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Code Issues Releases Wiki Activity

Minor updates, prototype internal search mechanism

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osmarks
2024-08-31 18:36:07 +01:00
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4
blog/about.md
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@@ -39,9 +39,9 @@ You can contact me through [email](mailto:me@osmarks.net), <span class="hoverdef
* (Arch) Linux (btw) systems administration.
* Mechanical keyboard.
* Causing inscrutable networking problems.
* Bench press: 77.5kg (5RM).
* Bench press: 85kg (4RM).
* Nigh-omniscient knowledge of and concern for English grammar.
::: buttons
:::
:::

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blog/magic.md
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@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ I did allude to the fact that I intended to write this at some point, and now I
* This doesn't work either, as the actual explanation for everything is just "the author says so" (or, in games, "the code says so"). In-universe, unless an author really likes infodumps, you may not find out either way[^2].
* Magic is power centred in people (or individuals/life in general) rather than infrastructure - fictional casters can typically do a lot from their knowledge/skills/levels/etc and easily available "mana" (maybe with a few material components), while in real life I require lots of tools (my computers, 3D printer, knife, ominously specific computer-adjacent equipment, etc) and external runtime dependencies (electricity and internet connectivity).
* This is explicitly discussed in [Mage Errant](https://www.goodreads.com/series/252085-mage-errant) as causing weird sociopolitical situations if you actually run through the consequences.
* It seems to consistently hold - I can think of some partial counterexamples, but they still pretty heavily confer power on individuals. Even in [Minecraft](/assets/images/botania-tech-mod.png), "magic mods" tend to contain more powers and equipment for the player than "tech mods".
* It seems to consistently hold - I can think of some partial counterexamples, but they still pretty heavily confer power on individuals. Even in [Minecraft](/assets/images/botania-tech-mod.png), "magic mods" tend to contain more powers and equipment for the player than "tech mods"[^6].
Now that I've forced you to read those paragraphs, my real position is that "magic" is a fuzzy aesthetic concept related to all of these things to varying degrees: for any "technology" I can think of, I can adjust some surface details and/or backstory to make it "magic", and vice versa. At some level, people generally don't like the way science, technology and the real world work, since our default ontologies aren't built for them, and we have some standard ways to imply "I'm ignoring these in favour something I like more".
@@ -42,4 +42,6 @@ This is more of a set of somewhat linked ramblings than a cohesive post like I u
[^4]: This is actually not a great example: it's not as complicated as some other "simple" things in other fiction, and the spell-complexity issue is explicitly called out later in reference to a cleaning spell.
[^5]: I think this is because authors frequently study English and not ~~a real subject~~ sciences.
[^5]: I think this is because authors frequently study English and not ~~a real subject~~ sciences.
[^6]: See also [this essay](https://genetyx8.github.io/flat-square-torus/2021/07/09/magic-mods.html).

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blog/other-stuff.md
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@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
---
title: Other things you may like
description: A nonexhaustive list of... content/media... which I like and which you may also be interested in as a visitor of my site.
description: A nonexhaustive list of media which I like and which you may also be interested in as a visitor of my site.
created: 11/06/2020
updated: 15/07/2024
slug: otherstuff
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ Obviously this is just stuff *I* like; you might not like it, which isn't really
* [A Hero's War](https://fictionpress.com/s/3238329/1/A-Hero-s-War) - bootstrapping industrialization in a setting with magic. Unfortunately, unfinished and seems likely to remain that way.
* [Snow Crash](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40651883-snow-crash) - a fun action story even though I don't take the tangents into Sumerian mythology (?) very seriously.
* Since this list was written, I think it became notorious for introducing the "metaverse" as pushed by Facebook now. This is very silly. Everyone who is paying attention knows that the real metaverse is Roblox.
* [Limitless](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limitless_(TV_series)) (the movie is also decent) - actually among the least bad depictions of superhuman intelligence I've seen in media, and generally funny.
* [Limitless](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limitless_(TV_series)) (the movie is also decent) - among the less bad depictions of superhuman intelligence I've seen in media, and generally funny.
* [Pantheon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheon_(TV_series)) - ~~unfortunately cancelled and pulled from streaming (for tax purposes somehow?) and thus hard to watch,~~ apparently uncancelled and hosted by Amazon now?! Still hard to watch. One of about three TV series I've seen on the subject of brain uploads, and I think the smartest, not that this is a very high bar since it's frequently quite silly (they repeatedly talk about how uploads are just data which can be copied, and then forget this every time it would be useful). Some day I want my own ominous giant cube of servers in Norway.
* [Mark of the Fool](https://www.goodreads.com/series/346305-mark-of-the-fool) - somewhat standardly D&D-like world, but the characters are well-written and take reasonable decisions.
* [Nice Dragons Finish Last](https://www.goodreads.com/series/128485-heartstrikers) - enjoyable urban fantasy.
@@ -102,4 +102,4 @@ You can suggest other possibly-good stuff in the comments and I may add it to an
[^2]: <div><blockquote>Think of normal spacetime, said the author/illustrator, as a hypersurface. Each point on that surface had a tangent space associated with it. The tangent space could be considered a linearization of the area around the point, with extraneous information knifed away. Anyone stuck in the region of a threshold winnower’s effect was painfully affected by the linearization.</blockquote>That is not at all how that works. Also some parts on cryptography. I can only assume reviewers generally ignored this because they studied English.</div>
[^3]: I think [DeepMind's](https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/capture-the-flag-the-emergence-of-complex-cooperative-agents/) [agents](https://danijar.com/project/dreamerv3/) [work](https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/alphastar-mastering-the-real-time-strategy-game-starcraft-ii/) is more than sufficient to build massively superhuman space pilot/combat automation without further fundamental advances or faster computers.
[^3]: I think [DeepMind's](https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/capture-the-flag-the-emergence-of-complex-cooperative-agents/) [agents](https://danijar.com/project/dreamerv3/) [work](https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/alphastar-mastering-the-real-time-strategy-game-starcraft-ii/) is more than sufficient to build massively superhuman space pilot/combat automation without further fundamental advances or faster computers.