Tbh I always loved the idea of an opinionated car GPS/AI, just for fun, I always thought it would be hilarious if it gave instructions with an attitude or responded to the driver in kind, depending on what you throw at it. Still not buying a Tesla, just saying.

I mean yes race does intersect, it’s a longer discussion, I guess I’m just tired of this “whiteness” critique because it feels cheap and easy, hence intellectually lazy. Anything that happens in the west politically can be linked back to whiteness one way or another. I don’t think it’s been particularly helpful as a critique, in fact I think it has backfired and probably needs to go.

Very well said. I wish I could articulate this as well as you have here.

FYI, the manosphere is replete with non-white males, and that is not even including the inherent male chauvinism in other cultures. I’m sorry but the critique on whiteness is a little lazy intellectually.

Several comments on here read like prime examples of “anyone who opposes me is a fascist”. Of course in conservative forums it’s similarly “anyone who opposes me is a lunatic Marxist”. Try having a relationship across aisles in this climate!

The study took 30 years to conclude but I wonder whether the current political climate makes it even more unlikely that people across political divides can form really any kind of relationship. I know I have found it difficult to maintain a relationship with anyone staunchly conservative even if political leaning has never been a main criterion for me in mate selection or in friendships.

I can absolutely see that. And I don’t think it’s AI-specific, it’s got to do with relegating responsibility to a machine. Of course AI in the guise of LLMs can make things worse with its low interpretability, where it might be even harder to trace anything back to an executive or clerical decision.

Or maybe that is part of the allure of automation: the eschewing of human responsibility, such that any bias in decision making appears benign (the computer deemed it so, no one’s at fault) and any errors - if at all recognized as such - become simply a matter of bug-fixing or model fine-tuning. The more inscrutable the model the better in that sense. The computer becomes an oracle and no one’s to blame for its divinations.

First souls game I played was demons souls and nothing came close to that since. You never forget your first etc. Maybe bloodborne. I know most people loved the dark souls series but to me it always felt like a rehash of much of the same that was truly novel and captivating in demons souls. Of course happy that many more people got to experience souls games with the move away from the Sony IP. Yet still for me the best souls games are those that were made exclusively for PlayStation, for better or worse.

Exactly. If there is a reason for our conscious existence, it is to observe and imbue with meaning. Otherwise the world just is.

I struggle to connect with any of those characters. I did like Niko Bellic, he was a “character”. Maybe it was his accent, his immigrant’s take on things, don’t remember, it was a while ago.

FWIW the person appearing on the thumbnail is Bassel Khartabil Safadi, a Palestinian Syrian who for all intents and purposes was just an ordinary guy who wished for democracy in his country. A husband, open source advocate, and a friend. And someone who found himself in the extraordinary situation of being kidnapped by Assad’s security apparatus during the uprising of 2011, imprisoned, and eventually executed by the regime. Just because he advocated for freedom and democracy. As we think of the plight of the Palestinian people today and the unequal fight fought by everyone who dares speak out against the autocratic regimes of the Middle East, let’s take a moment to remember him and all those who the powers that be are keen to label terrorists and a threat to national security, many of whom are people like you and me who had the misfortune to live under regimes with virtually no respect for human rights. May he rest in peace and may the people of the Middle East, be it Muslims, Jews, atheists, or Christians, rise up and demand a life of freedom, solidarity, human rights, and dignity.

Review scores for this are shockingly high for a new RPG entry from a small team. Seems very Persona/FF-like, which isn’t exactly my kind of game (I tend to find most JRPGs a little stale in the game design department), but I think I will give this one a try. I’d rather support a new effort in any case than play yet another Bethesda remaster. I know they’re different games, but I hope CO will get the attention it seemingly deserves.

I wish they made a sequel already. Also so rare to have motorbike riding specifically as a mechanic woven into the protagonist’s story and not just an alternative to driving a car.

Such a shame that Coppola’s movie was bad. He was onto something there.

I remember liking GTA4 but getting burned out on its archaic in my view mission design.

Zuck puts out this weird “pick me” or “me too” energy lately, trying to fashion himself as one compatible with Trump’s world. His interest in Rome may precede Trump’s ascension to power, but his coming out is not a coincidence in my view. And yes, a fascination with Rome started as so many other things as an “innocent” meme and became a fascist dog-whistle.

Thanks for the correction, it’s Augustus Cesar. Still, what an odd connection. Good article btw.

I still haven’t played GTA5. Does it hold up (single-player) all those years later?

Zuckerberg wears t-shirts comparing himself to Julius Caesar? Why is that every time I think I’m up-to-date on the latest weirdness there’s more of it?

Huh had no idea. I still wonder how accurate this is though, like whether it can be used forensically as the word “fingerprint” suggests to identify a specific person/private machine. It’s kind of fascinating as a topic. I would think that given that most people use similar setups, similar hardware and software, similar routers and settings, it would be impossible, but perhaps with enough details of a particular setup, a specific machine and user can be identified with decent accuracy.