Mike Cook writes things sometimes http://www.possibilityspace.org http://possibilityspace.org/rss-feed-note/index.html http://possibilityspace.org/rss-feed-note/index.html Sun, 12 Jan 2025 00:00:00 MST https://www.possibilityspace.org/blog-infinity-is-trash/ https://www.possibilityspace.org/blog-infinity-is-trash/ Mon, 13 Jan 2025 00:00:00 MST https://www.possibilityspace.org/blog-ai-is-better/ https://www.possibilityspace.org/blog-ai-is-better/ Thu, 16 Jan 2025 00:00:00 MST Late last year I was having a coffee with narrative designer, historian and researcher Holly Nielsen. I always enjoy talking to Holly about games because she has a great supply of anecdotes both about her work in today's games industry, and also about her research on the games industry of a hundred years ago. We often talk about AI, and the arguments people use to criticise it (which we largely agree with), and she said something that's kind of stuck in my head since: people often point out the errors AI make in things like writing or art, but that didn't seem to her like a very good basis on which to criticise it. She's right. AI may be better than you one day. It might already be, right now. If you want to organise, criticise or simply understand AI better, you need to come at it from a different angle. https://www.possibilityspace.org/blog-before-you-post/index.html https://www.possibilityspace.org/blog-before-you-post/index.html Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:00:00 MST Hello RSS feed users! It's Mike here. I wrote a quick post about Muse, a new system announced by Microsoft today that combines generative AI video stuff with games. It's just a few points about the system based on some misconceptions I saw online. I hope the RSS feed is still working correctly! https://www.possibilityspace.org/blog-academia/index.html https://www.possibilityspace.org/blog-academia/index.html Sat, 19 Apr 2025 00:00:00 MST A few weeks back there was some 𝓭𝓲𝓼𝓬𝓸𝓾𝓻𝓼𝓮 about games research on bluesky. One of the more specific points being made was that it was costly or difficult to engage with academics or to publish and participate in academic spaces. It's very possible I've misunderstood what was meant by this, but it made me think that this point comes up a lot and I think it creates some misconceptions around what academia is, why academic systems work the way they do, and how you can participate in them. This is a short post about other ways of thinking about engaging with academia, based on what you want to get out of it (and a little bit about where some possible misunderstandings come from).