Magic Sucks

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”- Arthur C Clarke

I've played hundreds of games that include some form of magic. The sad reality is that with the exception of two, every single one of these has missed the mark. Magic is meant to inspire wonder and give you a sense of power beyond human capability, but to me, magic often feels as if I’m firing a strange “magic“ gun.

The magic gun is a system often portrayed in games, and it's done because it's easy. Simply have the player use a wand or staff and have them fire a magic projectile to deal damage. Wham bam, the character is a wizard. Just ignore the fact that if you replaced the visuals with a rifle and bullet, you’d have something indistinguishable from a firearm. These games often have multiple staffs or different crystals to fire various other spells, but all those are pre-approved, family-friendly nonsense. There is no originality from one wizard to the next; you use the best staff to fire the best spell and to do anything else would be foolish. Of all the magic systems that exist, the magic gun bugs me the most, and you might as well not even bother being a wizard in the first place.

Another often form of magic is the classic spell scroll or spell book; while this system is better, it still misses the mark on how I believe magic should be portrayed. Your Souls game, your Final Fantasies, and many MMOs use this system to convey spellcraft. While this is a better system as it enables you to wield the arcane in more exotic ways than add colored magic missile, I left wondering if I am genuinely a wizard who wields untold power or am simply a tool that uses that which others have before me.

The pinnacle of magic should be freeform undefined as if I'm taking the arcane and using it to bend reality to my will. Foci and chants are merely the tools to focus my will on the universe better. Magic, to me, should be fluid, wild, uncontrolled, and nigh limitless in its encounter. Who is to say what one person may cast as a fireball? I can’t do the same with Ice or lightning. A proper magic system, in my eyes, would have one unlock aspect of reality and shape into which to form it. Otherwise, how is it magic and not some fancy grenade?

To me, the ideal magic system would consist of XXX parts 1st would be your element type or flavor of the spell, whether that be fire, water, light, dark, etc. This should be the basis for which a spell is cast. 2nd would be: how am I casting the spell? Does the spell have a defined target? Am I casting it on myself, or am I casting it on the world? 3rd, the casting method of the spell is defined, be it projectile, aura laser, or whatever your heart desires.

Sadly, the only two instances of this in the gaming realm that I know of first is Noita, a roguelike dungeon delver where you wield a wand that can cast nearly anything in any way. The second, oddly enough, is a Minecraft mod called Ars Magika. The first almost hits the mark but is still limited in its application, but it fits well within the roguelike genre. The second does its job nigh perfectly. I wish it was its own game rather than just a Minecraft mod.

Day 1 pt1.

19 hours until bliss.

So I write this post as a preface to a future post I plan on doing after the start of next month. I write this post to explain why I plan on doing what I'm going to do. 

On March 10th, 2023, the new raid for Destiny 2 will release. That day it will be unsolved, no one will know any parts, and I will be there on the front lines planning on discovering it all. 

 I've done this before to a lesser extent back when King's Fall, the previous raid of Destiny 2 released. That day, I spent 19 hours straight playing one video game and leaving my chair purely to receive Food and to piss when I needed to. The difference between that day and what March 10th will be is an entire order of magnitude. Unlike the release of Kings Fall, this raid will be entirely new. No one knows anything more than the general theme, which is a single-sentence synopsis “Ferried from an unknown time and place, a haunting presence has been detected. We must now confront the ancient threat growing at our doorstep." that's it. That's all I know about what will probably take the vast majority of my weekend to solve. I can make guesses and have rough estimates based on previous raids. Likely there will be four major encounters followed up by a boss fight. There will likely be two hidden chests relating to Jumping puzzles or a minor puzzle. However, even saying these vague things is unlikely. All I know is that come March 10th; I will fail a raid way too many times.

 So the question that I have to answer here is why. Why struggle for hours as I endlessly fail again and again and again? The answer is this is the extreme of why I play Destiny. I have always been a fan of puzzle-solving while conducting FPS activities. I've had similar experiences before, understanding what Destiny was with my friends playing Black Ops zombies and solving their Easter eggs. This game, to me, is that experience without all the bullshit that is Black Ops Zombies. And despite how much frustration, anger, tiredness, hatred, annoyance, and a thousand other emotions that I will feel that are not fun to feel, it will all be worth it for the pure Bliss you get when you solve it. Destiny 2 raids are mountains. Why do people climb mountains? Because they're there. And when a new raid comes out, a new Mountain is born that no one has ascended before, and that's why I plan on joining the race to the top.

-Alex

Armyoducks

AI

AI but I have two eyes.

I guess I should put out the post that sparked me to do this blog in the first place. I've always been interested in technology, from magnets as a young child to computers because of video games. I eventually built my computer, which I have upgraded over the years and am planning to upgrade again. However, the conversation that sparked it was a combination of my addition and a YouTube video by MoistCritical about the ElevenLabs AI. I'll make sure to link the video below, as he deserves every single credit for this Idea; however, I have much to add to the overall concept of AI and the reason for this post in the first place.

AI is a funny thing in fiction. It's the magical hand-wavy technology that allows the impossible to happen; it’s the villain traveling through time to perfectly prevent the future from happening; it’s a simple program that can tell the difference between a b and a 3. I believe the easiest way to categorize AI is to put it into one of three categories similar to the three levels of society, also known as the Kardashev scale. For context, a type 1 Society can utilize all the energy in a single planet, A type 2 Society can utilize all the energy in a solar system, and a Type 3 Society can use all the power in an entire galaxy. At this time of writing, Earth is somewhere between a .6 and a  .8.  As for AI; I believe a very similar system can be used.

 A type 1 AI is an AI of AIs. An AI can conduct any task by bringing up another program to perform said task, utilizing image-producing AIs to draw pictures, voice-conducting AIs to speak, and chat-based AIS to chat and receive input. Via that, A  type 1 AI would be an AI that runs with a million different processes that each individually can't do much other than a single task. At the time of writing, I believe we're at about a .6 or.8 I jump back and forth and can't quite make my mind up; either way, I believe we are rapidly approaching a type 1 AI.

 A type 2 AI would be a fully Realized ai.  An AI that could do anything, utilizing any input, all-encompassing, in one program. Have simple conversations, conduct simple tasks when given and advanced tasks as well, and be able to do nearly everything. There are a handful of exceptions: creativity, original thought, and art. I bring up art here, knowing full well that we are in the midst of what is essentially art-generating AI. However, the point I bring up now is well AI may be able to generate pieces of Art, and they are art; it does not do so without help, and I think that is a significant statement to make. As of this writing, this art is created based on inputs, I ask an AI to make an image of a dragon made a fire, and while it makes a beautiful rendition of that image, it still requires that initial input. It requires me to instruct that it is not to create art independently.

 A type three AI is more esoteric; a Type 3 is what some people would consider a true AI; it would be an AI with sentience. The type 3ai would be Akin to a man in a machine, and of course, this adds to the question of what a soul is and what sentience is and thousands of questions about what it means to be human, to be a machine, to be anything. “I think therefore I am.” Counterpoint “I don't think therefore I do not am.” 

AI, until it reaches That Type 3 scenario, will be a potent tool, and there are many people right now who believe that AIs are the future, and some days I believe it. As we look at the capabilities of what one can do with this tool, I come back to the eleven labs AI. this AI, and in case you don't know, it is a voice synthesizer AI gives roughly 2 minutes of your voice, and it will be able to duplicate that voice as well with nearly undetectable differences. I refuse to state that, at this time, An AI is a perfect copy of a voice. I do see some weaknesses in it, mainly conveying emotion, not that it is tone depth, merely that, at the moment is unable to switch from a neutral tone to one of extreme emotion such as despair or anger I imagine if you fed it with a voice rife with rage that it would be able to duplicate set of voice with the same tone, but that requires once again more input. This AI is a potent tool creatively. I can think of using it in several ways. Say you're a DM for a D&D campaign, and instead of maintaining 30 different voices and which you inevitably break character or the accent you're created melts away instead, you speak to this program for 2 minutes, and whatever funny voice you come up with, and it's able to duplicate that voice. You can then feed it any input, and you never have to worry about dropping character again. I also can see it being used in the video game Space. Let’s say you want to have AI-generated characters, or you have random characters created, and you don't want just flat characters, you want them to speak; you want them to have a voice. Feed lines into this program with simple sample voices you want them to sound like. Maybe you only have a slew of 30 different you can make them say whatever you want, and you could have it changed on the fly. This AI is a potent tool and as with all tools there is good and there is bad. The same AI could record a 2-minute conversation of an employee that you don't like. While that sound byte may not hold up in court, It could easily make someone not promoted, potentially get fired, or ruin someone’s reputation. This tool could be used to make anyone say anything. with how accurate the voice is voice recognition software would be mute and voice recognition software has issues nothing less with impersonations and other things as well but this would only exaggerate that. With the addition of deep fake some other AI digital products certain images and videos and now I guess recordings are unlikely to hold up in court as a single point of evidence, especially with no other evidence provided which I guess is positive with the court system but it does not prevent the usage of a stolen identity. However, the technology is nigh endless using this and 2 minutes of a home video you could raise the dead. Imagine taking a Christmas video from 3 years ago after a loved one has passed away, and taking a  little bit of their voice and uploading it to this program and you can hear them speak. It may not be perfect, and they may not truly be there, but there are plenty of people who wish for nothing more than to hear the voices of those they once loved. This tool can let him do that again even if it is only a machine.

 I look forward to the future of AI, both curious to see the good as we March further on in technology and morbidly curious to see the bad as we aspire to create Digital Life; the possibilities are endless.

Alex 

Armyofducks 

Moist Critical video -This Technology Will Scare You Link

Beginnings

Ideas are easy, Executing them is hard.

I've considered entering the Creator space multiple times. However, thinking about it and doing it are two very very different things. I'm a person full of ideas, dreams, some are good and some are bad and some are quite bad. In order to have a place to put all my ideas. I've started this my blog "The Pond"

I've decided to call my blog "The Pond" as it's where ducks live. Ever since I was a child I have always loved ducks. I remember being in first grade and having to create a book my own book, and the very first book I ever made was about ducks. It was a research project I did where I learned about ducks being able to swim for two full city blocks and having a special oil on their skin, or feathers I guess, that allows them to be waterproof. Ever since my first Easter I've had a stuffed animal, a duck, a duck that for a few years was larger than I was. Now I even have a collection of small rubber ducks said I've received for the past couple years from my parents as small little gag gifts that do nothing but put a smile on my face.

Ideas are a funny thing, nothing is easier than seeing something and thinking about it which is a definition of an idea if I've ever heard one. But while thinking may be believing, It certainly is not doing and that's what this blog aims to do. This blog is the doing of my ideas. I have years and years of ideas for inventions, games, books, D&D Adventures, adventures in general, and many more categories that I just can't list here. It would be a waste to keep doing what I've been doing which is either write them down for no one to ever see or to keep it purely to myself. Instead I've started this, a Blog to put down my ideas in which other people may see and hopefully grow themselves. I started this blog as an effort to get my ideas out there into the world so for every idea that I can't act on myself maybethey can be acted on by someone else.

I make no promises about consistency of uploads or anything else in the matter however for now I plan on updating at minimum of once a month so expect the next post Next month, and I also promise no consistency in what these posts will it be about anymore then it is something that I'm interested in and that I'm willing to talk about it.

Alex

Armyofducks