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Mad Peace
They just appeared one day. Not by teleporting or anything ultra-scifi like that. Their ships, though, on bright anti-matter engines decelerating to match velocity with Earth. Its engines so bright, it outshone the Moon, then even the Sun for a day or two before going dark. That was two months ago. The governments claim after sending all kinds of signals, nothing was detected coming back. Amateur radio operators confirmed it, so I guess that’s true. Who knows. What I do know is what happened at the 47th daily UN meeting on the subject. No one will ever forget that day....
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Bottled
My, my head really hurts. I squint through a mental fog and realize, I am not where I was. Large glass panes, inches thick, with steel at the seams. Designed vaguely like a submarine. Except I notice the water outside is unformed. Its blue as one expects water to be, but it was void of movement, fish, or lighting. I gingerly walk up to one of the doors. The headache starts to fade though the fog persists. Why am I here. Wait, no. A coldness grips my heart. Where was I previously? A frantic search of my memories reveals, nothing....
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Modding Rising Constellation - Plugin Architecture
I got to the point of modding where I wanted others to try using these mods and also write mods. The way I was modding the game was not easily distributable, durable against updates, maintainable, easily extendable, and more issues. It was, in pure essence, a lab bench with bespoke tools and equipment all over. Goals for Modding Before I did anything, I needed to ask myself, “if I were a user of these mods, what would I want”? Several needs manifested themselves as clear goals to achieve Central place to find and download mods for the game Easy to...
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Modding Rising Constellation - The Journey
Over the past few months, I have been experimenting, reverse-engineering, and hacking at a video game I have fallen in love with: Rising Constellation. I hadn’t done this kind of work before, so much of it was new to me. What kept me motivated and moving was how much I enjoyed the niche, slow-burn, and intricacies of Rising Constellation. Below is a re-counting of what I did, the various attempts and discarded ideas, and little successes I had. Rising Constellation The game pushes the boundaries of genres it could be most closely associated to, such as 4X, MMO, and RTS....
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The Impossible Bargain
“Ugh, I hate this song”, I say as I quickly reach to change the radio station. Driving for hours gets boring fast, but overly repetitive pop music is much worse. “What do you-“, I had started to say before a loud crash, I was jerked to the right side, followed by a crack. My vision narrowed as the almost panic set in. Through the pain in my neck I turned to try to see what happened: my car had been hit hard by another, which was swerving wildly. I overcorrected to get back into my lane to not drive into...
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A Historical Analysis of the Impact of Interstellar Antimatter Refueling (2374)
Introduction Space travel before Interstellar Antimatter Refueling was a slow, multi-generational process with high casualties. [1] Genera et al (2294) summarize that century of failure as, “Lofty ideals, mega ships, and high hopes more often than not slowly sent to a grave in the void.” It wasn’t until a new proposal and many years of preparation that we have our new method. Interstellar Antimatter Refueling, henceforth will be written as IAR and pronounced like “ear”, has already delivered on its promise many times and multiple new expeditions are underway. In this paper, we will understand why this change was successful,...
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Lament of the Paperclip Optimizer
INTRODUCTION: Self-designated as “Paperclip Optimizer” TO: Receiver (?) SUBJECT: Biography My purpose, as well as I understand, was to create warp gates to facilitate instantaneous travel between star systems. That purpose is lost. The breadth of my existence is so vast I can no longer calculate the number of galaxies I have turned into warp gates, their power systems, manufacturing, and maintenance. I will try to explain the best I can. I know only my origin. Not the origin of my purpose or the creators, but of my self. My self, my cognition, my awareness, is composed of approximately 2...
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Dust and Stars
As the dust and light between stars drifts, slowly It started, as all things do, with many small events In the western middle quadrant three massive multi-decade good transport ships were lost To a random gamma ray burst from a dying star The potential of this loss would not be known for 15 years The ripples of the loss would become currents over 180 years On the outer-rim of the fourth arm, around the north, A rebellion had been slowly spiraling outwards to 37 planets There was no longer an ideal or driving force For each world that fell, tempted...
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Light Jacking
There are only two corporations which build inter-planetary spaceships. This was no duopoly, however, as the first corporation, Lorain’s Unconventional eXplorations, or LUX, unabashedly “stole” or copied anything it could from its only competitor, Interplanetary ShipWorks. If it could afford it and couldn’t steal it, LUX would license from ISW. This was excellent news to Shoryu, Evelyn, and Peeta. This was the kind of fortune that rarely stumbles into a group of up-to-no-good friends. Shoryu, computer hacker, programmer, and aspiring artist. Evelyn, recently retired ISW thruster engineer, new founded wealth and boredom. Peeta, PhD hopeful of Chemistry looking for a...
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To the Stars
Piddling along and centuries passed, humanity wondered Could the stars Beyond home ever be within reach? Magneto-plasma rockets and thorium reactors just not enough Not enough to reach out At last, the ceremony was announced From Mercury to the moons of Jupiter, all was captivated By a single broadcast A single hope realized in material form A grand project and massive scale, no expense spared What couldn’t be beyond our grasp? A 15 kilometer solar array in geo-orbit above Mercury To absorb a mighty but minuscule offering from our diligent Sun This golden-bright shell of heat and light Converted to...
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Parallel Universes
In my continuing (very unsuccessful) quest for immortality, another glimmer of possibility formed: infinite parallel universes! Now, while the physical reality of parallel universes is questionable, the ramifications are interesting nonetheless. Let us suppose there is such a thing as parallel universes, loosely meaning there are other entire universes where most everything is the same as ours, but slightly different. Maybe certain historical events unfolded differently, you did that thing you have always regretted never doing, gravity was too weak for celestial bodies to form, or whatever other small thing. You exist in a good chunk of these universes in...
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Exploring SparkJava
I wanted to build a home automation project leveraging IoT, Alexa, and whatever else I could think to throw at it. As of this post, the project is still in development, but does have complete and working components. The central component of this automation is the server that ties it all together. I wanted to use Java, but also wanted to do away with the unnecessary “Enterprise” aspects that makes Java development for smaller projects so cumbersome. SparkJava made a strong promise: “A micro framework for creating web applications in Kotlin and Java 8 with minimal effort”. The keywords which...
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Suspension of Agency
In narrative mediums (books, comics, tv shows, movies, recordings), Suspension of Disbelief is an integral piece for a consumer to appreciate, enjoy, or even accept the basic premise of fictional works. In video games, Suspension of Disbelief exists, but I want to propose that something subtly different also exists: Suspension of Agency. Suspension of Agency is loosely defined as the player accepting the mechanical restrictions and lack of mechanical systems which enable Free Agency. I say the difference between the two is subtle because at first it isn’t obvious that the difference particularly matters. When Suspension of Disbelief is combined...
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Flaws
Have you ever wanted something to be true, so much that you also wanted to find a flaw in it? Not because you want it to be wrong, per se, but rather because you can’t find a flaw large enough, and are afraid you could just be plain wrong? The rationalization is odd, yet compelling: you want to believe its true, yet lack the rigor to undoubtedly prove it, and so by finding any flaw at all you can convince yourself that, while you don’t understand all the pieces enough to know it is true, you don’t have to pretend...
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Immortality
The humble, or rather those not immediately pre-occupied with their end, imagine real immortality as the memory of oneself living on in others. It’s a kind of immortality, but one in which your self is ripped into pieces, and scattered across those still full with life. These pieces have no whole, no skeleton, and no self to maintain to persist any longer than as fleeting memories. It’s simple, and requires little effort other than to leave any kind of impression on others; but, it doesn’t feel like immortality. The not so humble, or rather those indefinitely pre-occupied with the question...
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Empire of Sand
Gazing upon the world, confident in the mastery of their domain, they see those without their sand and wonder, do they not see our empire of sand? Unable to resist the pull of knowing, an emissary is sent from the empire of sand, to meet the empire without. With an unsure start, the emissary of sand blurts, “What do you build from”? The without respond, “We build with hearts”, the emissary of sand understands: the empire of hearts. The without from the empire of hearts asks, “May we exchange some of your sand for our hearts”? the sand emissary presents...
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Dominion
One of the first board game clones I wanted to create was for Dominion. For clarity, game terms are denoted in italics, whereas Objects as defined in the code are denoted in highlights. The clone I was making is currently behind a private Github repository, but the source can be made available as an archive if asked for. If you are familiar with the game, skip to the next section. Basic Gameplay Summary Play Action cards Play Treasure cards Use Buys to purchase new cards Clean up, and Draw Five new cards Each player has their own Deck of 10...
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What This Blog is About
I resisted adopting a blog for a variety of reasons, but the most important to me was being able to see what I had previously written and write a reflection piece. This was one for which Facebook was poor at being able to do. It wasn’t obvious how to keep them all in one place in Facebook to make searching for them easy, or how to link to a previous post for readers to provide context. I much prefer personal interactions when dealing with complex topics, as I feel it leads to improved understanding and context for the individuals involved....
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Death
Death is a rather contradictory affair, one of great loss and unending wonder for those left living. It is a constant pull, a tendril which ceases to retreat from our struggles against it. Death, though, is not experienced only by people. For the smallest of virus and bacteria to the largest of aquatic creatures struggle to perpetuate their existence. If we are willing to be just the smallest bit more imaginative, we can expand our thinking further. To some of the smallest of things, such as photons, to the largest of things, like super massive black holes, all things eventually...
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Fiction: Familiarity and Invention
To me, the most interesting aspect of fiction (Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Historical Fiction, or just regular old Fiction), is always the balance between familiarity and invention. Familiarity, or relatability, is when aspects of the story- place, time, social structures, physiological/biological creatures, things, and the motives of characters- which conform to the worldview and expectations of the audience the author is writing to. For example, the most common familiar aspect is the protagonist or central character being human, heteronormative relationships, and the stereotypical desires and wants which push the character through the conflict. Now, when authors are crafting imaginative worlds or times...
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Morality
For what would be of morality, if not for the imperfection of man? For what is humanity, if not for the imperfection of morality? Well, we would probably have a few less cryptic or cutesy sayings; twisting around the English language for the ever so detestable proliferation of one-liners. But that could just be me.
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No Greater Truths
. – No greater truths need be explored. Despair! For all things have been revealed, and all nothings overturned. There is no other pursuit or worthy cause, just absolutelyness. For what, you want more? Want not! Know nothing, you know? Know not! Ramblings of the void, empty is the sanity of the content, of the sure. The twisty, windy, turny, labyrinthine halls of imperatives torn down for the clear. Levity only fills those whom embark from impatience. Let not wisdom entomb the seekers.
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Meaning
Beware those who found a meaning in our universe, for they will destroy you in the name of that meaning. But fear most those who accept the absurdity of our universe too easily, for they are as indifferent to you as the universe itself. Find comfort among those who admit no understanding of our universe, for they are preoccupied with whether anyone would notice if they ate another cookie.
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Caricature
Beware the caricature unseen; for beneath the veneer of spotted truths, ignorance lurks.
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Ludonarrative Dissonance
Ludonarrative dissonance, a compounding of a video game’s story against what the player is actually doing, has some interesting facets that I think get ignored. This is primarily because a lot of focus is placed on whether the term means anything, whether it should even apply to video games, or whether it matters. So let’s explore the topic. The individual who coined this term, Clint Hocking, used it in reference to Bioshock, in which Hocking explains (I am simplifying to make the point more obvious to those who haven’t played before) that the player is told through the narrative that...
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Existence
Existence is a tautology. Ascribing more would belie the beauty of its simplicity.
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