2023-03-25
Readings
Advances (and a primer) on the way glasses form and melt (and asymmetry between them): https://phys.org/news/2023-03-glasses-glass-to-liquid-transition.html
The title here seems a little overdramatic, but this argues that form contracts are bad for the world and that fewer contracts in general are better for the world. I’m skepetical of the idea, but it’s interesting enough to be worth reading: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4334425
Production improvements for very thin layers of metal: https://phys.org/news/2023-03-scientists-easy-atomically-thin-metal-layers.html
Efforts towards understanding weather on Venus: https://phys.org/news/2023-03-explores-tsunami-venus-clouds.html
Some history - on the role of alcohol in medieval european society:
A semiconductor with interesting thermal properties, and a (droll) reflection on unusual properties in general: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-material-breaks-a-classic-rule-of-physics/
To me, Altman’s warning is less something to worry about - that not everyone will put restrictions on LLMs (and maybe true AI tools someday) - and rather something to celebrate. (the article also unfortunately has input from Elon Musk, who is a bit of an idiot) https://fortune.com/2023/03/18/openai-ceo-sam-altman-warns-that-other-ai-developers-working-on-chatgpt-like-tools-wont-put-on-safety-limits-and-clock-is-ticking/
How the US Witness Protection Program works:
Thoughts
In books/tv, does not offering bilingual bonuses help with immersion? Is it a good practice? The focus for this is on works where immersion into the mindset of one of the characters is important; in such cases we can’t expect the reader to entirely set aside their real life, but the author can decide what to present and how. An urban planner has a lot of specialised knowledge but authors don’t need to talk about population patterns and infrastructure use to feed their specifics. So then, would it be better to depict people speaking languages than the main character speaks as unintelligible? It might be jarring on TV (some would falsely call it racist), but it would bring things closer. So is it a good idea for works trying to do that?
“Is this dangerous-in-itself?” and “is the combination of us and this thing dangerous?” are two framings we can choose to evaluate things, the choice ideally being highly contextual. Often the in-itself definition should be leaned towards when we’re considering entities with their own motivation, such as “should I hire a person from a certain group, because a lot of us would likely fight with them”. The latter is often better for nonsentient things, e.g. a technology which might bring out the worst in people. It’s not generally simple, but knowing there’s a difference between the framings is an important start.
Is computational voice generation the solution to the content problem for large games? One of the challenges we’ve seen with game content production, with the move to full audio and video, is the reduction in scale of what can affordably be built. Text-based games and roguelikes were easier to make huge because asset production wasn’t a challenge; maybe generative models will far surpass generally-better-tools, at the cost of making graphics artists less of a hire choke-point. So, contrary to a lot of commentators, I’m enthused at the potential of these approaches to give us better games.
This makes the case for why scientific journals might directly endorse political candidates. I think they’re wrong for a variety of reasons, but it’s worth seeing their lines of reasoning, as well as ideally noting who wrote it so we can find ways to push them out. In particular, I think any scientist in the US will already have their own decisions on whom to support so an endorsement is not informational for anyone, and it’s desirable to have nearly all institutions be officially neutral on politics so as to avoid official tribalism (and not shit on their members who disagree). https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00789-5
Current Events
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine remains at a standstill, with preparations for a hopeful Ukrainian pushback dependent on further supplies of weapons. Bakhmut has not fallen. Russia announced some of its nuclear weapons will be placed in Belarus, in what it hopes will be a threat to the west
Uganda has demonstrated its barbarism and provoked mass criticism with a new law that ramps up penalties for expressing non-straight sexuality and creates a duty for relatives and associates to report such sexual orientations
India, under its unfortunate leadership under Modi and as another instance of weakening of its political pluralism, has removed Rahul Gandhi (of the opposition Congress Party), from parliament over some mockery of Modhi he did at a rally
The furor over Netanyahu’s judicial power grab in Israel continues, with mass protests pushing him to seek a way to draw down while still saving face.
Reviewlets
Creed Valley 2 (video game) - A sequel to a beloved game, I can see they thought about what they’d need to change, and they made a few good choices (particularly telling the human tale a bit more), but they probably needed to change more (particularly the knock-off sequel form of the really good song from the first game, the nature of the main character duo). The gameplay is decent, if highly linear, and some of the ideas explored are worth thinking about despite the heavy-handedness. That said, it’s light on the fun factor.
Chained Echoes (video game) - This is an RPG that sometimes wants to be Chrono Trigger, which has a lot of mechanics, and which so far is quite enjoyable. It has a refreshing boldness to its design both in story and mechanics. The start is a bit slow and it’s surprising how many party members you get almost immediately. There’s a bit of annoying “self-blame for something not tied to one’s intent” in a bit of the writing, but real people sometimes do that too.
Matter (sci-fi novel, Culture series) - This explores the other side of the “non-interference” topic Banks explored in the previous novel, while providing a lot of much-wanted background for some organisations that’ve been present in the series so far. It also (so far non-explicitly) mucks around in the messy ground of how personal power tied to a role interfaces with good norms around that power and situations outside the role. It may not reach a conclusion (I’m not done with the book yet), but it provides plenty of food for thought.
Norman Love sampler box (chocolates) - Once or twice a year I’ll order one of these, having it shipped up from Florida. Each box is a good variety of very high quality chocolates. In theory I could take note of which is which and try to figure out how to order just my favourites, but I like the variety, and the difference between the ones I like the best and the rest is not that large (plus the surprise is welcome). They’re also very attractive, making them good for a party.
Amusements
Both amusing and sobering to compare “Henry the 8th I am” from the same boy band in 1965 to the old man band in 2015 (also that the lead singer in the latter is actually old enough to have likely done what the song’s about)
I’m still amused that the nickname that NYCers have for Andy Byford, “Train Daddy”, actually sticks and is used in the news; this bit is noting that he’s returning to the US to help with some Amtrak projects:
This clip from one of the (proper) Star Trek movies is one of the weirdest Gilbert and Sullivan “performances”:
Recent Music
The Band Played Waltzing Matilda - Eric Bogle - A classic folk song, sad and beautiful
I think I lost my Headache - Queens of the Stone Age - Some nice rock, although it devolves to unpleasant squeaking for the last third of the song. The front part is worth it, but if we were still in the era of when we listened to songs as mp3s we ripped ourself, I’d find a good place to snip the tail of the song off for my collection (keeping the full version in the don’t-play-randomly folder I had for these purposes)
The Darkest of Days - Piotr Musial - Atmospheric, windy music that’s nice to have in the background for other things. You’ll want good speakers for this one though
Op een Goppe - Amsterdam Klezmer Band - A really fun (if typical) Klezmer song, also good background music