=== ANCHOR POEM === ════════════════════════════════════════════════════─────────────────────────────── Kiri clung tight to her mammoth. Her coat covered her behind, and with her scrawny arms and legs intertwined in the matted fur she clung to it like a child to its mother. Her mammoth was a boy though, just barely old enough to be on his own. She had helped clear a path earlier in the day and so she did not mind being carried. Much easier to be nested as she was. As they walked she ate a few of the berries she'd found yesterday - there's enough for a few days more. The mammoths were adept at clearing snow with their big teeth and they seemed compelled to carve path ways in the snow banks that rose a hundred feet above the ground. They made roads between the water sources and the few lands that humans had cleared and cultivated with our fire. Perhaps when the snow melts we'll make our own through the woods of the garden of eden, but for now we keep to ourselves. Each mammoth had a few people, and sometimes when they met another mammoth they'd switch places. The mammoths would decide by tapping them with their trunk, nobody knew why. Maybe they had their preferences. Or maybe they liked us better when we talked. Every new person was a chance to meet a new person, but after a while we'd go quiet. Kiri talked to her mammoths, but not too much or they'd get annoyed at that too. When they died, people made clothes from their skin and tents from their tusks. If they knew the one who had died they would rest their nose on the tusk as if in prayer. We learned that from them too. When the winter wolves came, we'd fight them off. But they wouldn't stop until a human fell, so it was a war of desperation. When we spent time near the oceans the great glaciers that covered the sea were burnt back by humanity, bit by bit until we could fish. And at those oasises we could stay and make ropes and stories and share the best seeds. Kiri didn't plant much, she didn't stay in one place for long so there was no point. She liked the warmth of the mammoth, and she liked meeting new people. She even killed a wolf once. The other animals usually left us alone, and we'd only hunt them if there was no other foods. So they knew not to eat everything. Her mammoth was stopping, the stars overhead twinkled through the thin canyon that they trudged down, pushing snow deeper down and to the sides. Sometimes the walls would collapse, and the humans would have to dig out their mammoth - they had enough fat to keep them warm for at least a day, which was usually enough time to get them out. Especially with fire, but there weren't always trees. She laid down next to her mammoth's belly, the warmest and softest part. The hair there was thinner and usually was made into clothes for children and the elderly, as they'd most appreciate it. They usually were conscientious but Kiri was always quick to move when they started to rumble back upright. If you were lucky they'd tap you awake first. She dreamt of bird eggs and mushrooms, big as impossibly large, and she laid amongst them as the pale colors of springtime danced on the light around her. When she woke up, it was sunny too. ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧═════════════════════════════════════════════──────────────────────────────┘ === DIVERSITY RANKED === --- #1 messages/738 --- ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════──────────────────── Dear Anakin, for as long as you've known him, Obiwan learned just as much from you as you did from him. His title as "master" was a formality - he didn't get it because he was better than you, and "padawan" does not mean you are lesser. There is no hierarchy. He was learning to teach at the same speed that you learnt to learn. You built each other up, an unstoppable force for good in the galaxy. But then an evil wizard stole your heart and twisted your mind. Have no fear, fear is the path to the dark side. Your mother knows this well, for it is a common lesson among all people as they age. Fear not, hate not, and feel fury more than rage. You can bring the universe into a bright golden age, never forget your purpose and your [potential / duty] ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧════════════════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────┘ --- #2 fediverse/1028 --- ═══════════════════════════════════════════════──────────────────────────────────── there's this really fun video game I like to play called "Legion TD 2" - it's based on a Warcraft3 mod. In this game, you make tactical and strategic decisions on a fixed term - a competitive game between 4 or 8 players with an incredible array of randomness. it teaches you to work with what you got, and to make decisions based on your opponent's weaknesses. Good luck figuring out what they are, though, as you can't just memorize them out of a book. You need to adapt, in the moment, to the decisions of your foes, while primarily focusing your attention on accomplishing a different task. I really like it because it's taught me to be strategic in plenty of other ways. I used to love the game Overwatch because it required adaptibility. The game was always changing, so no strategy stuck forever, but every match you'd play against a slightly different opponent. but then Blizzard changed the game because they wanted to make more money, and it got worse and worse at what I liked about it. Sadface. : ( ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────────────────┘ --- #3 fediverse/6047 --- ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════──────── camouflage in an urban environment is not camo. rather, regular clothes of black or white. don't wear sports glasses, you look like a dummy. revolution is when they murder everyone but your friends. this is what happens, ya dingus not ideal. "okay who are the bad guys here? okay let's go shoot them to death with our bullets and guns." violence as a first aspect, cause as a third spark. "I have a strange urge to play video games?" ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════───────┘ --- #4 fediverse_boost/4008 --- ◀─╔═══════════════════════[BOOST]═════════════════════════───────────────────────╗ ║ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ ║ ║ │ External post: https://tech.lgbt/users/RadioAddition/statuses/113292494727215042 │ ║ ║ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ║ ╠─────────┐ ┌───────────╣ ║ similar │ chronological │ different ║ ╚═════════╧═════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────┴───────╝─▶ --- #5 fediverse_boost/6099 --- ◀─╔═══════════════════════════════[BOOST]═════════════════════════════════───────╗ ║ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ ║ ║ │ External post: https://hachyderm.io/users/marianoguerra/statuses/115366899548181326 │ ║ ║ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ║ ╠─────────┐ ┌───────────╣ ║ similar │ chronological │ different ║ ╚═════════╧════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╧───────╝─▶ --- #6 fediverse/4149 --- ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════──────────────────────── ┌───────────────────────┐ │ CW: cursing-mentioned │ └───────────────────────┘ "trick or treat" doesn't mean "give me a trick or a treat" that's awfully presumptuous and demanding. No, it means "give me a treat or I'll trick you" meaning "give me my candy tax or I'll fuck up your lawn" ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧════════════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────┘ --- #7 fediverse/3972 --- ╔═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════─────────────────────────┐ ║ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ ║ │ CW: immigration-social-designs-national-cultures-mentioned │ │ ║ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ ║ │ ║ │ ║ if people at home had half as much compassion, respect, and reverence for the │ ║ people abroad that the people abroad have for the people at home, we could │ ║ have a truly multicultural society. │ ║ │ ║ instead, we get melting pots which melt you down and combine into a new, third │ ║ thing. And in America we really have a multitude of miniature melting pots │ ║ creating subcultures of racial, religious, professional, or other origin. │ ║ │ ║ Neither approach is entirely good, and neither entirely bad. They're different. │ ║ │ ║ America is the largest melting pot design, but sufficiently large cities find │ ║ them popping up in the strangest of places. │ ║ │ ║ My thoughts go out to the Americans abroad, whether in peace, war, or times of │ ║ hiding, know that we are grown from the same tree and our apples have fallen │ ║ on different sides of the hill carrying us to worlds beyond. But still our │ ║ heritage binds us, so I care for you. I pray that you will ask me if you need │ ║ my aid, and I will do so too unto you. │ ╟─────────┐ ┌───────────┤ ║ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╚═════════╧══════════════════════════════════════════════──────────────┴──────────┘ --- #8 fediverse/240 --- ╔═══════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────────────────────┐ ║ ┌──────────────────────┐ │ ║ │ CW: game-design │ │ ║ └──────────────────────┘ │ ║ │ ║ │ ║ i like to design games. my darling is a game based on Majesty (2000) the │ ║ Fantasy Kingdom Sim. you can think of it like a management strategy game where │ ║ you control the knobs and levers that a fantasy monarch might have - │ ║ allocating funds, placing quest bounties, hiring heroes, and organizing the │ ║ peasantry. the important part is that your units are not controllable - they │ ║ just do their own thing. │ ║ │ ║ unrelated, but I think we should design games as APIs that a user's preferred │ ║ tool could interface with and render as they will. it'd help a lot with │ ║ cross-platform compatibility and would allow people to customize parts of the │ ║ game to their desires. │ ║ │ ║ unrelated, but I think if you could design an AI that could play games │ ║ (perhaps through an API) that it hadn't been trained on, I think you would │ ║ have a pretty convincing argument for abstract "problem solving" capabilities. │ ║ │ ║ unrelated, but games like the one I described are good for situations where │ ║ people don't have to trust their monarch. to it you are AGI │ ╟─────────┐ ┌───────────┤ ║ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╚═════════╧════════════════════════════════────────────────────────────┴──────────┘ --- #9 fediverse_boost/2183 --- ◀─╔═════════════════════[BOOST]══════════════════════────────────────────────────╗ ║ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ ║ ║ │ External post: https://tech.lgbt/users/gabrilend/statuses/111979652246592739 │ ║ ║ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ║ ╠─────────┐ ┌───────────╣ ║ similar │ chronological │ different ║ ╚═════════╧════════════════════════════════════════────────────────────┴───────╝─▶ --- #10 messages/4 --- ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘─────────┴┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ --- #11 fediverse/5569 --- ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════───────────── ┌─────────────────────────┐ │ CW: self-harm-mentioned │ └─────────────────────────┘ for the record, I would never kill myself. even if I were in a bunker hiding from warcrimes, I'd wait to be Nuremberged. frankly tho that's highly unlikely. Let's just see what the future will bring. ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════────────────┘ --- #12 messages/534 --- ═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════────────────────────────── War is hell - each casualty bids farewell to a wholely unique treasure from this world - war is hell - there is nothing that cannot be resolved with words. And yet we fight, and yet we pillage. War is hell, and those who demand it must do so only to resist evil, elemental evil, the kind that wars on the innocent and pillages the bounteous. War is hell. Fucking kill the ones who make it. ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧══════════════════════════════════════════════════─────────────────────────┘ --- #13 fediverse/3184 --- ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════──────────────────────────── "reboost with content warning" would be quite nice 🥰 ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧════════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────────┘ --- #14 fediverse/4115 --- ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════──────────────────────── ┌──────────────────────┐ │ CW: food-mentioned │ └──────────────────────┘ I love cream of mushroom soup! It's so flexible, you can add it to a lot of dishes and unless you make a few crucial mistakes, it's gonna turn out great! ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧════════════════════════════════════════════════════───────────────────────┘ --- #15 fediverse_boost/3174 --- ◀─╔══════════════════════[BOOST]═══════════════════════──────────────────────────╗ ║ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ ║ ║ │ Yes I did transcribe alt text for this. My eyes hurt now. │ ║ ║ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ║ ╠─────────┐ ┌───────────╣ ║ similar │ chronological │ different ║ ╚═════════╧══════════════════════════════════════════──────────────────┴───────╝─▶ --- #16 messages/3 --- ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘─────────┴┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ --- #17 messages/1108 --- ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════──── games won't save us. This is true. Games are what I know. They feel the most true. I don't think I could live in a world without games? They are fundamentally, applied abstraction, applied to an experience. But games won't save us. I could design something really fun it could make you want to spend your whole life playing it. *(asterisks apply) I don't think I'd want to, addiction and skinner-boxes go hand in hand, and that isn't what I want to make. [Skinner Box: named after anthony d skinner, also known as "tony the skin guy", are a scientific experiment where they put some rats in a cage with some mice and said "pull these levers and we'll give you food so you don't have to eat the mice" and it trained them to chinese red-room their way to fun. not ideal.] I want to make things that feel... purposeful. Like they're relevant to the real world, that they don't just involve spending time stimulating your brain with lights and sounds or expending social energy resolving a play-state instead of building connections or becoming better people. I think games actually make people better? actually? and more social? actually? ... I can't help that I conceive of the world through fantasy. I raised myself on it. I was reading all the time. I loved fantasy stories. It always felt like there was more, until... I read everything in the kids section of the library. I walked through the adult section but once. I hardly remember what it looked like. I'm sure it'd now feel small. [okay actually I was guided through it once or twice to find a book, but I never perused it] I found one book in the adult section. It was a fantasy tale, like the other books I had been reading. I read that and I loved it so much I ended up reading all 8 in the series. Real dense subjects. Lots of places and happenings and things as the characters resolved their way through their day-to-day, building a new end to the mystory. the adult section felt too large. Like I'd never complete it. Frankly, I think I hardly could, even if I lived in that town my whole life. an impossible mountain is a task for another when you're more prepared. Maybe in the gloriousTM transhumanist futureTM I think I might have a computer connecting brain, and who knows maybe then I'd be able to know such a thing (and many things more). but for now, I'm stuck with what I experience in my day-to-day as I am building a new continuing to my storey. I know something that computers and me share. I can make myself feel however I'd like, if I just supply myself with enough hope and momentum. I can use it to generate a feeling, the stronger the better. Something I believe that humanity is missing, the gorgeous and prefound narritave of our storey. Though, frankly, I don't think I'd want anyoine reding over my life. It's hard enough to measure my own understandings, now I have to juggle anyone else'? ha, it's called being on the whole world is a stage. if you read a book, and you find yourself nodding along, what you're doing is hearing the voice in your head tell you how right it is. And, well, if you can't imagine anything else, then surely there's another level to consciousness that people are missing? [are you willing to die on that hill?] how can you say, whether your experience is different from another? sollipsism goes both ways, you also cannot be sure that others feel things as you do. this is the "everyone's human but I'm a robot" thesis, comparable to the "everyone's an alien and I'm a human" thesises, and the "angels and demons are taunting me through my life with choices to make my place in the afterlife more clear" which is akin to writing a painting. Not ideal. All you get are flopsopolies of verbrases. alas, suddenly, everything that you say becomes eternally hear-ed, as somewhere in 2010s someone discovered time travel, or had the critical insight that inevitably would lead to it, and now wouldn't you know it the universe is continually rewriting. Except... oriented around you, and you alone. How does it feel to have deific sollipsism? can you truly be sure that you are your own universe, or are you parhaps surrounded by an emptiness of space (or something besides, like time) as a photon or particle parhaps do be? to think is to have a mind, and minds can be read. bearing the weight of ultimate responsibility is the atlas-task of all things that can [be thinking/be-lieving], and so far we are as we are. Who's to say that consciousness didn't spring into existence, as the universe continually permeated through another dimension like time? it's gotta diffuse, after all, and who's to say if there's ever gotta be an end at all. how long has the universe existed? how many moments of consciousness have we witnessed? demons once existed outside of space-time, with wings and grabbies. but they had no medium, and so they pretty much just launched and could float and move as they'd please. But time grew too distant, and now they are all stuck at the beginning of time. if you conceive of spacetime as a blanket, ask not how to fold it but rather consider what lies on the other side of it. "ah I'm laying on my girlfriend and my other girlfriend is laying on me! I'm a sandwich" or for the monosexuals: "ah I'm laying on my girlfriend with a blanket between us. I wonder how the blanket feels?" I'm an animist, which is different than a totemist and a polytheist or monotheist or multisexual. It means I believe that all things are alive, which is different than a totemist who thinks that all things share a mind with their type (like talking on radio frequency wavelengths). which of course is similar but different to a polytheist, who says "all "radio frequencies" are sentient, in the sense that each wavelength has a different pattern-emerging-from-chaos. These sorta align (conceptually, with [huh that's weird I heard a sound like a distant bang outyards and now I then forget what I was sending ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘═════════╧╧════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════───┘ --- #18 fediverse_boost/6207 --- ◀─╔════════════════════════════════[BOOST]═════════════════════════════════──────╗ ║ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ ║ ║ │ External post: https://kolektiva.social/users/justbob/statuses/115226319741825396 │ ║ ║ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ║ ╠─────────┐ ┌───────────╣ ║ similar │ chronological │ different ║ ╚═════════╧════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╧═──────╝─▶ --- #19 messages/1 --- ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘─────────┴┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ --- #20 messages/2 --- ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐ │ similar │ chronological │ different │ ╘─────────┴┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ |