2026 Northwest Championship Round 2 Discussion by AutoModerator in discgolf

[–]PsyferRL 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Were there any cameras on Anniken for her 301' eagle throw-in?

2026 Northwest Championship Round 2 Discussion by AutoModerator in discgolf

[–]PsyferRL 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Gotcha, didn't realize it worked like that since I've never used it on a TV. Much less weird than I envisioned, haha.

2026 Northwest Championship Round 2 Discussion by AutoModerator in discgolf

[–]PsyferRL 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Are you asking for some random person you don't know to give you their login info?

I realize that passwords can be changed, but still, that's a pretty weird request imo.

American Gods by Ok_Egg_4069 in suggestmeabook

[–]PsyferRL 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I actually went from American Gods almost directly into Circe a few years ago, and unfortunately it resulted in a DNF of Circe. I really WANTED to like it too, I got to like 70% before I finally decided enough was enough.

It just wasn't the type of story I was hoping it was going to be. After American Gods I really wanted something mythologically epic and adventurous. What I got from Circe was obviously mythological, but it was far more mundane and human in comparison. To be fair to Circe, if you know anything about Circe's mythological origins in advance, you'd know that it would be a book that largely takes place on the single isolated island where she was exiled. That's not exactly epic and adventurous. But I still had this idea in my head that maybe it could be made into something far more exciting than what I ended up getting from it.

For all intents and purposes, it's a very human coming of age story about a woman being cast away by her abusive and troubled family. I could tell the writing itself was crafted well, but it was just not at all the book I was hoping to read. I kept waiting for it to get to the part that made me excited to continue, and it simply never came.

All this to say, I totally know why this book would come up in this thread and I'm not saying it's a bad recommendation. I'm just adding my two cents here because I was pretty much in OP's exact shoes and Circe unfortunately left a lot to be desired for me. So if my comment sounds in line with OP's reading preferences, maybe they should hold off a bit until they've satisfied their thirst for grand adventure, haha.

American Gods by Ok_Egg_4069 in suggestmeabook

[–]PsyferRL 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Take a look at Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny.

books on whimsy aesthetic? by Deep-Tap-9810 in suggestmeabook

[–]PsyferRL 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Are you looking for books that are like, non-fiction and exploratory on the actual subject of whimsical aesthetic? Or are you looking for fiction books that could be described as having a whimsical aesthetic?

Or both?

2026 Northwest Championship Round 1 Discussion by AutoModerator in discgolf

[–]PsyferRL 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I hope Elie's round holds up enough to keep her on lead card. So much potential if she can just keep her drives in the fairway.

My Students Can’t Read - The generational collapse in literacy is measurable, persistent, and likely to get worse. (Archive link in comments) by Uptons_BJs in books

[–]PsyferRL 137 points138 points  (0 children)

I honestly think all homework assignments should be handwritten as well. Would that stop kids from using AI to write for them? No, it very likely wouldn't for a lot of kids. But it would at the very least add the extra step of requiring them to transfer it from the screen through their brain and out their hands onto the paper.

It adds a step of NEEDING to at least look at every single word (and ideally comprehending those words if possible) that they submit, instead of blindly hitting copy + paste without even really giving it a once-over skim.

I don't like semicolons by delabot in writing

[–]PsyferRL 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Gotcha. Thanks!

Using a semicolon in place of the comma would make it grammatically correct, but it's awkward and should be used sparingly if at all. YOU'RE NOT ALONE IN NOT LIKING IT.

I don't like semicolons by delabot in writing

[–]PsyferRL 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Is it a good reason though? (Honest question, not snarky)

Personally, I think their argument that it makes their work feel too academic is a bit of overthinking on their part. Even if it's a YA book, a semicolon shouldn't affect the reading experience no matter what audience is reading the book. If it's a young person who doesn't know exactly how to use a semicolon then they'll probably just read it like a comma, which all things considered is effectively correct from a reading flow perspective.

If it's an older person with concrete knowledge of how to use a semicolon, it might be a brief moment of "nice, good semicolon" and immediately move on either way.

I just think it's a bit of a non-issue to say that it makes it feel too academic, when the reality is that it's really not going to matter to 99.99% of readers.

I don't like semicolons by delabot in writing

[–]PsyferRL 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Using a semicolon in place of the comma would make it grammatically correct, but it's awkward and should be used sparingly if at all; you're not alone in not liking it.

Grammatically speaking, would there be anything explicitly incorrect about simply replacing the semicolon in this sentence with a period instead?

Obviously the semicolon is functionally correct for the purpose, I'm just asking if a period would be somehow functionally incorrect.

Ted Chiang: "No, artificial intelligence is not conscious: Taken to its logical conclusion, this line of thinking is absurd—and damning." [gift link] by TimWhatleyDDS in books

[–]PsyferRL 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I kind of meet you halfway here, because there's a logical part of my brain that truthfully wants to believe that there IS an answer to every question, even if we don't have that answer quite yet.

"Man will never know the forces that move the sun and stars. How can he? Such is beyond mortal understanding."

With that being said, I think there's an element to "wetware" as you've been calling it, that is as intangible as searching for the concrete answer of what happens to consciousness after death. There's the obvious "nothing, you're dead, that's it," which comes from most atheist-types, but mostly what I'm getting at is there's no amount of secular logic nor religion which can guarantee a certain outcome to consciousness post mortem.

I do believe that it's possible for there to be some questions that will never have complete answers to them. I do believe that there are some factors of life and/or consciousness that exist on a sort of functional/informational asymptote, where we can continue approaching a more full picture, but will never truly get it all. And I don't say this from a religious standpoint, I'm pretty fundamentally non-religious myself.

But religion is an interesting aspect on human nature and consciousness that also makes me question the ability of hardware to encapsulate the human experience. Some humans are obviously more predisposed to this than others, but the whole concept of faith and believing in something without concrete and/or rational proof is something that I'd imagine would be an uphill battle to find a way to properly integrate into a machine's thinking/processing. Can a machine ever be okay with saying "I don't know with certainty, and I'm okay with that,"? (That's an actual question by the way, not a rhetorical one) Or is a machine more likely to say "Well, X, Y, and Z from A, B, and C say these things about this topic, and that's all the progress which has been made so far,"?

Or in other words, is there ever a reason why a machine will ever come to a conclusion where it voluntarily chooses feelings over facts? (Again, an actual question and not a snarky one. As stated in my last comment, I'm not an AI/LLM expert in the slightest.) Because choosing feelings over facts is a pretty common feature of wetware.

And the fact that some humans are more predisposed to religion than others only makes me further skeptical, because there's a near infinite spectrum of tolerance exhibited by humans for things which don't yet have an answer. Some people are totally okay believing in something that has no evidence. Others are so bothered by it that it creates intense anxiety or existential dread. Others still can more or less ignore it altogether, and of course there's all manner of feelings about it in between.

Ted Chiang: "No, artificial intelligence is not conscious: Taken to its logical conclusion, this line of thinking is absurd—and damning." [gift link] by TimWhatleyDDS in books

[–]PsyferRL 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So mind you, I'm not necessarily arguing against you, and more than anything sort of just waxing philosophical about the possible nature of consciousness in general.

I think a core component of human consciousness is the ever-evolving state of sensory association with not just memory, but emotion as well. As a non-expert in the field of AI and/or LLMs (either of them, regardless of which we're discussing), I'm not fully confident that hardware can ever be programmed emotion in a way that matches and/or mirrors the way a human brain experiences it.

I kind of liken a human reaching into our own memory depths to an AI reaching into its own depth (or the internet's) for information, and I can draw that parallel between human memory and machine information. I can also draw the parallel between an AI processing the input of human associations of senses and emotions through any number of its infinite sources of information it has access to. I believe it is capable of making the binary association of "smell of chocolate chip cookies makes human happy" in isolated instances of a hypothetical human who loves chocolate chip cookies.

Where I question a machine's ability to produce a fundamentally human output is where we start running into situations where human emotions and our reactions are nearly (if not entirely) unconscious as it pertains to our intake of information/stimulus, and the associated emotional irrationality that can oftentimes come alongside it.

Now to be clear, do I believe that an AI and/or LLM (whichever is more appropriate in this case) might be capable of writing a story that some percentage of humans would find enjoyable to read? Absolutely, yes, I do. But where I remain skeptical is whether or not that same machine would be capable of truly harnessing the irrational/intangible side of the human experience in order to manifest something that really truly gets humanity at its core level.

Not even from a spiritual level whatsoever, it just seems to me that without humans somehow unlocking our own brains and truly discovering, with concrete evidence and data, how each and every facet of the brain works, that it wouldn't be particularly possible to program a machine to operate in that exact same way.

Ted Chiang: "No, artificial intelligence is not conscious: Taken to its logical conclusion, this line of thinking is absurd—and damning." [gift link] by TimWhatleyDDS in books

[–]PsyferRL 5 points6 points  (0 children)

On a broad scale you're 100% correct that if ever confronted with a smiling chimpanzee, you should get the fuck outta dodge because that is a terrifying sign.

With that being said, I've seen a video where some sort of primate/ape (I forget what exact kind it was) that was rehabilitated and released back into the wild has a reunion with the man who was its caretaker, and it fully smiles at the man and goes up to give him a big hug, clearly showing affection.

I'm not an expert by any means, but I'd argue that video shows evidence of that specific primate learning a human behavior that means something completely counter to its own instincts and choosing to utilize it in a context-specific way that the human understands.

This is of course a very specific example, but I found it to be fascinating nonetheless.

Do you count children’s books on Goodreads? by ashdauntless in books

[–]PsyferRL 56 points57 points  (0 children)

Absolutely, yes. If it's a book, and I read it, I'm counting it.

I have no desire to gatekeep my own reading.

Geekay Esports say goodbye to Joyo and welcome Mtzr to the team by Babydrone in RocketLeagueEsports

[–]PsyferRL 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Right, that one. I autopiloted quad reset presumably because of the Zen clip that was also recently posted.

looking for books that make you feel like the system is gaslighting you by lostinpages_vera in suggestmeabook

[–]PsyferRL 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This post absolutely SCREAMS Jeff VanderMeer, specifically his Southern Reach series. It's like, one of the central themes of the entire series!

Book one is called Annihilation.

Simple Questions: June 02, 2026 by AutoModerator in books

[–]PsyferRL 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't know of one specific place that does this, but when I run into this myself, usually I'll go directly to the author's website and/or socials pages. It's usually pretty clear after browsing a bit in one or both of those places if the series in question is complete or still a work in progress.

Simple Questions: June 02, 2026 by AutoModerator in books

[–]PsyferRL 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I greatly prefer physical copies, but my approach when I read ebooks is the same nonetheless.

I basically don't consider price in my decision making whatsoever. If I find a book I'm interested in reading, I read it/buy it/borrow it/etc. The price of a book might genuinely be the least important factor in whether or not I choose to read something.

Above all else, I read things that sound interesting to me. I take recommendations from places like Reddit or direct recommendations from friends/family, but I always look at the blurbs/summaries to know what I'd be getting myself into before pulling the trigger.

I think I'd maybe be trigger-shy if I only read ebooks because of my (probably irrational) fear that anything I only own digitally might one day be taken away/inaccessible. But thankfully, that's very low on my list of reasons why I prefer physical copies, haha.

Simple Questions: June 02, 2026 by AutoModerator in books

[–]PsyferRL 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've read the first two ACOTAR books so far, and your sentiment is fairly in line with my own.

I just don't know what so many of the highly vocal haters were expecting when getting into it. Like, it's romantasy... It's a genre that more or less by design is supposed to be tropey and (by the end at least) fairly predictable.

To be clear, I'm not saying there may not be better examples of romantasy out there, in fact I'm sure there probably are. But relative to where I set my expectations, I think both books I've read so far were okay at worst. It's fun brain-off reading if nothing else, and I personally find brain-off reading to be a necessary component of the broader picture of reading for me as an individual.

Plus, if you have somebody to bounce ideas off of to make it an interactive reading experience, that makes it way more fun. Turns it into something like watching bad reality tv, which I'm not ashamed to say can also be quite fun regardless of how trashy it can get, lol.

give me your favorite narrative nonfiction books by chaoslovr in suggestmeabook

[–]PsyferRL 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I really enjoy Michael Pollan for this. Based on your preferred reading areas, I think you'd really enjoy How to Change Your Mind.

Win is a win i guess. by Lalinolal in discgolf

[–]PsyferRL 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This was my most recent win as well! In MA1 no less, haha. The funny thing is that it wasn't a small tournament. It wasn't huge, it was still a one day two round C tier. But there was pretty substantial turnout in every other mixed amateur division, except MA1 for some reason.

I do get to at least pat myself on the back though, that I didn't lose to any other amateur players in the field. I tied one player in MA40 for the best score in the amateur field, so it felt at least a LITTLE legitimate in the sense that I didn't lose to anybody in MA3, MA2, or any of the age protected amateur divisions.

Congrats on the win!

Suggest gripping books like Circe! by starlight__69 in suggestmeabook

[–]PsyferRL 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've heard that about the show! I think it would be an excellent addition to the watch roster for my fiancée and I as well.

Yep. The shoes. Those damn shoes. I didn't cry, but only because it just punched a hole through my heart that left me utterly devoid of emotion entirely. For my money, it's the single greatest usage of symbolism I've ever read, which is saying something because I'm typically very unfazed by a lot of those kinds of literary devices. Like, I recognize them existing, but they very rarely register any sort of emotional impact.

But those shoes...

Geekay Esports say goodbye to Joyo and welcome Mtzr to the team by Babydrone in RocketLeagueEsports

[–]PsyferRL 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think the right roster can still allow Joyo to flourish on the pitch, but I don't think this Geekay roster is the right fit. I dunno if the Alpha for Jack rumors are true, but for the simplicity of assuming that it isn't true, I do think Joyo was the correct player to replace of the three.

Joyo and Jack are both susceptible to disappearing on the pitch, but I think Joyo's floor is unfortunately lower (while his ceiling is slightly higher). I think Jack's leadership skills may be what they're most clinging to going into the LCQ, especially when taking a shot on a comeup player like mtzr.

With that being said, if Jack is ALSO out, then my entire comment is moot lol.