Jonathan Callan

I write and do comedy. Television. Game design. Backyard shows, etc.

Developing Video Game Narratives Course:

[Jonathan Callan @JonCallan]

The average human eats a 100 spiders every time I cook for them.

[Jonathan Callan @JonCallan]

@oscarmom355 Are we speaking in the realm of the personal? I agree. People should resist despair and embrace meaning and connection. Good advice.

[Jonathan Callan @JonCallan]

Perhaps, if people are miserable, the economy is not “fine”?

[Kerwin Fjøl @zermatist]

A "vibecession" basically means that even though the economy is fine, people are miserable, and it should terrify economic planners and politicians more than it does because it indicates a rot that can't be fixed by "line go up." Instead, they mostly just scoff about it.

[Jonathan Callan @JonCallan]

@oscarmom355 Lot more people making this choice than used to. Perhaps this says something about their labor conditions.

[Jonathan Callan @JonCallan]

This may in fact be OP’s point, by the way. I don’t know. Not a dunk. The tweet just seems well lined up for the conclusion.

[Jonathan Callan @JonCallan]

@chapel3929 I’d look at this. Even if it’s not your cup of tea, I think it’s impossible to deny the purity of the place he’s coming from.

https://t.co/tEpXaA3WEM

[Jonathan Callan @JonCallan]

@chapel3929 He’s a foundational figure in the history of UCB, improv and live comedy. Many of his contemporaries chose big pay checks and big spotlights while Chris tried to preserve and recreate the scene that gave his life meaning as a young artist. TCG Show is punk rock and brilliant,

[Jonathan Callan @JonCallan]

@chapel3929 I agree by the way Chris’ Gen X obsessions feel very rooted in a version of nerd culture that’s just not reflective of any reality I’ve lived. But he’s genuinely anti-corporate, pro-art, pro-people. Seems like one of the good ones?

[Jonathan Callan @JonCallan]

@chapel3929 Dude literally runs a charity. It’s fine if he’s not you’re cup of tea, but I just don’t think it’s based in reality to take a slightly neurotic comic with a low status game and call him a narcissist.

[Jonathan Callan @JonCallan]

This project is still around and in need of tastemakers and champions to take notice. If you want to read it, hit me with a DM.

[DIZZY // @FkMySmPnsLife]

I really wanna know what happened to this.

[Jonathan Callan @JonCallan]

@FkMySmPnsLife It’s around! And it’s great. If you know any execs, it could use more champions. Very little in the current market that doesn’t need a push.

[Jonathan Callan @JonCallan]

@MuseZack @BradRTorgersen I think the best scene(s) is/are the historian with a Great Men of History boner.

[Jonathan Callan @JonCallan]

@dgsbreen @JoyceCarolOates Fancy running into you in the comments. Glad to see you’re still teaching! I truly think of your class often.

[Jonathan Callan @JonCallan]

@dgsbreen @JoyceCarolOates Are you the Dan Breen who taught Shakespeare at Ithaca College?

[Jamrock Hobo @JamrockHobo]

If anything, Disco Elysium makes fun of communists the most. If you opt into it, it tells you to get the gulags and death squads ready. The communist quest is centered around two geeks who talk about revolution and slaughtering capitalists but don't go outside. The union boss is a fat, corrupt mobster who has no qualms about flooding his own streets with drugs. And at the end of the game, you meet the Deserter, who is a bitter old soviet who couldn't get over the city's failed attempt at communism. His old regime was decidedly defeated in battle, but not before attempting to put nuclear power into "the people's" hands, causing a mini-Chernobyl.

[Jonathan Callan @JonCallan]

@mircnry I think we have to view Geordi’s visor as more of a disability accommodation than a man-machine interface. Once the tech evolved, they’d rather have him go natural, but G was already used to it.

[Jonathan Callan @JonCallan]

I contend the implied AI prohibition in Star Trek might partially be about alignment, but is *really* about a larger cultural taboo against transhumanism: gene augments, A.I., man-machine interfaces, etc.

[Raymond Arnold @Raemon777]

I used to think the Star Trek world was unrealistic in terms of how it used AI. But some recently argued to me, it's actually very straightforwardly a world where everyone knows they *could* build more advanced AI, but, they know that the alignment problem is unsolved.

So, they don't.

Instead, they limit themselves to LLM-like AI, which operates on discrete tasks.

Data is a one-of-a-kind wonder people don't know how to replicate. Pretty much every other time someone tries to build advanced AI, something goes wrong. (Data's creator made a second android, named Lore, who was erratic and manipulative, and eventually turned against the humans)

Most other advanced AI in the show either grow into godlike power outside human control, or get shut down while weaker but would clearly become a problem if unchecked. (V'ger, Moriarty).

The more I looked at it, the more it seemed Canon Star Trek just straightforwardly depicts an adult civilization that has chosen to be careful.

[Jonathan Callan @JonCallan]

It might not have been what was intended at the time, but in retrospect sharing a last name with the most famous example of genetic engineering was a clue. And there were others-doing his work in secret isolation instead of with some Federation science org.

[Jonathan Callan @JonCallan]

We have to read between the lines. At our current rate of science, could we break the light cone but still be at Majel-levels of A.I. helper in 300+ years? A decision was made. Data’s creator must have violated it. Then guys like Maddox sought to break the taboo further.

[mircnry 📝𓅄 @mircnry]

@JonCallan MMIs are mostly ok, see Geordi, but genetic manipulation and AI are definitely a no-go. Genetics are interesting, it’s kinda lost after first contact and ENT but originally the federation is almost a direct response to the genetic wars. AI is more “we don’t know if this is life”

[Jonathan Callan @JonCallan]

In the future, the Federation seems to have flirted with the idea of the New Flesh only to reject it and decide -rightly or wrongly- what makes us human is sacrosanct.