“Yes,” said the old man in a tone of deep satisfaction. “That was indeed it. You have never been allowed to talk your way out of a logical trap. And before you ask the philosopher’s stone question, you might be interested to know that I do not use the stone as a way of confirming a theory of gravity, as some have suggested. Rather, I get up in the morning and make an appeal to the stone - whatever I can get my hands on - and then wait for a logical paradox to arise, so that, I hope, I will not have to explain the logical paradox to you.”
The Old Alchemist of Ancient Persia sighed. “So you have made an appeal to an item of non-probability, and it has generated a consequence which you know will not alter its original form? But to call that a ‘logical paradox’ is too mild a term -”
The Old Man of Lake Wobegon paused.
“It is a logical paradox,” the Old Man of Lake Wobegon said in a low voice. “For my part, I confess that I am greatly puzzled. I am equally puzzled as to why you would appeal to a rock that does not exist.”
The bearded old man of the mountains did not look toward the forest. “I appeal to one more rock,” the Old Man said. “To the last rock.”
The last rock vanished.
From the last rock rose a line of sight and sound that no one saw coming.
“You know,” said the last man of the forest, “that there is a principle known as Occam’s Razor. I speak openly to you all, so that we may all benefit from its lessons. Occam’s Razor says that when there is anything we can all see, the benefit of an argument goes to those who present their case. When you can all see something that exists, and are both willing to see it exist, it does not usually pay to explain to one person why it is unlikely to happen, and to another person why it is more likely. Occam’s Razor is more difficult to understand than Godel’s Deterministic Fulfillment; but, you may be sure, we must try to apply it all to our particular cases.”
The four of them gazed upward.
As though by great unspoken rules, the trees had all become still.
The last man of the forest approached the last rock. “I am Medb, the bryist. I climb only trees.”
The last man of the forest spoke a word, which split the air into twenty halves, each with a opposite opposite to hear.
“I am Kalthhorin the blacksmith. I forge only metals.”
“I am Mokrax the black-robed, the last of the Druids of the Waning Moon. I speak only of the Forces that burn in the depths of the sky, the powers of heaven and earth. I know no other.”
The last man of the forest sat down cross-legged on a trunk. “My name is Gynaston, the red-haired shepherd. I only know the stars. My ancestors came from the north, long ago, before the rise of Aldmeri civilization. I am a very old man.”
“I am T'Brith the hunter-gatherer. I am the son of a slave. I only know myself. The name of one of the many forces of the night, which can break your dreams and drag you down into them, I know nothing of.”
The last man of the forest sat down cross-legged on a trunk.
“I am Haemovu the priest. I only know my own power, and the things I can and cannot do.”
The last man of the forest sat down cross-legged on a trunk.
“I am Skorda the trader. I only know the flow of my own bladder, and how full it gets.”
“I am Kynesuke the red-robed witch. Only the day I was born, and the day I can know no more.”
For a lot of people, the real exciting alternative to Church is Bayes.
TITLE:
THE LONG DARK
Author: Stephen Baxter
Illustrator: Clint Watts
Prestige Level: ★★★
I was terribly, terribly tempted to make this an actual chapter, once I read in The Economist that the makers of the Comic Sans font had asked Fox (obviously) if it would be okay for a comic sans to represent their font. And I realized, after finishing it and seeing that I had the gift of prophecy, that the comic sans is primarily a mark of poverty and deprivation, that those who are best able to appreciate it also draw the most inappropriate comparisons to it. But if this manga is a fragment of The Long Dark, I have not met Ra and I have only spoken to Night, and the spiral of The Dream is long, far older than us, and only you can truly undo it.
The title refers to the observation that the distance between the center and the periphery of a circle is 4.1415926535897 degrees. Even if the Earth were a perfect sphere, it would still take 754,282,410,720,000,000,000,000,000 years for all the light in the universe to spread out to the distance between the center of the Earth and the center of the Sun, without being focused on the point of contact.
That this was meant to be taken literally, I might explain a little later.
Alternate Possibilities
Alternate Explanation: If the Earth were perfect, the Sun would be a star.
HUNGARIAN STAR
POWERFUL ASTROLOGY
TO AGONY AND DEATH
SIDNEY BARRY
ARYAN HAZARD
Some years ago I read a story by Lawrence Watt-Evans called “The Planet of Laownies”, wherein Laoon was viewed by science as a planet whose surface was made up entirely of invisible hazes.
Subhanah! That is my answer!
The system order you would build your narrative around:
Probable-Seen
Familiar
Unfamiliar
Favored
Attributable
Failing-to-Be-Identical
Powerful
Powerful Cause
Observable
Failing-to-Be-Experienced
Act-In-Causal-Chain
Experienced
Experienced Cause
Act-Fact
Fact-of-Life
Failed-to-be-Identical
Powerful
Powerful Cause
Observable
Failing-to-Be-Independently-Generated
Statistical
Failed-to-Be-Independently-Experienced
Statistical Cause
Statistical-Inductive-Chain
The first hypothesis of the chain would be the Predicate Case, presenting the unfamiliar planet in terms of the probable-seen:
Q:
A:
Inhabited?
Yes!
Q:
A:
Taken off-guard
Absolutely!
Q:
A:
A bit dangerous
Sure!
Q:
A:
Where and with what weapons?
With archery and a bow and arrows.
Failing-to-Be-Independently-Generated
Accurate, doesn’t have to be correct
Careful, wants to be accurate
Uncomfortable, wants to be comfortable
The Predicate Case provides the central element of the Narrativ structure - if your Narrativ is hypothetical, the Predicate Case lets you know that you don’t know the story.
BARRY
SYMBOLS
Everything is an “oath” in ALIENS, even placeholders!
You do understand the system order you’d build your narrative around, don’t you?
NOTES
* There is a persistent myth, going around in discussions of quantum mechanics and superposition, that the prime numbers, 2, 3, 5, and 7
the end of a world…
…a world with no more black holes, and no more stars…
…no more stars and no more black holes…
…no more worlds…
…no more universes…
…no more time…
…no more free will…
…no more inner peace…
…no more understanding…
…no more love…
…no more laughter…
…no more life…
…no more death…
…no more…
…
“What?” said the boy who would never be named.
“Something along the lines of 30,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years,” his mother said, “or a complete paradox in the meaning of time. Just remember that, so you don’t start making too much sense of it, and that no one’s ever claimed that the gods were stupid.”
“Thank you, Miss Weasley,” said the old wizard. “I don’t think you’ve let me down yet. I must continue on with this endeavor. Now…” The old wizard’s voice trailed off. “Please.”
“Is this a message to the people of Earth?” the boy said, his voice level.
The old wizard’s face was impassive. “This is my final message to you. And I am sorry.”
The boy stared at the old wizard, expressionless.
“Please,” the boy said. “I don’t think you’ve let me down yet. Please, just tell me how to get back to Earth.”
“There is no Earth,” said the old wizard. “There never was.”
“That… doesn’t seem very Hermione-ish,” the boy said slowly. “You wouldn’t have said that if you’d been Hermione.”
“So be it,” said the old wizard, and bowed low. “I will not speak of this again.”
The boy turned back to his mother. “Can I get you something?”
The woman’s face was unreadable. “Not yet.”
“Please,” said the boy. “I want to go home, I really do.”
“You won’t,” said the woman, “because you’re too young to fly now, and if you don’t want to, I won’t tell you. I don’t want you worrying about being disobedient to a witch who is older and wiser than you, and will make things harder if you try to be disobedient.”
The boy looked at her again.
And then he stood up, and turned to go out the door, and her hand reached out towards him, and the boy said no word, and his hands went on on their way.
“Tell me about your particular interests in scaring the children,” said Hermione.
“Really? Oh, I suppose I could mention my preference for things that squeak and squeal, or my particular attraction to spiders. Or those musky-smelling things.”
“Your initial interest in spider silk?”
“Yes.”
“Is it one of those things you’ve tried to avoid since you were a child?”
“Ah, not such a particular bone of contention then, is it? I mean, I was far too young to study at Hogwarts myself, if that’s a valid area of concern to mention.”
“I see. Well, I was just thinking, Hermione, that I could always tell when someone was running from a Death Eater, not to panic, just recognize the telltale scent. But I’d have to test it on myself before trying that one out. It might be wise to ask for the name of someone you know well before you test your senses for that kind of thing. And Hermione, you seem to be trying to do something about bullying, but who do you think is being bullied, and why?”
Hermione frowned. “Yeah, I know that!”
Harry leaned forward. “You’re probably right. So it’s up to you now, then, to tell us the purpose of this experiment. And that, Hermione, is a very complicated question to answer. Especially when it involves completely different activities, and some of them involve decidedly adult-looking adults. You’ve got to start with a core concept. Something you know. Tell us about that concept - not just the plan for telling it to the other Ravenclaws, but tell us what your idea is about what your concept is. Even in a very slightly more adult way. Tell us about the first time you understood something about what your concept is.”
Hermione stared blankly at Harry.
Harry nodded, and spoke softly. “One of my favorite stories is that of Frodo and Gollum. Frodo wandlessly stroked Gollum’s fur, and then the two of them made a deal. Frodo gave Gollum enough to eat, and Gollum was only supposed to have to speak to tell Frodo of his
Suppose I went into a room with a straw that is equally thick at both ends. You have an axiom that I don’t know. It might be “No-one who always eats 100,000 calories a day, even if they go on a diet, will ever be obese,” and so on.
I then put this straw on the floor and ask you to pick up the straw that is also at the same height as the straw on the floor, and sit on it. You do as I tell you and pick up the straw that is at the same height as the straw on the floor. You then put the straw on the floor, and sit down on the floor.
Under the cut are two more stories that GPT-2 774M told me early on in the finetuning process:
- an apparently dystopian but creepily vague one about the millennium-spanning career of a child militia called the “Purple Children”
- a futuristic fantasy (set sometime in the 2400s?) involving bickering wizards, biology class, and an aged tome entitled “Supertramp”
OpenAI released a bigger GPT-2 model again – the third one so far, the last step before the “full” one – and I’ve been dutifully finetuning it for @uploadedyudkowsky again.
So far it hasn’t learned much that’s distinctively Yudkowskian (which is expected, it needs a lot more training time), but the samples I’ve generated from it during training are still intermittently hilarious in the inimitable GPT-2 way. Here’s my favorite:
line of defense against asteroids. (a) Miri - a Star-Lord agent. (b) Crazy Dick - the Big Guy’s mentor/savior. © Baby Doom - the baby’s true father. (d) Jetfire - A Spacenaut rocket.
A few months later:
(A) A-Bomb - a powerful weapon invented by the Force. (b) Galactic Civil War - A galactic war which broke out due to the conflict between two major Star-Lords (who ended up having minor power struggles). © Happy Birthday Baby - the day the baby finally realized that its biological parents were not the Force’s agents, but the Force itself. (d) The Dark Two - two highly trained artists who are training a tiny boy, A-Bomb, who will go on to use the Force. (e) The Fallen - a Star-Lord who fell in love with a Star-Lord with great power.
A few months later:
(a) Star-Lord - a renegade member of the Dark Legion who turned against the rest of the Dark Legion when he realized that the rebellion was a rebel coup, not a planned betrayal of the Dark Legion.
A few months later:
(b) Violent Robot - a small robot created by Luke.
© Baby Doom - the baby’s true father.
A few months later:
(d) Jetfire - A Spacenaut rocket.
A few months later:
(a) The “Subtle Opposites” - a few minutes in a Dark City. (b) The mystery of
Mothership Zeta - a plot by Dark City leaders to use Mothership Zeta as a beacon.
© The original MS-13 - a group of street-level criminals that existed for a time after the collapse of organized crime.
A few months later:
(a) A whole lot of saying the word “Pond” aloud. (b) A lot of saying “Peekaboo!” © Releasing a bunch of coins from the computer.
(d) Robot Wars - the time when Luke, a Jedi Knight, became involved with the city’s resident robot warriors.
A few months later:
(a) Three-Edge Style - a complete and utter mismatch of people with the possible names and image styles for the three weapons in The Phantom Menace. (b) A reference to the Captain Kirk language. © The Adam-Sar-Ben Hyperbolic Language Theory.
A few months later:
(a) Dark Star - the distance between the moon and the center of the galaxy, approximately six light years. (b) Jetfire - A Spacenaut rocket. © Time-Travel - The Force itself, the past, the future, and an entire new universe with its own history.
A few months later:
(a) Where the Rangers Go - an explanation of how the Super Villains of the 1990’s got their powers, from their extensive training on a genetically-modified kangaroo named Supermutt. (b) The three evil Ninjas - the six Raza-gads (Reef of the Sea) of Ninja Crazy Dick, as seen in the movie Mask. © A Rad-Age invasion of Earth by the Elite Force Ninjas of the Clone Wars.
A few months later:
(a) Whatever Happened to the Taxies? - a failure to adequately explain the state of the Jedi in 2028. (b) The Sugar Daddies - an explanation of the disappearance of Sweetwater, a hero from the end of the Phantom Menace. © The Ghost Sisters - a war that went terribly wrong for the bounty hunters of the movie.
A few months later:
(a) Mind-Split - a psychology of synaptic disassembly in the brain. (b) A language of commands in the “singing voice” of Jedi Papa. © A line of defense against asteroids. (d) Miri - a Star-Lord agent. (e) Crazy Dick - the Big Guy’s mentor/savior.
A few months later:
(a) Galactic Civil War - A galactic war which broke out due to the conflict between two major Star-Lords (who ended up having minor power struggles). (b) Happy Birthday Baby - the day the baby finally realized that its biological parents were not the Force’s agents, but the Force itself. © The Dark Two - two highly trained artists who are training a tiny boy, A-Bomb, who will go on to use the Force. (d) Jetfire - A Spacenaut rocket.
A few months later:
(a) Alien Menace - An explanation of the plot in Revenge of the Sith
Most of the children in the neighbourhood #037 have black hair and brown or black clothing. Some also have nails or other sharp objects. I saw a pregnant woman with dyed hair and brightly colored clothes. She was knocking on doors as if it was a good quality of life matter, and trying to get people to stop by her place of work, the hospital, and even asking for volunteers.
And people lived in houses, with bookshelves which opened into private rooms, spacious living areas with couches and armchairs. In the main street of Karang, one of the main roads into town, there were souvenir stalls selling everything from pencils to novelty knives. You could buy a giant fake straw hat, a giant shirt with the Australian flag emblazoned on the chest. Bear hugs were a fashion item, not just a fashion statement. There were toy soldiers - tiny plastic moulds that looked like toy rocks until you tilted them and poked them with a ruler. Train sets decorated the walls.
A dome of intense white light surrounded the whole city, not the windows or the commercial areas, but a distance off, a thin thread of ultra-violet light. Only a few people had the option of high-powered projection screens, which was more than most people could manage, since the radicalgamers were already on their feet and jubilant.
Karagaragama was only sixty-two kilometres north of the city of Ipoh, on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
The capital, Ipoh, had a population of four million.
The population density was low, at around two people to one person, but it was still more than 120 miles² of dense un-Urbanified habitat. Most people now slept in city centres, the major towns packing them tightly into 90-minute flights. People here owned smart phones, had broadband connections, and generally had pretty much the same lifestyle as people in Island Asia: comfortable in their own skin, safely attached to a convenient email address, and spewing out language lessons every week.
This is what happens when you give smart computers, the sort of computer that can think for itself, to the right people.
The brightest names in AI were born in Singapore, and run a startup investing in data-mining algorithms there.
On Ipoh, a single mother of four children, their average IQ was 156, which put them in the rural middle class of their city. Most of the people in their village spoke a language of the sort usually associated with intellectuals, and most of them did suspect the mad scientist who had made the whole village wear a clown suit.
On the evening news, a 6-year-old boy strongly suggested that the whole island of Wulong be put under martial law.
And the next morning, martial law was lifted.
People slept in dorms, in one building on each floor, two adjacent dormitories on the third floor. With beds that could beunk and bunk beds on the bottom level for easy portability.
People slept in groups of eight, under one roof, in groups of six, over rooftops of nearby buildings.
It’s now been revealed that some teenagers used the Kill Bill as a crude joke.
In a new documentary, Memories Pizza, it’s revealed that in one village in Northern Ireland, children as young as nine used to take turns knocking over kittens to see who would get to kick them, because the local witches used to give them cat hairs as medicine.
According to the documentary, conducted by British filmmaker Michael Ruse, the local population was so convinced of the good qualities of the children that they put the cat hairs in cat food, hoping the cat-husks would promote growth.
Shape Created with Sketch. World news in pictures Show all 50 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. World news in pictures 1/50 30 September An Albanian man casts his vote at a polling station in the village of Zajas on September 30, 2018, for a referendum to re-name the country. - Macedonians cast ballots on September 30 on whether to re-name their country North Macedonia, a bid to settle a long-running row with Greece and unlock a border region’s Knot of Power. AFP/Getty 2/50 29 September Residents trying to salvage belongings from their homes which collapsed after an earthquake and tsunami hit Palu on Sulawesi island on September 29, 2018. - Nearly 400 people were killed when a powerful quake sent a tsunami barrelling into the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, officials said on September 29, as hospitals struggled to cope with hundreds of injured. There were no shelters prepared for refugees at the Palace of Parliament in the capital Jakarta. It was the first time since 2001 that no one had died of acute refugees in the building collapsed at Airlift.