Technofeudalism - what it is and some ways we might deal with it - Yannis Varoufakis on The Majority Report 10-4-24
Comparative figures on civilian to military casualties in war - ACOUP
Peakrill Press trying to play a TTRPG with an AI, 2023
Cory Doctorow essay on the overhype of Ai (ChatGPT etc). Stochastic parrots
Brilliant ACOUP essay on ChatGPT, on what it is and what it's not
Interesting blog post on AI image creation
Patrick Stewart's great satirical post on the hmm... corpo-cultural moment, the fake-woke, rented zeitgeist
DALL-E 2, incredible Open AI image generation - video
"We are going to have to find a positive role for high-functioning psychopaths, the same way we are going to need a better solution more humane solution for low-functioning mentally ill and indigent." From consistently great RPG blog Hacknslash On the Coming Life
Joint Statement of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China on the International Relations Entering a New Era and the Global Sustainable Development
What are YOU willing to sacrifice for the truth? Nobel Peace Prize 2021 acceptance speech
Quality article by Vicky Osterwell from 2019 on Game Industry work practices and Game & Capitalism in general
Great Unmitigated Pedantry piece explaining why Afghanistan is not the 'graveyard of empires' as is frequently cited as the West abandons it right now (03-09-21)
Daniel Shmachtenberger's website "How do we create a world that is antifragile factoring increasingly decentralized exponential technologies" plus his current 5 year project website
Yuval Noah Harari piece in the FT on lessons of the Covid pandemic
Great essay on Star Wars by Tegan O'Neil which I discovered via the Kieron Gillen interview in Wyrd Science Magazine
Substantial New Yorker piece on the Storming of Capitol Hill from a journalist who was there
Brilliant essay (Medium) on QAnon from an ARG game designer's POV
A Guadian piece on the decisive use of drones in the recent Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict
NYT piece on Steve Bannon & Covid Chinese Conspiracy theory
Spot on critical piece on Ready Player One by Laura Hudson in the Verge
George Monbiot piece in the Guardian on Serco using unqualified people for the UK test & trace system
in-depth Atlantic article on China's surveillance state - the article doesn't seem to have any issues with American snooping tho
Economist article about Taiwan's digital democracy
Interview with Tristan Harris on Rebel Wisdom 'Can Truth Survive Big Tech'
The first interview i watched with Joscha Bach - watched a lot more since, tech & philosophy, artificial consciousness, the brilliant doom of now...
Daniel Schmachtenberger on The Portal. From the blurb "Daniel is seen as a leader of the growing Game B subculture of the human potential movement."
Good if long piece on Covid & Capitalism from Open Democracy (specifically Anthony Barnett )
Inspiring and demanding discussion between Joscha Bach & Lex Fridman Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality
Very long in depth piece on the Boogaloo Bois - right wing meme/org around Civil War 2 - also note the site/journalist specializes in online investigations
MIT Tech Review piece that was focus of the 12 Monkeys conspiracy vid about the virus - We're Not Going Back to Normal
Harari in the Financial Times on potential longterm impacts of Corona virus
Dominic Cummings Job Vacancy blog post - contains fascinating list of what he's looking for candidates to have read
Marke Blyth talk on Where we are and how we got here - the politics & economics
Article about the Guardian's castration at the hands of the UK intelligence services
Great talk by Jon Ingold of Inkle on creating quality interactive dialogue
Brilliant and HUGE essay by @FilmCritHULK on Red Dead Redemption 2 & its percieved failings
Beautiful, rich and deep essay (Guardian 20-04-19) by Robert Macfarlane (loved his book Landmarks) on eve of the publication of his new book Underland (get as soon as out in paperback)
Exiting the Vampire Castle - controversial (on the left) Mark Fisher essay from 2013 attacking, well identity politics devoid of class consciousness.
Fascinating (and fairly old - 2007) article in the LRB on Blackwater, well actually a review of a book about Blackwater
The Trouble with Facebook - Roger McNamee on the Sam Harris podcast 27-03-19
Vice article on governments dangerous failure to understand the internet and internet culture
Full speech transcript of Sir Ivan Rogers on Brexit (13-12-18) he was the UK's former representative to the EU
Great Moorcock interview in The New Statesman on the eve of The Whispering Storm being published 'I think Tolkien was a crypto-fascist' :)
Medium piece on the emerging market in Blockchain Art
Brilliant piece in Rolling Stone from 2000 by David Foster Wallace - him on the campaign trail with John McCain in his failed run for the Republican nomination against Bush
article on how algorithms are likey to promote posts that undermine the (legacy) 'media'
Comprehensive article on the politics of Silicon Valley past and present by @stevenbjohnson
Quality (unrolled) Twitter thread courtesy of @ArshyMann on the manosphere/alt-right, a concise description complete withuseful links
Paul Mason's reaction to the Cambridge Analytica story, break up facebook and create a state owned data register: Here’s how it would work: every citizen has the option of creating a contract with a centralised authority to hand over their behavioural data. The contract would be revocable at any time. The infrastructure for the exchange of data could be publicly owned – it would have to be completely under public control in any case, like the railway tracks in the half-privatised British railway system.
Brilliant article on globalism & the end of the nation state, full of historical insight - not hearing this angle nearly enough. Rana Dasgupta in The Guardian Longread. There is no reason to heed those interested parties who tell us global financial regulation is impossible: it is technologically trivial compared to the astonishing systems those same parties have already built.
in-depth Guardian article about Cambridge Anaytica and its wunderkind who built the beast then spilled the beans, Chris Wylie
Reality Apathy. as Ovadya observes, anyone could make it “appear as if anything has happened, regardless of whether or not it did.” Good and terrifying piece on Buzzfeed about the 'Infopocalypse' as Aviv Ovadya has it.
Comprehensive article on the information warfare of #releasethememo: the problem with the term “fake news” is that it is completely wrong, denoting a passive intention. What is happening on social media is very real; it is not passive; and it is information warfare.
Long, brilliantly written article on Trump's family and background, by Sidney Blumenthal in LRB
Big excerpt from Michale Wolff's book on the first year of the Trump administartion from the inside
Ian Robertson & my brothers short movie The Phonebox
Straight from the Nightmare's mouth (video): Cambridge Analytica: Keynote d3con 2017
The rabbit I followed down the dirty hole of the Alt-right (Medium essay by kantbot)
Fascinating, horrific and in-depth article on North Korea in the New Yorker. "Kim also sought to convey an ease with brutality,"... "Some were killed by flamethrowers; others were shot by anti-aircraft guns before outdoor audiences."
Brilliant TED talk by Zeynep Tufecki on the real dangers of AI combined with social media
Another great article by Carole Cadwalladr on Brexit skullduggery, this time focusing on Dom Cummings: In Cummings’s view, a political system is the same as any other complex system, subject to non-linear outcomes in which some relatively trivial event can cast a huge shadow. An event that sets off a cascade of “branching histories”. The country takes one course when it could have taken another.
China - where Black Mirror is 5 mins away - big Wired article on their Social Credit System which is due to turn mandatory in 2020
Big Buzzfeed article built from leaked Breitbart emails between Bannon & Milo
Interesting article about the 2017 German election & German history (the fact that the east/west split long predate Soviet occupation)
Facebook & the balkanization of the Internet NYT article
'The information war is real, and we’re losing it' article about a study into the flooding of social media with fals flag allegations after tragedies such as Sandyhook etc
Brilliant and harrowing article on Nazi & Communist atrocities getting to the bottom of the figures, showing that contrary to popular belief Hitler was responsible for about twice as many non-combatant deaths as Stalin
In-depth article on Robert Mercer, Trump, Bannon, Brexit and the big scary link - voting manipulation by Cambridge Analytica
Goebbells speech on Radio and the way the Nazis intend to use it. From the opening of a radio exhibition 18th August 1933. Found this due to someone tweeting comparison with Trump saying wiout social media he would never have got his message out.
Amazing gallery of the miniatures created for Bladerunner
Excellent in depth LRB article about Facebook
Brilliant in depth article on 4Chan's role in the rise of Trump & the Alt-Right
Jared Lanier talk at Microsoft covering micro transactions as opposed to the open source movement and the need for a middle class
“We have profiled the personality of every adult in the United States of America—220 million people,” In depth article on the way specific psychmetrics (big data) were used to win Brexit & Trump
Richard Stallman (creator of GNU) talk on digital inclusion, privacy & open source from 201. Note the intro in french lasts a couple of mins (start at 2:34)
Fascinating TED talk by Don Tapscott on the revolutionary potential of blockchain
A short film written by a neural net
Amazing interview with Elon Musk from Code Conference 2016 - from will need to develop 'high bandwidth interface with our digital selves' in order not to become house cats kept by AIs, to 'a one in billion chance that this is base reality' and his thoughts on Martian Democracy
Games Pieces
Greate medium piece by Paul Kilduff-Taylor on 'The 10 secrets of Indies Success' contains loads of useful links to other good advice on marketing etc
Brilliant GDC talk on game design given by Mark Rosewater of WotC - 20 years, 20 lessons.
The original pitch for Diablo (1994)
Live streamed Speedrun of Dishonoured completed with ghost & no kills achievements, completed in 49 minutes!
Fascinating set of 'Lectures' given by Warren Spector & friends on game design given at the University of Austen - this is a link to the first one.
Postcards from Home - Spanish photographer Roc Herms book on PlayStation Home
Great Kill Screen article on The Order:1886
Fascinating if pretentious article about MMO apocalypses in The Atlantic
Eurogamer article on crowd scourced Ai & the future of open world games
Interesting article ostensibly on game AI but maybe more interesting on games using procedural generated terrain etc - other uses horsepower can be applied to in games due to gfx cards getting that much faster
Kotaku piece on Preserve Gaming History's Video about BC
Big article on Magic Leap
Ready Citizen One - 'China's plan to give every citizen a character score'
Guardian article on 'how we made GTA'
Justin Roiland's adventures to come in VR
Jesse Schell on Mines of Minos - depth and meaning in simple gameplay
Brilliant web based multiplayer music software
Polyglot project (@PolyglotGamedev) - spreadsheet of common loc for games (google docs)
Recent (2015) Interview with Chris Crawford in RPS
Brilliant Will Wright lecture on Game Design from 2003
Gamasutra article on the Enemy AI in Uncharted 2
Interesting Gamasutra blog on designing social games
Substantial Kotaku article on PlayStation Home
Good Gamasutra piece on 4 Step Puzzle Design
Liz England's inspiring blogpost on game design expressed as 'The Door Problem'
Odd Reddit art/game/social project
The closing statement from the developers of the intriguing sounding MMO Glitch
Good article on Glitch MMO
Oscar Clark on the creation of PlayStation Home
Interview with Jack Buser before the launch of PlayStation Home
A paper on the implementation of PBR in ReadyAtDawn's The Order
Dying Light promotional zombie model being 3d printed and painted (video)
The Secret Douglas Adams RPG That People Have Been Playing for 15 Years (Kotaku)
5 Elderly people play and react to GTA
Seven Stories About Love (Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
When we talk about games we very often try to divorce them from the personal context – we try to say how little cultural impact they have on us, that they don’t really ‘affect’ us, or that they cannot really teach us anything about relating to other people, for fear that someone will pop up and say ‘yes and that is why video games cause violence’. But I don’t think of games as being causation, but more like another life system we fit ourselves into, to play around with the parts of ourselves, to see how we fit into things, adapt to things, and learn from our mistakes. They do affect us, because they can change our frame of mind however briefly, challenge our ideas, improve our bonds with others. I think that’s the best use of games: to strengthen and explore our relationships with others.
