@LeeWoofenden I actually don't say the world will end in my blog post. I say there will be a calamity, and that the end of this age is coming.

@El'endiaStarman We Swedenborgians think that the end of the age already came over 250 years ago, and that we're already living in the next age, which is the era of the New Jerusalem. We don't think any of the signs predicted in Matthew 24, Revelation and elsewhere in the Bible are meant to be read as physical signs at all, nor do we believe in any physical calamity before the end of the age.

@LeeWoofenden Why that specific date/year?

@El'endiaStarman Swedenborg said that the Last Judgment on the previous age took place in the spiritual world mostly in the year 1757.

An article of mine on that subject: Is the World Coming to an End? What about the Second Coming?

This is adorable if @ThaddeusB is correct.

@Mr.B Indeed :)

@Mr.Bultitude The odd part about it is Jesus using it as part of a ritual to cast off demons. What does that have to do with the mustard seed?

Oh, got it. Jesus said this after casting out a demon. Still odd, though.

@El'endiaStarman The 7-year cycle is a myth. Generally, recessions hit only a few countries at a time, although a lengthy recession in one nation can affect its trading partners. The U.S. went into a deep recession in 2007, pulling most of the western world into recession by 2008. But the 2001 U.S. recession didn't affect Britain at all. And before 2001, the last recession in the U.S. was 1990-91 in both the U.S. and the U.K.

@BruceAlderman Ah, thanks for the info!

@BruceAlderman Now that you're mentioning it, I've never thought of the cycle as explicitly about recessionary periods, but about markets. Markets do often follow recessions, but not always. I've always heard it that markets will rise for five years then decline for two. It's certainly not a given, but my experience in various markets has taught me that if you've had five years growth in a market you should consider selling before the decline comes.

@TRiG Yes.

@fredsbend My 10th grade theology teacher was Father Walter Halloran; my father's regular confessor for quite some time was Father William Bowden. I definitely believe in "this kind of thing".

@fredsbend The cost of tea in China is the version I know.

@TRiG The idiom is usually "the price of tea in China." But you gotta admit, "the price of rice" does have a certain ring to it!

@LeeWoofenden I told you trice the price of rice is always nice.

@TRiG Showoff! :-P

@LeeWoofenden I wrote it in a trice too.

@fredsbend I don't think it holds there either. Take the S&P 500, for example. In my lifetime we had a sharp drop in 1987, then another mild drop in mid-1990, then about 10 years of growth, followed by three down years in 2000-2002. Then, of course, 5 years of growth followed by 2 down years, but then we've had 6 consecutive years of growth before 2015; this year has been pretty flat so far, but could go either way before the end.

finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=%5Egspc+interactive

Just took a closer look: 2007 was actually up 5% for the year. So following 2002, we had 6 years up, 1 year down (2008), and 6 more years up.

@fredsbend I wouldn't sell anticipating a market decline, but right now I'm waiting for stocks to get cheaper before buying any more.

@BruceAlderman If the market were regular and predictable, stock market analysts wouldn't make the big bucks trying to figure out what in the world it's going to do. When the market tanks, often someone predicted it. But that could just be because at any given time, different analysts and gurus are predicting just about every possible outcome.

@BruceAlderman Currently, I'm focused on housing because I'd like to move out of my current place. I've done a good deal of stocks trading, but it's been about three years, so I haven't looked at anything recently.

In my opinion, housing, at least in my area, is approaching a peak. Prices are relatively stable, but number of houses on the market is up. Basic supply and demand; they're going to start lowering their prices so they can stand out against the heavy supply.

I would personally like to sell now while I've got about 30K in equity, then rent someplace cheap for a year. Then I can buy a place I like with about 20K-25K to put down (rent and expenses out the door) plus savings.

My new blog post, continuing on the theme of space exploration and spirit: On Pluto, Atoms, and Other Things (such as Heaven) that Just Keep Getting More Complex

> But in Swedenborg’s conception of heaven, we are the very same people, with the very same character, likes, dislikes, quirks, ideas, beliefs, skills, relationships, and so on that we have developed here on earth. // Far from ever becoming boring, in heaven we are able to endlessly pursue the ideas and activities we love.

I've held essentially this view ever since I read Heaven by Randy Alcorn several years ago.

@LeeWoofenden Also, you might be interested in this video. It shows a field that is at first a fairly uniform mix of black and white, but over time, the white and black bits clump together in a fractal way.

@El'endiaStarman Looks like a version of Conway's Game of Life.

@El'endiaStarman Christian views of heaven have been going through major changes in recent years.

@LeeWoofenden Both are cellular automata. That one is typically known as the "Majority Rule" CA, and it works by setting the center cell to whichever color is dominant (has the majority) in itself and the eight cells around it.

@El'endiaStarman Kind of like one big game of go?

@fredsbend Except that Go is about surrounding homogenous groups of one color with cells of the opposite color.

I just don't understand what is happening in the video. I see the colors changing and moving, but I don't see any logic to it.

@fredsbend I'll try to reproduce a small example here.

That's what I thought was happening. But who goes first?

Individual cells are all evaluated at once?

Or B imposed on W first?

@fredsbend It's simultaneous. Yes, all at once. Just like Conway's Game of Life.

Then switch?

So the next processing would be:

Right?

@fredsbend Yes. I also just realized that I created that "board" with the assumption that there were more blacks and whites outside that region. If that's not the case, then...

So it actually oscillates.

Yeah, you did it wrong on the first go.

Okay, so what's the point? Why is this useful or even interesting?

@fredsbend Complex behavior from simple rules!

In particular, I like how colors clump together, but often in connected ways.

I suppose that does illustrate a philosophical truth.

....now that you mention that, you could apply that to networks. ... And now I have an awesome idea of what to do after tessellation in hyperbolic geometry! :D

@fredsbend Everything illustrates a philosophical truth. :P

@LeeWoofenden Plato's Cave, especially, illuminates a philosophical truth. :P

@El'endiaStarman Actually, because of the name, and now because of what it shows, I'm thinking of the movie automata. Saw it on netflix a few days ago. I liked it. It was a little disappointing at the end, but pretty good.

@El'endiaStarman Only if you turn your head around . . .

Worth seeing if you like scifi and Banderas.

@fredsbend Can't believe I forgot to mention this, but I'm currently sorta-watching a tutorial on how to procedurally create caves in Unity using this very cellular automaton. Link.

@El'endiaStarman Because you're trying to develop games too, right?

Wow. A bunch of interesting videos in the suggested list.

I can see how this is useful to get unpredictable maps.

@fredsbend Not with Unity, but I figured I'd take a light look at how the author did it.

I did always wonder how it's "randomized layout".

Are there other methods?

There's a suggested video about how Minecraft creates its huge worlds. Terrain generation is a subject of interest for me, and I'm definitely watching that one next. (Some time ago, I actually looked for papers on terrain generation. Some interesting stuff.)

@El'endiaStarman Gaming is far more complex than people give it credit for. Building games, that is. Playing them is still mostly a waste of time.

@fredsbend Yes. To the best of my knowledge, Minecraft makes heavy use of Perlin fractal noise, and uses several, uh, "maps" that interact with each other to make the half-chaotic variety you see.

Probably too much math for me.

I can click it in a file menu, though.

@fredsbend Speaking of which, have you read my blog posts? I'm curious as to whether I explain the math well enough for people that aren't primarily mathematicians.

@fredsbend I thought wasting time was the point of playing games. Sort of like watching sports or drinking beer.

@LeeWoofenden You clearly haven't played a game like Anti-Chamber. That one's a mind-bender.

@El'endiaStarman Wanna be my straight man for a comedy duo?

My wife won't do it . . . .

Lol.

@El'endiaStarman God's interested in terrain generation too. Seems to have done a lot of it in a very short time . . . .

@El'endiaStarman Reminds me of Mist.

I never liked Mist.

Mist or Myst?

IDK, the one where you walk around on an island without direction to solve some unnamed puzzle while seeing no one to talk to and nothing to kill.

Yeah that one was named Myst

It was so hard

@fredsbend I can understand no one to talk to. But no one to kill?!? In a video game???

I admit to needing to cheat to finish it.

@fredsbend Well spoilers but you do meet people at the very end.

No direction. Why would I want to solve a puzzle when I don't even know what the puzzle is? And no interaction with NPC's? just boring.

And you can sort of kill them

@RedRiderX I never played more than an hour on two separate occasions.

@fredsbend Yeah not realizing the scope of a puzzle was something I ran into a lot.

@LeeWoofenden How old are you, Lee? Didn't grow up squishing turtles with an Italian dressed in red? Didn't graduate to crushing sims a few years later? Didn't then find perfect pleasure in a total take down of the Covenant?

That's what I did.

And I'd go back and do it all again too.

Then there's Elder Scrolls and FF. Wow, I'd just sometimes go on a rampage and kill a whole village in ES. Just for kicks.

@fredsbend Well that was definitely part of the appeal of those games.

Then there's GTA, that of the lowest of video game ethics.

I played GTA all night at a friends once, then drove home in the morning at about 10.

@fredsbend Or at least the one the most fists were shaken at.

Stuff like DOOM was pretty bad too.

I stopped at a light and noticed a cop across the intersection.

I was about a quarter second away from stomping the gas to run away just because.

That's when I decided I couldn't handle playing GTA.

@fredsbend That would've been a pretty awkward explanation.

"Sorry officer, my GTA high hasn't warn off yet"

@fredsbend The puzzle is at first figuring out how to get around. Then you start using blocks in various and creative ways to solve puzzles and reach more areas. There is a sort of "enemy" at the end.

It also requires you to be very open to different perspectives.

Quite often literally too.

@El'endiaStarman I might try it. Is it free online?

@RedRiderX And the GTA high was just a chaser for the red bull / halo high.

I think we played football earlier that day too.

@fredsbend Ah yes that probably didn't help

So I probably felt like I could take on a mountain.

Then ten minutes in the door I crashed harder than ever.

Out for like 12 hours.

@fredsbend At the moment, it is $20 on Steam. I think I got it when it was about $10 or something, but I'd still think it's worth it for 20 bucks. Y'know how there are certain games that just stick in your memory? That game is one of them. Probably one of the most interesting games I've played. Rates up there with Portal 1/2 and Braid.

Free sample?

@fredsbend Nobody can take a joke around here! But to answer your question: I grew up before the video game era.

I really hate paying for things.

Unfortunately, doesn't look like it. I checked to see if there was a demo.

@LeeWoofenden I was joking too.

The way the game is structured, I can see why there wouldn't be a demo. There aren't really any isolated areas.

Ten minutes of play time ...

Only to a certain point ...

One play, no saves ...

Demos come in many varieties.

There aren't many demos these days I'm afraid

True, but clearly its creators didn't choose any of those.

Filtering software is blocking it anyway.

@RedRiderX I know! What happened to gaming?

I guess they assumed anyone that wanted to trail it just pirated it :P

I guess we all grew up and got jobs. Now they know we'll buy and rent without having even heard of it.

When I was a boy . . . we actually went outside!

@fredsbend That and more sales I think.

I'm heading out now. Cya all later.

Antichamber was $1.99 at one point

@LeeWoofenden Sometimes my garage door gets stuck and I have to go in through the front door. Does that count?

@fredsbend Cya

Less then a bag of chips

@RedRiderX I'd try it for that, based on El's suggestion.

Yeah it's an impulse purchase at that point.

Looking at that, I might have gotten it in a Humble Bundle.

Yeah, I'll lose that in change later today.

@fredsbend Have fun in the real world . . . . if it is real . . . .

@LeeWoofenden Or is it spiritual ;)

I just don't know anymore when talking to you.

Now I'm out. I swear.

@fredsbend I'll believe it when you stop talking!

@TRiG That's pretty impressive.