EncomLab

Wonder if this winter will see another blizzard of 1888 event?

Remember when 3d printing was going to replace all manufacturing? Anybody?

AI is closer to this sentiment than it is to the singularity.

It's not the technology that is bad - it's the extreme anthropomorphizing language that's used to describe it.

My photoresistor nightlight can "see" that it is dark and it "knows" to turn on the light - not only does it not have training, it does not have any code!

And if you think that is amazing, my bi-metallic strip thermostat "feels" the temperature and then modifies the environment because it "knows" if it's hot to turn on the A/C, and if it's cold to turn on the heat - no training or code!

All of this AI stuff is just unbelievably incredible - what a brave new world (of word games)!

I thought everyone knew that Atlantis is just another name for the Richat Structure.

I spent hours playing with mine in the mid 80's! The key takeaway - then and now - is that you can generate an incredible variety of motion with a single motor and a well designed gear-box; no software required!

As a kid growing up in the 80's and 90's in St. Louis - nitrous "whippets" were sold in every grocery and convenience store. I never considered myself a drug user when I was a teen - because every drug I enjoyed (nitrous, cough syrup, caffeine pills) were all legally available....unlike those dirty hippies and their marijuana!

It's been decades since I hit a balloon - but man those moments when I did were incredible.

I agree - it's not an indicator at all of shady business by Valve. If anything, Valve is the least shady and most transparent player in the game industry.

Hence the demise of the Greenlight program...

This is true - but the scale is beyond what most people imagine. STEAM revenue last year was nearly $11B - while the median revenue for a game that makes it into the top 8% is estimated at $799. So 17.5k releases earned less than $800, with something like 10k making less than $100.

It would be pretty hard to review 52 games every day of 2024 to determine if any great games are being lost among the trash. The scale is just too large for most people to really understand - imagine the size of a physical store it would take to display 19,000 game boxes just in "new release" - much less the 100,000+ titles available in STEAM.

The coda to this fascinating saga is that today - in a post publisher, open distribution marketplace - STEAM, the predominate game distribution gateway, allows anyone to publish just about anything for a $100 deposit and a 30% commission per sale. The predictable end result is that 19,000 new games were uploaded to STEAM last year alone, and over 100,000 titles are available for purchase on the platform.

The predictable result is that unless a studio has a lottery-win statistically equivalent outlier or a $50m marketing budget, a new game is swallowed up by the shear volume of titles. 1 in 5 games on STEAM never even earn back the $100 deposit.

Even during the video game/satanic panic of the 80's, it was acknowledged that video games - even at that early stage - allowed children who are introverted or less physically adept to experience "winning" and the satisfaction of overcoming obstacles. It seems the ability to acknowledge that there are also benefits to these new emerging systems of interaction has been lost.

Kids (and humans) are wired to follow individuals who express themselves with authority and confidence - hence the long history of "confidence-men" and politicians throughout history.

If you place that ability to communicate with confidence and authority in an individual with male gender traits who is tall, fit, socially attractive, and has a deep voice - nearly everyone around them will do what they say; even to the extent that doing so many be against the best interest of the individuals listening.

AI speaks with utmost confidence in every interaction - not just kids, but all humans will have a preference for it.