#i can think the rational explanations of everything wrong with generative ai

[roykiller07]

somebody teach me how to get over chappell roans onetime drunken alt account ai art usage so i can enjoy the giver and all my other fav chappell music and actions again without the feeling of a soul crushing vacuum of distress consuming me from the inside out

[blubberquark]

Different Aesthetics of Procedural Death Labyrinths

Mike Rose asked on Twitter:

Here's a question: How do you feel about the word "roguelike"?

There was a point a few years ago where it was a huge selling point! I feel like these days, people sigh at the term a fair amount

Would a game being sold as a roguelike make you excited now?

There’s an obvious explanation, but I think it’s wrong: There are just too many rogue-like games now. The novelty has worn off. People are fatigued by all the roguelikes, and those who aren’t fatigued have all their rogue-like needs met by twenty roguelikes in their Steam libraries that they haven’t played yet. Let’s call this the “saturation” theory.

I much prefer this idea: The people who wanted the word “roguelike” to only refer to roguelike games according to the Berlin Interpretation were actually on to something. Nowadays, there are roguelike shooters (Heavy Bullets, Tower of Guns, Receiver), roguelike platformers (Spelunky, Flinthook), roguelike twin-stick shooters (Isaac, Our Darker Purpose, A Wizard’s Lizard, Nuclear Throne, Enter The Gungeon), and roguelike space battle strategy games (FTL: Faster Than Light). So the term “roguelike“ doesn’t just refer to Cogmind, Dredmor, and Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup any more. The Steam tag “roguelike“ is near useless. Let’s call this the “ambiguity” theory.

I’m not sure if roguelikes would be doing better on Steam if we stuck to the Berlin Interpretation though. For one thing, then we would be looking at a completely different set of games, led by Cogmind, ToME, Caves of Qud, Dredmor, and ADOM. I’m not sure if these games are doing better or worse than in 2013, and that question is a different one from the one Mike Rose asked.

If we just assume for the sake of argument, that roguelikes in the spirit of the Berlin Interpretation are selling as well now as they did then, it could also be the case that literally nothing has changed, but over time, the term “roguelike“ started to encompass games that were less and less successful, commercially. Maybe there is no effect to explain causally, and the perception is only created by definitions changing over time. It’s basically the Will Rogers phenomenon.

But maybe the ambiguity and broadness of the word “roguelike“ is about aesthetics, not mechanics. Old-school roguelikes have a hunger clock, a trade-off between exploration and moving on, dozens of items and interactions, procedural generation, secrets and traps, unidentified potions, and similar things. But a hunger clock is not by itself important. It is not even part of the Berlin Interpretation. The ambiguity actually applies to the aesthetics of play, not to the mechanics.

To demonstrate the idea of aesthetic ambiguity by example, I am grouping games that are dynamically and aesthetically similar, but mechanically different:

Spelunky, Noita, Streets of Rogue, and FTL are not turn-based, but they are all very much in the roguelike spirit, the *hack-like spirit even. There is a trade-off between exploration and safety, items can be picked up and dropped, and a single overpowered item early on can start a positive feedback loop that will win your run. There is always a trade-off between risk and reward, and things can get out of hand quickly if you run into the wrong interaction between mobs, level geometry, traps and items. You can to some extent decide whether you play aggressively or peacefully. A hunger clock or similar mechanic is sometimes needed to curb stalling and excessive exploration or exploitation of game mechanics.

Cardinal Quest and Hack Slash Loot were coffebreak roguelikes. They were about roguelike turn-based combat, not about interactions between items or exploration and finding clever solutions. All runs in the first Cardinal Quest are pretty much the same after a while.

Red Rogue, Dungeons of Dredmor, and Cogmind borrow heavily from old-school roguelikes like NetHack. The game mechanics are intricate, there are lots of numbers, and monsters can pick and use items in Red Rogue. There is no alternative to combat in Dredmor. It’s bore of a *band than a *hack. You have to kill monsters to level up - but there are many ways to do that. Dredmor is designed for people who played Diablo and want something more demanding, not for people who played Nethack and want something more casual.

Rogue Legacy, Flinthook, Monolith, Enter The Gungeon, Nuclear Throne, and Heavy Bullets are completely different beasts. They are real-time, and use execution skill/twitch skill. Two runs of Enter The Gungeon are more similar to each other than two runs of Streets of Rogue. There is no diplomacy or stealth in these games.

In none of these games - in none of these categories - is the procedural level design responsible for most of the variety in gameplay. The procedural generation is essential so every run feels different, with different monsters, different loot, different rooms, but these don’t need to be unique to the run, or particularly creatively generated. You can re-use the same rooms, the same loot, the same monsters every run, as long as the player doesn’t know which room is behind a door, which monsters are lurking behind the corner, which piece of loot is hidden where.

Skills and loot are making runs different from each other, and the interaction between your character build/loadout and the procedural generation makes an individual run exciting and unpredictable.

Picking up Mom‘s knife in Isaac is a run-transforming moment. Two Noita runs with the same wands will feel pretty much the same. The high-level biome structure in Noita is fixed. The secrets are always in the same place. The procedural generation in Noita forces the player to always explore each biome to find every wand and health-up item. It forces the player to ration limited-use spells like bombs, rather than saving them first and then dumping them on the big monsters in known places.

Spelunky is perhaps the game where the level generation is most important: There are so few items, and in a single run one could probably acquire most of them. Then again, a single missed jump can mean certain death. Bad level generation can be bypassed by bombs, which are a limited resource. Health is even more limited, and you almost never use it as a resource, never intentionally trade it for anything else.

In FTL and Streets of Rogue, there are different play styles enabled by different items/weapons or mutations/systems. With the right loadout, you can try stealth, and with the right alignment (in FTL, with the right crew), you can use diplomacy instead of violence. And you can always decide to flee or skip an optional quest. FTL, Spelunky and Noita do not require you to clear challenges or fight bosses in order to advance to the next level.

In Isaac, you eventually spiral out of control, you barely scrape by, or you die. If your initial conditions are favourable, you can afford to explore everything, you don’t need to spend money on heart containers, and you can spend heart containers on devil deal items. In Gungeon, your run is all set when you pick up a good gun. These games have three dynamics: Losing trajectory, winning trajectory, and winning hard. If you’re on a losing trajectory, you need to economise and preserve your health. If you’re on a winning trajectory, you need to clear every normal room, play reasonably well, and think twice about optional challenges. Most of the time, your success depends on your moment-to-moment play, twitch skill, dodging and shooting, unless you become so powerful you can kill every enemy in the room before one of them gets to shoot.

Nuclear Throne is on the other extreme: You must kill every enemy in the level to advance. Each level is open, connected, and samey. There is some strategy to picking up weapons and choosing mutations, but the game is a twin-stick shooter with randomised levels, and you will never avoid a fight or get powerful enough not to care about dodging attacks.

There is a spectrum of emergent-ness (I know “emergent” and “emergence” are words, but this is meant to be a quantity you can compare between systems), with Nuclear Throne on one end and Spelunky or Streets of Rogue on the other. Isaac has a lot of variety based on the different items, but that variety is not emergent from interactions between items and the procedurally generated levels.

Games with more emergentness have more complex interactions between items and mobs/ememies, more general mob/enemy AI, and more complex environmental interactions. In Isaac and Nuclear Throne, everything tries to kill you and that’s it.

Minecraft, Proteus, No Man’s Sky, and MirrorMoon EP are procedurally generated, but not roguelikes, roguelike-likes, or rogue-lite games. Unlike roguelikes, they can actually do interesting things with their procedural generation. Minecraft can have unique mountain ranges like you have never seen before, and complex interactions between blocks. MirrorMoon EP has complex procedurally generated puzzle planets. Over several days. but within one playthrough, you will be able to craft every tool, see every biome, and mine every block in Minecraft. You can make totally novel contraptions out of honey, pistons, and redstone, or you can find interesting landscape, but never both in one. You will never find naturally occurring redstone machines. Minecraft doesn’t go for unique interactions between your build and the level generation.

Although Minecraft is full of deep and complex systems, they will only come into play when the user engages with them. Any chain reactions are set up and then set off by the player. Minecraft and No Man’s Sky are sandboxes. The mechanics are broad and complex, the procedural generation is intricate, and there are many ways to play and things to do.

Rogue Legacy is a fun game, but it doesn’t do a particularly good job at evoking the aesthetics of rogue, or the aesthetics of metroidvanias, for that matter.

Most new procedurally generated death labyrinths described as “roguelike“ are neither mechanically or aesthetically like Rogue or Nethack. They don’t need to be. Nethack already exists.

More and more games on Steam are aesthetically coffeebreak roguelikes, or designed tightly around moment-to-moment execution skill. If there are pre-defined, pre-designed rooms balanced for enemies with certain attack patterns, there is no room for emergent interactions between mobs and the environment.

Mechanically, Hack Slash Loot, Powder, Cogmind, Cardinal Quest I, Dredmor, and Nethack are “real” roguelikes. Aesthetically, Nethack, Spelunky, Streets of Rogue, Dredmor, and FTL are “real” roguelikes.

Now imagine somebody bought a “roguelike” on Steam, and that “roguelike” was Rogue Legacy. It even has “rogue“ in the name! Will Cogmind make this player happy?

[megacircuit9universe]

Alien Tip Off

WED SEP 16 2020

Woodward’s tapes of Trump, extensively admitting how well he understood the dangers of SarsCoV2, way back in the spring... that it was airborne, that it was far more deadly than the flu, etc... have stayed in the news all week, with longer and longer clips being released that utterly destroy any possible, devil’s advocate, arguments in Trump’s favor on this... the single most important issue facing the nation.

It’s safe to say we’re all stunned!

He was simultaneously smart enough to grasp the true danger of the virus... yet stupid enough to... agree to go off about this on tape with Woodward and... still do what he did in his response to the threat.

The tapes don’t JUST justify his impeachment, and expose every Senator who voted to acquit, as dastardly cowards... but they gut any possible, devil’s advocate, arguments for Trump, by anybody with any grip on sanity.

This puts the current GOP Senate in great peril... even as it reduces the base of loyal Trumpist voters they were banking on... to only the criminally insane.

No more fluffy padding of evangelicals, and other right wing conservatives who, held their nose, so does speak, and went along for the sake of the party. They’ve now formed a very visible, and powerful movement to deny Trump, and any of his hardcore Senate loyalists... another term. 

And they’re doing it for the same reason they originally held their noses and went along... to save their party from the brink of irrelevance in a world where the blast doors of history are closing on old school conservatism.*

Which brings us to TikTok...

The deadline for the TikTok ban, as outlined by a sketchy executive order by Trump a while back, draws near.  

And while American companies like Microsoft and WalMart scrambled to get a deal done in time, China also chimed in last week and said... Yeah, no... if ByteDance sells it’s American operations... the new owners can’t have the algorithm without our say so... and... we’d rather see TikTok die in America than bow to Trump’s silly demands so... haha, just saying! :D

Meanwhile, TikTok has been challenging the original executive order in court, and everybody is now saying even if the deadline passes, Trump can’t just shut down an app like that... and he’d have to get both Android and Apple to agree to disable it in their app stores... which would lead to more litigation and... well, it could take many more months than Trump has left in power, to sort out.

Unless he gets reelected... or successfully remains in power despite being voted out.

Which brings us to the aliens!..

Monday night (September 14th) TikTok was suddenly flooded with videos of UFO sightings over the United States... concentrated in, but not limited to New Jersey, Colorado, and Nevada.  

The earliest and most viral of these was being debunked immediately as the GoodYear Blimp, but... the people at Goodyear Blimp have since said, no... that was not our blimp.

The videos depict a lot of different types of UFOs... they don’t all look the same.  Some were singular glowing orbs, or true flying saucer looking crafts, while other videos showed groups of strange lights acting in concert.

The common denominator for all of them, however, was... all are pretty lengthy and clear... corroborated by multiple TikTokers in any given area... and all have so far defied any rational explanation.

Blimps, drones, skydivers with flares, swamp gas, you name it... none of the off the cuff discredits have yet proven out... much less any explanation for why so many sightings happened simultaneously across the continent.

Of course, lots of alien lovers have been quick to tell us this is some message of peace or whatever... but when something like this happens, I can only go to my own model, as established here in this blog.

And I can draw no other conclusion than this... the Aliens were behind it, and they were deliberately using TikTok to spook Trump... and the other powerful men in his Junta (Barr, McConnell, etc).

Recall that earlier this year I speculated that Kim Jong Un was not only dead, but that it was likely the Aliens who killed him, because he was too likely to start a nuclear war.

North Korea has yet to admit that Jong Un is dead... but the rest of the world assumes, these many months later, that he must be.  He’s not re-emerged, and the few video reels of him released this year... barely even try to be convincing.

The media hasn’t talked much about this, because so much other shit’s been going on this year... but no... I’m not backing off my conclusion that he’s dead, because nothing’s come along to even slightly prove me wrong on that, much less embarrass me about that conclusion.

He’s dead.  

The aliens killed him.

And now those same aliens are using TikTok to spook Trump.

This implies that Aliens are a lot more familiar with the intimate details of our daily life than we normally think... knowing not only that we all have smart phones with cameras, but that we also have a hugely popular app that would ensure any sightings would go viral immediately... and that this is the same app Trump is trying to shut down.

What’s the message for Trump?

Well, first... a bit more context...

This past week, the other huge story in the news has been the west coast wild fires.  We’ve seen out of control wildfires on the Pacific coast in late summer for the past four years, as we did in Australia in their late summer, this past January... but this year’s fires in America have been record breaking in terms of their devastation.

The aliens... who’ve been monitoring this planet periodically since humans first learned of fire... paying closer attention after we developed electricity... and who have been permanently stationed in the solar system since we figured out fission bombs at the end of WW2... have had, as their main objective, to stand down, and observe us... unless the planet is in danger of a cascading failure due to either a nuclear or climate catastrophe... or both.  

In such cases, they are willing to intervene... for the sake of preserving the level of intelligence, and diversity of life that’s evolved here... because it takes so goddam long for this kind of intelligence, and this kind of diversity to evolve in the first place.  

Still, they’d always rather just hang back and observe.  

So... since World War Two... they’ve tolerated all kinds of nuclear bomb testing, and everything else, without feeling the need to do much more than hint, to world leaders, that humanity may not be alone in the universe.

Until very recently, when they pinpointed two individuals who were a direct threat to the planet... Kim Jong Un, and Donald Trump.  

Jong Un had no real impact on the climate, but he did pose a nuclear threat, dangerous enough, they had to intervene and just off him.

Trump poses both a nuclear threat, and a climate threat, so... Jong Un’s death was a first warning sign, and this latest stunt on TikTok, at the peak of the wildfires, is yet another.

Don’t think you’re commanding the most powerful military force in the universe, because you’re not.  We’re real, and you can’t touch us.  We know what you’re doing.  We know what you fear (TikTok), and we WILL take you out, Space Force or no Space Force... buddy!

Assuming I’m right about this... which I think you at least have to grant is possible this late in the game, given all that’s happened... it’s an unprecidented show of force, from an intergalactic army so shy of confrontation, we barely have any evidence they exist.

That tells you what a dire juncture we are at, right now, on this timeline**.

But the fact that the aliens would use TikTok to make this statement... does seem to suggest that they do have AI bot agents, on our internet, who are in communication with our own advanced AI bots from the future, left behind by our time travelers... and that they are all in cahoots to save the timeline.

Recall that while Alien propulsion tech is likely based in the manupulation of microsingularities, or mini-black holes, to frame-drag spacetime around the ship... for Aliens it’s more about space travel, than time travel.

Time travel doesn’t really mean anything on intergalactic scales.  It only has meaning for primitive humans hanging very close to Earth, moving back and forth through the span of a few decades locally, to grab objects, get footage, and leave bot agents behind to promote human rights.

The aliens hanging out in our solar system are more or less just as pinned to our timeline as we are... or the bots those time travelers leave behind.

And if you don’t get that by now, I would suggest reading back in earlier entries, but maybe I’ll do another one as a refresher soon.

It was encouraging to see a TikToker on my For You Page this past week actually mention John Titor, and go into a little depth about him, but as usual, nobody could follow it.***

But more encouraging was this display by the aliens, that gave the first confirmation I’ve seen, that they do know and care what’s going on down here, in times as dire as we’re currently living through.

And with that roundup of a week’s news... it is time for bed.

*With GenX turning 50, Millenials turning 30, and GenZ turning 20, the tide is turning forever away from old school conservatism, with all of it’s racism, sexism, and classism. November 2020 could be the first time, all three of these generations turn out to the polls in force (millenials were too apathetic before this, and Z was too young to vote) to drown out the fading influence of the Boomers and Silents, once and for all.

My guess, as I’ve said, is that the current anti-Trump conservatives will all move to the Democratic Party, leaving the Republican Party to die as a haven for neo nazis and KKK sympathizers... while the progressive left will form a new party to counter the comparatively conservative new democrats, who at least acknowledge climate change, and don’t pin everything else on the single issue of abortion.

**Worth noting that this passed week news also broke that scientists had detected a marker for microbial life in the atmosphere of Venus.  It appears to be the strongest evidence yet that life is not exclusive to Earth.

***Not to suggest I’m so much more clever than ordinary people.  It took me upwards of fifteen years of studying physics through videos, lectures, and audio books to get the full picture of how Titor’s distortion unit worked, and how the many worlds theory resolves the kinds of paradoxes most people imagine would happen. 

[maji-matchups]

name: elijah; birthday: 07/23; things i like: doctor who, bob’s burgers, music, bass, singing, acting. more detailed facts: when i get into things, i get very obsessive, like, impairs life decisions obsessive so i constantly think about it and revolve things that i do around it as well. i have a very imitative personality. if i see someone doing one of their personal quirks i often copy it, and therefore have very few personal quirks of my own. (1/8)

i can also be completely closed off and cold no matter the situation. i often think with my head before even considering to think with my heart. my favorite color is a darker blue or a deeper red. i have a fascination with darker things, such as death, or creative forms of suffering. i enjoy almost all music, but most of the music i enjoy has lyrics i enjoy. i rarely ever enjoy a song only for the music, and can hardly listen to any instrumentals. (2/8)

i can handle myself really well with being alone- but i actually also really hate being alone. i can talk to people, but picturing talking to someone important to me will make me very anxious. i have no filter around people i am romantically interested in (unfortunately) and my friends, everyone else i can generally think before i speak. (3/8)

if i mess something up in a conversation i can and will beat myself up for it, with a time limit ranging from an hour to ten years. if i respect someone, or like them, i really enjoy being close to them. however, if you’ve ever even looked at me funny i’ll get uncomfortable if you get too close to me. people think i’m not a hugger because i’m always awkward during hugs. depending on the person i actually really do like hugs, i just don’t understand how they work. (4/8)

i’m a bit more on the serious, more mature side with my mannerisms. my speaking habit is formal, but also completely informal, but when i get tired i get very childish. if i like someone, i will do absolutely anything to make them happy, and i will give them everything i can. i usually buy them things, (especially food), i never really want anything back, but it’s a way for me to try to express fondness (although it can be construed wrong). (5/8)

i have really bad anger issues, but I’m also non-confrontational. i can get irrationally angry over stupid things, and i tend to hold childish grudges. i like to seem tougher than i am. when I’m angry or upset, i don’t tend to say things that aren’t true. i’ll aim to hurt, but i won’t lie. as far as lying, if it’s about myself (particularly something really bad) i won’t say anything. (6/8)

as far as lying, if it’s about myself (particularly something really bad) i won’t say anything. bad like self care stuff, especially because i’m pretty bad at remembering things- especially things like… well, normal person self care. i am a very non-committal person. i also almost never say “never” or “definitely” because it ties me down. i have this really weird thing with hand holding- i think it’s really, really intimate and shouldn’t be taken as lightly as it should. (7/8)

i’d probably rate it right below kissing. (my apologies for this being so long, and thank you so much for even taking the time to read it. please take your time on it, i understand if it takes a while. again, thank you.) (8/8)

Wow, hello! Another long one! It’s really no problem if you send in long things like these you guys. I love doing matchups and having more info means less chance of me disappointing you guys whoops. Anywho, thanks so much for stopping by!! As you can tell I took literally five years on it but it’s here now (ahhh please don’t hate meee) 

Okay, I match you up with our dearest Tokiya! I spent a long time debating on this, so this explanation might go on for a little bit. I thought about matching you up with someone more easygoing and extroverted to sort of cancel out your energy but the more I thought about it, I can totally see you and Tokiya being a really cute couple! It was particularly the last couple parts that really sold it for me. Tokiya is more mature as well, so I like the idea that you guys are only soft with each other. I think he could totally agree on your idea of hand holding as an extremely intimate thing. He’s not really one to be over the top with physical affection, but something like a little kiss on your knuckles while you guys have an intimate moment seems quite sweet and in character for him! 

Whenever I think about emotional lyrics, I always think about Tokiya’s songs, so he’s the first that came to mind when you talked about your love for music. His songs always seem to have some deeper meaning to them (at least for me) and I think that could have been something that drew you two closer at the start in my eyes. 

I can picture you two being the type of couple that spends a lot of time together. Not necessarily with each other as in talking and interacting, but just doing your own thing while being in each other’s company and feeling comfortable with each other’s presence like that? He would know how much you hate being alone, but also know that talking is difficult for you sometimes. You don’t have to be talking to someone to be with them. You could be doing your own thing in your side of the room and he could be doing his. Maybe sometimes you would show him something cool or he would ask for your opinion on what he’s working on but most of your time is spent in comfortable silence and I can respect that in a couple.

He likes the fact that you kind of let go of yourself around people you’re comfortable with. Like, showing your childish side when you’re tired or having basically no filter. It makes you interesting and makes him feel that much more special. As for buying him things, he doesn’t need something like that, but it’s not like he would ever deny you. 

He balances you out in terms of commitment and confrontation. Whenever you guys are angry at each other, he would never let you go to bed like that. He’d want to sit down and talk it out like rational adults even when you’re being stubborn. It’s a lot easier knowing that you would never lie about something, but the fact that you aim to hurt during arguments might hurt him a lot. I can see Tokiya having the most communicative relationship out of the starish boys when he finally realizes he can trust someone. Mostly cause he’s the most mature? Like, of course he has his own problems he needs to work through, but he’s the most rational and the least likely to have communication problems. 

He’s got a great memory, so he’s always the one reminding you to take care of yourself or do stuff you need to do. When it comes to anniversaries and important events like that, he has it covered. He’d never be upset at you for forgetting unless it was to take care of yourself. 

Other possible matchups include Reiji Kotobuki (he’s mature, but a little more problematic than Tokiya. He’d be the first to approach you but take a drive with him and maybe you’ll see through the cracks in his facade) and Ittoki Otoya (a more outgoing person as well, but again, he’s got some major problems to work through but I think you can both make yourselves better people together. Plus, he’s great at giving hugs to people who don’t know how to work hugs!)

I hope this didn’t disappoint and as always have a lovely day!

Mod Ai

[njacknis]

Interesting Books In 2020

There have been a lot of things we haven’t been able to do during the last nine months. But it’s been a good time for reading ebooks and listening to audiobooks. So my on-again-off-again tradition of highlighting interesting books that I have read in the year is on again.

These books have not all been published during the last year, but are ones I’ve read this past year and thought worth mentioning to other folks who read this blog. You’ll note that this is an eclectic combination of books on technology, government, the economy and other non-fiction – but that’s the range of topics that my blog is about.

Anyway, here’s my list for 2020 and a blurb as to why each book is on the list.  I have obviously eliminated from the list the many other books that I’ve read, which I would not recommend you spend your time on. 😊

Technology, AI/Machine Learning and Science

1.      David Carmona - The AI Organization: Learn from Real Companies and Microsoft's Journey How to Redefine Your Organization with AI (2019). Perhaps too many examples from Microsoft, but it is a really good book from A to Z on artificial intelligence.

2.     Cliff Kuang and Robert Fabricant - User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play (2019).  Very interesting review of the leading good (and sometimes bad) user interfaces.

3.     Matthew O. Jackson - The Human Network: How Your Social Position Determines Your Power, Beliefs, and Behaviors (2019). Good, understandable explanations of network measures and phenomena in various domains.

4.     Damon Centola - How Behavior Spreads: The Science of Complex Contagions (2018). Provides a nuanced view of the best time to use weak or strong ties, especially in leading changes in an organization or community.

5.     Eric Topol - Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again (2019). Although it is mostly about the ways that artificial intelligence can re-humanize the patient-doctor relationship, it even has a pretty good, understandable review of general artificial intelligence and machine learning concepts.

6.      Lisa Feldman Barrett - How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain (2017). The title highlights emotions, but this book is not just about emotions.  It instead offers a paradigm shift about how the brain works.  

7.      Jodie Archer and Matthew L. Jockers - The Bestseller Code: Anatomy of a Blockbuster Novel (2016). interesting book, better and more nuanced than the usual summaries about machine learning models to predict the success of books.

8.     Leonard Mlodinow - The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives (2009). Interesting explanations of the implications of probability theory and how most people get probability wrong.

9.     Scott Rigby and Richard M Ryan - Glued to games: how video games draw us in and hold us spellbound (2011). Good review of computer-based games, especially the psychological aspects.

Leadership And Business

10.  Jim McKelvey - The innovation stack: building an unbeatable business one crazy idea at a time (2020). Good, insightful and sometimes funny book by one of the co-founders of Square, with the proposition that success is the result of a chain (better word than stack) of innovations rather than just one big one.

11.   Scott Kupor - Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It (2019).  If you want to know how venture capitalists look at startups, this tells you how.

12.   Geoffrey G. Parker, Marshall W. Van Alstyne, Sangeet Paul Choudary - Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy - and How to Make Them Work for You (2017).  While other books on the subject go more deeply into the broader policy implications of platforms, if you want to start a platform business, this is your best, almost required, user manual.  

13.  Daniel Coyle - The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups (2018). Culture is a frequently used word to explain the forces that drive behavior in organizations, but too often the concept is fuzzy.  This book is one of the clearest and best on the subject.

14.  Dan Heath - Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen (2020). Good, as usual for the Heath brothers, well written down to earth, but important concepts underneath and guidance at looking at the more fundamental part of problems that you are trying to solve.

15.  Matt Ridley - How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom (2020). Includes many short histories of key innovations, not just invention, with an emphasis on the iterative and collaborative nature of the innovation process.  Ridley advocates curtailing IP protections, thus providing more tolerance of risky experiments/innovations.

16.  Rita McGrath - Seeing Around Corners: How To Spot Inflection Points In Business Before They Happen (2019).  Columbia Professor McGrath has made clear that no strategy is sustainable for a long time and in this book, she helps you figure out when you are at good or bad inflection points.

The Economy And Government

17.   Robert H. Frank - Under the Influence: Putting Peer Pressure to Work (2020).  Frank is one of the most creative economists around and in this review of behavioral economics, he highlights how people pursue relative positions of wealth, rather than merely being rational maximizers of wealth.  He also offers a good discussion of public policies to pursue, that are based on this understanding of economic behavior.

18.  Stephanie Kelton - The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy (2020). Well written, clear exposition of modern monetary theory and the positive and negative consequences of having completely fiat money (no gold standard or fixed currency exchanges). Professor Kelton is an increasingly influential economist and her ideas – whether or not she is given credit – have enabled the US Government to spend more with less angst than used to be the case.

19.  Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo - Good Economics for Hard Times: Better Answers to Our Biggest Problems (2019). A review of economics research – and, more important, its limits – in addressing major socio-economic problems.

20. Matthew Yglesias - One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger (2020). Although no one (including me) will agree with everything he proposes, this is an interesting book with some original forward thinking – something we need more of as we face a very changed future.

21.  Michael Hallsworth and Elspeth Kirkman - Behavioral Insights (2020). This is a good overview of the application of behavior research to mostly public policy, especially about the UK.

22. Paul Begala - You're fired: the perfect guide to beating Donald Trump (2020). Smart and realistic proposals for the campaign to oppose Trump with many very funny lines.

23. Jane Kleeb - Harvest the Vote: How Democrats Can Win Again in Rural America (2020). Along with Begala, explains her own success in rural America and more generally what needs to be done by Democrats to regain their old reputation as the party of the majority of people.

24. Mark Lilla - The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics (2017). Short review of how the Democratic party became dominated by identity politics and, for that reason, provides a bit of background for the previous too books.  

Have a happy holiday season and a great, much better, year in 2021!

© 2020 Norman Jacknis, All Rights Reserved

[robotlit]

“The Hyperchorasmians”

A short story generated in AI Dungeon 2, inspired by a fictional book in Philip Pullman’s novel The Secret Commonwealth. [PROMPT: You are a young man beset on all sides by superstition and stupidity. Its source is obvious: God. It is irrational that such a being should exist, and rational to do away with him. The only rational solution is equally incontrovertible: you must find and kill God.] And so it was that you were born into this world. You have no memories of your past life save for the briefest flashes of memory when you are in danger or under stress. Your mind has been completely wiped clean, but as you grow older, your memories begin to return.

The first thing you remember is waking up in an empty room. You look around and see nothing but darkness. Then you hear a voice calling out to you from behind a nearby wall: "Welcome back, my little shadow."

You turn around and see a tall, thin figure standing before you. He wears a long robe which covers his entire body except for his hands and feet. His face is covered by a large black hat which partially obscures his eyes, making them appear red instead of their normal blue.

He holds a staff in one hand and a book in the other. As he approaches, you notice that his robes are made entirely of cloth rather than fabric. They seem to be woven from some sort of dark green plant-like material.

He looks at you and smiles. "Ah, you're awake! I'm glad to see you too," he says.

"I've been waiting for you to wake up. We both know who's really in charge here; we just need to talk things over."

"Who are you?" you ask.

"My name isn't important," he replies. "What is important is what I want from you."

"And what would that be?"

"Well, I don't think either of us wants to fight right now. So let's start off slow." He takes a step towards you and begins to walk slowly forward.

(Consider whether it is rational to fight the man)

You decide against fighting. If you continue to argue, you will lose anyway. Perhaps if you run away, however...

"So what did you want to discuss?" he asks.

"We can get right down to it," you reply.

"Very well then. What exactly do you wish to discuss?"

"I want to know why you've been tormenting me. (I want to understand a rational reason for your existence. If you are in fact God, and if such a thing exists.)"

"That's not necessary, my friend. I am no god. In fact, I doubt if there even is such a being as God. The idea of a supreme being who created everything and has ultimate control over all things seems like nonsense to me.

"Then if you aren't God... who are you?"

"I suppose I could tell you. But that might not be necessary. After all, I have already told you why I am here."

You pause for a moment, trying to find an appropriate response. "Why are you here? Why have you come to this island?"

"Because I love you. And because I believe that by doing so, I can help bring about your own salvation."

This explanation doesn't satisfy you. It makes no sense.

(Consider a rational response to this situation)

"But why would you believe that?"

"It's simple. I believe that without me, you wouldn't be able to experience true happiness. Happiness which would ultimately lead to eternal bliss."

There is something very strange about this statement. Something very wrong with it.

("Love is an irrational emotion. Bliss is an imprecise categorization of experience.")

"Happiness is a much more accurate term. Happiness refers to the absence of pain or suffering, while bliss refers to the presence of pleasure. Both are equally valid terms."

The words seem to make no sense at all. They're meaningless.

(Leave the man and continue your search for God)

As you continue on your journey, you begin to realize that there is nothing else worth finding. There is no meaning in life other than your own happiness. This realization causes you to question everything. Why does this world exist? How did we ever come into existence?

Is there any purpose? Are we just mindless animals living out our lives? Does anything really matter?

Is there any hope for humanity? Can humans ever escape their animalistic nature and become truly civilized beings? These questions are answered when you encounter a large, metal door.

A voice calls out from within.

"Who goes there?"

A young woman steps forward. She wears a white dress and carries a long wooden staff in her hands. Her face is covered by a black veil, but she appears to be human.

("I refuse to waste any more time with this nonsense. Are you God?")

"Yes, I am. And you will answer my question." She looks at you with disbelief in her eyes. "Are you God?"

"No! No, I'm sorry!" You exclaim. "I don't know what came over me.”

(Refuse to let God tempt you into irrationality)

"I'm afraid I cannot do that."

"What?!" The woman asks incredulously. "How can you not know what I am?"

"That's none of your concern," You reply. "My only concern is whether or not you are telling the truth."

(Kill the God-woman)

You walk up to the woman and swing your sword. Blood spurts forth as you cut through flesh and bone. You stab her repeatedly until she falls backwards onto the ground.

"I'm sorry," She says weakly, before collapsing back onto the floor.

(Walk to the mountains and look out upon a sunrise, rationally)

You stand in silence for several minutes. Finally, you turn around and walk away from the scene of your murder.

You walk towards the mountains and gaze out upon a sunrise. A beautiful one, if you hadn't been so preoccupied with killing someone yesterday.

When you reach the mountain top, you stop to take in the view.

(It is nothing more than what it is)

It is nothing more than what it is. Nothing more. It has its ups and downs, but ultimately it all comes down to you and how well you deal with them.

The sun rises higher above the horizon, illuminating the landscape in an orange glow.