These Wretched Games We Play

I spend a lot of time on my job driving around. That enables me to listen to a lot of new music. So here's the first installment of a series, a quick round-up reviewing albums that I listen to: Buena vista! Caligula - Lingua Ignota (2019) Opera / Neo-classical / Death Metal / Noise 9/10  (With the possibility of being 10/10 upon relistening) CW: Themes of Domestic Violence & Abuse I've described my emotional reaction to records with many terms; "terrified" has never been one of them. You've got your creepy albums, spooky albums, albums that fill your stomach with dread. But Caligula  made me flinch and jump with its spontaneously violent music. I'm no stranger to crying to heartbreaks music, but I've never heard a song that's driven me to tears out of fear. It's hard for me to even conceptualize the torture that Ignota has survived, but her soul-rending screams and overwhelming orchestra posses me to feel maybe a minuscu...

Jessica's Mongoose : A Solution to Roko's Basilisk  A spectre is haunting the internet, the spectre of Roko's Basilisk. A majority of internet denizens can agree that the problem of Roko's Basilisk ranks among their top concerns. To the uninitiated, the wiki of the website where from the problem originates, LessWrong ,  provides an overview of what Roko's Basilisk is.  An alternative explanation/rebuttal of Roko's Basilisk  can be found on RationalWiki. In essence, Roko's Basilisk postulates a superintelligent A.I. that utilizes efficiency and what LessWrong  users refer to as "quantum morality" to end humanity's worst crises: war, hunger, poverty, etc. A major obstacle is that building a superintelligent A.I. is difficult, as evidenced by the number of superintelligent A.I.'s in operation (0). The Basilisk, being so smart that it realizes this before it is invented, creates an incentive for its future (or past?) developers.  ...

I really didn't want to make a decade retrospective list. The inexorable march of time fucks me up something serious. Not the idea that something bad will happen in the future, but knowing that something, anything will invariably happen as anything and everything already has. Time stalks me like a flame, nipping at my spine. Why are we cosigned to become the dust we came from? But then I remembered that there were some pretty neat things this decade! So I'm making some Top 10 lists, starting with video games, and then moving onto movies, albums and NFL moments. To disclaim, this is going to be a subjective list of stuff based on its personal impact. So I'm not measuring on any basis of "greatness" or "influence" (although I'd like to think some of these entries have those qualities!). I've placed entries on here because I think back on them and they make say "Yooooooooooooooooooo, that was crazy." I also recognize the ...

Non-Football Fans Guide to Superbowl 54  So a lot, if not most, of the people attending Superbowl parties this year are not going to be football fans. You've either gone for free food or have been reluctantly dragged along and will take part in this strange American tradition with football playing in on the background. There's nothing wrong with treating it like that, football is a weird game the main purpose of which is to allow men to not think about their emotions.  But! What if you have to talk to one of your male relatives at the party? What if your boyfriend/girlfriend/partner/polycule is into it and you want to seem supportive? What if you have an inkling of curiosity as to what's actually going on in the game? This guide exists as a tool to get a quick overview of the Superbowl and maybe allow you to get a little stake in the game! (Speaking of stakes, nothing works better to get people invested into any event than literal investment.  Here's...