Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

I am starting this thread on May 10, 2017. The plot of Unsong begins on May 10th, 2017. This is not a coincidence, because nothing is ever a coincidence.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is power; and who may stand in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is applied. These two rules describe the essence of a computer programmer trainee.

The law is wrathful.

• The law removes power.
• The law regresses.

Understanding this is key to programming.

Does this remind anybody of hackers? Not crackers, hackers. Hackers are associated with open-source. Unsong is about open-source, freely available and modifiable Names of God and the powerful corporations who benefit from regulations and copyrights. In the early days of the Names, before the corporations took over, there were inventors who developed new uses for Names in their garages. That sounds very hackerish. The law is used to remove the power of Names from all but the wealthy and powerful. The law stifles innovation; the law regresses the development of society to nearly before the Names were discovered. This is not a coincidence, because nothing is ever a coincidence.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

In America, Mohammed goes to mountain.  In Soviet Russia, mountain comes to you!

[Sergarr]

Uh, what?

[misko27]

Tell me, when forumites go Stark Raving Mad, what do we usually do with them? Lock them in Life Advice?

[nenjin]

Tell me, when forumites go Stark Raving Mad, what do we usually do with them? Lock them in Life Advice?

No, they become a meme.

[martinuzz]

Depends. If they stay the harmless kind of mad, we just wait patiently for them to take off their clothes and die of dehydration.
If they go hostile there's always magma.

[Draignean]

Tell me, when forumites go Stark Raving Mad, what do we usually do with them? Lock them in Life Advice?

Find the sable filaments which connect them to HE so that they might be caressed with love and the gaze of watching eyes. Spiders crawl from the sockets of empty rings, broken by promises like lambent streams- no Lock can hold back their flame. You see only the spindly without the thread, the warp without the weft, the sky without the blood.

There is no madness here. We are still wearing all our socks.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

Where wast thou when I laid the foundations for theoretical computer science?

[Flying Dice]

Uh, what?

IIRC it's a webcomic or some shit. All I remember is that the angel Uziel is an awkward probably-autistic reality programmer and it has a lot to do with religious stuff (but not in a religious way, sorta?)

I think.

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

Uh, what?

Unsong is a serial web novel written by Scott Alexander. It is interwoven with kabbalistic interpretations of everything, and nothing is ever a coincidence.

Tell me, when forumites go Stark Raving Mad, what do we usually do with them? Lock them in Life Advice?

I am not mad. If I were mad, I would be speaking of universal love and transcendent joy. If I were mad, I would be in San Fransisco.


ONLY TEN MILES TO WALL DRUG

[Loud Whispers]

God is awesome in majesty and infinite in glory. He’s not going to have a stupid name like GLBLGLGLBLBLGLFLFLBG.

"And the Lord God Liquidcock:xxD_Demiurge360X>?>x revealed unto me the secrets of this world, and the words of power. Aybabtu, bawk bawk boom, cash 100000, godmode yes."

*edit

“HELLO PRESIDENT NIXON. THIS IS THE ARCHANGEL URIEL. I APOLOGIZE FOR RECENT DISRUPTIONS. THE MACHINERY OF THE UNIVERSE HAS BEEN SEVERELY DAMAGED. I AM WORKING TO CONTAIN THE EFFECTS, BUT AT THIS POINT MY POWER IS LIMITED BECAUSE I AM STILL MOSTLY METAPHORICAL. PLEASE INFORM EVERYONE THAT I REGRET THE INCONVENIENCE. AS COMPENSATION FOR YOUR TROUBLE, I HAVE GIVEN EVERY HUMAN THE ABILITY TO PLAY THE PIANO.”

Hahaha this is fantastic

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

It starts amazing and gets better quickly. Do you like mind-boggling kabbalah? Do you like Biblical whale jokes? Do you like programming? Then you'll love Unsong.

[Sergarr]

Uh, what?

Unsong is a serial web novel written by Scott Alexander.

Uh, and who is he?

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

Genesis 4:5 says that “The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.” The situation is kabbalistically reenacted every four years, when a candidate named some variant of “Cain” must lose at some stage in a US Presidential election. In 2016 it was Tim Kaine. In 2012 it was Herman Cain. In 2008 the unlucky role fell to war hero John McCain, who ran a strong race based on a platform of campaign finance reform and military leadership.

Uh, what?

Unsong is a serial web novel written by Scott Alexander.

Uh, and who is he?

Scott Alexander, crafter of macabre whale metaphors. Scott Alexander, the wielder of one of the largest pieces of the Rational Flame, broken apart during the Great LW Exodus. Scott Alexander, the champion of Charitable Interpretations. Scott Alexander, who wrote many words against Libertarianism despite being a libertarian himself, because he didn't think there were enough anti-libertarian works on the internet. Scott Alexander, who has a nuanced perspective on feminism and is capable of calling out its worst parts while not demonizing the cause. Scott Alexander, apparently the expert on kabbalism. Scott Alexander, whose works on tribalism and tolerance helped me understand a complex self-referential dilemma. Scott Alexander, the keeper of the Slate Star Codex. Scott Alexander the Great!

(He's one of my favorite bloggers/authors, in case you can't tell.)

The word of the LORD is a great deal of research activity in this area, and probabilistic algorithms have been fruitfully applied.