Dear L, I would argue that the cognitive revolution is the most amazing thing that ever happened to the human species. The ability to abstractly reason and communicate about the real world meant it was an unprecedented evolutionary advantage over other species. And on that note, today we will celebrate the evolution and our minds. At least not in a conventional sense; We’ll talk a bit about surprising ways evolution has governed flora and fauna on this planet. We’ll also talk a bit about the onslaught of information & decisions and how we can try to deal with...
Dear L, I have been thinking a lot of software, how we write software, consume software and use it to augment our minds as people; The general approach, is fraught with danger and in worst cases, fatal. One flaw with creation of software is that the the largest chunk of complexity is abstracted away layers of arcane academia and mythical figures and collectives, from the professionals who are writing the software. But it's not all bad. Software is truly "eating the world", and most of it is for good. Let's talk a bit about all that today, and one Tom...
Dear L, Let's start this weekend with something that I found extremely confounding recently. A pattern made out of a handful of pieces that never repeats itself. The underlying mathematics is absolutely mind boggling and beautiful, although I don't have the faintest idea about how to bite into this little niche corner of mathematics formally, I just found the simplicity of this mathematical construct absolutely mesmerising. The Infinite Pattern That Never RepeatsThinking about mathematics and structures and computers, I remembered rockets and missiles, the stuff that pushed calculus and computers to it's limits for decades; I recalled reading about a...
Dear L, I was a reading quite a bit about Rilke, and the power of melancholy in our lives. Today, I wanted to slice and dice some surrounding aspects of melancholy. Mainly pessimism, despair, hope; From a video essay about music from the Canadian musical outfit "Godspeed You Black Emperor", to a review of a book named "We Germans". Between Pessism And HopeWhy is the hotel room a place of such lingering despair? - Suzanne Joinson | Aeon Essays A Former Soldier Tells His Grandson: 'I Wasn't a Nazi.' And to end on a lighter note, I wanted to draw...
Dear L, This week, it’s mostly a bit of a hodge podge of topics and thoughts. I’m guilty of being too preoccupied to keep the thoughts coherent this past week. But let’s start with a little philosophy of game design. After that, let’s move on to more current topics, some grave, some plain ironic. And a little short story to wrap up the week. We've Reached Peak Wellness. Most of It Is Nonsense. 'Like sending bees to war': the deadly truth behind your almond milk obsession "Flashlight" Best, A...