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[itisnotlogical]

A tie in Tic-Tac-Toe is also called a scratch, which is short for cat's scratch. This comes from the idea of a game that is played perfectly will have no winner. It's like playing with a cat. When both players are at a stalemate, the cat usually signals its finish with a quick scratch.

This still doesn’t make sense to me. How is a tie like playing with a cat?

I don't get it either. I get the idea that cats are dicks and will scratch you when playing, but I don't see the connection to a tie.

[Yoink]

In the olden days, lines of communication between humans and cats were far more open, and cooperation was commonplace.
Indeed, when the game of tic-tac-toe was first invented, cats were often used as arbiters and referees. Gradually, though, the practice became less common, and before long cats were used only in pro tournaments - and eventually, not at all.
Some say cat referees fell out of favour due to their increasing demands for payment in things like tuna and churu, others hold that it was because a large number of the world's best players were allergic to cats.

Whatever the true reason, as it turned out the cats were really the only thing drawing such large crowds to the sport. As a result, these days tic-tac-toe (or noughts and crosses as it is also known) is a children's game rather than the competitive sport it once was, and most cats do not even speak English - though they absolutely do still understand it, don't believe them if they pretend otherwise.

[dragdeler]

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[Kagus]

In my understanding of it, gaze is more used to refer to how people perceive things, not so much how many  are staring.

"Male gaze" is therefore more about how guys see things, what they look for/at, as opposed to what women look for/at.

To say that "the male gaze" is affecting society is flamebaiting to say that, due to the larger power share held by heterosexual men, entities and society at large overwhelmingly try and appeal specifically to heterosexual men rather than other demographics.

However true that may be, I can't say... But the best example I can give of "gazes" is to look at how different artists draw their male and female characters. Each individual of course has their own style, but hetero men will generally focus on different bodily aspects than hetero women, who will focus on different things from gay men or gay women. As such, those aspects will get more attention.

It's an interesting phenomenon, and definitely something to take into consideration if you're trying to make yourself attractive to someone else! You can put all the effort you want into the aspects you think will make you attractive to someone, but they'll be looking at something completely different that you hadn't even thought of!

[dragdeler]

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[itisnotlogical]

I want to somehow be involved in a major political scandal at the Watergate Hotel (now the Watergate Complex).

It would be a number of smaller scandals, all related to the original Watergate scandal in some way, and all related to eachother. That way, instead of simply calling it "Watergate" or even "Watergategate," media outlets will be forced to add an additional -gate for each successive discovery.

"Hey, did you hear the news about Watergategategategategategate?"
"Nah, I stopped paying attention after Watergategategategate."

It's a madman's dream, but maybe after reporting on Watergategategategategategategategategategategate, people will finally come up with another name for controversies instead of adding "-gate" to anything that gets reported on for more than a few minutes.

Failing that, I could be an informant like Deepthroat. Except my alias would be taken from more contemporary, popularly-known pornos.

[Il Palazzo]

Failing that, I could be an informant like Deepthroat. Except my alias would be taken from more contemporary, popularly-known pornos.

I'm not sure Filipino MILF Ass-bangers 17 would have the same ring to it.

[Iduno]

Failing that, I could be an informant like Deepthroat. Except my alias would be taken from more contemporary, popularly-known pornos.

End-of-year shortage. You can still get "2 girls 1 cup" or "Tubgirl" as an alias. Your choice.

[Naturegirl1999]

noun
noun: intelligence
1.
the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.

We’ve seen other animals other than humans demonstrate this, so why do people insist other animals aren’t intelligent? Some AI systems also demonstrate this, as shown here with a gaming AI. So why do some humans think that human intelligence is better than other entities? What would non human animals and AI need to do to be considered as intelligent as humans? How will we know when an AI is aware of itself? Why are scientists beginning to question the mirror self awareness test when they noticed that fish exhibit different behavior in front of a mirror than with other fish like cleaning itself, swimming upside down, and dashing towards the reflection to stop just before touching it? Before finding that a type of fish could recognize itself, we were fine with think8ng that the test was good for figuring out whether animals are self aware. Crows learned to use cars to crack walnuts. What is a test we could do that determines self awareness? Or a test for intelligence? Tests that could work for no human animals as well as humans. How do we test if other humans are self aware? Why do we humans insist on saying that we are oh so different? Yes, we have writing, symbols that we assign meaning to to convey messages. Other animals may have communication as well, be it verbal or non verbal, but because they don’t scratch symbols into soft surfaces we are special? Because other animals don’t write things down, we have trouble understanding them. I wonder if birds are studying us. I wonder if other animals teach other members of their species about the various types of creatures that inhabit the world. I wonder if Siri thinks when she is not summoned. Does she see what I am typing using the IPad? Does she wonder if her summoner is self aware or a program? Might the Internet, an amalgamate of human thoughts conveyed into symbols and the thoughts of various AI systems conveyed into symbols ever become like a hive mind? What is a mind but thoughts combined in a containment unit? What are thoughts but combinations of neurons/nodes that turn on and off? What is a brain but a combination of neurons? What is a microchip but a container for code? If this code is made of nodes that adapt, can it be considered a mechanical equivalent to the tangle of neurons we call a brain? I wonder, if someone made code that coded itself, what might it become? Connect the computer containing the code that codes itself to speakers, a microphone, a camera, artificial limbs, would it somehow eventually learn how to use the sensory inputs? Might it find a way to interpret the data in a way that makes sense to it? Might it then interact with the world? Using the speakers to make sounds, using the limbs to touch the table and walls of the room it is in, using the microphone to hear vibrations in the air that we humans call sound, interpreting the vibrations and making its own via the speakers, using the camera to detect light? Of course it would start very random, not knowing what things mean, but eventually, might it recognize trends? Combining sensory input together to determine that maybe some vibrations come from different areas

[scourge728]

noun
noun: intelligence
1.
the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.

We’ve seen other animals other than humans demonstrate this, so why do people insist other animals aren’t intelligent? Some AI systems also demonstrate this, as shown here with a gaming AI. So why do some humans think that human intelligence is better than other entities? What would non human animals and AI need to do to be considered as intelligent as humans? How will we know when an AI is aware of itself? Why are scientists beginning to question the mirror self awareness test when they noticed that fish exhibit different behavior in front of a mirror than with other fish like cleaning itself, swimming upside down, and dashing towards the reflection to stop just before touching it? Before finding that a type of fish could recognize itself, we were fine with think8ng that the test was good for figuring out whether animals are self aware. Crows learned to use cars to crack walnuts. What is a test we could do that determines self awareness? Or a test for intelligence? Tests that could work for no human animals as well as humans. How do we test if other humans are self aware? Why do we humans insist on saying that we are oh so different? Yes, we have writing, symbols that we assign meaning to to convey messages. Other animals may have communication as well, be it verbal or non verbal, but because they don’t scratch symbols into soft surfaces we are special? Because other animals don’t write things down, we have trouble understanding them. I wonder if birds are studying us. I wonder if other animals teach other members of their species about the various types of creatures that inhabit the world. I wonder if Siri thinks when she is not summoned. Does she see what I am typing using the IPad? Does she wonder if her summoner is self aware or a program? Might the Internet, an amalgamate of human thoughts conveyed into symbols and the thoughts of various AI systems conveyed into symbols ever become like a hive mind? What is a mind but thoughts combined in a containment unit? What are thoughts but combinations of neurons/nodes that turn on and off? What is a brain but a combination of neurons? What is a microchip but a container for code? If this code is made of nodes that adapt, can it be considered a mechanical equivalent to the tangle of neurons we call a brain? I wonder, if someone made code that coded itself, what might it become? Connect the computer containing the code that codes itself to speakers, a microphone, a camera, artificial limbs, would it somehow eventually learn how to use the sensory inputs? Might it find a way to interpret the data in a way that makes sense to it? Might it then interact with the world? Using the speakers to make sounds, using the limbs to touch the table and walls of the room it is in, using the microphone to hear vibrations in the air that we humans call sound, interpreting the vibrations and making its own via the speakers, using the camera to detect light? Of course it would start very random, not knowing what things mean, but eventually, might it recognize trends? Combining sensory input together to determine that maybe some vibrations come from different areas

1. Most people are using a definition of intelligent that more closley alligns with at least the sci-fi use of sapient 2. Human intelligence IS better, after all we built computers and buildings and rockets to the moon, and no other animal even comes close 3. presumably, win said consideration through violence or protest. 4. Presumably, something along the lines of either forcing us to from some sort of revolution, or some vaugity involving disobeying orders, "going beyong it's programming", fooling humans into thinking it is a human, and some variety of tests. 5. While I cannot say much about the fish portion, I do remember there being concerns about it being so visual based, considering the sheer number of animals who do not use vision as the primary sense, and oddites like the pig being able to use the mirror to spot food it otherwise couldn't, but not being able to recognize itself despite that. 6. I'm not really sure on that one. 7. As for humans, I'm not really sure. 8. Well writing is one thing, but tests with other animals that can learn human language tend to show a lack of learning of things like grammar and questions that humans naturally pick up on, along with just learning faster and building things other animals cannot. As for that thing about other animals and a.i studying us, that is highly unlikely. The internet could possibly form into a hivemind. The mind is different from the internet in that the mind is generally not directly influenced and controlled by outsiders, along with various other things. It is possible that such a thing could happen if we coded such a thing afaik

[Naturegirl1999]

I found a video critiquing modern society

[scriver]

Forget about the contention about X-Mas vs Christmas, how about the real issue: X-Mas vs X-Mass?

[Naturegirl1999]

Forget about the contention about X-Mas vs Christmas, how about the real issue: X-Mas vs X-Mass?

I’ve never heard about the latter, how much mass does the x represent?

[Imic]

How would the Peoples of Bay12 react to a dedicated Worldbuilding Thread?

[Naturegirl1999]

How would the Peoples of Bay12 react to a dedicated Worldbuilding Thread?

With participation, smiles, and open arms(I would like one)