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Joined 2Y ago
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Cake day: Jun 10, 2023

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That’s a hell of a nostalgia trip. Freelancer is probably my all time favourite game, and I had literally a decade of fond memories of Disco before I eventually drifted off.

What’s it looking like these days? The pop count and surviving factions were looking a little sad the last time I checked in a year or two ago.


The two YouTube links from Haelian in my summary set up the context for why this is really hard, and then commentary on the actual run itself.


Those last few seconds were absolutely hair-raising, even if we already knew how it was going to end!


See you in 200 hours, enjoy!

Also, if you’re playing for the first time maybe don’t watch those videos until you’ve completed at least one run for spoiler reasons.


Hades player beats unmodded 64 Heat difficulty run - "arguably unachievable in thousands of hours"
Haelian published a video a week or so ago setting out the probabilities for why it was so unlikely that this difficulty configuration would ever be beat: https://youtu.be/S-VUzcJHWF0 Which of course was taken as a challenge, with runner Jade clearing heat 64 yesterday, using an unseeded and unmodded run: https://youtu.be/0mo-kXjasZs (For context, the seed is the way a particular run is generated, and players can meticulously generate seeded runs to ensure certain things do or don't spawn by taking very specific sets of actions. Dying and respawning - rather then reloading from the menu, which is quicker - resets the seed. That's why challenge runs always start with a death and respawn to show that a pre-configured seed isn't being carried over from previous runs.) Here's Haelian's reaction to the whole situation: https://youtu.be/5L7_3MrG_08 Insanely impressive, and I don't know if we'll get to see it again.
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since C2PA relies on creators to opt in, the protocol doesn’t really address the problem of bad actors using AI-generated content. And it’s not yet clear just how helpful the provision of metadata will be when it comes to media fluency of the public. Provenance labels do not necessarily mention whether the content is true or accurate.

Interesting approach, but I can’t help but feel the actual utility is fairly limited. For example, I could see it being useful for large corporate creative studios that have contractual / union agreements that govern AI content usage.

If they’re using enterprise tools that build in C2PA, it’d give them a metadata audit trail showing exactly when and where AI was used.

That’s completely useless in the context where AI content flagging is most useful though. As the quote says, this provenance data is applied at the point of creation, and in a world where there are open source branches of generation models, there’s no way to ensure provenance tagging is built in.

This technology is most needed to combat AI powered misinformation campaigns, when that is the use case this is least able to address.


Data Protection shouldn’t be a relevant issue - at least not in the sense that it forcss them to delete accounts. When you process data under the GDPR, you have to identify a lawful basis.

I assume that transactions through the eStore would be handled under the contract basis, with the hosting of the game in the library forming part of the contractual relationship. That would enable them to maintain an account for as long as the contractual relationship persisted.

That basically means GDPR doesn’t force them to close an account, they close an account based on their policies because they choose to. That’ll be based on their T&Cs, so things will fundamentally circle back to whether their T&Cs are legitimate and lawful.

It is possible that a data subject could potentially raise a claim for damages under the GDPR, on the grounds that the deletion of their account is a breach of contract that amounts to an availability data breach.


Maybe Amnesia: The Bunker is something to look into. I’ve not played it myself yet, but the reviews I saw made it sound like it might meet most of your criteria.


Is that a Space Marine Chapel Barracks I see there?

Make rhino and then blow it up with TNT. Take away their metal boxes…


Well, one context I’m already familiar with is the counter-terrorism duty in the UK. There is a program called Prevent that is designed to tackle radicalisation risk that could result in terrorism or non-violent extremism.

These programs basically work by placing a duty on certain types of organisation to report concerning behaviours that could result in radicalisation. An example would be a teacher or social worker overhearing a teenager espousing violent ideological positions that they’d been exposed to online.

This then results in a referral to the local counter-terrorism police unit, who carry out an assessment to determine the level of vulnerability and risk. Far-right ideologies including fascism can be accounted for here. Depending on the outcome, this may result in the referral being closed, or a multi-agency support plan being developed for the individual.

In that narrow band of circumstances, determining someone’s susceptibility to fascism as an extremist ideology is warranted. That’s in the context of a reactive specialist law enforcement assessment, when there is a justifiable national security interest in the prevention of terrorism.

That said, this is very different to indiscriminate profiling on a population level. If everyone in the UK was subject to mandatory fascism assessments, that would be massively intrusive and disproportionate, and an enormous infringement of civil liberties - even if the government attempted to justify it on the same national security basis described above.


In what context?

Who’d be doing the identifying, how would they be doing it, and what would they be using that information for?

‘Should’ is a question of desirability, so the above is really critically important.


I’m convinced that Musk is involved in some kind of Brewster’s Millions situation with Twitter.

I also feel sorry for the CEO (well, not really) as they’re clearly being set up as a scapegoat for the inevitable failure that Musk’s erratic and short-sighted behaviour will cause.


One of my all-time favourites is Freelancer, 2003. Just a really fun arcade space sandbox with an engaging campaign and great multiplayer and modding scene.


Why would blockchain be necessary to do that? Honestly, 99% of the time blockchain is just a highly inefficient buzzword.

Usually there are better ways to achieve the same outcome, with the added bonus of not automatically attracting a cavalcade of Web3 con-artists and grifters.