The protagonist (player) moves through different areas (stages), grabs new gear or learns new skills along the way and fights scores of baddies and "bosses". The "game" doesn't have to be an explicit plot point like in 13 sins. It can be like rambo or phantom where it just feels that way.
I recently read Eugene Wigner's "The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences" which talks about abstract math innovations that proved to be very useful in the real world. The Fourier series was invented to solve a specific heat equation but went on to become the basis of all signal processing. George Boole invented boolean algebra in the 1840s. He intended it to be a mathematical formulation of pure logic with no engineering purpose whatsoever, and a century later it turned out to be the exact substrate computers run on. Non-Euclidean geometry sat around as a curiosity for decades before Einstein needed exactly that math for general relativity. Abstract algebra like group theory and ring theory were formulated in the 18th and 19th centuries only to be picked up centuries later by programmers to optimize code and design cryptographic systems.
Sci-fi tends to focus on nuts-and-bolts innovations like AI, robots and FTL spaceships but rarely is there discussion of innovations in our mental technology (like math). We tend to forget that math too is a work in progress. Look way back in history all the way to ancient times. How was technology transformed by the introduction of arabic numerals, the number zero and negative numbers? Then we got calculus and imaginary numbers which opened up new horizons entirely.
Right now there exist more mathematicians than ever before in human history. There's a high chance that in all that huge volume of academic works there is some arcane piece of math that is only a curiosity now but will be useful in the future.
Here are some of mine:
Patterns (1956): One of Rod Serling's more obscure works. Very intense and dialogue driven. Definitely watch it if you liked 12 angry men.
Dial 1119 (1950): I remember loving this movie. It's so simple in terms of premise but that's the whole charm. The film noir aesthetics are amazing.
Hatching (2022): A Finnish one. Best way I can describe it is folk horror but not quite horror. It's more like a fairytale that takes place in modern times.
Also two french ones I grew up with: Trouble at Timpetill (2008) and War of the Buttons (2011). It's been a long while since I last saw them so I don't know how well they hold up, but I remember finding them entertaining as a kid and I'm pretty nostalgic about them.
For me it has to be Escape from Tomorrow (2013). I'm a sucker for Lynch-adjascent stuff but what I liked about this in particular is the guerrilla filmmaking and the presence of real locations and brands, all of which grounded all the weirdness eerily close to reality (Murakami does something similar with his books. Real brands and mundane stuff alongside the surrealism, giving an uncanny feel).
Also Howard the Duck. Yes it's tacky but in the most 80s way possible. I love it.
I'm just tired of this cult of pessimism where if you don't agree that the future will look like mad max you are somehow naive or stupid. No. What's stupid is ignoring all positive trends (higher literacy, cheaper and better medicine, lower crime), then taking all negative trends and assuming they'll continue forever. It's just as simplistic an approach as living in the 1920s or the 2000s and assuming you'll keep getting richer forever. It's the same kind of extrapolation fallacy.
I feel like there is a kind of Pascal's wager of pessimism: If you are a pessimist and the future indeed turns out to be bleak then you are the wise, vindicated prophet, and there's a lot of glory in that of course. If you are a pessimist and nothing serious happens, no one really cares. You were just being careful. With optimists there is no glory when they are vindicated. We just assume they had dumb luck on their side. When they are wrong on the other hand they are painted as dumb sheeple who sleepwalked into a disaster.
Pessimists don't predict anything. They're just broken clocks who are right twice a day. When something bad happens they say "told you so". When it doesn't they say "it will happen". So the "prediction" boils down to "something bad will happen eventually" which in turn boils down to "history is not over and stuff will keep happening". Yeah, no kidding.
I also feel like there's a part of them that kinda wants society to collapse. They are bored of their 9-5 so they fantasize about living in fallout 4 and doing fun stuff.
I knew it had some connection to the balloon because they had the exact same color. I remember in some parts of my dream I would talk to it, telling it to help me and make the balloon stop chasing me. It would wobble in response but do nothing else besides that.
I'm 24M. I just feel like I become invisible in every environment I'm in. Doesn't matter if it's school, the gym or the bar. I always end up leaving these places without having interacted with anyone or even being noticed by anyone.
It looks like everyone is already in a big friend group and is not seeking to make new friends. Worse yet, the older I grow, these groups solidify and it's even harder to find a group of your own.
What do I do in situations like this? How to I approach strangers and become approachable (or at least noticeable without being showy)
I watched it this morning and I felt like I was hallucinating (it didn't help that I was hungover). It immediately feels like a unique episode because it takes place almost entirely in the lab and is not interrupted by any other story threads (Hank in the hospital, Hank's wife, Skyler, etc).
It starts off with Walter obsessively trying and failing to kill a fly over and over. It's so absurd it feels like a Samuel Beckett play. Pinkman is especially hilarious in this one too. Yet, despite how funny it all is, it builds up to one of the most heartfelt moments of the show (so far at least. I haven't watched the rest).
The writers really did something here.
I'm just tired of seeing this whole obsessive red/green flag neo-victorianism everywhere. Dude... Terrible people show green flags all the time both on purpose and by accident. Genuinely good people can show a hundred red flags if you scrutinize them long and hard enough. You are dealing with a complicated, multidimensional person. There's only so much you can learn about their inner world from surface signifiers. After a certain point you just have to trust them and they have to trust you. There's no getting around this. If can't handle that, romance isn't for you.
Idk, I just think lying in bed with fever is the coziest thing ever. Some of my best naps were fever naps. Fever causes your muscles to relax in a way they normally don't. It raises you body temperature making the environment feel cooler by comparison and that feels great under the blanket. I've also associated the feeling of fever with skipping school/work and eating comfort food which definitely enhances the feeling.
Also a second unpopular opinion: I like fever dreams. I like liminal spaces, horror and dream analysis, so they're right up my alley.
It all comes down to what you experience. All the money you earn is really there to buy you experiences directly or indirectly. You buy the necessities to go on living and experience more things. You buy a dishwasher to make time to experience things. You buy plane tickets to experience different places. Same thing with relationships. You make friends and get into relationships to make experiences together. In that sense, life is an art project. It's all about how it makes you feel.
This doesn't mean that life has to be always beautiful or always pleasant. Novels and plays need conflict, paintings need darkness around the light, music needs solemn periods. The important thing is to integrate that unpleasantness into your life in a way that makes it meaningful to the bigger picture. When we think of happiness we often have an artificial, picturesque view of it. We think happiness can only be found at a resort in the Bahamas, a better paying job or a mansion. And I'm not saying there is no happiness there. What I'm saying is that it can also be found in the most unlikely places. It could be a friend you made at the homeless shelter, a trip through the countryside in a shaky, run-down bus after your car broke down, a good book you found while at home feeling lonely or an exhausting night-shift where you got closer to a colleague you formerly couldn't stand. Personally, some of my best memories are from such periods where nothing was going according to plan and where I should (in theory) have felt miserable.
Life is an art project. We are both the artist and the beholder. Sadness and anger are just two more colors on our palette. The painting is still up to us.
I'll have to stay in another city for a few days. I rented an Airbnb but I'll have to leave one day early (it was booked by another tenant from that point on). I could rent a different airbnb for just one night but that would cost a lot. I'm really considering to sleep in my car. Is it safe? Do you get harassed by lunies at night?
Take ChatGPT which has been open to the public since 2022 and people have been using it as a kind of personal diary. Think of all the stories it has heard from users coming from all walks of life. All the random thoughts and details that people are normally too embarassed to share, all the insecurities, the failures, the triumphs, the complaints. Companies have these discussions saved in their databases. Now, imagine if we made a model large enough to process all that data and draw conclusions. It would probably end up with a better understanding of humanity than most people. It wouldn't be just intellectually smart, it would be street smart. It would be wise.
