I want Lukeprog to coauthor a long, carefully annotated article about the science behind friendship and human social behavior, so that I can respond with “I used to wonder what friendship could be/until you all shared its science with me”
There’s a humorous blog called Philosophy Bro which takes philosophy texts and interprets them into “bro-speak”. The earlier posts are generally better, because I think the author either started running out of texts to discuss, or out of time to write humorous synopses. (So if you want to read some, don’t work backwards, instead look up “top posts”)
And here’s an excerpt from his summary of Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus (Warning: Foul Language):
Look, so, nothing matters, right? Shit’s fucking weird. We all want to know how the universe ultimately works or who’s running the show or whatever, and it turns out—TRICK. FUCKING. QUESTION. No one’s running the show, and the world is unreasonable. Ever had some shit happen to you that made you go, “Why the fuck did that happen? There’s no reason for that.” Turns out, you were right. So our attempts to impose reason on the world will fail. Death and taxes, my friend. Death and motherfucking taxes.
So what do we do? What’s the point? Should we just end it if nothing matters? No, says Camus, thats the pussy way out. Instead, we should embrace the fact that nothing makes sense. Don Juan, the fuckaholic that started it all, he embraced the absurd. Life has no meaning, so he. fucked. everything. He didn’t try to impose meaning or find meaning or make his own meaning—that shit is useless, and Camus says there’s no hope for that, so cut it the fuck out.
This piece suits Less Wrong so well—both the sound itself and the thematic background behind its name (I won’t spoil the latter for you if you haven’t played the game yet). The whole of Bastion’s soundtrack is just amazing, and the game itself is a real gem, even if (like me) you don’t care for the JRPGs it draws influences from.
EDIT: holy hell, Youtube is tracking back links from LW! And at the moment it’s not leaving a high-status impression of us...
In my eyes, Yoko Kanno (www.last.fm/music/Yoko+Kanno) is the most kickass and amazing composer now alive. I so wish I could get to a concert of hers.
(what the hell, using markup with this url just makes it disappear)
I adore hertracks for the Ghost in The Shell series, although most fans are gushing more about the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack. (Here’s a cool AMV of the latter.)
If you have a few hours to spend on humorous entertainment, you might want to check out Prequel. It’s a MSPaint Adventure set in Oblivion, a bit before the game starts, following a Khajiit trying to get her life back on the right track (but horrible things happen). There are a bunch of Oblivion in-jokes, but it should still be enjoyable enough without having played the game.
It starts out only moderately funny, but has the best setup-punchline I’ve seen in quite some time, and so I recommend sticking it out until you get to that point (June 16th, probably ~2 hours in), but not starting it unless you’re willing to make it that far.
I suspect that rationalist Homestuck fanfiction would be interesting and received fairly well (assuming it’s noticed, which is unlikely). That said, I don’t consider myself equal to such a task.
The thought’s crossed my mind before. I think there’s scope for implicitly rationalist fanfic there, given the characters’ powers and interests, but explicitly rationalist would be difficult to pull off; the story’s strength lies in characterization, and bringing anyone too far out of character to make a point would be poorly received. In particular, you couldn’t get away with tweaking the viewpoint character the way Eliezer and Alicorn have in their respective universes.
The alternative is an OC session, where the mechanics are used but the characters are different. In that case, if you did use a Rationalist Premise, it would almost certainly end up as leisure reading for people who are already familiar with the concepts (as opposed to leisure reading for people who are familiar with the canon but not the concepts). It would not be Useful.
It would be interesting as entertainment, given the existing composition of Homestuck and the sheer ease at which the game can be twisted out of recognition, but most of the reason I don’t is because I can’t model people like that.
Other Media Thread
(blogs, links, games, music, whatever floats your boat. If we get a lot of a specific genre, then next Media post, it can have its own sub-thread)
(from chat with Alicorn)
I want Lukeprog to coauthor a long, carefully annotated article about the science behind friendship and human social behavior, so that I can respond with “I used to wonder what friendship could be/until you all shared its science with me”
There’s a humorous blog called Philosophy Bro which takes philosophy texts and interprets them into “bro-speak”. The earlier posts are generally better, because I think the author either started running out of texts to discuss, or out of time to write humorous synopses. (So if you want to read some, don’t work backwards, instead look up “top posts”)
Here is a link to his summary of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
And here’s an excerpt from his summary of Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus (Warning: Foul Language):
This piece suits Less Wrong so well—both the sound itself and the thematic background behind its name (I won’t spoil the latter for you if you haven’t played the game yet). The whole of Bastion’s soundtrack is just amazing, and the game itself is a real gem, even if (like me) you don’t care for the JRPGs it draws influences from.
EDIT: holy hell, Youtube is tracking back links from LW! And at the moment it’s not leaving a high-status impression of us...
In my eyes, Yoko Kanno (www.last.fm/music/Yoko+Kanno) is the most kickass and amazing composer now alive. I so wish I could get to a concert of hers.
(what the hell, using markup with this url just makes it disappear)
Works for me.
Source code:
The http:// part is apparently mandatory, which makes sense, because it’s mandatory in HTML too (for absolute links).
(Thanks for the recommendation. The one track I’ve listened to so far [ABC Mouse Parade] reminds me of Danny Elfman. Edit: And The Beatles.)
I adore her tracks for the Ghost in The Shell series, although most fans are gushing more about the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack. (Here’s a cool AMV of the latter.)
If you have a few hours to spend on humorous entertainment, you might want to check out Prequel. It’s a MSPaint Adventure set in Oblivion, a bit before the game starts, following a Khajiit trying to get her life back on the right track (but horrible things happen). There are a bunch of Oblivion in-jokes, but it should still be enjoyable enough without having played the game.
It starts out only moderately funny, but has the best setup-punchline I’ve seen in quite some time, and so I recommend sticking it out until you get to that point (June 16th, probably ~2 hours in), but not starting it unless you’re willing to make it that far.
Electronic music good for work, reading or browsing
Me, I like Solar Fields and Carbon Based Lifeforms for that. List your preferences.
Is nate silver a witch?
Which one of you did this?
Fat Cock Bias (NSWF)
Here’s a great soundtrack for when you’re feeling introspective and moody.
So, based on the predictions thread, I surmise that I’m not the only Homestuck fan on this site?
I suspect that rationalist Homestuck fanfiction would be interesting and received fairly well (assuming it’s noticed, which is unlikely). That said, I don’t consider myself equal to such a task.
The thought’s crossed my mind before. I think there’s scope for implicitly rationalist fanfic there, given the characters’ powers and interests, but explicitly rationalist would be difficult to pull off; the story’s strength lies in characterization, and bringing anyone too far out of character to make a point would be poorly received. In particular, you couldn’t get away with tweaking the viewpoint character the way Eliezer and Alicorn have in their respective universes.
The alternative is an OC session, where the mechanics are used but the characters are different. In that case, if you did use a Rationalist Premise, it would almost certainly end up as leisure reading for people who are already familiar with the concepts (as opposed to leisure reading for people who are familiar with the canon but not the concepts). It would not be Useful.
It would be interesting as entertainment, given the existing composition of Homestuck and the sheer ease at which the game can be twisted out of recognition, but most of the reason I don’t is because I can’t model people like that.
Once again, Nornagest manages to say what I was thinking more eloquently than I could.