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[ by Charles Cameron — a computer “plays” Mario Bros while a robot demonstrates “Bushido” ]
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Two stunning videos:

and:

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Justin Seitz turned me onto the Super Mario World video with this tweet:

This AI Used 'Neuroevolution' to Teach Itself How to Play 'Super Mario World' http://t.co/WQEcWswTm6 <- coolest article of 2015 so far

— Justin Seitz (@jms_dot_py) June 16, 2015

I’m one of those obstructionists who wouldn’t say the AI was “playing” — but that’s the hard problem in consciousness for you. I wonder what my friends Mike Sellers and Chris Bateman would have to say..

And no, I wouldn’t call the robotic slicing and dicing “Bushido” either. From the Hagakure:

There is something to be learned from a rainstorm. When meeting with a sudden shower, you try not to get wet and run quickly along the road. But doing such things as passing under the eaves of houses, you still get wet. When you are resolved from the beginning, you will not be perplexed, though you will still get the same soaking. This understanding extends to everything.

Has the Yaskawa Bushido Project learned from rainstorms?

Indirectly, I suppose. But there you go.

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Interesting that John Holland, the “father of genetic algorithms”, described his life’s work as a Glass Bead Game, eh?

[ by Charles Cameron — more for the fun and war games file ]
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There’s Aaron Zelin‘s piece,

The Islamic State's Saudi Chess Match – @azelin, @WashInstitute: http://t.co/48hnDEr1RD

— Aaron Y. Zelin (@azelin) June 2, 2015

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Then there’s this DoubleTweet from Daveed Gartenstein-Ross:

If you thought chess and war were exactly the same, prepare to have your mind blown. http://t.co/FVvx7QEqxc

— Gartenstein-Ross (@DaveedGR) June 4, 2015

and (brilliantly played!) Phineas Fahrquar:

@DaveedGR So, wait. My private doesn't promote to general if it makes it to the enemy HQ? Shoot…

— Phineas Fahrquar (@irishspy) June 4, 2015

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Both the linked pieces are worth your while:

Aaron Zelin, The Islamic State’s Saudi Chess Match

Giorgio Bertolin. Why chess is not the right metaphor for human conflict

[ by Charles Cameron — not a FIFA joke ]
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I’ve no idea of whether this was photoshopped, staged, screencapped, or simply a brilliant photo, but it’s war fun and games any way you look at it.

A visual koan.

The image is several years old, but I just saw it today via @EMostaque.

[ by Charles Cameron — in which Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Phillip Smyth get into role ]
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The United States Institute of Peace is holding what it terms a PeaceGame today and tomorrow:

The current PeaceGame series is tackling one of the timeliest and most challenging of issues confronted by the U.S. government and stakeholders worldwide: the global rise of radical groups and violent extremism. Building on a successful first session in December exploring the political and economic roots of extremism and violence, our June event will focus on the human element: why do today’s extremist movements attract recruits worldwide, and how can the international community more effectively both counter this appeal and manage the reintegration of radicalized individuals.

That’s an interesting topic all right — but when it comes to role-playing “stakeholders worldwide” there are going to be some interesting participants..

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Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, for instance, is playing the Islamic State:

Hello, #PeaceGame. pic.twitter.com/pAlxvxT2NK

— Gartenstein-Ross (@DaveedGR) June 2, 2015

Formally naming IS “Daesh” in the game seems to me to be a curious choice, since it’s unlikely to be the term by which IS members self-identify in “real life”. Note that the US isn’t named “Crusaders” although there are some stake-holders who might think of the US that way.

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Daveed gets into role as IS, and Pillip Smyth, playing Shia, responds likewise:

.@DaveedGR You're goin' down, ya nasibi. @USIP @ForeignPolicy #Peacegame pic.twitter.com/wQtkAS3eAT

— Phillip Smyth (@PhillipSmyth) June 2, 2015

And thus I learn a new insult — “nasibi” apparently being the derogatory term Shiites use to describe thier opponents — roughly comparable to Sunnis labeling Shiites “rafida”.

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You can watch the event live here:

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Nada Bakos characterized an early response within the game thus:

Amb Jeffrey responding as U.S. In #PeaceGame is perfectly summarizing TPs of analysis paralysis

— Nada Bakos (@nadabakos) June 2, 2015

Do we ever get farther than analysis paralysis? That’s an open question..

[ by Charles Cameron — 4th & last in a bizarre series [1, 2, 3] — I must confess I prefer the NASA stars to the game world, but Wm. Blake’s world to all the rest ]
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My curiosity today leads me to compare two “represented” universes, each of them pretty much guaranteed — not that I place great credence in guarantees these days — to blow my mind or at least my socks off, and / or to quake my universe!

Here, to assist you in making your own comparison, are two text descriptions of the space photo (upper panel) and the game designs (lower):

My own feeling is that both are less awesome than their respective write-ups suggest: the NASA photo because it’s “awesomeness claim” is purely quantitative, whereas the universe is qualitative first and quantitative second; and the game images because they’re pale pastel imitations of our own world — fantastic, yes, but far from imaginative, to use the terminology Coleridge proposed.

Sources:

Joe Martino, NASA Has Released The Largest Picture Ever Taken. It Will Rock Your Universe

Raffi Khatchadourian, World Without End: Creating a full-scale digital cosmos

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To give us a sense of proportion — one that includes both qualitative and quantitative elements — here are some other images which, along with the ones from NASA and the game, give you a somewhat wider “range of universes” to consider — all of them in fact contained in the one we blog and read in:

The first pair shows two humanly-generated images, one by the visionary artist and poet William Blake, the other by the documentary photographer Dorothea Lange. Realism, meet mythic imagination.

The second pair — aha! — shows two desert sports: one almost archaic in its brutality, the other something akin to post-modern. In the upper panel we glimpse the Afghan national sport of Bukashi, in which the headless carcass of a goat is captured and carried to the goal by terrifying horsemen; in the lower, one of the robot jockeys who have replaced child-jockeys in the camel-racing of Dubai.

Sources:

William Blake, Jacob’s Ladder

Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother

L Lukasz, “BUZKASHI” in Mazar-e Sharif

Avax News, Robots replace Child Jockeys

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But let’s be fair to the two first screenshots at the top of the page. Here are the respective videos of the NASA Andromeda megapicture and the Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky for you to consider on their merits —

— remember: there’s no accounting for tastes.. not even mine own.