This is how I feel about AI too. It's everywhere, it has consequences for human cognition... I'm struggling to see the upside. It may make some tasks easier for someone with the experience to do the task without it, but it shouldn't be used by people who haven't done the work without it, imo.
Just finished "Children of Strife" and it was a fantastic culmination of everything built up in the series so far. I came for the fun SF and stayed for the Pratchettesque humour and biting, anger-infused social commentary (with bonus punchy Stomatopod action). Thank you, @aptshadow.bsky.social .
P.S. you also stuck the ending.
@aptshadow.bsky.social - Children of Strife is fucking GREAT. I haven't quite finished it, but I'm racing eagerly towards the ending.
I don't know how you're going to top this one, but I'm looking forward to seeing you try.
Yeah, my assessment would be medium hard... Using cheese as a comparator, you're at the very mature cheddar level of hardness, maybe not quite parmesan. Most of the science reads plausible. I think slightly harder than the Expanse, even, because of what the protomolecule introduced in that series.
@aptshadow.bsky.social loving "Children of Strife", which feels a bit like a narrative Matrioshka doll. Been talking about hard vs soft SF with friends recently: where would you personally put Strife and the other books in this setting on that spectrum?
Yup, Foundry here, too.
Correction, it was Robert E Vardeman. In my defence, I did read these over 30 years ago. www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/produc...
Van Lustbader, typo. It was the War of Powers books.
I learned so much about sex and desire from Eric can Lustbader's books at the age of ten. I was a little confused about how the twin be-penised lizard guys worked, but eventually figured out how the over under arrangement would be employed! So educational!
Hell, it even has a mobile phone client!
At least SL is still going, being updated, and has a thriving community of users and creators along with a viable economy!
Humph. 26th March release date on UK Kobo!
I should think degrees of mis(information) are possible instead. "The bugbears seem confused by your 'offering' at first. Your first attack of the round gets advantage because they're bemused, but after that they just seem offended, and they keep trying to shove the bugs in your face."
Good choice! Several of those stories still live rent-free in my head. The one with the giants made of people, and The Body Politic are the two that spring to mind.
Was that the Community related video? I didn't notice that as being quite as negative as you did, but now you mention it... I was wondering if some Fate players may like a 'subtle' roll for some occasions, and I suggested maybe offering a subtle roll in exchange for a compel might work for some.
I try very hard to resist any phrasing with "Just" involved because it's usually dismissive by default and is almost always received negatively... and rightly so.
For me a null result is only desirable when multiple characters are rolling and I want to which of them succeeds/accepts a cost, because the characters will react in different ways.
I learned this lesson when Milo Yannopoulis was a thing, and I realised all I was doing by sharing his latest outrage was spreading it for him. All the offended people amplify his message and help it reach the small audience he's looking for.
The spelling of quay makes me angry. Why did we switch to the French word when we already had 'key' and it's pronounced 'key'? I have to correct my inner narration every time I read the word. Oh buoy.
Even setting all that aside, AI is rubbish at maintaining consistency over the long term, plotting, maintaining consistent characterisation. Preference upon reviewing short excerpts proves absolutely nothing.
Maybe there's also an element of drive time thinking resulting in a rant they want to get on from before it fades? I feel like alone time in the car is similar to shower time in giving time to think.
That's intriguing! I don't know what it is about my upbringing, but I very quickly get squicked by uncritical affirmation and it makes me switch off. I find Gemini isn't as bad for it in my interactions as other models, but as always you get wacky results the longer a specific conversation goes on.
... and got some Sinterklaas song, but I don't think this is the original source of that riff. "Gebroeders Ko Sinterklaas In Een Raket" youtu.be/kb0VwySfgmE (oh, content warning, Black Pete is on the front cover of that album).
This is driving me mad, can anyone tell me what the kid's song referenced or at least similar to the beginning of The Mountain by Gorillaz is? It's the bit that goes, "dah da dah, dah dah dah, dah dah da da da da dah, dah dah dah, dah dah dah, dah da dee dee dah dah dah". I hummed it into Google...
Oh, and you can also build card decks.
That would be pretty easy in Foundry with its tile and drawing tools,
An image of the Magic: The Gatherine Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Commander deck called "Turtle Power." It has a price tag of £62.99 and the illustration on the box is of the our TMNT brothers in a dramatic pose, each of them wielding their signature weapons. The box is lying on the back of a couch and has been opened.
@amazonchique.bsky.social This is your fault.
I love Nobilis second edition so much. The book is a work of art. My favourite experience in running it, though frustrating at the time, was dealing with a player who chose to be the Power of Nothing. Resolving what happened when he did a Greater Destruction of Nothing was pretty interesting.
Oops, should have read the comments...