The world is ending but here's a side quest - will RPGs ever solve their urgency problem?
DdCno1 @ DdCno1 @beehaw.org Posts 39Comments 963Joined 2 yr. ago
DdCno1 @ DdCno1 @beehaw.org
Posts
39
Comments
963
Joined
2 yr. ago
So in other words, it was a Tuesday.
Are you DMing online or in the real world? I got to play a single campaign (well part of one) of Traveller until the DM didn't have time for us anymore (because he was getting back into his actual job of being a military officer - go figure) and to say that I enjoyed it immensely was an understatement. I had a great time both learning how these games work and trying to find the limits of what's possible. I'd love to do this again sometime.
America didn't invent racial discrimination.
I get the feeling that you're cheating a little with this one. I mentioned it, because it exists in every economic system. "Supercharged by capitalism" is a cop out to preserve your hypothesis.
They defeated the Nazis, because 1) it's a huge land and the Nazis were stupid to underestimate its size and 2) because they got help of every kind from their Western allies, without which they would have not lasted a year. Don't get me wrong, some clever generals and industrial planners that were given more or less free reign by Stalin (provided he would be allowed to take credit) certainly contributed, as did millions of ordinary people who were caught between a rock and a hard place, but it was despite the system, not because of it; keep in mind that Stalin's purges did not stop in 1941 for example and continued on until his death. Here's a list of just American help (Britain and Canada also contributed):
- 400,000 jeeps & trucks
- 14,000 airplanes
- 8,000 tractors
- 13,000 tanks
- 1.5 million blankets
- 15 million pairs of army boots
- 107,000 tons of cotton
- 2.7 million tons of petrol products
- 4.5 million tons of food
Food is an interesting topic of its own. Spam (the canned meat) was such a vital ration for Soviet soldiers that they affectionately referred to it as the "second front". So much of this stuff was shipped over that it's still being found all over the territory of the former Soviet Union every once in a while.
When the Soviets launched the first human into space, it was primarily because they snatched up more German scientists than everyone else taken together (because Nazi Germany was irrationally pumping more money into the V programs relative to their economy than the US invested into the atomic bomb - the winners of WW2 reaped the benefits of that gamble) and were far more reckless with human lives than the Americans. Not that they ever admitted as much - unlike for example the US, which just made the likes of von Braun Americans and gladly ignored their war crimes (the Soviets only did the latter with people they needed). The post-war recovery and ascend to superpower status would not have been possible without forced labor, both from their own people, ordinary people they abducted and worked to death, as well as the aforementioned highly qualified experts (that they also abducted). They didn't just catch rocket scientists, but experts in every field, dismantled entire factories and research complexes in the parts of Germany they had under control, rebuilding them brick by brick in their secret cities that still exist to this day. There were certainly bright minds using these human and other resources well, but they were always hampered by the Soviet system, its bureaucracy, irrationality, wastefulness and blatant disregard for even the most basic human decency. Some of the most brilliant Soviet scientists and engineers were forced to work in the Gulag for years, squandering their potential.
Any successes certainly weren't due to the economic or political system, but despite of it, because the moment the short-term benefits from forced labor started to dry up, the descent into stagnation began. If this system was so brilliant, why did it never produce any results past the initial mass mobilization, conquering, theft and exploitation phase? Every single Communist nation went through this: Rapid growth industrial revolution style (with all of the same trappings as 19th century Britain, from smoke-filled cities to child labor), followed by the surprising realization that you cannot brute force progress in an autocratic system forever, because it's ideas that are ultimately worth the most - and ideas, independent thinking are dangerous, comrade. We cannot allow that! The party is always right, after all.
If you're thinking I'm exaggerating with that last sentence, putting on a bad Hollywood parody of those noble Communists, I'll remind you that the East German communist party's official hymn had these exact lyrics.
Do you think you're getting anything close to reality from TikTok?
Okay, I'll bite: Racial discrimination.
Maybe - or maybe it's too late now. The whole thing looks like the biggest tech bubble since the dotcom bubble to me, but I'm notorious for my skepticism, so don't listen to me. I've been wrong in the past, like when I dismissed Bitcoin very early on, but thought that, roughly around the same time +/- a year or two, LeapMotion (ever heard of that scam?) was the raddest thing since sliced bread. Had I invested my meager savings back then (into Bitcoin instead of backing that stupid LeapMotion kickstarter, yes even that relatively small amount), I would be so filthy rich by now, I'd feel bad about it and probably donated most of it already, so I'd be as poor as I am now (I've never liked boats much and that's all rich people seem to care about anyway). Okay, I might have indulged myself with a vintage car by now, but it would have two cylinders at most, less power than the average garden tool and start with a crank handle, if you catch my drift.
Where was I? The thing is, Nvidia is probably the one company that will be in the strongest position after this, no matter where the journey is heading. The whole AI thing goes belly up tomorrow? They still got a borderline monopoly in the gaming and professional GPU market, since even their most basic GPUs are great for both. With the profits they have already made, they can still crush AMD even more than they are already doing. The spending spree on AI hardware ending (like seriously, you could have ended hunger on this rock several times over with this much dosh) would still hurt their bottom line, since a significant percentage of their profits (too lazy to look it up) is coming from AI right now, and this would result in their evaluation receiving a seriously overdue reality check, but depending on at which time of the week you bought in, you might still come out ahead, perhaps in the longer run at least.
It is late for buying in right now though or at least it feels that way, but what do I know. You don't buy into the most valuable company on the planet when it's at its most valuable. There seem to be an increasing number of AI-skeptical articles and voices in mainstream media, including surveys that demonstrate most people really don't give a damn, as well as more and more academics weighing in on AI stagnating, which prompts denials from both sides of the shovel selling counter that are a bit too "Everything is fine and only getting better forever! Pinky swear!" for my taste. This could be sign of an impeding crash or it's just background noise that accompanies every new tech as it establishes itself, but it feels distinctly different from the noise surrounding even crypto (which seems to be here to stay, even though it's not the mainstream tech bro darling anymore) or actually useful tech we can't live without anymore even though we did just fine for millennia, like TVs and smartphones.
Anyway, that's three meandering paragraphs that I wasted your time with, even though I could have just written: You might be a bit late, but I don't actually know. Edit: I wrote that in the first sentence, but forgot, so if you had stopped reading there, like you probably should have, then you'd probably be less confused than you are now.
Poor countries like Germany? Germany is perhaps the perfect example of the differences between the two systems and which one actually worked out better for its people.
Communism makes it so, in principle, you have no reason to overwork yourself
In reality, people in Communist countries didn't give a crap about their work, because there were no actual incentives whatsoever, thinking for yourself was discouraged, showing initiative was heavily penalized, there was no competition to force anyone to improve what they were doing, there was barely any chance to advance (unless you were an apparatchik willing to literally go over bodies), no chance whatsoever to influence where the country as a whole or even your local community was heading towards. On top of that, you still had to overwork yourself if some fancy five year plan needed at least some real results to go with the made-up numbers (or at least pretend to be doing so, provided your country's ruling party has mellowed a little, shackled off Stalinism/Maoism, but not actually tackled the rampant corruption yet [none of them ever did]).
The idea - in theory - was that e.g. a factory or farm was owned "by the people", but to the people themselves it just felt that they and their labor were being exploited by an overbearing state and its faceless bureaucrats, similar to how they were previously being exploited by capitalist or feudal owners of the means of production. Importantly however, there were barely any niches in this system, unlike in capitalist or feudal systems, for some equally determined and lucky individuals to build up something for themselves. The most you could actually hope for is retreat into the private sphere and be left alone there, even though you knew that there were at least some informers among your closest family members and friends.
Seriously, have you ever actually seen footage from a factory in a Communist country? A few minutes of that should tell anyone what a terrible idea this whole thing is. Here's an example: https://youtu.be/emoF0EFxjjA?t=339 Compare this to a capitalist factory from the exact same time: https://youtu.be/cVabxDEJPgM It's not just the lack of modern tools and machinery, but also the organization, work ethos, even things as simple as making the workplace nicely lit, clean and safe.
For each of the countless flaws of capitalism, Communism has ten more, usually far more serious ones too. From exploitation to environmental destruction, it was all worse. These issues remain unsolved equations to this day, because almost every one of them has as its defining variable humans, these greedy creatures who are simply not suitable creatures for this kind of system. Maybe capitalism works better, because it not only rewards this greed, but actually uses it as a mechanism to force the system and its participants to constantly reinvent themselves. Not always in good ways, perhaps not even most of the time, but at least there is change happening.
I find it honestly perplexing that Communism is still being brought up by people who consider themselves smart as some kind of viable alternative, even though we've seen it fail again and again in the real world, every single time. It has never worked, ever. Yes, I'm sure they were all not real Communists. You would be one though if you were in charge though and because you would be, it would actually work this time. Maybe this time it can be actually done for real, with AI or quantum computers or something.
If this comes off as a bit abrasive, I apologize. Not my intention and perhaps due to a particularly unpleasant interaction I've just had with another user on this site. It's mostly an expression of frustration in regards to anyone who is bringing Communism up in any context other than crimes against humanity.
Thanks for the laugh. Wait, you were serious?
There being a purpose to capitalism implies that there is some grand plan behind this system. There isn't.
I think you are so terrified by the idea that the world and it's economic system are inherently chaotic that you are coming up with entirely irrational attempts at smart-sounding explanations like this one.
This doesn't mean that there aren't elites exploiting their favorable position in the current system, including in times of crisis that they caused themselves.
Trump had one as well. Similar knuckle-dragging target audience between the two, I'd wager.
My great uncle (who was 12 at the end of WW2) had to hide from the Soviets for years, caught pneumonia and almost died before he managed to escape over the Iron Curtain. He suffered from serious health complications for the rest of his life. His mother was murdered on the spot, his teenage sister abducted into the Gulag system. She died somewhere in the Ural mountains, never to be heard of or seen again.
You on the other hand feel smug and smart about yourself by using entry level college vocabulary on a topic you know less than nothing about. There are few people on this planet I detest more than those who are, for whatever reason, carrying water for authoritarians and authoritarian systems.
Swing and miss. I'm not even American. I am from a country that suffered under real-world Communism for decades though.
I've read this a number of times over the years, but here's a good article on the topic of cement:
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46455844
A recent article (one of many) on how the wasteful building and deceptive investment practices that are rampant in China are impacting ordinary people:
This statement from a former official illustrates the absurd scale of the problem:
I was in a different camp back then. Our CRT TV was high quality and produced a very sharp image, especially with the 3D consoles of the '90s hooked up to it through SCART. Similarly, the first CRT monitor I ever owned was an excellent Sony Trinitron with a flat image, no blur, no perceivable scanlines (I used it for a decade, because I was unable to find flat screen displays that came close). That's why I felt absolutely no love for those scanline filters and didn't get their appeal until many years later, when I realized that the art of most '80s and '90s games was intended for highly flawed CRTs. By that point, those simple filters had evolved into complex shaders that are much more accurate too.
A couple of years ago, I configured PS1 emulator DuckStation into what a fictional (and entirely impossible) "PS1 Pro". Extremely high rendering resolution in the 6K range to remove any hint of jagged edges, with a scanline shader and some carefully tuned bloom on top to simulate the phosphor glow. I kept textures unfiltered, but enabled settings that fix the console's unstable geometry and texture distortion. I then got a modified version of Gran Turismo 2 with enhanced draw distance (and some bug fixes). The effect is remarkable: The original art is preserved, but enhanced, there's remarkable clarity, yet the scanlines and bloom still create the illusion of a high res CRT. It looks amazing.
Exception: Old pixel art that was meant to be smoothed out by blurry CRT monitors and TVs. Yes, I know those are not algorithms, but still.
Well, if you ever change your mind or need one additional player online on a short notice, even for a single session (perhaps for a specific NPC that you would normally play yourself), consider sending me a message.