the mortal enemy of videogames

rejj

Syzygy I’m curious (and to bring us back to the topic at hand, the mortal enemy of video games), what are your thoughts on Pinker? I understand that in recent years he has outed himself as a toxic dirtbag, but I was rather taken by The Stuff of Thought when I read it shortly after publication.

Syzygy

rejj
I don’t know anything about Pinker’s personal life and I’ve only ever spoken with him passingly. My own general rule is to judge works separately from their author— and as for his pop science ling books, I read the The Language Instinct a couple years into my study, and I’ve skimmed others. I think they’re fine, on the coffee table to share some of the introductory ideas of linguistics; it’s a young science, and the basic things linguists argue about and study (POS, morphologies, etc.) aren’t yet known even by name to most. For me there’s not much to them, but of course I read things like A Brief History of Time in other fields, so it makes me understand how physicists or chemists probably feel about me invoking their work in the abstract.

yeso

Syzygy wait a minute, you’ve talked to the guy?

Syzygy

yeso
I’ve said “hi how you doing” at conferences / lectures; linguistics is not a broad field, and what Pinker is known for inside it is as a prominent Chomsky-an, nativist on the language acquisition argument— as is my alma mater, so they invite him.

yeso

I imagine he’s persona non grata at said conferences nowadays as rejj alluded to

Moon

I finished “Tigerman” by Nick Harkaway recently, meaning that I have now read all of Harkaway’s novels. Here’s a ranked list:

Gnomon: a puzzle box of a book that wants to change you into someone who can solve it. A+.
Gone Away World: a light harted Kung fu epic. An allegory for the Iraq War in a world where thoughts can take form and kill.
Tigerman: an Island has been condemned, deemed doomed by the international community because of an impending volcanic event, and declared a legal free-for-all zone. A retired Sargent, the last vestige of the British government that remains on the island, sits on his hands at his decorative government position, until his relationship with a young boy draws him into a plot to try to protect the boy, and the island. I don’t usually like superhero stuff, but this was suitably self aware about the tropes of “capeshit” for it to be enjoyable to me.
Angelmaker: I don’t even remember enough to say much about it, but this one was a big miss with me. Didn’t care for it at all.

I’ve also been getting into the works of Connie Willis, which I mentioned way earlier in this thread, after reading a collection of her short works, but am finding her novels to be WAY to slow paced and drawn out for my taste. I really would recommend her collected short stories, though.

@Syzygy have you ever read/heard of “The Spell of the Sensous: Perception and The More Than Human World”? It’s my favorite non-fiction book. To me it strikes a good balance between some dense, sober philosophy and some more “woo” subjects. It’s the book that made me take animism seriously. It’s got an interesting take in it about the development of the phonetic alphabet being the beginning of severance of man’s connection to nature, as it brought platonic ideas not directly based on lived experience to the forefront of communication.

Would be curious to know if you’ve heard of it or have any thoughts.

Syzygy

Moon
I had never heard of it; I’ll look for it, such topics are close to me. Though, I am soon moving IRL, so if I can’t find a pirate copy it’ll be a bit before I can matriculate to my new library.

My disdain for language, at times approaching hate, may seem at odds with studying linguistics, but— know thy enemy, right? I came out of formal education unshaken that capital L-anguage, this wispy thing called “U.G.” or the “Language Organ”, is to the human soul what arithmetic is for Being, and in fact takes a cruel precedence over the latter because everything we know of it, we know through syntax. That in the history of the species of the speaking ape, no one has ever once said what they meant.

rejj

Syzygy That in the history of the species of the speaking ape, no one has ever once said what they meant.

This is no deep thought I present here – indeed I imagine this is covered in the first class in the first year of any undergrad philosophy of language course – but it has always struck me as interesting that when two people are talking, one is making weird noises pushing out air and the other is attempting to read their mind.

Syzygy

Relevant to the thread: as a child I read a sci-fi short story, collected in one of those little 45-page books teachers buy for classrooms, the premise of which was a conversation between two characters revealed to be aliens debating on the repulsive physiology of homo sapiens: that they “communicate by blowing oxygen between their flaps of meat”, and ultimately declining to initiate first contact with Earth. It was probably penned in the tone of ‘kids like gross stuff’, but was one early influence to activate my almonds on this.

Moon

Syzygy They’re Made Out Of Meat! A classic and only few pages long! A very quick read for anyone out there who is interested.

I do hope you get around to Spell of the Sensous someday as it is one of my favorites and I’d love to hear your thoughts.

BluntForceMummy

So I ill-advisedly borrowed a “beach book” political thriller from my mom.
The President’s Daughter by James Patterson and BILL CLINTON (!)
There is toooo much to say about this drivel - although I did read the entire thing to see how the plot turned out.
A hysterical fantasy from Bill Clinton. The US president is a former Navy SEAL operator whose wife is an archaeology professor, even though she’s so hot she could have been a model (this is stated).
The president is politically out-maneuvered by his DEVIL WOMAN career-politician vice president (who is not his wife) and loses the job. The now former president’s daughter is kidnapped by an Islamic terrorist (whose motivations are laid out clearly by Mr. Clinton). Only hippy college students believe that poverty and US intervention are causes of extremism. They are soon set straight by the president’s daughter - did you know that Osama bin Laden grew up rich ? (Osama exists in the canon, even though the antagonist is an Osama-like).

But all of this aside, I only brought this up because of VIDEO GAMES. During a hostage rescue mission undertaken in person by the former US president, an autistic(!) female NSA agent gamer (!) with red hair (?) has a good idea for a video game while killing people:

I just can’t believe Mr. Clinton’s sophisticated knowledge of game development (made by gamers), game genres that exist (single-shooter), and good names for video games that are not taken (Overwatch).

I read this book so you don’t have to.

captain

BluntForceMummy I read this book

thank you for your service

Gaagaagiins

BluntForceMummy A highly combat trained president vs. the vice president? Oh, this is just Metal Wolf Chaos fan fiction,

yeso

lmao

And hey fans of the clinton crime/literary family are luck!

https://www.simonandschuster.com/p/state-of-terror

穴

I feel like we need a single-shooter videogame adaptation of that book

wickedcestus

a not-so-startling look at what people who have been the president of the united states/secretary of state think of what their job was

Gaagaagiins

I’m not gonna lie I find it absolutely hilarious that the Former President of the United States and the Former Apparently Pre-Destined President of the United States (Who Was Robbed) are aware that if they attempted to publish fiction written by a ghost writer no one would believe it so they just gave themselves secondary billing on a novel where they collabed with another established author, a totally normal thing to do

◉◉maru

Ah yes, I have heard of that famous single-shooter game.

yeso

non-US residents please do not make fun of our politicians attempts to co-write thriller novels. Let’s see how vincente fox for example or nicolas sarkozy would do. Was Rob Ford the PM? I’d actually like to read that guy’s techo-thriller

◉◉maru

yeso non-US residents please do not make fun of our politicians attempts to co-write thriller novels.

We’re on brand, ours write erotic novels about themselves banging another man’s wife or themselves banging their teacher.

yeso

Angela Merkel with Dean Koontz

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