Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in dentin's LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, February 28th, 2012
11:16 am	One Minute Physics There are two extremely short videos on modern physics in this blog post: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2012/02/26/what-the-world-is-made-of/ I'm really impressed by the quality of these - not only are they extremely close to correct, but the first one gets across what I'd consider The Most Important Fact about modern physics. The obvious guess as to the Most Important Fact would be "mathematics is the universal language of the universe". However, this is a cheap soundbite; everyone already knows it and pays it lip service. I seriously don't know anyone who -doesn't- already believe this. It's what we're all taught from somewhere around age 5. What I consider the important part is mentioned somewhat in passing, because pretty much every physicist knows it, but physicists don't realize that laymen don't realize it. Consider the following quote from the first video: "Suppose you're ambitious enough to try to describe everything in the observable universe using one single mathematical equation. Done!" This is the important part. Everyone already "knows" that mathematics is the language of the universe, but few people know what that actually means. This statement hits harder: 1) Mathematics is the language of the universe 2) We know that language extremely well, far better than the layperson might expect 3) Everything in the observable universe can be described using ONE single mathematical equation, which we know and understand. 4) Everything IN THE OBSERVABLE UNIVERSE can be described using ONE single mathematical equation, which we know and understand. 5) EVERYTHING in the observable universe can be described using ONE single mathematical equation, which we know and understand. 6) EVERYTHING in the observable universe can be described using ONE single mathematical equation, WHICH WE KNOW AND UNDERSTAND. The capitalized words are important to emphasize just how much these statements mean. In short, there's nothing in the universe that isn't explained by math, and we understand the math really well. The implications of this are far reaching and quite frankly unpleasant for most people. Initially, smart people realize that this makes the universe predictable - which is the essence of the scientific method itself - and some of the smarter ones realize that this implication extends to predicting people as well. People like to think they are special, that the rules don't apply to them, and being described by math goes against our core nature: it effectively says that people are understandable, in every way, and that is extremely uncomfortable to many. A further implication for smarter people is that this simply rules out most supernatural stuff. The equation does in fact predict what happens out to 12+ decimal places, and once you make those predictions you're only left with less than one part in a trillion where supernatural effects can manifest. So in short, no spirits, no ghosts, no souls, no interfering supernatural gods, no homeopathy, and no magic. Each of these things requires a change to the laws of physics to even be possible on a visible scale, and we see no sign of such a change coming. That's my true takeaway from the first video, even though I consider it a hidden point that few people will grasp. We really do live in a clockwork universe and we really are just minor automatons operating wholly within well-defined, simple mathematical laws; but so long as the illusion of free will exists, I see no reason to despair. -------------------------------------------------------------------- As a side note, it occurs to me that each of these realizations requires casting off a previously cached thought, a previously held belief, each level a bit deeper and more abstract than the previous: - wait, we can predict the universe? [Yes.] (People in ancient times did not necessarily believe that the universe was predictable, but it is a common belief now.) - what about unexplained things like ghosts and spirits? Are they covered too? [Yes.] (Belief in the unexplained will continue to be a problem due to cognitive defects in the way humans weigh evidence, but with luck the incidence will drop.) - if spirits are explained, does this explain the soul and everything that people do? Aren't people special? [Yes, it explains everything people do, and no, we're not special or exempt.] (It is unfortunately still a common belief that people are 'special' and somehow exempt from the laws of physics. We're not.) - if spirits, souls, and people are explained, doesn't this limit the powers of conventional gods such as the holy trinity and Zeus? [Yes. It limits their powers severely.] - if all of this is explained, where is the magic and wonder in the universe? [There is no magic. But there's plenty of awesome stuff to gaze in wonder at and to try to explain or understand.] - so what's the point of living? [Whatever you make of it.] While writing this out, I believe I now understand why most people never make it to the final implications of the first video; it is difficult enough to cast off a single belief, much less half a dozen of them. And some of these are going to be critical support pillars for people; you don't just rip out something like that and rebuild your belief system overnight. Even just looking at my experience: - in 1997 I obtained an understanding of statistical mechanics that became a critical support pillar as an adjunct to Newtons Laws of Motion for predicting the universe - in 1998 I obtained sufficient information about biblical stories to discount them fully and believe that the biblical record was at best a minor inaccurate history document that for the most part did not match reality - in 1999 I was able to remove 'belief in afterlife' as a critical core belief upon which many other things were based - in 2000 I was able to remove most of my belief in the traditional christian god, but held onto it subconsciously to varying degrees in unobvious places - in 2011 I finally realized that the universe had no point and that there truly was no god, afterlife, or purpose. This depressed me for two weeks while I reworked my belief system to function completely without these three constructs. I am now quite happy with the change, and it's not because I simply replaced them with other beliefs; I actually rebuilt my belief system such that they are simply not required. The bulk of my changes took four years, so it seems reasonable (if disappointing) that it would take people so long to change. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 10th, 2012
12:17 pm	Alter Aeon 17th Anniversary Event This weekend, Alter Aeon is 17 years old! In celebration we'll be running a one time multi-day event in which the fate of the magical world is at stake. This will be a multi-stage event, and our current tentative schedule is: - Part 1 - Friday, Jan 13, starting at 5:00 pm EST - Part 2 - Saturday, Jan 14, starting at 12:00 pm EST (noon) - Part 3 - Sunday, Jan 15, starting at 3:00 pm EST The first two chunks of the event should be open participation, with or without a group, and the notices will be posted. If you miss the start of the parts, you'll be able to jump in later without any trouble. The final part of the event, on Sunday, will be group oriented and it's important to be at least somewhat on time. We may be rerun the final part later that evening if there's enough demand. This event is intended to be a mid to high level event. While experienced players below level 20 can participate, some portions will be risky or may require a group to complete. We hope to see you there! Alter Aeon MUD http://www.alteraeon.com (Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
12:07 pm	Alter Aeon Year End - Update The year-end celebration has started at Alter Aeon! We're starting things off with a bang today by re-opening the troll caverns in the dark forest on Archais. This update to the original area adds two more levels of caves, a number of new monsters, fame, equipment, and a quest. The caves are suitable for players in the level 25-30 range. Other events that are planned: - On the 25th, chrismas day, we will be opening Scribe's new stone giant area west of Finspang on the mainland. This is a high level area and it puts a very different spin on stone giants than you might be expecting. - On the 28th, we'll be opening a brand new area north of the Old Indira Forest on the island of Kordan. This level 10-14 area is intended to give low level players on Kordan a safe place to explore, and possibly defeat the mole king while they're at it. - Up to the 23rd, Shadowfax is running an object creation contest that is open to everyone. Check board 8 for details. - Several different minor contests and activities similar to the famous Halloween Pumpkin Cannon, schedule TBA. We're also be running sales on various credit purchases in game if you're into that sort of thing. Finally, all players who log in from now until the end of the year will get a daily thank you gift from the admin, including experience, practices, and sometimes credits. Thanks to everyone for playing! -dentin Alter Aeon MUD http://www.alteraeon.com (Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 13th, 2011
12:04 pm	Alter Aeon year end events I'd like to let everyone know about the year-end celebration we have planned on Alter Aeon. Starting on the 21st of December and going through new years eve, you can look forward to the following: - The release of a new low level area near Indira As part of our ongoing efforts to give level 8-12 players more quests and areas to explore, we'll be opening a brand new area north of the Old Indira Forest on the island of Kordan. - A major update to the troll caves on Archais Originally created over 15 years ago, the troll caves were recently taken offline and given a major makeover. We'll be officially opening the updated area, which should now be suitable for levels 24-30. - The release of a new high level stone giant area west of Finspang This area, created by the original builder of the Undead City of Jo'Kerin, shows a different side of stone giants. If you're only familiar with the giants that reside in the Ash Mountains, you'll be surprised. - An object creation contest, open to everyone (this is currently running and submissions will close on Dec 23rd, see SF's post) - Daily gifts will be given out to everyone who logs in! - Several different minor contests and activities similar to the famous Halloween Pumpkin Cannon We'll also be running sales on various credit purchases in game if you're into that sort of thing. I'll post a more detailed schedule closer to the 21st. We hope to see you there! Alter Aeon MUD http://www.alteraeon.com (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011
12:37 pm	Alter Aeon Halloween Event If you like vampires, mummies, demons and other things that go bump in the night... Stock up on supplies and get ready for a fight. Come see us on October twenty-ninth, it all starts at midnight. This friday night/saturday morning at midnight, a new area will be opening in the land of Alter Aeon. This place is known as the nightmare plane - little is known of it as yet, but if the name is any hint it sounds terrifying. This new high level area, months in the making, consists of nearly 350 rooms, over 150 beasties and a host of new fame and fortunes waiting to be found. Over a half a dozen new quests lines are available to explore. All day sunday, we will be running arena and other events every few hours to give everyone a chance to participate and say hello. We'll have novelty items and prizes for everyone. On sunday night/monday morning at midnight, an invasion will begin, with incursions all day on Halloween. There will be prizes for all levels outside of the new player zones. New this year is a special quest zone to help stop the invasion and get a permanent deed added to your character. This zone is set up to allow groups to progress at their own pace without interference from other players or groups that may also be trying to stop the invasion. We hope to see you there! Alter Aeon MUD http://www.alteraeon.com (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, September 17th, 2011
11:04 am	2011 Alter Aeon Cleric Update The 2011 Alter Aeon "Cleric Update" is now live! This update contains a lot of changes to improve traditional cleric spells, add a new mode of casting for mages, and clean up other spells and skills that have traditionally not been as awesome as they could be. Here's a list of the most major changes: - Mages now have the ability to 'channelcast' (ccast) certain elemental spells in combat. Channelcasting takes longer than regular casting, but is interruptible and costs substantially less mana. This feature allows mages to become a true 'blaster' class without compromising healing mana. The channel casting skills are 'fire focusing', 'ice focusing', 'lightning focusing' and 'crystal focusing'. The fire plane is easiest to reach, and hence it's the lowest level and easiest to channel. The crystal plane is much harder to reach and only high level mages will be able to channel from it. - Added a necromancer spell 'bone dragon', which allows you to fly around over the landscape. - Ice imprison and crystal prison have been updated. - Ward good and ward evil are now more powerful. - The charm spell has been updated to make it easier to land and to use control points similar to controlled necromancer minions. - The peace spell has been improved. - A level 19 curse, 'overconfidence', has been added. - A level 19 spell, 'hold undead', has been added. - A level 28 spell, 'sacred touch', has been added. - A level 29 spell, 'solace', has been added. As always, you can use the 'spell find' commands to find the teachers or trainers for new spells and skills. Everyone is welcome to play, so if you're new to the game feel free to stop by and check us out. For more information, see our web site at: http://www.alteraeon.com Happy hunting! -dentin Alter Aeon MUD (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 13th, 2011
12:23 pm	Alter Aeon is Famous! If you've ever tried to get attention in the gaming world, you know how well-neigh impossible it is. There are literally tens of thousands of game developers of every budget category, from the smallest single-person outfits to kings like Blizzard and CCP. Even getting someone to review your game can sometimes be a lost cause. With that as a backdrop, Alter Aeon this weekend got a spontaneous review on the GamingHUD web site. This is a pretty big website that reviews a lot of mainstream games. For AA to even be seen by fish of this size is pretty amazing. The review also isn't some slapdash piece of filler material. The reviewer spent a lot of time on the game and even emailed me for additional information. The final article came out very positive and very long. The link is: Alter Aeon MUD - A World of Infinite Possibilities Feel free to check it out and maybe drop a thank you to the author for their hard work. The address of the game itself is: http://www.alteraeon.com (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011
3:27 pm	Alter Aeon Updates! I'd like to announce a summertime expansion for Alter Aeon! We're raising the maximum level to 35 in each class, and each class gets a new spell or skill at that level. We've also added skill boosting equipment for thieves and warriors, similar to spell boosting equipment that casters have always had. Everyone is welcome, so if you're new to the game feel free to stop by and check us out. Our address is: http://www.alteraeon.com For existing players, there have been a lot of general gameplay improvements since our major expansions in October and December. If you haven't logged in recently, you may want to give us another look. Current Mood: accomplished (Comment on this)
Saturday, June 4th, 2011
10:25 am	Henry When I was a child, I had a stuffed animal named Henry. Henry was light brown, and looked vaguely like a snoopy kind of dog. I just now remembered him, the floppy ears and the name tag that over the years gradually came off. I don't remember when he stopped being part of my life, though I suspect it was more that he became relegated to the toy box more and my play time less over the years until I didn't notice that he was gone. I may also have passed him down to my siblings. Memories like this, from such early times, are rare because they have so few links to more current events. An orphaned memory can languish indefinitely and fade; but providing an external link such as this at least gives possibility to refreshing it later. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 13th, 2011
1:14 am	Go figure http://commonsenseatheism.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Lilienfeld-Psychological-Treatments-That-Cause-Harm.pdf (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, January 15th, 2011
5:00 pm	Alter Aeon 16th Anniversary Alter Aeon's 16th anniversary is this weekend! We have a handful of events planned for both saturday and sunday to celebrate: - Clan and pk battles throughout the weekend for trophies and prizes - A leveling contest on a version of the game from 1995 - Several exploration contests for all level ranges We're also 'officially' turning on area instancing, which means you should start to see it on other areas as we get them ready for it. Lastly, rather than post updates on boards, I'm going to be adding a 'show events' command that should list event information and schedules. This should help keep everyone up to date on what's going on. Festivities are already underway, and will continue through Sunday afternoon. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, December 25th, 2010
4:04 pm	Alter Aeon Christmas Expansion The latest AA expansion is live, and here's the list of just the big stuff we added: A level 25 mage skill 'melt' A level 27 mage skill 'spell lore' A level 6 cleric spell 'faith shield' A level 31 cleric spell 'breath of life' A level 32 cleric spell 'group waypoint' A level 33 cleric spell 'area heal' A level 34 cleric spell 'astral bridge' A level 8 thief skill 'listen' A level 29 thief skill 'fast talking' A level 26 warrior skill 'cleave' A level 32 warrior skill 'whirlwind' A level 8 necromancer spell 'bone blade' Reworks and improvements to multiple necromancer spells and skills. A complete explorer point system. New achievements for soulstones and explorer points. On top of all this, if you're an existing player, stop in and say hello; if you hang out for a while, the game will give you a gift or two. http://www.alteraeon.com telnet://alteraeon.com:3000 Happy holidays! (Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 21st, 2010
3:25 pm	Alter Aeon Christmas Event Every year on AA, we have a Christmas event. This year, I decided to do something special: add a bunch of spells and skills to the various character classes as presents for the players. Normally I just install stuff as it comes to mind, and I would have slowly added these things over the course of the last two weeks as they were finished. But the release of our recent necromancer class has taught me something: I can release in bigger chunks pretty easily now that I know how. And people like bigger chunks, because it's more stuff at once. I can do PR on bigger chunks, because it's a big enough set of changes to be 'interesting'. So, bigger chunks it is. And on saturday, I'll turn it on and if you're an AA player, you can find out what your presents contain! (Comment on this)
Monday, November 15th, 2010
3:06 pm	Politics Reading EHowton's recent post, and coupling it with a lot of thinking I've been doing myself, I wonder how we could do better as a nation. I've decided to ignore the feasibility aspects of things here; this is purely a thought experiment, because its probability of implementation is essentially zero. However, I think there are some interesting ideas. -------------------------------------- I'm going to start with the assumption that full democratic voting is a complete failure as designed. The outcome of voting is fundamentally biased toward candidates who best comfort the masses and say the right things at the right time. In short, the people who win elections are almost invariably experts at saying what the people want to hear. Seldom are they an expert or even qualified to set policy and make laws. So, as a democracy, we elect PR-savants instead of the best qualified people, and there's nothing we can do about it. It's how the system is designed. But that doesn't mean it's all bad - we need PR-savants to make people feel like they're contributing, like they have a say, and like someone is listening to them. So having officials that are experts on public relations and popularity contests is a good idea. Still, we don't want these PR people setting policy. If they don't set policy, who does? Consider the appointment of supreme court judges to the judicial system. Judges are nominated by the executive and vetted by the legislative. They are put under a microscope and examined in detail, their record is exhaustively looked at and their qualifications scrutinized. And almost invariably, the judges that are put in place via this process are supremely competent to do their job. Our elected officials, who are typically nothing more than PR-savants with no real qualifications, somehow end up selecting supreme court judges that are stunningly qualified, experienced, and intelligent. This is what we want for lawmakers. Perhaps the idea of an electoral college simply didn't go far enough; perhaps a nomination and selection process is in fact a better approach. Consider the following power structure for federal process: - Add another government branch, the "representative" - Legislative branch reduced to two bodies of officials with a 10-20 year term limit so that only about a quarter of them can be changed out during any particular "representative" branch term. One body proposes and drafts legislation, the other approves, vetos, or sends it back for revision. Legislators are installed by appointment only. - Citizens vote for members of the representative branch that make them feel all tingly and hopeful, or more likely, 'least shitty'. - Executive branch gains additional power to nominate legislators. - Representative branch officials have as their sole power the ability to vet legislators and justices, in the same way that supreme court justices are currently vetted. The executive branch provides nomination. In this system voters can't directly elect legislators. The default argument against this is that the elite would be making decisions for the masses, which is somehow a Bad Thing. Yes, it is the elite making decisions for the masses, but that's hardly bad in itself. Ask yourself, who do you want in charge of big, important things? Do you want Joe the Plumber, or do you want Alan Greenspan? Sarah Palin, or Warren Buffett? Would you really prefer to have John McCain sitting on the Legislative Internet Advisory Committee instead of Bill Gates? The fact of the matter is that running a country is a big job. Two very big jobs, in fact: one job to make the right decisions, and one job to make the people feel like the right decisions are being made. Let's split those tasks, because there's no way a single elected official can do them both at the same time. (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 14th, 2010
2:20 pm	Self control I think I'm going to have to start going back to calorie counting everything I eat. I get into these stupid habits where I munch on shit all the time and stay 'maximally full' - the problem is, when I'm like that, I physically feel like crap and have almost no motivation. Plus, if I do it for long enough, I start to gain weight. I wish in a lot of ways that our bodies weren't so closely tied to our brains, and that it were easier to 'deprogram' core things like this. If I had the ability, I would consider rewriting a lot of the lower layers of my software stack. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, November 6th, 2010
12:38 pm	New (old?) Alter Aeon Article I thought I would mention this, even though it's been a couple of weeks. Someone posted an article about us on BrightHub, in the gaming section: Mudding Communities Are Alive and Well in Alter Aeon If you haven't seen it before, you might want to take a look at it. It focuses more on the human aspect of things, and gives you some RL background history on Storm, Lokar, and Morpheus/Sandman. Morpheus' story in particular is pretty cool. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010
11:44 am	Alter Aeon Necromancer Class Expansion I'm pleased to announce the addition of a new Necromancer class to the game I run, Alter Aeon. It's taken me 16 years, but I finally expanded the class selection from 4 to 5 different options. Hopefully it won't be the last, but it'll definitely be at least a year before I do another one. This class adds a lot of flavor and new options to the game. Some of the available spell and skill groups for necromancers involve: - creating animated entities of various sorts - raising your own undead - summoning demons for fun and profit - using dragon teeth as powerful spell components - blood skills involving your own blood - controlling undead and demons - soulsteal and other spirit-based spells A full spell at skill list can be found at: Alter Aeon Necromancer Spells and Skills A lot of work went into the minion system for this, to allow high level necromancers to create and manage several minions at once. The class plays very differently from any of the others, and is looking like a great addition to the game. Feel free to stop by and check it out if you haven't already! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 24th, 2010
7:41 pm	Teapots I'm a big ship with a tiny little rudder. Thank you K, I'm starting to really grasp what you meant by that. It's been enlightening. (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 7th, 2010
5:06 pm	It's hard to look up... ... when you're used to looking down. I just went for a walk with intent to look up most of the time. As a result, I had a revelation of sorts. I prefer to use the word 'revelation' over 'realization', because I find it amusing given my Utah upbringing and current belief system. These buildings and large works of man were not built by one person. While wandering around the city center, I saw several homeless, one of which was waddling while trying to pull up pants that had in fact fallen below the knees. I had grabbed the camera before leaving, so there is now a picture of the homeless man with his pants mostly retrieved somewhere among all the pictures of buildings. I also stopped off at the local college bookstore and bought a book called 'Social Intelligence', by Daniel Goleman. It appears to consist largely of ~2 page essays on various aspects of social interaction and psychology. It's definitely light reading, but perhaps it will help me understand what I don't know. Fionna had the one-day flu yesterday. I appear to have been spared. Gig this weekend. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 30th, 2010
4:10 pm	Motherly Advice I called my mom last night, and she gave me her super-secret-mommy-secret for losing 20 pounds over the course of the last year. She says she's going slow so that it becomes a lifestyle change with permanent loss. The advice? "Eat whatever you want, but if you're not hungry three days out of the week, you're not going to lose anything." It occurred to me then that I've been hungry perhaps twice this month. (1 Comment |Comment on this)