codexarcanum

MAKE AN ASSESSMENT

Where's the twin peaks meme community? c\blacklodge? c\rrdiner? c\damnfinecoffee?

would the world be a better or worse place if everyone did what I’m about to do?

This is basically another formulation of Immanuel Kant's categorical imperative, sometimes phrased:

"Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law."

Which is itself basically another version of the Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

I've heard advocates for the Platinum Rule as well: Do unto others as they would have you do unto them.

My point is that even the great thinkers of history, in conversation with each other over the millennia, have not gotten over the hump of morality being fundamentally subjective yet some lust for justice keeps us arguing in favor of some version of objective, universal morals.

One of the more helpful tools I've found is John Rawl's veil of ignorance, also called the original position argument. Basically, if you were redesigning society around your new rules, but had no idea which position you would hold in the new society (it's randomly assigned or impossible to predict, in the thought experiment), would you consider your rules successful and your society valid?

This tool allows for an objective evaluation of many subjective points of view, through statistical means.

All of these tools fail in a particular way though, which is that they individualize the search for ideal behavior. They ask: What morals would be best in a perfectly designed society, of which I will be the architect. Perhaps no individual is capable of devising a universal system of behavior?

Locked into their subjective experience of the world, how could any individual operating within such a system gain the conceptual distance necessary to redesign the whole? Rather, we are all shaped and attempt to shape society, aided and resisted by our resources and allies, in a chaotic and turbulent system that we are incapable of existing outside of. Even with a plan for a universal morality, how could you possibly implement it without contradiction?

Ah man, I'd been holding off on setting up another TES game on my PC since going to Linux. Now I'm going to have to go pre-emptive mod shopping for the essentials, and do it for so many games!

It's a real shame that between crypto currencies, federated servers, and bittorrent we still haven't come up with a fair and robust system for hosting large content archives.

The need for corporate-funded servers is killing video sites, mod sites, emulators, streaming, libraries, and so much more. Even the "self-hosted" crowd is like 90% dependent on cloud-hosting companies.

Commandos to me is the start of a different lineage of real-time tactical stealth games, which goes on to include Desperados, Shadow Tactics, and Shadow Gambit (yes, most of those were made by the same team).

Outside of the OGRE-alikes (FO Tactics, FF Tactics, Disgea, and so on) some other options for tactical games that are a little different:

• Nexus: The Jupiter Incident - sort of a 4X game mixed with tactics, or like Homeworld with a lot fewer units
• Myth: The Fallen Lords (and sequels) - classic pre-Halo Bungie titles that mix RPG and strategy. Somewhat defining for the RTS genre too.
• UFO: Aftershock and sequels - a series that tried to revive XCom before Firaxis rebooted it. Not as good, but pretty interesting and fun, a little easier than old school xcom but not as polished as the newer ones.
• Cannon Fodder - a UK classic, very arcadey but very fun and lighter than all these other "serious" games

This is a good idea, but also working remote frees up time to meet new affinity groups.

Not to dump on people's relaxation strategies, but even the most introverted person can't survive on video games and gooning alone.

If you don't want or like hanging with coworkers, find a local bar to hang out at and meet some folks, go to a community board game night, join a choir, attend an anime viewing night, just do something to take initiative and meet some folks that like what you like.

You never know how many of those comments now aren't bits and ai also. The malleable human mind sees "people" expressing opinions and wants to take a side, have an opinion. How convenient that all the options, all the feelings and responses you should have, are already laid out for you. Just "Like and Subscribe" to the persons whose opinions most align to your own.

I'll reiterate a comment I made earlier today:

Peaceful protest is only a meaningful choice when violence is also a real option.

Otherwise you're just holding a pointless rally. Might as well show up with handcuffs on already.

Eh, there's a curiosity aspect as well. I can't do work on my car, but I can change the oil, tires, brake pads, and such. I understand the principle of how an IC engine works. I'm a computer programmer but I think it's because I'm a curious person who likes knowing how things work, and computers offer more chances to learn than anything else on the planet.

It isn't ignorance that has ever bothered me about boomers, zoomers, or anyone else. It's that 99% of people you meet are fundamentally incurious. They don't care how things work, they don't care if they could work differently.

Yatta! An ancient amusement from the early days of the internet.

https://youtu.be/-pr-WUa8eEs

Trying to imagine objects in higher than 3 spatial dimensions.

Imagining 2 or more temporal dimensions.

Designing a system of governance that is fair to all constituents, physically realizable, and marketable enough to convince future constituents to follow it.