minor updates, about me page, new post

blog/about.md

@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+---
+title: About Me
+description: "osmarks"
+internal: true
+slug: me
+---
+
+::: epigraph attribution="Djoric"
+Reality does not bow to expectations. Expectations merely mask what is. This is what it is.
+:::
+
+I'm osmarks, also known as gollark in some places.
+I enjoy bending the world to my will and creating confusing and/or funny things through applied computer science and mathematics, among other things.
+You can contact me through [email](mailto:me@osmarks.net), <span class="hoverdefn" title="My username is 'gollark'">Discord</span>, <a href="https://apionet.gh0.pw/">IRC</a> sometimes, <span class="hoverdefn" title="please note that the monitoring sampling interval is 15 seconds">Morse code transmitted via HTTP request volumes</span>, carrier pigeon, or [ActivityPub (Mastodon)](https://b.osmarks.net/).
+
+## My work
+
+* [Meme Search Engine](https://github.com/osmarks/meme-search-engine), probably still the world's most powerful meme search engine due to lack of credible competitors. Now with automatic harvesting pipeline and [scoring model](/memethresher/)!
+* [4D Tic-Tac-Toe](/tictactoe4/), one of the somewhat difficult games in the world.
+* [Untitled Objection Series](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIoFMnkvRA5PggXaYGQ2QJPEH8LPDm5Dd), a metafictional work about decision theory, Solomonoff induction and `#off-topic`.
+* [osmarkscalculator](https://esolangs.org/wiki/Osmarkscalculator), an esolang and/or computer algebra system based on string rewriting.
+* [Advancing Consensus: Automated Persuasion Networks for Public Belief Enhancement](https://sigbovik.org/2024/proceedings.pdf#page=192), a groundbreaking work on large-scale opinion improvement. Won the SIGBOVIK 2024 award for "Most Frighteningly Like Real Research".
+* [This website](/), with its many esoteric capabilities and content.
+* [The infrastructure backing it](/srsapi/), which remains oddly reliable despite its considerable complexity.
+* [PotatOS](https://potatos.madefor.cc/), an advanced operating system for [ComputerCraft](https://tweaked.cc/) with a capability-based sandboxing model, powerful multitasking, reliable automatic updates and "Copilot" capabilities substantially predating Windows's.
+* [OnStat](https://status.osmarks.net/), a lightweight(ish) status page I use here.
+* [Minoteaur 8](https://github.com/osmarks/minoteaur-8), the world's most osmarks-designed, Minoteaur-like note-taking application.
+* [Project LIMINAL OCTOTHORPE](https://github.com/osmarks/liminal-octothorpe), a slightly functional AI agent implementation for internet-based forecasting.
+* [A lot of code](https://github.com/osmarks/misc/tree/master/computercraft) for miscellaneous control/monitoring/automation tasks in Minecraft.
+* [Many other short scripts](https://github.com/osmarks/misc/) accessible to the public.
+
+## Skills
+
+* Programming in all cool languages (Python, JavaScript somewhat resentfully, Rust, Lua, Nim, Haskell).
+* Programming in several uncool languages (C, Java), but only ironically.
+* Vague knowledge of contemporary machine learning frameworks and algorithms.
+* Expert knowledge of ComputerCraft (Minecraft mod).
+* Rapid prototyping (accursed hacks very fast).
+* (Arch) Linux (btw) systems administration.
+* Mechanical keyboard.
+* Causing inscrutable networking problems.
+* Bench press: 77.5kg (5RM).
+* Nigh-omniscient knowledge of and concern for English grammar.

blog/magic.md

@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+---
+title: Thoughts on fictional magic systems
+description: What exactly is "magic" anyway?
+slug: magic
+created: 12/05/2024
+---
+::: epigraph author=Unknown
+Arcane magical rituals work because they are adversarial inputs on AI controlling all of reality.
+:::
+
+I did allude to the fact that I intended to write this at some point, and now I have, as the world presumably benefits from me compiling my thoughts on this in one place, or something like that. Firstly, we all seem to know[^1] whether something is "technology" or "magic", but what rule do (or should) we use to judge this? I think there are a number of plausible candidates, and some less plausible ones:
+
+* Magic is things which you can't plausibly do in the real world: likely the first definition you think of, but also obviously wrong. There are plenty of science fiction works which make up [entirely different physical laws](https://www.gregegan.net/ORTHOGONAL/ORTHOGONAL.html) or do things which are not that realistic (Niven has partly-psionic spaceship navigation and [humans bred for luck](https://larryniven.fandom.com/wiki/Teela_Brown)). I don't know of fantasy which only has things modern technology can do or can nearly do, but it probably exists somewhere.
+* Magic is unpredictable in some way while "science"/technology is not: [not really](https://existentialcomics.com/comic/537)! [Some settings](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/25u9ej/good_examples_of_soft_magic/) have it work like this, but not all. Also, have you seen computers?
+* Magic is nonreductionist physical laws: this seemed closer, and I originally thought of it as a working definition. The real world's physics are, as far as anyone can tell, [annoyingly complicated](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_formulation_of_the_Standard_Model) differential equations with no reference to any of the simpler abstractions, like morality, minds, and macroscopic objects, we use. Magic systems make things we think of as simple, like "healing", "reading minds" or "shapeshifting", into easy primitive operations, where doing them on top of real physics requires many contingent details, conflating the map with the territory.
+    * 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".
+
+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".
+
+The way more or less every magic system, including "hard" ones, leaves its operations massively underspecified, provides some interesting worldbuilding opportunities. I initially thought of this while reading [a book](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/51279226) with a rune-based magic system in which the simplest spell is a "source-link", built out of three runes (~8 bits each[^3]) and yet with many degrees of freedom already filled in - it's targeted using some kind of raycasting (but subject to gravity), renders as a green line, and performs several operations dependent on what the user is thinking[^4]. However, the problem of where the details come from is applicable to almost everything and, I think, infrequently explicitly addressed[^5] ([Ra](https://qntm.org/ra) is significantly about this, and some obscure [HPMoR](https://hpmor.com/) authors' notes talk about it), and can be interesting. Here are some possible approaches:
+
+1. Spellcasters *do* have to specify almost everything (well, down to moderately complex physics), possibly making magic a way to internalize what would otherwise take lots of machinery. This is roughly the approach in [Ra](https://qntm.org/ra) and [The Machineries of Empire](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26118426-ninefox-gambit). Characters are legally required to offhandedly mention arbitrarily complex mathematics.
+2. The less you specify the more power is required, presumably to derive the remainder some other way. I haven't seen anything but [Break Them All](https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/break-them-all-original-precross.12960/) (an obscure unfinished prequel (?) to a fanfiction to a webserial) do this. This provides a fairly natural way to make magic users more powerful from study, and to make advance preparation useful.
+3. Magic works as either individual magic users expect (or want) it to or as everyone (in aggregate) expects it to. This is quite common, though my favourite implementation is the [Discworld](https://www.goodreads.com/series/40650-discworld) gods.
+4. At some level lots of specification is necessary but, [as in software](/assets/images/magic-system.png), this is abstracted in common use. The implications of this are quite close to 2, with the addition that things aren't possible at all until someone works out and shares the low-level techniques, making it more valuable, and the possibility that the underlying systems are lost knowledge.
+5. A controlling intelligence resolves the details as required. This implies that someone built it, and possibly that it can be negotiated with or tricked.
+6. There are many, many effects which are possible, assigned through something random like a hash function, and people only know of/care about/use a small fraction of them. This does still preclude complex effects like healing unless there is also something biasing them toward being useful. [HPMoR](https://www.facebook.com/509414227/posts/10157671264984228/) does something like this and this is (kind of) the [Unsong](https://unsongbook.com/) magic system.
+7. Simulationism - the universe is simulated using high-level approximations, and there's some unintended behaviour in edge cases because it was poorly programmed. Admittedly, this is kind of boring as a solution to anything.
+
+Another somewhat related axis along which magic systems can vary is the ease of replicating a spell once it has been done, which has important economic consequences. At one extreme, once it has been discovered, anyone can cheaply use it (quite like software), and at the other, any new deployment requires large amounts of bespoke work (like traditional construction). Most works seem to make it like deep learning models or general consumer products - there are big initial R&D costs, and nontrivial but relatively small unit/deployment costs.
+
+This is more of a set of somewhat linked ramblings than a cohesive post like I usually try to do, and as such I reserve the right to update it at random, more so than the other ones.
+
+[^1]: Again, in fiction. Real-world magic is just people being wrong and/or exploits of human psychology.
+
+[^2]: Imagine trying to explain to someone from the distant past that you have a box in your hand which can speak with and see people across the world, which works by pretending words, pictures and sounds are numbers, doing several billion pieces of simple maths per second, and writing the numbers onto invisible light seen by a network of constantly-watching towers. For it to work, special patterns much smaller than the eye can see have to be written into rocks. Only about five places in the world can do this. But it's not magic.
+
+[^3]: Possibly a few extra for position.
+
+[^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.

blog/minoteaur.md

@@ -4,8 +4,8 @@ description: The history of the feared note-taking application.
 created: 06/06/2023
 updated: 28/08/2023
 ---
-::: epigraph attribution="Xe Iaso" link=https://xeiaso.net/blog/GraphicalEmoji/
+::: epigraph attribution=@visakanv link=https://twitter.com/visakanv/status/1775741429392039946
-This code is free as in mattress. If you decide to use it, it's your problem.
+The goal is to have smart walkable high-density mixed-use note systems.
 :::
 
 If you've talked to me, you've probably heard of Minoteaur.

blog/other-stuff.md

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 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.
 created: 11/06/2020
-updated: 22/03/2024
+updated: 11/05/2024
 slug: otherstuff
 ---
 I'm excluding music from this because music preferences seem to be even more varied between the people I interact with than other stuff.
@@ -70,6 +70,9 @@ Obviously this is just stuff *I* like; you might not like it, which isn't really
 * [The Lost Books of the Odyssey](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2199365.The_Lost_Books_of_the_Odyssey) - same author as Void Star so my notes about the prose apply. An interesting take on the mythology and at times even rather funny.
 * [Accelerando](https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelerando/accelerando.html) - the best fictional depiction of the posthuman technocapital singularity I'm aware of.
 * [The Quantum Thief](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7562764-the-quantum-thief) - moved out of my infinitely long queue to actually be read on recommendation from [Gwern](https://gwern.net/review/quantum-thief), it's very good. The cool kind of hard scifi which almost never explains itself but which is nevertheless (as far as I can tell) constantly scientifically correct.
+* [Systema Delenda Est](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/83315/systema-delenda-est) - hard-SF deconstruction of LitRPG (suddenly switching the world over to [magic](/magic/) and "only the strong survive" is actually bad).
+* [House of Suns](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1126719.House_of_Suns) - I actually read this some time ago and forgot to move it to the mainlist. I have not read much else of Alastair Reynolds' work, but this was a great standalone work which explores the (some possible) consequences of sublight-only colonization. I liked the prose.
+  * "house of suns is really very good, you should read" - baidicoot/Aidan, creator of the world-renowned [Emu War](/emu-war) game
 
 Special mentions (i.e. "I haven't gotten around to reading these but they are well-reviewed and sound interesting") to:
 * [Children of Time](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25499718-children-of-time) by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
@@ -78,8 +81,6 @@ Special mentions (i.e. "I haven't gotten around to reading these but they are we
 * [Digitesque](https://www.goodreads.com/series/183319-digitesque) by Guerric Haché.
 * [This Is How You Lose The Time War](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43352954-this-is-how-you-lose-the-time-war) by Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone.
 * [The Books of Babel](https://www.goodreads.com/series/127130-the-books-of-babel) by Josiah Bancroft.
-* [House of Suns](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1126719.House_of_Suns) by Alastair Reynolds.
-  * "house of suns is really very good, you should read" - baidicoot/Aidan, creator of the world-renowned [Emu War](/emu-war) game
 * [Singularity Sky](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/81992.Singularity_Sky) by Charlie Stross.
 * [Zones of Thought](https://www.goodreads.com/series/52585-zones-of-thought) by Vernor Vinge.
 * [Cradle](https://www.goodreads.com/series/192821-cradle) by Will Wight.

blog/stop-making-chatbots.md

@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ There's also the issue of predictability: a good interface agrees with the user'
 
 Think about what workflows your users need and how you can serve them with a well-scoped UI rather than pretending to handle every possible input[^5]. Make your interface feel like a predictable, trustworthy tool rather than someone you might delegate work to, unless it actually can have work reasonably delegated to it. A really good tool should do what you mean, anticipating your desires and needs[^4], and AI can help with this, mostly in unflashy but helpful ways - the primary uses being good semantic search and recommender systems. Something like a documentation website should just have good organization and helpful search, maybe with an inline summarizer; forms can just be forms, maybe with AI (or regexes) to point out possibly erroneous inputs; a dashboard should present the most important information upfront and any recent changes or anomalies rather than requiring a dialog tree. In general, subtle uses of AI in areas it's competent are better than trying and failing to emulate a human.
 
-[^1]: My thoughts on fictional magic systems are to be made available here later.
+[^1]: My thoughts on fictional magic systems are ~~to be made available here later~~ [now extant](/magic/).
 
 [^2]: I don't really know why this is the case, but it's probably for the best.
 

templates/layout.pug

@@ -36,8 +36,8 @@ html(lang="en")
                 a.logocont(href="/")
                     img.logo(src="/assets/images/logo256.png", alt="osmarks.net logo")
                     .logotext osmarks
+                +nav-item(`/me/`, "About Me")
                 +nav-item(`https://mse.${domain}/`, "Meme Search")
-                +nav-item(`https://i.${domain}/`, "Images")
                 +nav-item("https://github.com/osmarks/website", "Contribute")
                 +nav-item(`https://b.${domain}`, "Microblog")
                 +nav-item(`https://status.${domain}`, "Status")