Cartesian

Trying to keep up with MTG eternal formats, Chess, AI, life, and other interesting stuff I don't understand.

[Cartesian @MusMads]

@oresundsbaron @btdk Hvis man straks tænker det der ligner et "nazi-emblem", så er man muligvis blevet ansporet til at tænkte i retning af, at Ukrainere er nazister.

[Cartesian @MusMads]

@otb33291187 Yes, I had the same thought and tried it with Psychatog. The problem is mana and other costs have to be paid. But you can do some crazy things, for sure. Especially with Dark Ritual.

[Cartesian @MusMads]

@CanijaDk At reducere danskhed til et spørgmål om biologi falder sammen ved første analyse og er utrolig nemt at angribe for de hyper-tolerante.

[Cartesian @MusMads]

@CanijaDk @cyrus_razavi Hvis man ikke noget pænt eller konstruktivt at sige, er det ofte bedre ikke at sige noget.

[Cartesian @MusMads]

@cyrus_razavi "DF" leder straks tanken hen på Dansk Folkeparti. Er det en bevidst kampagnestrategi?

[Cartesian @MusMads]

@CanijaDk @cyrus_razavi Sikke noget vrøvl.

[Saffron Olive @Safffron0live]

I think one thing that doesn't get discussed enough is how much Magic's gameplay has changed in recent years. The effort to make the game more accessible seems good on its face, but the end result seems to be much less strategic gameplay and less player agency (i.e. your decision matter less today than in the past).

One thing doing the Best Standard bracket has reinforced to me is that the current version of Magic really is an aberration historically. The play pattern of two decks snowballing into each other and seeing who gets the better draw isn't how Magic was for most of its life.

Rather than being about Universes Beyond or the number of sets, I think this is actually a product of Wizards spending the last decade or two trying to remove "feel bads" from the game to make it more accessible or appealing to new players. Stax has mostly been eliminated, land destruction too, counterspells minimized.

As we've seen repeatedly on the Bracket, these "feel bad" cards actually do a ton of work balancing the game. Janky white weenie decks can compete thanks to Rishadan Port or Armageddon disrupting the opponent's resources. Sideboard hosers and color hate cards can swing matchups. This leads to, at least in my opinion, a lot of really interesting matches where you have to think about playing around sideboard cards, sequence plays to avoid the hate, sandbag lands to play around destruction, etc.

I feel like this strategic depth is often missing today.

When you add the elimination or minimization of "feel bads" to the spiraling power of creatures, you end up with a game that heavily incentivizes maximizing your gameplay rather than stopping your opponent's gameplan.

We've also seen a lot of steps taken to minimize variance - mulligan rule changes, card designs (like MDFCs), everything generating card advantage to make sure you rarely run out of cards (because being empty handed feels bad...) - which I think compounds the problem. Less variance also pushes you to maximize your gameplan rather than stopping your opponent's gameplan, since you'll execute your gameplan optimally more often.

The end result is an era of Magic that, at least to me, feels far less strategic than in the past. I still appreciate the game for what it is today, I still have fun playing it, but it's wild how good 1v1 Magic gameplay used to be. I wish there was a way more newer players could experience it, because it really is a lifechanging gaming experience and its super addicting.

[Cartesian @MusMads]

@npravn Det er fascinerende at iagttage, hvordan personerne både skammer sig over egen etnicitet, men på samme tid er overbeviste om, at de med deres baggrund og hvidhed har unikke forudsætninger for at "løfte" området, som de andre beboere ikke har.

[Cartesian @MusMads]

@GaryMarcus @geoffreyhinton "Am old enough to remember when (someone told me something)" is an odd statement, but OK :)

The fact that LLMs memorize some training data does not in any way support the claim that LLMs don't (or can't) understand anything.

[Cartesian @MusMads]

This appears to be different from the LLM "reasoning" we have now, which is more like explanation, and not thoughts. This is more like seeing actual LLM thoughts, or chain-of-thought, which is is presumably much more reliable for research into what is actually going on.

[Anthropic @AnthropicAI]

Read more about NLAs on the Anthropic blog: https://t.co/Zzz8CeCOvN

[Reza Pahlavi @PahlaviReza]

Whether or not Europe stands with us, whether or not your journalists do their jobs, whether or not your politicians demonstrate the courage to act, I will fight for my people and my country.

[NASA Artemis @NASAArtemis]

"Planet Earth: You. Are. A. Crew."

Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch reflects on what it means to be a "crew."

[Cartesian @MusMads]

@DavidDeutschOxf @DouglasCarswell You'd think the institutions of a better polity had done more to help defend Ukraine against aggression from those of a worse one.

[Cartesian @MusMads]

@N_Granell Er vi virkelig nu begyndt at skrive "hele verdenen" i stedet for hele verden?

[Cartesian @MusMads]

@wokeisterne @Darkmushi @Mrssmoketoomuch @Slimjohndouglas Enig i hvad? Mener du om en jøde i 30'ernes Tyskland som begik kriminalitet - fx røveri, mord eller voldtægt -ville give samfundet skylden for deres handling? For det tænker jeg ikke.

[Cartesian @MusMads]

@wokeisterne @Mrssmoketoomuch @Slimjohndouglas Livet er ikke et lotteri man kan "vinde" i. Måske i klassisk marxistisk tankegang, men det er der ingen fornuftige mennesker der tager seriøst i dag.
Det må da være belejligt - men også tragisk - at tørre alle de fejl man begår som menneske af på "samfundet".

[Cartesian @MusMads]

@wokeisterne @Mrssmoketoomuch @Slimjohndouglas Jeg tror på et personligt og moralsk ansvar for egne frie valg og handlinger, og det princip bygger vores retssystem i øvrigt også på, heldigvis.

[Cartesian @MusMads]

@wokeisterne @Mrssmoketoomuch @Slimjohndouglas DeT eR SamfUndets skylD

[Cartesian @MusMads]

@btdk Man må forstå dig sådan, at hvis Christiansborg ikke er optaget af emnet i en valgkamp, så er emnet ikke vigtigt. Lad os sammen holde lidt øje med, hvor længe den teori holder.