I think my favorite is still the Dwarven Calculator, just because overflow errors caused actual magma to overflow, which is just so very Dwarven: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=54046.0

It's too bad Notch never finished that space-themed game he was once planning. I remember when HN went crazy with implementations of his spec for a simple, memory-mapped 8-bit computer that was going to be central to that game.

It's even been done with Conway's Life.

https://www.conwaylife.com/wiki/Turing_machine

It's too bad Notch never finished that space-themed game he was once planning. I remember when HN went crazy with implementations of his spec for a simple, memory-mapped 8-bit computer that was going to be central to that game.

I'm planning to introduce scripting into my procedurally generated space game with over 2^100 locations. All entity AIs will be s-expressions, which implement a blackboard architecture. This can readily be mapped to both finite state machines and behavior trees. What's more, a variety of scripting language subsets could compile to the same s-expressions. I want to let players license their scripts to other players for in-game money. Players can also perhaps use "hacking" powers, where they can modify scripts of other entities or ships using regexes. (With the caveat that if they cause a syntax error, they get "feedback damage.") Also, these s-expressions can be subject to genetic algorithms, and will also "breed" in the wild. (As described by Koza in his book Genetic Programming)

My contact information is in my HN profile (my username at g mail) if you want to chat more.

Well that was the whole point, he was looking for the simplest possible cellular automaton that was complete. It wasn't necessarily the original point of Dwarf Fortress.

Not sure if that fits into what you're planning at all, but feel free to use the concept.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0x10c

https://archive.org/details/0x10c

https://www.planetminecraft.com/blog/introducing-notchs-new-...

Too bad it got cancelled, it would've been interesting.

One could argue that spending 1,000 hours in Factorio building cool stuff is still doing something IRL. It's just a different kind of something IRL.

To be clear, I am not assuming that you were making a value judgement about the Factorio player :-) But I feel the need to share this point of view nonetheless.

The Buddhist monk finds enlightenment by simply being still. This is constructive living - in the sense that it is not destructive to nature / one's surroundings.

Along similar lines, immersing one's self in Factorio is an actively entertaining form of being constructively still in the context of one's surroundings.

So is reading. Listening to music. Etc.

Not everybody needs to build stuff or achieve things IRL. And that's perfectly fine.

I feel your argument, ultimately there's entropy and I cannot provide any objective reason why exploring whole galaxy is better than being a bacteria.

But.. you also perfectly know the other side of your argument even when assuming comfortable living where everything you need is provided to you. If you are considerate about the nature and your surroundings, why would you use that electricity and waste your time when on the long run some being will die because of it and resources that you use can be used to help other beings, in whichever order you prioritize their existence.

The bud-hist monk is obsessively rearranging a small stream of water with some sticks until he thinks the flow is satisfying.

Not sure why I'm a Zen fighter today, but hey, if you see a drowning kid in front of you IRL and you're on your phone, then it's just a different kind of IRL.

What an awful example? I'm typing this bullshit exploring patterns within HN bubble where I could spend that time working and helping with that money some drowning child in another part of the planet.

But I didn't mean to focus on philanthropy (which is one of available activities when you have your basic needs satisfied). Reading, listening, music, I think all our great experiences have something to do with other beings. Some form of communication and recognizing unity.

So is exchanging info about the game with other players. That's comm unity, and that's great.

We have these "make me satisfied" buttons more readily available, which should sort itself out on the long run, but I think sometimes they are being pressed thinking that it's an elevator button or something.

Incidentally, the guy who created factorio is one of the most Buddhist-like guys I know (even when he's not meditating) and I played the game and loved it. I guess I just wanted to point out that I think you've used strawman to sell your philosophy, just like I did.

I simply wanted to express my opinion that playing Factorio is still a form of doing something IRL despite appearances, and that if we were to consider playing Factorio an inefficient use of time then we could make the same argument for reading fiction or listening to music.

I guess I could have structured my comment better without resorting to strawman tactics.

Sorry about that.

Fantastic of you to consider your comment and not my interpretation as possible reason for strawman appearing in my prev reply.

For the record, I consider me just listening to the music with my eyes closed not doing something IRL.

(but yes, music, book or factorio can change one and then one can change the world - and working hard on some cool tech, or changing the world, may in fact only be speeding up our demise.... or save us... so we can suffer longer... who knows)

(Relevant: the unilateralist's curse, https://nickbostrom.com/papers/unilateralist.pdf.)

That said, I've been feeling similarly - playing on Steam and seeing folks w/ massive play times thinking, I should go do something productive.

Where did you start off for learning DAPPs? Do you have any goals in mind?

I just don't see the point, probably because I lack creativity. But what benefit to learning DAPPs do you see?

I built an S-R Latch for turning on steam power to my base iff battery capacity falls below 10% and remain on until capacity is above 50%. That, and figuring out how to distribute goods evenly across n belts when you can only divide in half is pretty fun to figure out.

What's Newton's modern equivalent doing right now? Probably perfecting a build order in Stellaris.

I also don't buy into the idea that if these games didn't exist, those types of people would instead be naturally spending all their time tinkering on things that would drive scientific and engineering progress.

On the other hand, what does the non-tinkerer majority of humanity do to deserve the tinkerers inventing things for them instead of spending their time upon personal happiness? ;)

Is it the usage of inventions to exploit, rob and kill each other which makes humanity worthy of getting more science? Certainly not :)

To be more specific:

I've seen the Internet before the tinkerers developed sufficient usability so the "normies" could use it. What it has become now that they're here is an abomination. HN is like a nuclear shelter, except outside its not radioactive but a giant, never-ending shitstorm.

So I often wonder: Should I really try to make my software accessible to the average person? So that they can go there and use it to propagate racism and other garbage? Or rather keep it difficult to use and play Factorio or whatever instead?

Tough decision to make for sure.

Most people like this have jobs that they dedicate 30-60 hours a week to building things. Presumably, that's what Newton would also be doing today: working in the day and finding time to build sundials in Valheim at night.

Of course, it's possible he'd end up being a Twitch streamer or something.

My favorite unrealistic and whimsical solution to the pandemic is for the government to buy everyone a copy of Factorio (maybe a laptop too if they don't have one) and have vaccine eligibility order determined by how fast you launch a rocket. The entire country has a momentary national obsession with non-deadlocking rail systems, and in a couple weeks the pandemic is over because no one has left their house in that time.

I do think Factorio is a good tool for understanding and appreciating supply chains and logistics. It's amazing to me that there are real-world factories producing real-world complex products like cars, and the whole process is far more complex than some optimized rocket control module production setup in Factorio. It's something most people just don't interact with, except as a consumer of the final product or maybe they have a job contributing to some tiny part of the entire production system.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=kRlSFm519Bo&list=PLowKtXNTBypGqI...

Unfortunately there aren't a lot of reversible transformations in Factorio, or mechanisms for one thing to influence another without being consumed.

Reminds me of:

  - Pacman in Factorio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VR_b9YwqH8
  - Raycasting 3D engine in Factorio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28UzqVz1r24

  - how long does it take?
  - how does Factorio compare to VS Code as an IDE?

https://youtu.be/mgfwwqwxdxY

You reminded me of the Half Life 2 Tech Demo at E3 2003.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ddJ1OKV63Q

The legendary moment starting at 3:14 :-)