#of serious mathematical important

[max1461]

In response to this post by @loving-n0t-heyting.

Well... I guess?

So I don't actually have as much of a dog in this fight as maybe I implied I did, and maybe it's ill-advised to get into this further, but I do kind of feel like this reply misses the point a little?

Right, I might be missing something, but I believe that models of FOL, and models of SOL in the standard semantics, and models of typed lambda calculus, and so on, are all defined in basically the same way? They are all special cases of a more general definition.

Like, I believe that given a first- or second-order language L with constants c_1,...,c_n, functions f_1,...,f_m, and relations R_1,...,R_k, the set of all terms and formulae of L (call this set A) is an example of a free partial algebra. This partial algebra is generated by the variables and the constants, under application of partial functions corresponding to f_1,...,f_m, R_1,...,R_k, the logical connectives, and ∀ and ∃. I might have missed one. Uh the terms of lambda calculus are generated in a similar way. And anyway, a model is just another partial algebra M in the same signature with a structure preserving map φ : A -> M (EDIT: actually, one for each variable assignment function) (EDIT 2: since the constants are part of the signature and A is free, any variable assignment functions automatically induces a structure preserving map A -> M. So a model is just another partial algebra M.). Uh and then we make some demands about the structure of M, like for FOL we force M to be the disjoint union of a set M' and {T, F}, where M' is the universe of the model as traditionally defied. And for lambda calculus we demand that M is the disjoint union of a universe M_t for each basic type t and (maximal) sets of ith order functions between the M_t.

Shit, I should actually work out all the details. I don't think this reply is going anywhere without that. I probably don't have time for that.

Right, the point is that I am pretty sure that all these different definitions of "model" are just special cases of the exact same thing. And the way we define models of simply typed lambda calculus with quantifiers exactly reduces to the way we define them for first- and second-order logic, if you just get rid of all the lambda terms and the stuff of highers types. Uh yeah. I'm like 90% certain this is true. But without working it out on paper I can't be sure. Consider this a beta thought.

Uh but Henkin semantics are not a special case of this. Because you need to fix a Henkin prestructure—the sets of higher-order functions are not maximal, like you're have some subset of M_t^{M_s} for types t and s, or whatever. It's a different thing.

But the point is like: this strikes me as the canonical way to define a model! Far from defining models this way specifically to get the results we want—which seems more like what Henkin semantics is doing, to get a nicer meta-theory—this is just, defining models like we define homomorphisms in algebra: there's one canonical way to do it, and if you do it a different way, that's the choice that students are going to ask for motivation for. Right?

But, yeah, I agree there is not a lot of mathematical content to this.

My point (that FOL is odd in various ways) would maybe have been better illustrated by talking about nonfirstorderable sentences, which I did mention in a reblog. I think it's difficult to deny, re: nonfirstorderability, the claim that "FOL is limited in certain ways by the topology of strings". Which is fine, FOL works fine, but it is weird. I am not sure what argument one could put forth to say that that is not a strange contingency for a logical system to have.

And, actually, this is directly related to the stuff about the Peano Axioms: because the axiom schema of induction in Peano Arithmetic includes one axiom for each first-order sentence, what is firstorderable directly determines what you can do induction to! And I claim that is... strange. That's really funky. That's very funky!

You don't actually need the whole of SOL to remedy this string thing, you can just allow trees of quantifiers or whatever. Various people may have looked into this.

But, no yeah actually, after having written this last bit I am slightly convinced again that there is a genuine (slight) odd thing going on here. Uh it's not just all trivial, motivated reworking of definitions as the linked post sort of implies. Well I don't know. It's late. Maybe I've made an error somewhere here; lord knows when I don't double check my math posts that can happen.

#math #navel gazing #but yeah none of this is like #of serious mathematical important #it's 、well、navel gazing

[eggroll-sama]

Record of Ragnarok: Ideal s/o Headcanons

Female!reader

Warning: suggestive, mention of sex

Poseidon

Poseidon will want someone that will aesthetically compliment his looks and reputation. In other words, he’d like someone that is beautiful, but not as beautiful as him. Specifically, he doesn’t really have a preference. You just need to have nice teeth, kept hair, glowing and unblemished skin, a symmetrical face, and on and on and on. Just don’t be more beautiful than him, thank you.

Personality wise, he’d like someone that is feminine, intelligent and regal.

You can be dominant and arrogant with others, just don’t be when you’re with him. It’ll tarnish his reputation as a strong and fearsome god. Also if you are a virgin he would like that. It would boost his ego to know he has the privilege to be the only one to be with you.

He wants you to be intelligent and to be well versed in history, mathematics, language, and the sciences. He’s more traditional and emphasizes more importance on book smarts than street smarts. Also, if you’re really good at debating and holding your own in an argument, he’d find it very attractive. For example, if during a godly meeting you were to stand your own on a stance against another god, he’d be so smug and in love with you. He wouldn’t show it on his face, but once you get back to the castle he would pin you against the wall and make out with you, growling under his breathe about how it was your fault for making him this way.

Not Ideal: dumb, domineering, scheming :)

More characters under the cut!

Thor

Loki sometimes badgers him about his ideal s/o. He wouldn’t answer him -much to his cousin's chagrin- but in his mind his love would have long dark hair and a nice smile.

Personality wise, he’d like someone that is strong. In any type of sense. He would prefer a more physically strong lover, but it is not a requirement. He emphasizes the most on a strong mentality. He believes no matter how muscular or large you are, without a strong soul you are weak. He understands the hardships of being the lover of a god; they’d have to have the mental strength to overcome difficulties of being in that position.

Also, he’d prefer if you are extroverted. He struggles with talking or giving an opinion, so someone that can enhance communication will be great. Of course he’s a really observant god, but observing can take him only so far; a person that is willing to talk to him about everyday things or their problems will make him happy (though he doesn’t show it).

Not Ideal: secretive, complainer, weak-minded

Loki

I know he’s literally a shapeshifting god and he transformed into some pretty ugly things in the past, but he still has preferences in terms of looks. If you like piercings and tattoos he’d be very interested in you since he has several of his own. He also finds the grunge/goth look attractive. He loves beauty marks on his partner. But he’d hide that and tease you about them like a jerk. Also, the guy is a sucker for chubby cheeks. He’d be touching them every chance he gets. You feel like a stress ball sometimes.

He wants a partner in crime to pull pranks with and on. Someone that is creative, funny, and a tease. His family is literally full of straight faces; he wants someone that will laugh with him and talk with him about nonsensical ideas. A naturally curious person that will indulge in various ideas and hypotheticals will be perfect for him.

There needs to be something about you that is interesting. It could be intelligence, physical/mental strength, your way of thinking, how you dress, etc. Something that sets you apart from other people. If you are just a normal, everyday individual, he probably won’t give you a second glance. And no, being like the “quirky” girls on TikTok does not count.

Not Ideal: too quiet, serious, bland

Lu Bu

He’s drinking with his soldiers and they ask him in a drunk haze what his “ideal lover” would be. Lu Bu is honest and tells them he’s not interested in commiting to a relationship. He’s not going to date someone when he has the goal of being the strongest. He has one night stands to vent his frustrations and quench his boredom, but that’s the limit. He also deems it very unlikely for him to find love in this time period. Not that he really cares about those sort of things. Doesn’t really believe in true love either.

But low and behold, Lu Bu’s trustworthy strategist, Chen Gong, has spent many a night thinking about this very same topic. He’s deduced from observing his general’s personality and every day interactions that Lu Bu would be best compatible with a strong-minded, caring woman. He needs someone that can rile him up in all sorts of ways. Somehow, a woman that can make a smart remark every once in a while would be a nice change. Someone that has the courage to talk to him. His general hasn’t met a woman who sticks around after seeing his ferocity on the battlefield.

Chen Gong believes they have to be caring. Lu Bu is surrounded by bloodshed and war everyday. He feels that what his general needs the most in a partner is someone that is supportive and will let Lu Bu be vulnerable. Someone that will let Lu Bu relax after a long fought battle. Someone that will treat him like a human than worship or envy his strength.

(Chen Gong doesn’t know this, but Lu Bu finds it attractive when women eat a lot)

Not ideal (according to Chen Gong): cowardly, weak-minded, apathetic

Adam

He doesn’t care about looks. He’s the father of humanity, he loves every single type of person: tall or short, hairy or thin hair, big boobs no boobs, etc.

Ideally, Adam wants someone who has a motherly aura and has a kind and selfless heart. Someone who’s gentle and has a nurturing heart. Someone who shows gratitude and appreciation for what they are given.

Although he’s strong, he wants to be with a person that he can trust and rely on. Someone he can be vulnerable with. It will take time for him to warm up to you. He’d have to be sure that you are a good person and will confess to you once he’s gotten to know you for a long time.

Adam also likes to tease and play around sometimes behind closed doors, so he’d like it if you aren’t the most easily-offended person. He’d feel awful if he’s just lightly teasing you and you make a big deal out of it and ignore him.

Not ideal: self-centered, overreactor, untrustworthy

Sasaki

Like Lubu he strives for strength, but is more open to the idea of a relationship. When he was still alive, he’d daydream about having a lover beside him. They’d have the prettiest smile, and skin as smooth as the softened glass shards by the ocean shores. Somebody who’d accompany him on his journey, perhaps. Someone who possessed a voice of wisdom because he knows he isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.

Although he’d occasionally feel lonely camping alone in the forest, it really wasn’t on his to-do list to find a lover. He felt that the perfect person is the one who will see him for who he is and love him for it no matter what.

They need to be independent. Somebody that wouldn’t mind a long distance relationship. His travels might take 1-2 months, or maybe 6 months. He would occasionally show up at your house unannounced with a gift from his travels. If you try convince him to stay, he’d feel really guilty and might break up with you because you deserve somebody that doesn’t stress you out. But if you’re up for it, he wouldn’t mind taking you with him!

Not ideal: dependent, stability > taking risks

#record of ragnarok #shuumatsu no valkyrie #shuumatsu no walkure #record of ragnarok adam #record of ragnarok thor #ror #record of ragnarok poseidon #record of ragnarok loki #record of ragnarok lubu #record of ragnarok headcanons #record of ragnarok sasaki #ror adam x reader #ror sasaki headcanons #ror loki headcanons #ror thor x reader #ror sasaki kojiro #ror x reader

[thegirlwhorideslikeasamurai]

This scene makes me SO proud of Yuuri as this moment is such an important step in his journey.

Being anxious and having no confidence like Yuuri, naturally puts you in an isolated position. You feel like you're fighting alone and your peers are rivals to you. I'm not talking about the friendly kind of rivalry that motivates and inspires you, but the kind of rivals that feel like live or death competition, a serious threat. It's a lot like "I'm on no one's side because no one is on my side".

Until this point in ep. 5, Yuuri is afraid to mess up at the Regionals because it's his first competition since the disastrous premature end of his last season, and he considers it as a test whether he's in shape for the upcoming Grand Prix Series (he also needs a good result to be eligible to compete at Nationals and have a chance to be assigned to Worlds or 4CC, but that's another story). Being nervous isn't unreasonable, but due to his anxiety and lack of confidence, Yuuri IS unreasonably nervous. As the oldest and most experienced skater competing in the men's event, Yuuri has absolutely no reason to fear failure and a part of him might be aware of that fact, but due to his anxiety, it doesn't register with him. Pretending the other skaters don't exist is less distressing than paying attention to them and interacting with them because Yuuri is in a position where everything they say and do unsettles him: Minami's (apparently totally unreasonable) admiration, being reminded that Minami beat him at the last Nationals, overhearing the other skaters discussing that they want to attempt quads in their free programmes etc. etc.

The standings after the short programme prove how unreasonable Yuuri's anxiety is:

After the SP, Yuuri leads by a 26 point margin. Despite the lowered difficulty Viktor suggested for the FS and the other skaters all attempting one quad, not finishing in first place is EXTREMELY unlikely for a skater with Yuuri's skill and experience even if he messes up in the free skating. Mathematically, it's absolutely possible though and that's what the anxiety brain fixates on.

Here's the thing: when you suffer from anxiety, your brain's ability to form logically sound conclusions can be considerably limited. Yes, you can pretend a threat doesn't exist, but it will keep bothering you from a corner of your mind and continue feeding your anxiety. By ignoring the other skaters, Yuuri can minimise this imagined threat, but it doesn't solve the initial problem: that he sees a threat in these skaters in the first place.

Without Viktor, Yuuri would have kept ignoring the other skaters, which would do nothing to overcome his issues, but in Viktor, Yuuri has someone who believes in him and who mercilessly drags Yuuri out of his comfort zone if needed. After all, just one episode ago, he promised Yuuri to not let him off easily and that's why he doesn't let Yuuri get away with his avoidance strategy. Personally, I believe that Yuuri is blissfully unaware what cheering Minami on might accomplish. He only notices that Viktor is displeased about how Yuuri treats the younger skater who burst into tears because Yuuri keeps ignoring him. Only when Viktor openly voices his dismay, Yuuri has an important realisation:

Minami sees an idol in Yuuri just like Yuuri once saw an idol in Viktor. If Viktor had treated Yuuri the way Yuuri treats Minami, Yuuri would have been devastated (and knowing that Viktor is the sole reason for Yuuri pursuing his goal to become one of the world's best skaters, he might have ended his career). This realisation enables Yuuri to empathise with Minami. But there's so much more going on below the surface. Cheering Minami initiates a change in Yuuri that makes him realise that these younger skaters don't pose a threat to him. It's a first tentative step towards becoming a part of the community of figure skaters, which in fact is quite a friendly place.

This step out of his comfort zone, seems small but it's a turning point in Yuuri's journey. It requires courage, which positively informs his self-worth, and enables Yuuri to see his peers with new eyes. They're still rivals but they've stopped being a threat

and turned into co-competitors Yuuri can relate to and who inspire him to do his best—quite different from the unhealthy mindset of being unsettled and desperate to win Yuuri was in before, right?

Through this small gesture (and the interactions that follow), Yuuri learns that interacting with his co-competitors is actually an empowering experience (and a lot of fun).

Of course, that's only a first tentative step. Becoming confident and learning to interact with your peers is not a linear process. And in every new setting, you must make the effort again, even more so when you're not very sociable by nature. But even though the "threats" at the Grand Prix Series are larger and the stakes are higher, Yuuri is more relaxed there. That is unless he has to deal with additional challenges and we all know what the creators threw into his path *cough*

#yuri on ice #katsuki yuuri #yoi #yoi meta #my yoi meta

[utilitycaster]

Unpopular opinion: the tower conversation between Caleb and Essek was a define-the-relationship conversation on a 20+ intelligence level and with the context that defining a relationship does not inherently mean "we have decided whether or not we are dating from this point onward with the only options being a static yes or no," and if more of the fandom read it that way, there would be significantly less equivocating over their relationship and how often Essek is mentioned in regards to existing and potential post-canon content

This is very funny to me bc if you were not off anon I'd be like "man what does Megs say about it, she'd know more!" Anyway, after this one I'll be taking a break bc I do need to do a bit of D&D prep and this is going to be a slightly long one. To that point, it's below the cut.

Anyway, thank you, because I very much enjoy Shadowgast but I don't know if I've made as much of a study of it as others have, or as I have for other ships, but this led me to rewatch/reread the transcript for this speech (2x133, btw, starting around 3:26:00 for those wondering) and: yes.

I think this is definitely the 20+ INT level version; it is entirely about theory, and the arcane, and everything is subtext. But it's not unprecedented. If I were to do the mathematical thing, and I will, and reduce it to a problem I already know, this is akin to Fjord and Jester's conversation in episode 2x72. Compare:

LAURA: Would you do anything to get them back?

TRAVIS: No. No, but, I feel like I knew what I was doing, and I realized I have no idea.

to

MATT: "You spoke once of intent, lot of fortunes have changed since. What is your goal? Ultimately?"

LIAM: I think my priorities have mostly shifted since we last spoke about things like this. I think what's going on right now is more important than my petty, earthly grievances. Still very much fascinated with and attracted to ability and skill. And it's not fashionable to say, but to power. Who doesn't feel the tug of such a thing? But, uh-- yeah, I said it knowing what your reaction was going to be. I see you outside. (laughs) But it doesn't matter. There are bigger things than you and I.

MATT: "I think that's the key. The pursuit of magic, in the ways that we know it, in the ways that we've been disparately, but in some ways similarly raised and studied. At a certain point, it becomes about the self. It becomes about what I can do. And it's impressive that you've deviated at your skill level. I just hope it holds."

LIAM: That's the key, isn't it? Because if you were to put the very thing that I have wondered about for so many years in front of me, I'm really not sure what my reaction would be.

It is, as you say, a definition of the relationship. It's not "we are now dating;" it's them figuring out if they want similar things; if they will be not just compatible but good for each other. It's foundation laying and setting boundaries for something that won't come to fruition for some time yet, but it's undeniably something more serious than mere friendship.

I think the tower conversation is also uniquely important because it's Caleb's first romantic overture after meeting with Trent. He volunteers the information about his past not just willingly, but specifically in order to connect with Essek rather than to protect him or push him away. They are even able to laugh about it together, and that's really it. This is the point where romance becomes an option.

There's more - I think that Essek admiring Caleb's ability to set aside himself despite his rapid progression as a wizard is absolutely a flirtation, as is Caleb saying he's attracted to "ability and skill" - but really in the end it's them saying "this is my condition, and you have met it." I think the relationships that lack some kind of condition and stakes like this - and to be clear, it's okay if, as with several relationships I don't cover here, those stakes and boundaries are set not through a clear conversation that serves as a turning point but rather more implicitly/through actions - end up feeling fundamentally empty and lacking in possibility because there isn't that tension and that recognition of each other.

#answered #essektheylyss #opinions rating ask meme #cr tag

[bright-and-burning]

some highlights from this 2004 adam norris money marketing profile:

"There are few managing directors younger than Adam Norris of Pensions Direct, the pension arm of Hargreaves Lansdown. At 33, he has achieved a higher level in the industry than most do in their entire career." "Norris quips that early retirement would be readily available to him yet it is a very unattractive option. 'I do not believe in going to the office for the sake of it. I enjoy every day of my working life. I am lucky enough that my work is also my hobby. The day I stop enjoying it is the day I will retire.'" "He also takes his hobbies very seriously and, before entering financial services, spent a year in Europe pursuing a career as a tour cyclist. He trained in Belgium with the hope of becoming a serious competitor in the Tour de France. While not making it as a professional, he did come back to the UK with a new outlook and a wife." "Yet Norris maintains he still only works regular hours and prefers not to work later than 5.30pm if he can help it. He refuses to take work home. 'It is a matter of working smarter rather than harder, which is something we need a lot more of in the financial services world.'" "Comments like these demonstrate Norris's forthright pragmatism, that seems to stem from his structured, mathematical training as an engineer and his hard-work ethic, which he says is a result of growing up with dyslexia and needing to work things through. 'I have become very good at learning and observing the world through truly different eyes to everyone else. If you cannot spell, who cares? Working out solutions to difficult problems and understanding the world we live in is vastly more important.' This is a tenet he aims to pass on to his children through real-life experience. He has bought a small farm in the West Country where he has sheep and other animals. 'Real-life experience is most important for a good grounding in anything. I am always conscious that financial services is a world unto its own and, the more of the outside world you see, the saner and more balanced you are.'" "Education: BEng, University of Leicester Career: 1993-95 financial adviser, Acuma; 1995-98 IFA for small brokerages in Bath and Bristol; 1998-present managing director, Pensions Direct, the pension arm of Hargreaves Lansdown Career ambition: To be the biggest shareholder in Europe's biggest IFA Life ambition: To enjoy every day Hero: Doesn't have one Likes: Jam sandwiches Dislikes: Marmite Drives: Porsche 911 convertible"

#the bits i left out are more focused on him being goated at his job i guess #he's very interesting in his own right #and his career is (from what i can tell) out of the ordinary lol #more coming soon maybe. or well like #this is the personable bit. that has some parenting insights? the rest are interesting in terms of career tea tbh #which ill probs post some highlights from the other articles all in one post for myself lol #ln #(well. kind of) #lore #adam norris

[smolapricot]

The pink-haired cluster! There are 6 addigems in it.

The owner of the most voluminous head of hair is Rhodochrosite. He has a low hardness index (only 4 according to Moss), But he covers this disadvantage with his dexterity. Stale both on the outside and inside.

Next are the quartz siblings - Rose quartz and Lithium quartz. Even though they are both quartz, they are not partners (except for the moment of patrols inside the pink cluster).

Rose quartz love nature very much, especially the sea and its noise. They often thinks about whether they are part of the uncounted grains of sand lying on the ground, or whether they will never have a place among them.

Lithium quartz are a romantic. They loves cute things and accessories, they often changes their uniform, which is why they are considered one of the most unpredictable addigems in behavior. However, they are a very good strategist! Lithium Quartz are the developer of the fight strategy, what the pink and yellow-orange clusters uses. They're doing a great and important job!

Bustamite is a simpleton, not particularly educated (especially mathematics is difficult for him). But he is a good fighter and pleasant in ordinary everyday communication.

Datolite is a serious addigem, one of the oldest. He's just obsessed with his idea of smashing MoonSwatches, which is why he was assigned to work in the library on even numbers. He works in tandem with Pollucite, and is also subordinate to them in the walls of the library. Short-tempered, very loud. He wears very strict suits and does not take them off even for hibernation. It is better not to anger him.

Cobaltocalcite is very irresponsible, absent-minded and careless. He likes to watch the migrations of butterflies and beetles. He is paired with Annabergite.

#deltarune chapter two #deltarune au #deltarune fan character #houseki no kuni au #houseki no kuni #houseki no kuni oc #land of lustrous #land of the lustrous #land of the lustrous au #hnk #hnk oc #hnk au #lotl #lotl au #lotl oc #addisona #addisons #addison #pink addison #родохрозит #розовый кварц #литиевый кварц #бустамит #датолит #кобальтокальцит #gemsona

[texasthoughtsaboutnothing]

Walpurgisnacht and how it ties it all together

So what is Walpurgisnacht?

Walpurgisnacht is a once a season fanservice event. It's a story thing with light character development. It's a banner with functionally an entire new rarity of ID. It's a game mode meant to demonstrate the power of those new IDs. It is a massive money maker for the company. And I believe it is kinda sorta the thing endgame players will align their behavior around.

That's a big claim at the end there, but I'll try to explain.

The key thing to focus on is the banner and the units that come with it. Walpurgis IDs are unique in that they are only available to purchase during a Walpurgisnacht, with the banner IDs being completely unpurchasable the first time they show up. Yes, you need to win the latest hype units from the Gacha or wait 4 months to buy them. These IDs are powerful, and, as this is a fanservice event tend to be referencing some of the coolest shit in PM's universe.

Needless to say demand is high while "supply" is dictated by a 1.5% drop chance or a 200 pull pity. This is pretty normal for a gacha, but a radical departure for Limbus, and it has some serious consequences on how we think about resources.

So in my last post I went over how Limbus' gacha after a certain point isn't worth it, and it ends up being mathematically better to convert premium currency to stamina to just grind out the units you want. There are several extremally important caveats to that statement, and the biggest one is Walpurgisnacht. I want to address that point here.

You want pulls for this, because you can't buy the unit until months after its arrived and you'll probably want it now. This changes how you might think about refreshing stamina, because you want to stockpile currency for a big pull session every 4 months. Counterintuitively, you want a lot of shards if you're new to buy the old Walpurgisnacht stuff, as unless the game powercreeps to hell and back a lot of these will be good forever (Regret Meursault EGO fundamentally changes how we think about his IDs and gameplay in perpetuity).

If we math it out (and use vague estimates so this doesn't become a wall of numbers), you can get 100 pulls from purely weekly Lunacy gains between Walpurgisnachts, but that number decreases for every refresh you do. if you refresh once every day, you're down to 85 pulls, and further down to 26 pulls if you double refresh. Ouch. However. there are other sources of pulls than just the 750 a week, and they add up substantially.

All of which is to say it's probably better to only do a single refresh to save pulls for Walpurgis, but if you do double refresh you will still have the ability to pull on this and maybe get the Banner ID.

But there's one other aspect to Walpurgis that has been met with some apprehension by the community, but makes me wonder at PMs intentions for the late game experience.

Gacha Announcers.

So Limbus has a system for Combat Announcers, There's no gameplay advantage for this, it's just to have your favorite characters comment on how bad you're playing, a nice little bonus reward that's easy to do if the VA is in the studio.

Walpurgisnacht slightly changed that, in that it added 2 Announcers to the Walpurgis gacha pool, Malkuth and Pierre/Jack. Malkuth is a major character from both Lobotomy Corporation and Library of Ruina and a fan favorite; the response to her being available was... significant. Pierre/Jack are also here. The Announcers are very rare (1.3%), and cannot be purchased, but are Pitiable (Malkuth most of all, heyyo). They take their rarity from the filler pulls, so nothing is actually lost as far as odds goes.

A big sticking point is you can roll dupe Announcers as they aren't removed from the pool like EGO, and many are upset they might not get Malkuth and instead the other guys. Undeniably that sucks, it's probably rare to save up 200 pulls for the pity and it might feel like a waste. But this decision also propelled Limbus on Steam's top 10 seller charts for the day, so PM rang in the new year with a smashing success of sales. It's also unclear if we can purchase the Announcers later, so that also is driving some fomo.

So that might seem bad, but one interesting thing is that dupe announcers give a lot of thread, 50 crates worth. Thread is the primary currency for upgrades and at endgame you want thousands of the stuff.

This creates this image to me of what an endgame player looks like, and I wonder if it's intentional. They have all or most of the game's available IDs and are now just spending Lunacy to stamina refresh to grind more boxes or thread or exp or w/e. That person now gets a second Thread bomb from Walpurgis separate from the seasonal turnover Thread bomb, which is the primary restriction of end game. I'm probably reaching here, but there's a logic to this that makes sense to me.

That's about all for Walpurgisnacht, but there's a couple other things I think are neat.

One, the game becoming one where you hoard gacha currency for a big dump to hit pity every 4 months is hilariously normal for this genre, albeit we actually get all the units.

Second, community engagement spikes with this as we get classic gacha posts like:

"Hey I just got every relevant unit in a single 10 pull, how wacky is that?" "150 pulls and nothing, it's so fucking over" "Can I get this unit in 3 single pulls? If not game sucks and devs are @%$#." "I STOLE MY MOM'S CREDIT CARD WE ARE SO FUCKING BACK"

Classic.

That's all folks, play Limbus Company.

#limbus company #project moon #limbus #gacha games #gacha #walpurgisnacht

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

I just finished The Heart of the World, literally a day after receiving it. It's so good! I love the way that you reinterpreted the characters in the fic so that you can still see them in the characters of the book. I'm also intrigued by Death-who's-not-Lily.

I have a couple questions. First, how and why did you decide on Iff, Theyne, Wheyne, and Annde as the humans' names? Second, Lily doesn't really get along well with Snape, if I remember, so why does she get along with Ilyn now?

And finally, when is the next book coming out???

Oh my god, look at you go! Thank you, I'm very flattered and glad you enjoyed it.

And now, your questions.

The Names

So, a fun fact, I hate naming characters and things. It's generally not something I have that much interest in and am not that attached to. Sometimes, you get a really great name and you're never letting go of it for that character, and sometimes you could honestly call them "Boy with Stick" and be done with it.

I now needed a lot of names and I wanted readers at a glance to be able to know, generally, which character belonged to which group. Which meant I needed themes.

There's a hilarious anecdote to be told where @therealvinelle on editing, wanted to go all out and come up with real, non-existent, but believable names for characters where you can tell a whole lot about their society by naming them.

I, um, said "Uh, these people will have backwards common English names. And these people will have QWERTY keyboard smash names. And these ones... Fuck it, he'll be Questburger."

So as for the human nobility, Lily got her name first, as Iff, the idea being a stupid joke/pun that isn't funny on my end where "iff" in mathematics is short for "if and only if". What it gets at is that Lily, as we see her, is the product of a very particular chain of events, that we're in a very particular world, and that there's something to follow that "if and only if" that is integral but that we're currently missing.

But then I have to come up with names for everyone else. And so we got the House of Prepositions and Conjunctions. Very serious they are.

Theyn was next up, as the next central royal character, and his name has a similar "har har but not really because it's not that funny and kind of weird" theme to it where the idea is he's "then BLAH", you're always waiting on something to occur with Theyn, unwittingly passing over him for the more interesting context in the sentence. He's there to set up something else, and by himself feels incomplete/not that interesting. Poor poor Theyn, even the universe doesn't think he's interesting or important.

Annde was next as he's the next important character we meet from this background after Theyn. Similar joke with him, he's "And... And?" You're waiting for the rest of the sentence with him, you can't end a sentence on "and" nor can you start it on one. He's just there to fill the gaps, to not be that important, and oh look a spoiler.

Wheyn (the regent) was next and was in part because a) I needed a name b) he's a bit of an inevitability in the universe. When one has a shake-up in a monarchy that holds all the power/isn't a constitutional monarchy, there's always going to be backstabbing nonsense and power plays. Wheyn is an unimportant inevitability, one that shocks no one (except Theyn, poor Theyn) and the answer to "When blah happens expect rain".

Which leaves us with, I believe the last, Whye, Lily's father. Him it's a similar gag but three-fold. There's the "WHY?!?!?!?!" in that no one really understands why he gave up the throne, married a sun elf, and scandalized absolutely everybody. Then there's "why?" as Lily's reaction, she's ambivalent about her parents and not sure how she should feel about them, and shields herself from feelings of abandonment by telling herself she's indifferent. As a result, she tends to approach any information about her parents with a "why should I care?" and gets very uncomfortable when anyone brings either of them up (and there's also that every character so far has brought up Lily's mother much more than her father leading to that question of "why are we talking about him?") Then there's the fact that there's a question to be asked that implies he has some kind of an answer to it a "why?" drifting off out there somewhere in the backgrounds.

And that's all the human nobility from our fantasy universe so far. (Elizabeth is noticeably an Elizabeth and sticks out like a sore thumb.)

Lily and Ilyn

The short answer is that Snape and Ilyn are different people fundamentally. They're in similar roles, took similar actions for various reasons, but they're very different as people.

And that goes for a lot of the things in the book. Elements of the fic remained, and some elements of HP, but not as much as people probably suspect even with the things that are very clearly taken over (believe it or not, I would call Elizabeth and Hermione different).

As for the long answer, well, for other people read the book and I hope it's explained.

When Next Book?!

I'm flattered but I don't know yet. Have to write it then edit then cover art and all that jazz.

I'll let people know.

#the heart of the world #sisyphus book series #lily and the art of being sisyphus #meta #praise #luxaii

[dduane]

Hello, I grew up reading the Young Wizards series and it shaped a lot of who I am as a person now. I was just wondering why you chose the specific knot you did for the wizards knot?

Well, for one thing it's mathematically interesting.

...Maybe this is the wrong end of the story to start from. (Though it is mathematically interesting...)

Early references to the Wizard's Knot in the books describe "a complicated sort of figure-eight mark". It takes a number of other forms as the series goes on, and I started to realize that I was going to have to nail the thing down more concretely... in some way that would allow it to exist both in a very simple form, and in versions more complex.

So the question "how is a complicated symbol also a simple one (or vice versa, depending on which you need)?" can only sensibly be answered in one cognitive realm: topology—specifically, the corner of that science known as knot theory.

It would be possible for me to go on at serious length about this, but probably (especially this late at night...) it's best for everybody if I don't get started. Briefly, though: I looked around the world of knots for a while and eventually found that the knot called the 7-4 knot was what I needed. It appears in numerous Earth-based cultures as “the Endless Knot” in an assortment of interesting forms, and it has a nice symmetry in all of them. But most importantly, its simplest forms can be written with a single long stroke of the pen* (or wand, if you're one of those YoungWizards-verse wizards who choose to use wands), just as that simplest figure-eight(ish) form.

Now, a perfect or exact congruency between these has to be come at by sort of (mathematically) squinting at both of them at once, sideways. But there often comes a time when, if you're the storyteller, you decide that you've come (as we say around here) "close enough for jazz"... and with a sigh you step away from the final resolution of a conundrum like this to deal with more important issues. Like plot. :)

...So there you have it. Hope this helps!

*Or Space Pen...

#Young Wizards #Young Wizards meta #Wizard's Knot

[trash-gobby]

Dating Ian Malcolm Would Include

Summary: Some Ian Malcolm headcanons to tide you over until seeing the new Jurassic Park movie comes out. A little short, but I might make more stuff like this if people like these ones.

Pairing(s): Ian Malcolm X GN!Reader

Characters: Ian Malcolm, Reader

Link: Jurassic Park Masterlist

RATING: PG

______________________________________________________________

✨ Being always on your toes. He's a pretty spontaneous man and always likes to be on the go. Whether that is going to remote parts of the world for trekking through the wilds, visiting the Las Vegas casinos, or going skydiving.

✨ Feelings like the center of his world. Dr. Malcolm really likes to lay it on with his partners in order to prolong the relationship as much as possible. Him being extremely charismatic also helps.

✨ He'll shower you in gifts, like trips with him around the world and taking you out for extravagant dinners.

✨ Showing you the interesting and unseen parts of the world you never would have thought of being there, is something Ian highly enjoys. Seeing the look on your face, of wonder and joy is something that makes his heart swell.

✨ However, Ian is someone who always needs to be doing something new, which means that trying to keep up with him can sometimes be exhausting.

✨ Ian is also reluctant to really commit since he's already been married more than once, and worries that you will just become another bitter ex of his.

✨ You two will really need to be compatible and communicate if you want to make this relationship work. Especially encouraging Ian to confront his commitment issues.

✨ Getting along with his daughter Kelly will be incredibly important if your going to be partners long term. She's also pretty picky considering her father has brought home a lot of partners.

✨ Putting up with some very long conversations about the chaos and balance which can be found within the world of mathematics is something your going to have to do. If you like maths, that's a major plus, since Ian will be interested in your opinion on certain topics.

✨ He's pretty physically affectionate and is definitely comfortable with PDA. Although he's not gonna get to hot and heavy in public.

✨ Mostly Ian wants to make sure that everyone knows your his partner and that he's proud to have you by his side. Sometimes that means having his hand around your waist while you talk to others or leaning into you slightly.

✨ Has a tendency to get jealous if he thinks someone is flirting with you, but is more likely to politely bring this up to you in private then anything else.

✨ Very much a goofball and doesn't tend to take much of anything seriously. This can be annoying or really endearing.

✨ Does know when to take things serious in a crisis and has a pretty good head on his shoulders, which is pretty hot.

#ian malcolm #jurassic park #jurassic series #jurassic world #jurassic world dominion #jurrasic world #jurassic world fallen kingdom #jeff goldblum #the lost world #jurassic park iii #jurassic park 3 #ian malcolm x reader #dr. malcolm #ian malcolm jeff goldblum #dating headcanons

[ptseti]

THE MOORS

During the European Dark Ages, between the 7th and 14th century AD, the Moorish Empire in Spain became one of the world's finest civilizations. General Tarik and his Black Moorish army from Morocco, conquered Spain after a week-long battle with King Roderick in 711 AD. (The word tariff and the Rock of Gibraltar were named after him). They found that Europe, with the assistance of the Catholic Church, had returned almost to complete barbarism. The population was 90% illiterate and had lost all of the civilizing principles that were passed on by the ancient Greeks and Romans.

The Moors reintroduced mathematics, medicine, agriculture, and the physical sciences. Arabic figures including the zero and the decimal point replaced the clumsy Roman numerals. As Dr. Van Sertima says, "You can't do higher mathematics with Roman numerals." The Moors introduced agriculture to Europe including cotton, rice, sugar cane, dates, ginger, lemons, and strawberries. They also taught them how to store grain for up to 100 years and built underground grain silos. They established a world-famous silk industry in Spain. The Moorish achievement in hydraulic engineering was outstanding.

They constructed an aqueduct, that conveyed water from the mountains to the city through lead pipes from the mountains to the city. They taught them how to mine for minerals on a large scale, including copper, gold, silver, tin, lead, and aluminium. Spain soon became the world centre for high-quality sword blades and shields. Spain was eventually manufacturing up to 12,000 blades and shields per year. Spanish craft and woollen became world famous. The Moorish craftsman also produced world-class glass, pottery, vases, mosaics, and jewellery.

The Moors introduced to Europe paved, lighted streets with raised sidewalks for pedestrians, flanked by uninterrupted rows of buildings. Paved and lighted streets did not appear in London or Paris for centuries. They constructed thousands of public markets and mills in each city. Cordova alone had 5,000 of each. They were also introduced to Spain's underwear and bathing with soap. Their public baths numbered in the thousands when bathing in the rest of Europe was frowned upon as a diabolical custom to be avoided by all good Christians.

Poor hygiene contributed to the plagues in the rest of Europe. Moorish monarchs dwelled in sumptuous palaces while the crowned heads of England, France, and Germany lived in barns, lacking windows, toilets, and chimneys, with only a hole in the roof as the exit for smoke. Human waste material was thrown in the streets since no bathrooms were present. Education was made mandatory by the Moors, while 90% of Europe was illiterate, including the kings and queens. The Moors introduced public libraries to Europe with 600,000 books in Cordova alone. They established 17 outstanding universities in Spain.

Since Africa is a matriarchal society, women were also encouraged to devote themselves to serious study, and it was only in Spain that one could find female doctors, lawyers, and scientists. Moorish schoolteachers knew that the world was round and taught geography from a globe. They produced expert maps with all sea and land routes accurately located concerning latitude and longitude; while also introducing compasses to Europe.

They were such expert shipbuilders that they were able to use their geography expertise to import and export as far away as India and China. It was not by accident that a Moor named Pietro Olonzo Nino was the chief navigator for Christopher Columbus on the flagship Santa Maria.

He is said to have argued with Columbus as to who really discovered America. One of the worst mistakes the Moors made was to introduce gunpowder technology from China into Europe because their enemies adopted this weapon and used it to drive them out of Spain.

Europe then took the 700 years of civilization and education re-taught to them by the Moors and used this knowledge to attack Africa. While the Moors were re-civilizing Europe, great empires were thriving in Western Africa and frequently traded with the Moors.

These included the empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay, which prospered between 700 AD and 1600 AD. Africa was not a dark continent awaiting European civilization. In fact, Black African Egyptians and Black African Moors are credited with civilizing Europe."

#moors #spain

[thewertsearch]

GA: What Do You Want From Her Anyway CA: she made me somethin per a prior arrangement CA: she wwill delivver it wwhen wwe meet in this game but i dont knoww wwhat the logistics are yet CA: im tryin to connoiter wwith her here but shes blowwin me off again fickle dirtscrapin landhag

There’s that bloodism again. CC didn’t display any prejudice, so I was starting to hope that Equius was a bit of an outlier in that regard. 

I guess CA’s already shown disdain for the land-dwellers, so I really shouldn’t be surprised. 

GA: What Is It CA: kan stupid wwhat do you think its a fuckin gizmo to bloww up the wworld or somethin CA: ok wwell not that obvviously CA: but somethin thatll kill all land dwwellers wwhat else wwould i be after

So he was the doomsday commissioner. 

Genocide feels like a bridge too far, even for the average troll. It’s too early to tell if he’s serious about it, since a lot of trolls are all bark and no bite. Either way, what’s this guy’s problem? 

GA: Can You Just For A Moment Entertain The Thoughts Of One Untouched By Megalomaniacal Derangement And Tell Me Why Id Want To Assist You With That CA: wwell CA: im not goin to vvery wwell kill you am i that wwould be fuckin unconscionable

So, what? You’re going to kill all land dwellers, but make an exception for the ‘good ones’?

I want to give the guy a chance, so I guess I’ll reserve judgement for now. After all, Vriska seemed cartoonishly evil before we knew her story. 

CA: yeah go ahead and kiss us off but therell be blood on your hands CA: you could either play along as our auspistice and do a little mediating like you wwere fuckin hatched to CA: or wwatch she and me devvolvve into fuckin full fledged kismesisses the kind like you dont get once in ten thousand swweeps CA: you knoww thats wwhat it wwould be there wwould be rainboww rivvers runnin through star systems and all nebulizin like liquid firewworks

Alright, things are getting a little clearer. 

In troll culture, there are situations where a blossoming kismesis relationship is a bad thing. CA is describing a particularly tumultuous, destructive blackrom, and implying that Kanaya should want to prevent this.

If I had to guess why this is undesirable, I’d point to CA’s colorful description of, essentially, collateral damage. An unhealthy rivalry can boil over, harming any bystanders unlucky enough to be nearby at the time - and it is the role of an auspistice to nip these rivalries in the bud.

I can see a huge problem with this system - and it comes down to simple mathematics. 

CA is being kind of crass here, but he’s getting at a very important point. Auspisticing requires emotional intelligence, and a calm disposition - traits that I think it’s reasonable to assume are pretty rare on Alternia. There can’t be that many trolls emotionally equipped to be auspistices - but unhealthy relationships are surely a dime a dozen. 

Kanaya might not be overstretching herself by choice. She’s one of the only trolls who can adequately perform this role, and she’s outnumbered a hundred to one by the rivalries she’s trying to prevent. 

#2343 #homestuck liveblog #full liveblog #act 5 #s31 #hell kanaya is just emotionally intelligent *for a troll*. she's still a kid!

[fruityyamenrunner]

@raginrayguns

I am open to this, but every time I have tried to learn about "timeless decision theory" I have bounced off a) the motivation for it, which is coming up with mathematics congenial to his cult and b) also not having any understanding and view of non-occult Decision Theory.

I don't even know if the whole "Decision Theory" current is 'important philosophy', let alone Yudkowsky's contribution. It doesn't seem to lead to anything practical except justifying his cult. What would you say is serious about it?

#let the blues preach their silly religion

[lassiekitsune]

Peter Parker x Reader "Under the starry sky"

GIF isn't mine

Description: You need help with your math test and you ask your best friend for help. But Peter needs to tell you something important, after which your relationship will never be the same.

Warnings: fluff, a little agnst.

Y/N - Your name

(H/C) - Hair color

"- On Monday, I'll be waiting for you all to write a very important math test. You all will have enough time to prepare" - your teacher said then the school bell rang. Mathematics wasn't your favourite school subject, but your family demanded perfect grades from you. "It's just not realistic" you thought. The problem was that you missed the last topic due to illness and no one could help you... Almost no one. A few minutes later you spotted your best friend Peter Parker with Ned in the school hallway. Peter was known at school as one of the smartest students in the school, who knew the entire school curriculum at "A+". It was because of his knowledge that Peter was often mocked by his classmate Eugene Thompson ("Flash"), but you didn't care about him. You and Parker have been friends for many years, and it was he who you decided to ask for help with math.

"- Hello, Peter! Hello, Ned!" - you smiled.

"- Hey Y/N! We haven't seen each other for a long time" - Peter smiled at you as well, and so did Ned - "Did you want to ask something?"

"- Um, yeah, but..." - You looked at Ned. Peter's friend taking your hint and leaving the two of you alone. You sighed and continued - "So, I think I need your help" - Peter adjusted his backpack and looked at you curiously

"- Did something happen to you?"

"- No, I'm fine, don't worry" - knowing Peter's caring side, you rushed to comfort him - "Do you know that I have been absent from school for several weeks?" - Parker nodded - "And I missed the last subject in mathematics, and on Monday I have a test for which I am not ready at all... This is exactly what I need your help with"

"- Wait, do you want me to explain the topic to you?" - Peter's eyes lit up with joy

"- I do not insist, if you are busy…"

"- No!" - your friend interrupted you - I'm completely free today! If it's convenient for you, you can come over to my house today around 6:00 p.m., okay?"

"- Okay, sorry, I must go. Goodbye"

"- See you later, Y/N" - if you had turned back at that moment, you would have noticed how Peter guided you with his gaze.

~5:58 p.m.~

You are standing in front of the door of the Parker house. Peter told you a LOT about his Aunt May, and he was sure that you would become friends. You took a deep breath and tapped ligtly. Contrary to your expectations, a woman opened the door and smiled at you.

"- Hello! Are you Aunt May?"

"- Hello, yes, it's me. And you are Y/N? Peter said you would come today".

"- Yep, I'm Y/N. Can I come in?"

"- Of course, but Peter isn't at home now"

"- Oh, then I think I should go. Peter will call me when he gets back"

"- No, no! You can stay here, I don't care. After all," - May gave you a strange look - "I wanted to get to know you better"

~8:30 p.m.~

You were sitting next to Aunt May who offered you tea and you were talking to each other. Peter was still not at home.

"- Aunt May?"

"- Please call me just May"

"- Okay, May, where do you think Peter could be at this late hour?"

"- Honestly, I don't know" - May sipped her tea from her cup - "This is not the first time he has come home late. I tried to talk to him about it but he doesn't tell me anything" - May sighed. The conversation continued untill your mother called you and reminded you that it was time for you to go home.

"- Don't worry, Y/N, I will have a SERIOUS talk with Peter tonight" - May said with a special emphasis on the world "serious".

"- No, you don't have to" - you didn't want your best friend to get in trouble. When you got home, you changed and went to your room. You can't to sleep, probably you were worried about Peter. You've had a crush on Peter for a long time, but you've always had to hide those feelings from him. Of course, you, like many girls, dreamed that one day he would confess his love to you. So, after spending several hours in bed, you went out to the balcony to look at the stars. The night wind blew your (H/C) as you gazed up at the twinkling stars, and you closed your eyes to hear the sounds of night nature. Silence. Peace. Stop, something is wrong. You opened your eyes and heard footsteps on the roof. "- Are they thieves?" you thought and hid behind old boxes. A footsteps got closer and you tried to sit as quietly as possible. One moment, and familiar shadow is standing on your balcony. You did not think that HE would appear here, but you believe your eyes, before you stood the famous Spider-Man. Judging by his rapid breathing, he had just been running away from someone. You could endlessly watch this Superhero until he would have disappeared in his direction if not for his spider-sense. Spider-Man turned to face you

"- Y/N? What are you doing here?" - said a familiar voice

"- How do you know my name?" - You were in shock, but managed to find the strength to come out of your hiding place.

"- It's not important now, we have to get out of here" - Spider-Man held out his arms to you - "Don't be afraid of me, I won't hurt you. But now you are in danger if you do not go with me"

"- But, I..." - your voice was interrupted by the roar of some black scary creature that was slowly approaching you.

"- We must go RIGHT NOW!" - Spider-Man said as he grabbed you with one hand and held you close while the other released a web that gave you the opportunity to escape from this creature.

"- Thank you for saving me, but who was that?" - you asked fearfully

"- Venom and you're welcome"

"- What did he want?" - you asked, Spider-Man didn't turned to you

"- I'm sorry, it's my fault. You shouldn't have seen it..."

"- What? It's not your fault!" - you moved closer to him. You wanted to continue but the words got stuck somewhere in your throat. You realized where you could hear this voice, without thinking long, you defiantly pulled off his mask.

"- Hey! What are you doing?" - Spider-Man was outraged and tried to take his mask from you

"- Peter? Is that you?" - you asked in surprise. Parker looked at you and turned away sharply.

"- No! Don't look at me!" - Peter tried to hide his face with his hands -"I'm not Peter!

"- You are Spider-Man! I can't believe it"

"- Don't talk so loud" - Peter came closer - "Someone might hear it"

"- Hey, don't worry, I promise no one will find out about your secret"

"- T-thank you..." - Parker whispered "- Why are you awake at such a late hour?"

"- I couldn't sleep because I was worried about you. You promised to come, but you didn't"

"- Oh, I'm so sorry about it"

"- Don't worry, I had a great time with your Aunt May, I think she liked me"

"- That's good" - Peter smiled. There was an awkward pause between you as you just stared down. Parker was the first to break the silence between you

"- Y/N can I tell you s-something?"

"- Sure" - after your words, Peter nervously took your hand and looked into your eyes

"- Y/N, I know now is not the right time, but we have been friends for a long time and I... I... No! I can't to say that!" - Peter turned around

"- Peter" - you came closer to him and touched his shoulder with your hand -"You know you can tell me everything and I'll keep it in secret if you ask me. We are best friends, do you remember?"

"- That's what I tried to say, Y/N!" - Peter turned to you sharply -"I don't want to be your friend anymore!" - You felt your heart break into a million pieces.

"- Well, if that's what you really want..." - you could barely hold back your tears - "I won't bother you anymore..."

"- No, no, no, wait, that's not what I meant!" - Peter sighed and whispered - "Oh, my God, Peter, why are you so stupid?" - You didn't understand anything. Peter, as if thinking something, took your hand againe

"- Peter, what are you do..." - you were interrupted by an unexpected kiss on the lips. Peter kissed you and it was completely real! Realizing what he was doing, Parker pulled away from you.

"- No, what have I done? Y/N, I'm sorry, I didn't ask you before..." - you kissed him again to shut him up. This moment could last forever if you didn't need oxygen, you pulled away from each other, gasping for air

"- Wow! I did not expect this" - Peter smiled nervous and looked at you -"But, now I'm sure, I love you, Y/N and... Would you like to be my girlfriend?"

"- Yes..."- you answered, Peter smiled and kissed you again.

#marvel #marvel imagine #marvel x reader #the avengers #avengers imagine #avengers x reader #peter parker #peter parker imagine #peter parker x reader #peter parker x y/n #spider man #spider man imagine #spider man x reader #spider man x y/n

[lovelanguageisolate]

Reading the introduction to von Neumann's Games and Economic Behavior. He's very in touch with the poverty of the state of economics, the huge challenges involved, and the need to focus on making a difference where differences can be made.

His portrait of how physics and mathematics coevolved is crisp and beautifully motivates how difficult applying the mathematical tools of the day to social problems is. I think he's after something like the Asimovian dream of psychohistory—of actually being able to predict human behavior on generational timescales and engineer societies based on those predictions. That same dream has drawn cybernetics nerds into econ for generations.¹

One thing that stands out: he smacks down so many criticisms of microeconomics still bandied around today. He does it very well, moving fluidly from one point to another, always hemming the opposition in. I'm happy, because he puts these arguments in such wonderful context. I'm sad, because people still make them now and don't seem to overcome his responses when they do so.

"Why does econ focus on these toy problems?" Because they're tractable and let us compare theory with both observation and intuition, which is unskippable foundation-laying (compare probability theory, which was first used to characterize obvious problems before we got things like Buffon's needle).

"Why doesn't sprinkling math on economics work?" Well, applying calculus works when doing marginal analysis, but most of the time, we mostly don't know what's happening. There's often no setup—no ansatz—we can do to gain new insight. When economists do this, they're often just putting fancy mathematical clothes on their verbal arguments, not discovering anything new. And calculus itself emerged from the need to solve kinematics problems in physics, and the kinds of problems we want to understand in economics often seem pretty different from this. Von Neumann really hopes that we'll discover new kinds of math to better understand economics, and Games is meant as a step in that direction.

"Why bother with math at all? Trying to reduce humans to a bunch of numbers is foolish!" Well, we can observe humans exhibiting preferences and making choices, which immediately suggests there's quantitative data (ordinal utilities) we can work with. And studying the impact of ordinal utilities at the margin using calculus is no more problematic, von Neumann argues, than studying clumps of atoms and other indivisible quanta as continuous bodies.

"Why don't we try to understand more important and complicated systems, like the US economy?" Because the system is complex and the data is pitifully sparse for that complexity²—and there's nothing to be gleamed from very complex data that we cannot theorize about. "Observation is theory-laden" isn't language von Neumann had, but he seems to be reaching for this idea. Von Neumann even does a David Deutsch-esque maneuver of saying, "we scanned the heavens for millennia in vain before it gave us ideas, which made all the difference."

---

1. The boldest form of this vision has a serious problem, which Karl Popper elucidated: as long as new knowledge is being created, and as long as predicting human behavior depends on understanding the state of human knowledge, prediction will always be limited, because the discovery of new knowledge is unforeseeable by definition.

2. I think a dynamicist breaking this point down further would talk about things like the number of parameters (and the enormous phase space that the economy must live in), the lack of stationarity on the timescales we can look at, and how few of the driving processes can be observed. As of 2023, my understanding is that most macroeconomic models taken seriously need to capture both behaviors we know must happen (like capital costs reflecting technology efficiencies) and strongly suspect must happen (like hysteresis in labor markets leading to sustained unemployment). Just capturing those behaviors makes the models so capacious that falsifying them, never mind fitting them to reality, seems hopeless. What's amazing is that von Neumann must have known much less about these things when he was writing, but he understands this phenomenon of data poverty extremely well.

#john von neumann #game theory #economics #philosophy of science

[futurebird]

There is a lot of anxiety and energy put in to the project of defining fascism. It makes sense. Fascism is (nearly) universally understood to be negative, dangerous, intoxicating. Fascism is the bath salts of political philosophy. A drug terrifying not just because of its degrading effects on the body, but the horror of enacting out atrocities -- but being unable to recognize them as atrocities until sober.

A precise, sorting definition of fascism would be a powerful prophylactic. But, most of the more serious writing on this subject ends up insisting that such a mathematically well-defined definition isn't possible, before moving on to do the important work of highlighting what regimes universally agreed to be fascist have in common. Of course the anxiety and desire for a definition isn't the result of idle historical curiosity. People in many nations, especially the US are worried that fascism is resurgent in the anti-democratic, nationalistic, nostalgic currents in right wing politics. And, it probably is. But the point I'd like to suggest is that even if it weren't "really real fascism" it's not much comfort. The atrocities of the present and the future will earn their own infamous names.

And it's not like presenting proof that something is fascism slows any of them down at all. Just as quickly you will hear "The real fascism are all these people using historical parallels to say that we are fascist." I think there is a good chance we may make it past this dangerous fork in the road. But it won't be the last one we face as climate change demands that we care for and cooperate with each other more than ever or -

-or take the other path.

#fascism #definition of fascism #the future