Interesting Links for 11-02-2018

[andrewducker]

Mayfair Games, the company that helped lead a revolution in board games is shutting down

(tags: games boardgames business )

Norway’s Olympic Team Bought 15,000 Eggs Due to a Google Translate Mistake

(tags: eggs Norway language numbers korea translation fail )

When will the world reach 'peak child'?

Obviously the best one will be born in about two months
(tags: children demographics thefuture education africa )

Terrifying British Study Shows Trump Supporters Are Now Basically Unreachable

(tags: viaJane politics news society usa )

Tiger Cub Found In Box Sent Via Courier. It Was Saved By A Sniffer Dog

(tags: tiger dogs mail OhForFucksSake )

Cryonics Myths

(tags: death cryonics myths )

More details on Mayfair Games being bought out

(tags: boardgames business )

'Soft’ UV lights in public spaces could stop flu spreading without harming humans

(tags: flu light )

Why the Culture Wins: An Appreciation of Iain M. Banks

(tags: TheCulture IainBanks scifi writing society )

Blind bisexual goose stuck in love triangle with two swans dies aged 40

(tags: lgbt birds relationships headline )

I bought this backpack, and it's awesome for travelling with. Totally recommended

(tags: storage travel recommendation )

Cadburys to remove ‘Easter’ from Easter eggs to avoid causing offence

(tags: easter funny satire reporting journalism )

What Scientists Learned From Putting 3-D Glasses on Praying Mantises

(tags: insects vision )

Barlow's principles of adult behaviour

I don't believe in sticking to these if the other person repeatedly acts in bad faith. But most of the time they're a good starting point.
(tags: advice life behaviour )

Comments

Principles Of Adult Behaviour

[pashazade.livejournal.com]

I disagree with two and thirteen ("Say nothing behind another's back you'd be unwilling to say,in exactly the same tone and language, to his face" and "Never lie to anyone for any reason") quite strenuously. That assumes a bunch of things about power and safety that might be true in Barlow's world but certainly aren't true for everyone.

(My family are currently having to deal with my sister's manipulative and frightening ex-partner, so these really stood out.)

Re: Principles Of Adult Behaviour

[andrewducker]

Good point.

[momentsmusicaux]

Another theory I have about the Culture is that they are like the wealthy characters in Jane Austen novels: they don't need to work, so they gad about doing Good Deeds such as calling in on the Needy and Poor of the parish, out of a sense of moral responsibility. And gossiping and going to dances.

Mayfair Games

[dewline]

The thing I remember them for is the efforts they made as the first publishers of a licensed role-playing game based on the DC Comics universe as the publishers then wanted it understood. Some of those sourcebooks are still standard-setters for the universe they documented, flaws and all.

Re: Mayfair Games

[andrewducker]

Oh yes! I'd forgotten they were behind the Watchmen source material!

Re: Mayfair Games

[dewline]

Was that one of the things that drove a wedge between Messrs. Moore and Levitz? Or some other merchandising issue?

Re: Mayfair Games

[andrewducker]

Approved (and partially co-written) by Moore:
http://onceuponageek.com/wordpress/2009/03/16/watchmen-mayfair-rpg-stats-1987/

Re: Mayfair Games

[dewline]

I stand corrected.

Re: Mayfair Games

[skington]

I'm still struggling to understand why Lookout and/or Mayfair are closing down / selling up. Is it just "we're old and we'd like to retire" (hooray! you've deserved it!), or is there something more interesting going on?

[zotz]

First, cryonics is not based on deception. To the contrary, it is both scientifically credible (see the Scientists' Open Letter on Cryonics) and supported by the extant scientific literature (see PubMed for a list of some published journal articles on cryonics). There are no known credible technical arguments that lead one to conclude that cryonics, carried out under good conditions today, would not work.

There are loads. It is massively disingenuous of them to claim support from the biological community and literature. During my time as a working biologist, I didn't meet a single other biologist who expressed an interest in cryonics, and the prevailing attitude is, as far as I can tell, is that it makes too little sense to be worth trying to construct a scientifically coherent version to rebut. Their supposed case is all hand-waving - we don't know which features of the brain are important or what sorts of damage they receive soon after death, or from a cryonic technique, so we cannot have any idea whether such a technique exists even in principle that could be reasonably successful.

[skington]

There's plenty of other questions you could have, even if you assume that the biology etc. is perfect. For instance: how likely is it that a private company in the preserving-people business would survive? Neither go to the wall, nor become such a money-maker that future governments dub it a rent-seeker and raid it for revenues?

Or, why would future people unfreeze us, randos from the 21st century who could almost certainly not cope optimally because of future shock? I believe it's a commonplace in the cryonics community that if recovery from death will happen, those who have died most recently will get priority, for both technical, psychological and political reasons - e.g. they still have living next of kin who wish them back.

But by far the greatest problem for me is the problem of continuity of experience, which is inherently subjective and ridiculously difficult to adjudicate. It's the teleporter problem: how can we distinguish (1) I was teleported / I was frozen and reborn from (2) I died, and a perfect copy of me was made?

(Obviously if you ask the copy, they'll say that they remember everything that happened before they were frozen; but that doesn't mean that they're actually me. Most obviously, if you accidentally make two copies, at least one of them must be wrong; so why give benefit of the doubt to the other?)

Because if I can have my head frozen when I die and there's even an infinitesimal chance that I'll get better, then per Pascal's wager, I'd be an idiot not to give it a go. But what interest do I have of a clone of me being born for some future society's entertainment? Even if I were hubristic enough to think that it would be worth saving me for future generations, it'll be an impersonator reaping all of the glory.

[calimac]

"Obviously the best one will be born in about two months"

Of course it will!

"I don't believe in sticking to these if the other person repeatedly acts in bad faith"

This is why appeasing Hitler was a bad idea: not because there's anything wrong with appeasement, but because Hitler continually acted in bad faith.

[mountainkiss]

What do you believe in doing if the other person repeatedly acts in bad faith?

[benicek]

I enjoyed that Banks article and so did many members of the Culture Facebook group.

[andrewducker]

I'm glad. And thanks for letting me know - makes it worthwhile!