I feel much the same about Cloud Atlas.
Cruciverbalist with a side-order of boardgame design. He/Him.
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I feel much the same about Cloud Atlas.
We could give you Piers Morgan back? Does that sound like a fair exchange? 🙂
Other people have had similar thoughts. refractions.org/post/7927826...
Well she did a grand job!
Much of that Doctor Who shift can be put down to the hiatus though? I was one of *those* fans who bought all the Virgin (later BBC) novels and Big Finish audio in that era, and we were, almost by definition, adults because we had the disposable income. That shifted the baseline a lot I think.
I would argue that the problem is that it's politicians who are more generally like this, for largely obvious reasons? Voters are all over the shop, but aspiring leaders need to be confident in systems that promote "order" or their grand ideas can't work. Voters just want someone to get on with it.
My (ridiculous) position is that nobody under 60 should be allowed to run for public office (to ensure that they actually had life experience), but nobody over 60 should be allowed to vote (to balance that out.) Yes, it's stupid, but hey, what's the worst that could happen? 🙂
I write cryptic crossword puzzles, and that's how I know that these tools are doomed. Because cryptic clues are about twisting language into pretzels whilst still being scrupulously accurate in every detail. Plus, almost all clues are unique, which also makes probabilistic databases mostly useless.
When Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair first came out, I often found it shelved with 'regular' fiction in bookshops, even though it was obviously sf/fantasy. But because a key aspect of the story revolved around a literary classic, it was clearly "literary" and not "genre".
Yes, this. I had absolutely no idea that I *needed* to know that particular trouser-leg of history until I did.
Nah, you're just there to be a cupid. (Sorry, absolutely couldn't resist. Also showing my age. Oh, wait, I'm on Bluesky; that goes by default.)
It is perhaps instructive to look at "Christianity" for similar lessons; there are multiple denominations (and some sects that are almost cults) where members are so insecure that they just evangelise loudly all the time and ignore anything else, and others that just quietly do nice stuff together.
It's also absurd to consider it as useful. In 1982, the SDP were on, like 40% or something and got, what, 25% in the end? I'd bet that at least 15% of that "Reform" support are a similar sort of bloc to those who said "yeah, I'd vote SDP" to pollsters forty years ago. (I agree with you, though!)
Not heard of Moldbug? You are a lucky, lucky man! I highly recommend @eruditorumpress.com El Sandifer's fantastic Neoreaction: A Basilisk, which took apart the whole nonsense a decade ago and warning us all of what was to come. (first line "Let us assume that we are fucked.")
What? He wants to have a computer program that offers permutations of options? He should have just asked the Interactive Fiction community - they've been doing that for decades. This is another classic case of likely reinventing the wheel because even now our niches don't interact with each other.
Oh gods, yes, it's that, isn't it? I hadn't really considered that opt-out/in is basically a subset of consent (which also says something about my limited experience or ability to put two and two together!)
I wonder if one could trace the steady decline in QoL everywhere to the insidious way that corporate systems went for "opt out" as the default instead of "opt in" (because it's so much cheaper for them.)
They had an actual tsunami incident only a week ago (with 100' peak.) So there's always a chance of something like that? (Although it was in the wrong bit, I think.)
Will governments propping it up mean it will be a bigger burst when it comes? Given that they seem bedazzled by the claims and the lobbying money is enormous.
Ah. It's an Oxbridge PPE graduate. I sometimes call LLMs 'management consultants' for the way they spout nonsense and destroy businesses. But now they are rapidly moving up to destroying whole countries.
But folk have been trying to do symbolic reasoning for as long as we've been doing tokenisation and machine learning. And whilst they are all clearly faster and broader now (as is natural given processing power), the same blind spots seem to be there in all these areas as there were decades ago.
"It’s become “git gud” as a religion." This. So much this.
That list is hilarious because it's clear that the people who compiled it have no idea what *any* of those jobs involve. It's rather akin to the people who claim care assistants and fruit-pickers are non-skilled labour. (Oh yeah, they're going to be the same people, aren't they?)
At least the tobacco problem is known (and does not get worse, beyond the obvious, anyway!) The tech problem may not even have *begun* to scratch the surface of potential horrendousness. And now, some music.
I've just been reading this piece and it felt very apposite. It's about why "stupidity" is what dooms us all. substack.com/home/post/p-...
Isn't that just doing pastiche though? And we've done that for as long as art has been around. And people have made pastiche works of disgraced auteurs before. It's just that pastiche tends to be ephemeral (not always!) and often deliberately meant to be mocking so I don't see the issue here?
Classic trilemma. Time, money, energy: choose any two.
During the AV referendum campaign, I was genuinely startled by the number of people I talked to who had no idea how any part of our system operated (beyond the "I vote for an MP" bit.) I'm mildly pleased that most of them went away horrified after a conversation with me.
I went out last Saturday in London to join a hundred thousand other joyful folk because I felt it was really important to remind myself that human beings are not innately terrible. It is those who think they are entitled to lead that are the problem. Because they need us to feel bad to keep power.
My contention is that the Doctor is Space. They *are* the Universe, which is why Tectuen didn't understand who they were - that a 'new' universe was a regeneration event. This also explains why the universe is inconsistent between Doctors, and perhaps why there are no Doctors in 'other' universes. 😉
I think it depends on your test group as well? A bunch of experienced gamers are more likely to be fine with cryptic scribbles, but obviously that would be a very bad idea overall! And I might also argue sometimes you don't go for maximum clarity if you want extra wriggle room for modification? 😉
I'm now wearing a badge on my coat that is a QR code which links to a page on my personal website that (currently) says "by photographing/filming me without permission, you agree to pay me an appearance fee of £100." It's obviously an empty threat, but hey, I felt like I needed to do something.
What happens when Trump loses his appeal about whether the tariffs are illegal? I mean, obviously the US Supreme Court will invent a spurious reason (or maybe not even bother) but it's still a big factor in all of this that hasn't yet been resolved.
I'll offer Kevin Crossley-Holland's fantastic Arthur trilogy (starts with The Seeing Stone.) It's a lovely story of a lad growing up on the Welsh Borders in 1200, but who dreams (or does he?) of the Arthurian stories.
Chaosium made a great cardgame basically based on this premise called Credo. It's a delight (says this [heretical] Christian!)
Is it bad that my first thought when I heard the news was that it was a great publicity stunt for you?! (A bit like the Pope dying did for the movie of Conclave.)
I still recall seeing this on a cinema revival, with a crowd of kids who had never seen a black-and-white movie before. They were a bit restless, but Over The Rainbow caught them. And then we got to the door opening moment, and the entire cinema gasped as one. Even when you know how it was done.
TBF, the word "could" is doing an awful lot of heavy lifting in that post. I mean, my chocolate teapot company "could" revolutionise the hot beverage market (and I'm only looking for $500m investment, which is a bargain.)
I think this is also related to the "where are all the working class poets then?" question.
I confess that I defected to the Lone Wolf series quite quickly. But Steve Jackson's Sorcery! is a monumental achievement, only surpassed by the exceptional Inkle PC version.
See, the thing is that one might argue "oh, the fall is because people have lost faith in the police to investigate anything" but that's almost instantly disproved by the murder rate which is a crime that, yes, the police would definitely investigate. Which then helps to support the rest.
The first edition of "The Warlock of Firetop Mountain" ran with a contest to map the caves. I know this because I won one of the runner-up prizes. :) It was especially challenging because there was a minor error in the book so a 'perfect' map may not have been possible.
True. But by doing this, you get loads and loads of "files" into the PD that are demonstrably untrue or at best a mixture of truth and lies, because the folk were (clearly) out to smear MLK. And then they can release the Epstein files and say "see, it's all a bunch of lies, just like the MLK stuff."
Yeah, I've long argued (as a Christian) that the single worst thing about Christianity is that we don't really have "laws" (we've got two really simple ones!), but as a result Traditions have become our idols that eventually (and inevitably) cause the schisms.
The reference to Christian heresies is mildly amusing, since all the Christians I know and hang out with would consider most of what he is saying to be the worst form of heresy. We've literally only got two rules, and he's explicitly denying both of them.
I have been jokingly calling LLMs "business consultants" for a while because they have the same ability to make confident assertions about a situation which they are assessing at an entirely superficial level. (I realise this is unfair to *some* consultants. Just not enough of them.)
This. (Writing as a 56-yr old whose parents seem to have retained their ability to think straight on this.) I'm not even sure we should be allowed to vote, tbh.
Ban all over-55s from having mobile phones and social media. (Says this 56-yr old.) We definitely shouldn't be allowed to vote.
I tend to think that it's more that folk here already know pretty much everything that's in there (see also the Mueller Report and, indeed, the original Ukraine impeachment) because we're terminally online. But it's been running for so long now that they don't know how to spin it to the base?
That feels like an understatement.
Yeah, I laughed out loud three times reading that piece. You're going to have to up your game. (God, I miss Paper Cuts.)
That's why I liked Legends of Tomorrow more than other CW shows, because it was clearly embracing the fun. (The Flash started out like that but then got too serious I think.) It's true Lois & Clark did tend more towards mockery but had flashes of genius - e.g. Tempus walked that line really well.
Alas, I adored that show. I thought Cain and Hatcher were both delightful and the writers did try to have fun with some of the more absurd elements of the mythos without going full CW on it. But that's probably because I'm not a deep comics person so it was just fluff tv for me.
I have long joked that the biggest mistake the US and the UK made in the 20thC was winning WWII. Because we didn't have to deal with the fact that our systems of e.g. taxation and elections were outdated even then; we won so it's fine, right? (Obvs. not suggesting that the Nazis should have won!)
Isn't this a problem with "school" as a concept in general though? Studying anything to learn how it works is fascinating, but when it is seen as solely for the purpose of a future examination, it loses all of that. English Literature is one of the more obvious victims here, but even Maths suffers.
Hippo Birdy!
Twenty years ago, some economists were writing vividly about the subprime mortgage crisis that they could see coming. At the time, most of the response was to point and laugh. And we know what happened after that - the financial sector was reformed to make sure it wouldn't happen again... oh, wait.
I was so pleased to hear that they're doing a big remake with a full cast audio etc. I fear this will lose something of the delightfully low-tech feel of the original, but the concept is so strong I'm sure it will be great.
@emptywheel.bsky.social has just written a great piece about the difference in how people use language, and how & why the media has been utterly overwhelmed by those who are not using language to describe the world but to reshape it. www.emptywheel.net/2025/07/06/s...
Yeah, I'm now getting worried about you. I honestly can't tell if this is a satirical performance art piece about the process of right-wing radicalisation. That may say more about me than it does about you, mind.
I'm more of a Groo guy myself. :)
There are good reasons to form an official "party" within the arcane rules of the House of Commons. It's almost always better than being a bunch of independents. But outside of that? Nope, almost always a bad idea unless it's being done as a grift - cough, Farage, cough.
That's exactly what is so brilliant about it. It forensically defines the prosecution case and then says "you know what, fuck it, there's no actual other solution to this than independence". You'd think the Right would embrace that (and once they would have done, but they are no longer 'patriots'.)
Still love the idea that the *opening line* may be the only thing in the book that isn't outdated...
I repeat my joke that the worst mistake the UK and the US made in the 20th C was winning WWII. Because we didn't have to deal with the fact that our political & democratic systems were already broken then; we pretended everything was clearly fine. (Note: obvs. not saying the Nazis should have won!)
I've started calling LLMs "management consultants", which for me has superseded my previous "bloke down the pub" analogy, because at least with that one you are having a good time with friends and your life/business isn't being destroyed because of what they assert to be true with no comprehension.
Hence my "management consultant" analogy, which for me has superseded my previous "bloke down the pub" analogy, because at least with that one you are having a good time with friends and your business isn't being destroyed because of what they assert to be true with no comprehension.
Lair of the Clockwork God? It does have a mildly decent plot as well, but it's the delightfully bizarre combination of styles (point'n'click and platformer) that makes it worth a look.
I have started calling LLMs *management consultants* because, well, "in a way that resembles human thought without there being any thinking" is a pretty good summary description there too.
Oh sure, I'm not dissing Wikipedia! I do think that it's a slightly different sort of experience though.
Back in the day, a fun part of reading "print" encyclopaedias was that you often ended up reading the entries adjacent to the one you actually looked up, which were, of course, unrelated except by alphabetic ordering. Even Wikipedia on a good day can't quite replicate that level of serendipity.
I do think this is a "being human" thing. I think there is a natural tendency to go to 'dark' places - see e.g. most stand-up comedians - because creativity needs both light and dark to thrive (just like it needs order and chaos; not the same thing!) You are just being you. Which is a good thing.
Oh, I don't know - you'll be wanting a devastatingly nuanced C-3PO next! Me, I think just letting the slapstick comic relief be the slapstick comic relief is just fine, and probably necessary. (But it's certainly true than anybody over about eight ought to detest Jar Jar almost by definition.)
He is so desperate for that Nobel Peace Prize. I genuinely think it's one of the few things that really obsesses him.
He wants that Nobel Peace Prize *so* badly, doesn't he?
I have wondered if he had an explicit plan to become PM like Boris did - do a professional job (lawyer, journalist), rise to senior post (DPP, editor), get safe seat, be visible and eventually seize the moment, and not because of some sense of 'public duty'. Because it sure looks that way from here.
Hmmm. Well, I got blocked by someone on here for suggesting that their (positive) opinion of "Exploding Kittens" might be wrong. So I'm not going there. [Declaration of interest: I am a published board game designer.]
Or, here in the UK, Jeremy Corbyn did alarmingly well in a general election, and suddenly the entire establishment and media turned on him. (And wilfully ignoring the "Boris Johnson" in the room at the same time.) It's clearly not just a US thing.
Turns out this is exactly what I *would* like! (Now ordered.)
Not sure this is unique, as it appears to also be true everywhere else? It's not just the US. Institutions that appear stable and robust are vulnerable to bad faith actors everywhere right now.
Ditto. It was glorious.
It was great to meet you tonight. Now to work out how high up on the "To Be Read" pile your book actually goes. 🙂
I'm an Anthony Buckeridge kid. (Darbishire forever!)
When I was a teenage boy, I devoured the Piers Anthony Xanth books (mild comic fantasy.) It did not occur to me that they were actually romance novels (a genre I would obviously not have touched with a bargepole as a teenage boy) because the disguise was really good.
Isn't this "there are only seven plots, and the bit to admire is how good the disguise is?" And sometimes the disguise is good enough that even when you are told 'how the trick is done', you still can't see it.
That's a media problem in general though, isn't it? (Rather than just social media.) A decade or so ago, the then-Premier of China said something to the effect of "western media democracies are fucked because they can no longer take even medium-term decisions." It's even more true now.
I will always stan for "Le Ton beau de Marot" by Douglas Hofstadter, which is a fantastic book about translation (and poetry and consciousness) which was one of the ways I became radicalised into the inevitable failure of 'machine translation' and "AI", no matter how good it looks on the surface.
Oh, absolutely. I do appreciate that progress in discussions can be made in all circumstances! Which shows how tricky this can be, especially in constrained spaces like this. We could spend a (happy?) thread debating whether "fruitless" may or may not apply in this context. :)
I have long considered all arguments (especially on the interwebs) to be essentially semantic. That unless and until all parties are operating within the same vocabulary framework, the entire exercise can be fruitless. (It is possible that this also explains all of modern media politics.)
My online life started with Prestel, but CIX was my first real home. And it startles me that *nothing* has matched Ameol in the thirty-five years since.
I got to play my first game of this last week. There's so much to like (and be amazed by!) but there's a definite sense that one needs multiple sessions to be able to make the most of things. (This is not derogatory btw, but whilst I didn't begrudge the cost, doing it more than once would be hard.)
I strongly recommend US blogger @driftglass.bsky.social who has been chronicling this "centre party" nonsense for twenty years or more. I can't decide if I'm happy or not that I only know about Andrew Yang or Thomas Friedman et al thanks to him!
My joke for a long time has been that I can't be a Doctor Who fan because I *like* the show.
This is one reason I know LLMs are ultimately doomed to fail, because they will never be able to do this. This is partly because almost every clue is unique, so even a vast database doesn't really help, but it is also because clues are all about bending rules of language in interesting ways.
He really did stick the landing. (And I haven't stopped laughing for five minutes. Absolute peak RTD (complimentary.)
Empire is also clearly not a sequel to Star Wars. It's a sequel to a movie that has some vaguely similar characters and themes and setting but where the entire backstory has been rewritten in order to make it into a series. (It's not a bad attempt, mind!)
I call this the "puddle" problem. Which is that all big games now have to be about the 'ray tracing' as though that adds anything to the experience in any shape or form. But it's the only way they think they can sell more hardware.
I lost an entire archive of off-air radio stuff in a fire at my student hall-of-residence in the late 1980s. I have handled family bereavements more successfully than the effect that had on me.
Someone elsewhere noted that we'd been warned by the SF writers that our future was grey goo. It just turns out that it's literary rather than physical.
Yes, I think that's true for me as well. There's also one about "dragging himself up on deck" which gets me every time I hear it.