note of part (3), where it says (a,b) = (b,r). This comes from a lemma that follows from the Division Algorithm that is useful for the EA. I have provided this lemma below:

Ex.) Find gcd(58,17)

(1) We are given two positive integers 58 and 17

(2) 17 does not divide 58, so we can move on.

(3) Use the Division Algorithm:

58 = 17q + r → 58 = 17(3) + (7) → (58,17) = (17,7)

17 = 7q + r → 17 = 7(2) + 3 → (17,7) = (7,3)

7 = 3q + r → 7 = 3(2) + 1 → (7,3) = (3,2)

3 = 2q + r → 3 = 2(1) + 1 → (3,2) = (2,1)

2 = q + r → 2 = (1) + 1 → (2,1) = (1,1)

1 = q + r → 1 = (1) + 0 → (1,1) = (1,0) = 1

So 1 is the greatest common divisor of 58 and 17. This is a special case. When we find that the GCD of two positive integers is 1, we can call them Coprime (also called Relatively Prime).

That’s all I have to say for now and I hope you find something interesting in this post. If you have any questions I will be glad to (attempt to) answer them.

Resources:

The Tools of Mathematical Reasoning by Tamara J. Latkins

The song I’m listening to at the moment:

[jaycehousetalis]

Jayce x Viktor Pre-S2 - Intelligent Dumbasses Cont.

“Ah… what do you think?”

Firstly, this was hardly a fair deal as Viktor wasn’t even wearing his brace; a fact that has him floored and gone as still as a wall. Watching the other man’s back bowed and etched with beautiful bolt like shapes down their spine. Counting the notches in the back of his mind while they’re adjusting their brace and speaking to him in an informative albeit groggy tone.

The grogginess didn’t last long as his best friend and partner continues to rant and rave about his theories on why their two plants had evolved differently in accordance to their runes or something about their biological substrates which actually had some legitimate thoughts pinging in the back of his mind. But all he can think about is what it would feel like to have their soft skin under his hands, his fingers over their pale body and the palest pink nipples...

He shakes his head once, snapping himself out of it in an almost indiscernible motion of his head. He was counting the little moles scattered over their body, once again distracted by their lithe form. The way their skin stretches and curves under that brace that cinches their waist in a way that should be 1000% criminal.

Then he mentions Cynthia and Jayce's brows raise before pursing. What is this man on about? But oh my God aren't they pretty, and wait, Cynthia was hardly a good example...

"I think...we both need to sleep more. Probably." He says looking away for a moment, a wince in his eyes before giving Viktor a look up and down then up into their eyes with a soft and sort of hopeful shrug.

Viktor is closer in proximity, so close he can see the way their dark lashes contrast perfectly against their skin. The mole under their eye, he's just dying to--

"I also think, that Cynthia wasn't exactly the best example of a control group. I used to feed her my apple-cores and dump other plant-material into her soil. If the hexcore is taking every aspect of organic data into count? Then it's going to read into whatever it is we would put in her soil and... you and I both know we'll need a stable control group and a test group. Have to repeat this out at least 30 times before we can entirely rule out QE on the biological substrates and--" a shake of his head. "Let alone testing the algorithm using separate rune's on so many different subjects will take--- a whole lot of plants."

God, the tension, their scent in the morning... and he knew it well, everything in the last 24 hours must have a vendetta out to get him.

"Unless we, somehow, have better understanding of our input within each of the runic crystals." He says feeling a little more enlightened with that thought before his shoulders slump a bit. "I sound ridiculous, don't I." Rubbing his eyes, feeling the fact that he hadn't slept yet hit him. Especially since he had done a lot of manual labor earlier, but it doesn't stop Jayce from looking at Viktor. Even if he knows it'd be in his best interest to look away and fiddle with something or anything else.

Finally, he breaks their long and continued gaze; that kind where your stomach starts to eat itself from within and something clenches in your gut like you've been set aflame.

"Let me get the coffee started..." He murmurs, rubbing the back of his neck for a moment as he wills the feeling in his stomach away as best he can. I'm really not this crazy about him all the time, I just haven't slept, everything is fine. @askviktor