the economics of chess
Tyler Cowen on computers, AI, humans, and chess:
6. We used to think that computers would play chess like we did, only “without the mistakes.” We now know that playing without the mistakes involves a very different style from what we had imagined. A lot of human positional intuitions are garbage, and the computer can make sense out of ugly-looking moves. A lot of the human progress since then has involved unlearning previous positional rules and realizing how contingent they are. Younger players, who grew up playing chess with computers, are especially good at this. For older players, it is a good way to learn how unreliable your intuitions can be.
from the comments
I spent some time as a live mannequin when I was a teenager, Rick. Shelia may have done this as well. We were working for a merchandiser who incorporated us into her designs. She was beautiful and kind and a visual wonder herself. She was rail thin, beautifully dressed always, her hair pulled back in a severe updo. She looked like a ballet dancer. She was not the type of woman we routinely saw in Alabama in these days. The live mannequin bit changed me, in a good way. Most shoppers would stand there and stare at us, in awe. But a few punks tried to distract us, make us move, blink, etc. I learned to be there but not. At the end of the session, I would have a slight memory of what had happened. But I always had the strange feeling I had left my body. I know now it was an early form of meditation. Before I had been a hummingbird of a girl, always in motion. But I had learned the art of being still.
from the comments
I meant to tell you that one of the people I work with at the LGBT archives was a visual merchandiser in New York in the 70s for Macy’s I think. He said they would just get incredibly high and play dress up with the dolls, run around the store and cause trouble, giggling and giggling. He said they broke a window once and he got a Harley Davidson and made it look like it was flying out of the window but security made him take it down after about a week.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before
This year’s Calamari “ePress” financial report features rants on eBooks, Facebook, distribution & other things useful or not to others crazy enough to have a small independent press.
Dear Clusterflock
Why am I awake?
iPad Letterpress App!
Remember when I posted about Hatch Show Print and their amazing old-fashioned letterpress art? Very soon, you’ll be able to create your very own cool art prints using traditional letterpress techniques . . . on your iPad. (This might be a reason for me to BUY an iPad.) Check out LetterMPress and consider backing this project:
Like this post.
Via Neatorama: “Like” and “Dislike” stamps.
Finally, a handy way to keep track of your opinions of physical objects in meatspace.
“I will have the penne alla arrabiata.”
And that, friends, is how we fly across the ocean.
from the archives: March 18, 2010
Damn, this was fine.
Like you’d expect, it started out good and the comments made it all more betterer.
searching for the house of Ruben Bustes
Daryl, Sheila and I saw something today we think is the setting for a story. Driving through an old Oak Cliff neighborhood, looking for the house of Ruben Bustes (that’s a story in itself), we came across a one story ranch on a corner lot. The back was fenced with low chain link fortified inside with cactus. Inside the yard was another fence, also fortified with cactus, that housed a small dog house. I think that’s all we’ve got. Please tell us what it means.
from Sheila’s email
I send my friend a link to a live Google map of overnight shelters in Tokyo. I don’t know why. He lives in Dallas.
Jeezo. It looks like a map of the many aftershocks. I had to escape the media and watch the spider chow down on an ant.
Voice to Text
Danny to Rick, 3:47 pm.
Hey Rick, it’s I forgot if you Carol home public you force yourself love you. I know Sam. So since whoops love.
The A to H of Anti-heroes
Witty and fun article by director Richard Ayoade, wherein he discusses the various anti-heroes that sprang to mind when making his film Submarine.
Three seconds later I’d decided upon a theme (antiheroes – because the main character in Submarine is sort of an antihero – thank you, muse!), scribbled it on a Post-it note, staple-gunned it to the pigeon and catapulted it back out into the world. Only later, as I watched the dear creature struggle to remain airborne across my moat, did I make a mental note to continue the rest of this correspondence by email. Within months the Guardian Elders had located an internet cafe, set up a Hotmail account, and successfully “logged on”. Needless to say, as soon as they worked out how to open my email, they were blown away by my antihero brainwave. After a lengthy back and forth about how much racism I could in principle use, I called in my regular ghostwriter and sank into a deep, erotic sleep.
You all should see Submarine when it comes out. I reviewed it here, and it has a June release date. (Also, Richard Ayoade is one of the nicest and most casually eloquent individuals I’ve ever interviewed, I remember beaming when he dropped the word “obstreperous” like it warn’t no thang.)
Maginal Revolution update
One of my favorite, essential, daily reads has moved to WordPress and has been slightly redesigned.
quote out of context
I see the arc, the trajectory. As if the ashtray were its own separate solar system. With orbiting planets (butts), asteroids and interstellar gas (ash). I thought, “Wait a second. Einstein’s office is just around the corner. This is the Institute for Advanced Study!!”
image out of context
dear clusterflock
I was trying to think of an example of the world’s most inappropriate rickroll.
from the comments
Some people think it was inappropriate that I gave Flannery and Ryan a set of Sylvia Plath oven mitts for a wedding gift.
from the comments
My friend Rose said a thing a few years ago that’s stuck with me, though I’m sure I’m completely misremembering how she put it, but the gist is, Being individuals is all fine and nice, but it’s our interactions with other people that make us who we are.
I feel that this is true, even when a lot of those interactions consist of ignoring each other.
Perfect intersection of God and Mammon
in Texas, where else?
Baylor Dad decal on the rear window of a Lotus.
Wish I Had A Sylvia Plath
I am doing assistant stage managing, and I did all the props for it. It’s a good time in that very dark sort of way. You should come see it if you’re able to. I don’t even like plays very much and I like this one a lot.
Doug Funnie is Crazy
This blog is recapping old Doug episodes, mostly to show how Doug Funnie is an unstable individual.
This episode begins with Mr. Bone boring the shit out of the entire school with his school news tv show. Everyone complains, but it’s something Doug says that especially sets off Mr. Bone. Apparently, after his show was over, he went and put his ear to Ms. Wingo’s classroom door to hear the mutterings of the students to see what they thought of his show. He was offended by their complaints and sarcastically challenged them to make a better show. Ms. Wingo quickly jumped on the idea and made it a class project, because fuck you, Mr. Bone. 11 year olds can make a better tv show than you. Naturally, these are the anchors the class chose.
Something about an adult reconsidering stuff that made sense when you were a kid is tremendously satisfying.
Biblical Intertextuality Visualized
A nexus point for my current and past interests.
Rick Synder and current Michigan politics
Here is the bill in question.
How to Follow the Japanese Earthquake on the Web
Alexis Madrigal has put up a valuable guide of Earthquake news on the web over at the Atlantic.
