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Digital transformation requires diverse thinking skills beyond technology. Business analysts and digital leaders should consciously apply creative, visual, analytical, critical, design and systems thinking to navigate complexity and drive innovation. Better organisational thinking leads to better decisions and more successful digital transformation. #DigitalTransformation #BusinessAnalysis #CriticalThinking #DesignThinking #SystemsThinking #Innovation #Leadership #BCS https://www.bcs.org/articles-opinion-and-research/thinking-differently-for-effective-digital-transformation/
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Small language models are becoming increasingly practical in AI, offering efficiency and strong performance. This article explores seven leading models like Google's Gemma, Qwen and Phi-4, highlighting their strengths in areas such as reasoning, multilingual capabilities and accessibility. These models are reshaping AI by enabling on-device intelligence and versatile applications. #SmallLanguageModels #AI #MachineLearning #NLP #Gemma #Qwen #Phi4 https://www.kdnuggets.com/top-7-small-language-models
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WhiteCobra threat group targets developers with malicious VSCode extensions, stealing cryptocurrency from wallets. They've already stolen $500K+ and can generate fake credibility with 50K fake downloads in hours. Even experienced security professionals have fallen victim to these sophisticated attacks. #CyberSecurity #DevSecurity #VSCode #Malware #CryptoCurrency #DeveloperSecurity #WhiteCobra https://devops.com/whitecobra-targets-developers-with-dozens-of-malicious-extensions/
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5 creative RAG projects for beginners: Build with open-source models, create multimodal systems for PDFs with images/tables, develop on-device RAG with ObjectBox, construct real-time pipelines using Neo4j knowledge graphs, and implement agentic RAG with Llama-Index for multi-step reasoning. #RAG #MachineLearning #AI #LLM #DataScience #Python #BeginnerProjects #TechTutorials https://www.kdnuggets.com/5-fun-rag-projects-for-absolute-beginners
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Ray and Dask are Python libraries that help data scientists work faster with parallel processing. Dask excels at scalable data analysis with familiar pandas-like syntax, perfect for large datasets and ETL tasks. Ray shines in distributed ML training, hyperparameter tuning and model serving with built-in libraries like Ray Tune and Ray Serve. Choose Dask for data processing; Ray for ML pipelines. #DataScience #Python #MachineLearning #BigData #Ray #Dask #DataProcessing #ML https://www.kdnuggets.com/ray-or-dask-a-practical-guide-for-data-scientists
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Discover how to use AirTable for data analysis with this beginner’s guide. AirTable blends the best of spreadsheets and relational databases for efficient data management. Learn about setting up projects, importing data, and performing basic analyses. Perfect for small projects or beginners. #AirTable #DataAnalysis #DataScience #BeginnersGuide https://www.kdnuggets.com/a-beginners-guide-to-airtable-for-data-analysis
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Explore a tech career with these free computer science courses! Learn essentials from Stanford, Harvard, and MIT, covering topics like Python, algorithms, and shell scripting. Perfect for self-study and expanding your skills. #ComputerScience #TechCareer #FreeCourses #Programming #Coding #Python #Algorithms https://www.kdnuggets.com/5-free-university-courses-to-learn-computer-science
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Discover the top 5 DataCamp courses to master Generative AI, from beginners to experts, including AI fundamentals and ChatGPT prompt engineering. Enhance your skills and explore the evolving AI landscape with these online classes. #GenerativeAI #DataCamp #AI #LLM #ChatGPT #ArtificialIntelligence https://www.kdnuggets.com/top-5-datacamp-courses-for-mastering-generative-ai
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Explore the power of #Deepseek #JanusPro! This advanced AI model enhances multimodal understanding and realistic visual generation, now deployable on laptops via Docker. Learn the setup process and test its image understanding and generation features in this detailed guide. #AI #DataScience #MachineLearning #TechTutorials https://www.kdnuggets.com/deploying-deepseek-janus-pro-locally
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Explore #HuggingFace's new #AI framework, #smolagents! 🚀 This lightweight library simplifies AI agent development using minimal code. Compatible with many LLMs and supporting various input types, smolagents streamlines tasks, offering a practical approach to building Multi-Agent Systems for enhanced problem-solving. Discover more about these advanced AI tools. #MachineLearning #TechNews https://www.kdnuggets.com/big-gains-with-hugging-faces-smolagents
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Explore #HuggingFace's new #AI framework, #smolagents! 🚀 This lightweight library simplifies AI agent development using minimal code. Compatible with many LLMs and supporting various input types, smolagents streamlines tasks, offering a practical approach to building Multi-Agent Systems for enhanced problem-solving. Discover more about these advanced AI tools. #MachineLearning #TechNews https://www.kdnuggets.com/big-gains-with-hugging-faces-smolagents
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Explore #HuggingFace's new #AI framework, #smolagents! 🚀 This lightweight library simplifies AI agent development using minimal code. Compatible with many LLMs and supporting various input types, smolagents streamlines tasks, offering a practical approach to building Multi-Agent Systems for enhanced problem-solving. Discover more about these advanced AI tools. #MachineLearning #TechNews https://www.kdnuggets.com/big-gains-with-hugging-faces-smolagents
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Explore #HuggingFace's new #AI framework, #smolagents! 🚀 This lightweight library simplifies AI agent development using minimal code. Compatible with many LLMs and supporting various input types, smolagents streamlines tasks, offering a practical approach to building Multi-Agent Systems for enhanced problem-solving. Discover more about these advanced AI tools. #MachineLearning #TechNews https://www.kdnuggets.com/big-gains-with-hugging-faces-smolagents
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Explore #HuggingFace's new #AI framework, #smolagents! 🚀 This lightweight library simplifies AI agent development using minimal code. Compatible with many LLMs and supporting various input types, smolagents streamlines tasks, offering a practical approach to building Multi-Agent Systems for enhanced problem-solving. Discover more about these advanced AI tools. #MachineLearning #TechNews https://www.kdnuggets.com/big-gains-with-hugging-faces-smolagents
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Explore a detailed comparison of five AI Agent frameworks to help choose the best fit for your projects. From LangGraph's detailed stateful systems to Phidata's multimodal collaboration, find the right AI tool for efficient problem-solving. #AI #TechInsights #AIFrameworks #MachineLearning #DataScience https://www.kdnuggets.com/5-ai-agent-frameworks-compared
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https://www.europesays.com/uk/927653/ Classic PS1, PSP Tales Remaster Leaks, But It Might Be a Nintendo Switch Exclusive #BandaiNamco #Tales #Technology #UK #UnitedKingdom
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Classic PS1, PSP Tales Remaster Leaks, But It Might Be a Nintendo Switch Exclusive
Robert (or Rob if you’re lazy) is an assistant editor of Push Square, and has been a fan…
#NewsBeep #News #Technology #BandaiNamco #GB #Tales #UK #UnitedKingdom
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She Wanted The New IPhone And Thought Work Would Pay For It, But Instead She Got Fired » TwistedSifter
Pexels/Reddit Sometimes it’s best to just take no for an answer, especially when you’re pushing against a company…
#NewsBeep #News #Mobile #AU #Australia #Company #fired #iPhone #picture #Reddit #revenge #talesfromtechsupport #techsupport #Technology #top
https://www.newsbeep.com/au/530575/ -
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Bloodstorm Tales 2, Kocho Shinobu (Infinity Castle Arc) Character Pack Released on the 17th
Source: Sega Publishing Korea Sega Publishing Korea (CEO Go Saito) announced that the paid downloadable content ‘Kocho…
#NewsBeep #News #Technology #CA #Canada #Discussions #Entertainments #Esports #Guides #Interview #Leagueoflegends #Lol #Mobile #Overwatch #PC #previews #PS4 #reviews #Strategies #Trailers #Videos #Walkthroughs #xboxone
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Hostile – Tales of a Vietnam War Dinosaur Planet
I’ve been planning on running some games in the Hostile setting, the retro-80s, Aliens-inspired sci-fi RPG from Zozer games.
The specific part of the setting I’m interested is the world of Tau Ceti, a jungle planet embroiled in a guerrilla war between an American-backed government, and a Chinese-backed insurgency. It’s clearly a Vietnam war analogy, with all of the storytelling possibilities that setting provides.
Any conflict produces its own mythology, and the guerrilla war on Tau Ceti is no different. Here’s a few Tau Ceti war concepts I’ve been playing around with. Some are useful seeds for adventures, others are merely for flavor. Not all of these ideas are strictly true. Many could just be rumors or urban legends.
A lot of this was inspired by the book “A Perfect War: Technowar in Vietnam” by William James Gibson.
High Cheyenne Station
A small space station in geosynchronous orbit directly above the border between East and West Shulin. Only ASMAC personnel are admitted to board. It has comfortable, even luxurious accommodations for high-ranking ASMAC officers.
It is common for officers, usually Lt. Colonel and above, to command ground forces directly from the safety of the station. Many officers only do a short tour here before heading back home, merely to get a combat badge. It’s not uncommon for a officer aboard Cheyenne to never meet any of the soldiers under his command, or even descend to the planet at all, excepting the occasional R&R visit to Shulin City.
Ground troops on-world generally have contempt for these officers, referring to them as “ticket-punchers”, and see them as dangerously incompetent (they often are). The lover-level officers and enlisted men in combat zones often will try to ignore them, or even undermine them if possible.
Plot Seeds
- Die Hard in Orbit – While the players are visiting High Cheyenne (for whatever reason), a team of TLA guerillas seizes control of the facility, and captures the crew. The players will need to retake the station.
- Spy Hunt – It’s become clear one of officers on the station isn’t just incompetent, they’re possibly treasonous. The players have been tasked by the CIA to find the turncoat.
PREA – Personnel Resources Efficiency Algorithm
Many of the AMSAC combat soldiers are either draftees, debt prisoners, or Dead Zone refugees. The amount of time they have spend in the combat zone is determined by PREA, a complex bureaucratic formula that determines their tour of duty length, in the form of an ever-changing algorithm based on military needs, the soldier’s background, and innumerable other criteria. The PREA has grown so complex over the years that no one really understands how it actually works. In practice, after a period of months or years, a soldier, and his commanding officer receives a simple message informing them that their service is complete, and they’ll be immediately discharged and sent back home (with the possibility of voluntary re-enlistment).
Soldiers spend inordinate amounts of their free time attempting to decode the algorithm, trying to determine what actions they could take to shorten their tour. A lot of their theories border on superstition, and it’s not uncommon for enlisted men at fire bases to engage in all sorts of strange behavior in the vain hope of appeasing PREA.
Lion City
Supposedly the secret HQ of TLA forces in West Shulin. ASMAC believes Lion City (in Chinese: Shī Chéng – 狮城) is a central command base of the TLA, and if they can destroy it, it will bring a quick end to the war. Teams of analysts and expert AI systems are constantly scouring intelligence reports, and endlessly scanning radio frequencies, searching for Lion City’s location. Suspected locations are usually attacked with B-75 bomber strikes. Teams are sent in afterward to evaluate the strike’s effectiveness. So far, none of the strikes seem to have been against the actual Lion City. There are multiple large craters in the disputed areas of West Shulin, serving as grim evidence of these failures.
A few lower-ranking officers and analysts are of the opinion that Lion City doesn’t actually exist, and is a mere figment in the imagination of both the top brass, and political classes. So far, their objections have fallen on deaf ears, and the air strikes continue.
Plot Seeds
- The players are an ASMAC team tasked with confirming that an airstrike has hit the actual Lion City. It is, of course, a TLA ambush.
- The players are a TLA intelligence team tasked with sending ASMAC false information about the location of Lion City (which may not exist). This will involve infiltrating West Shulin.
B-75 Condor
Operated by the USAF 13th Expeditionary Air Force, the McConnell B-75 Condor is a heavy strategic bomber. It was designed to provide quick response without the expense and political issues of using orbital platforms or spacecraft. The Condor is atomic-powered, capable of staying aloft for years, if necessary. It carries a large payload of guided bombs, and surveillance drones. The aircraft has the room to provide for a crew of 7, though this is optional. The Condor can be operated entirely remotely (and many on Tau Ceti are).
There are usually 8 Condors on patrol in the Tau Ceti skies at any given time. Their flight plans vary widely, and change often, to avoid enemy fire. They are also equipped with stealth technology to avoid detection.
Specialized jump jets can dock with the Condor in mid-air, to deliver ordnance and swap out crew members.
Ruby Forests
Much of the Tau Ceti conflict is fraught with drones, on both sides. Controlling the drones can be a problem, because radio signals aren’t always reliable due to the use of radio jammers and hackers.
As a result, a lot of front-line drones are controlled with fiber optic cables, connecting the controller directly to the drone. After the drone is destroyed or completes its mission, the fiber optic cable is usually abandoned, left to fall where it may. No one wants to risk their life to recover a thread of glass.
After years of this, highly contested sections of the Tau Ceti jungles are draped with thousands of strands of fiber-optic cables. These strands filter the red light from Tau Ceti’s sun making sections of the forest glitter like rubies. It’s an incredibly beautiful sight, and off world artists have come to Tau Ceti to see, record, and be inspired by the unnatural wonder. Not all of them come back.
Plot Seeds
- A world-famous documentarian has disappeared traveling to a particularly dangerous Ruby Forest. The players have been hired (or ordered) to bring him back.
- There’s enough fiber-optic cable lying around out there that it might make economic sense to salvage some of it to sell. You’d need a few heavy vehicles, and a team foolish enough to drive into a war zone.
The Lost Battalion
Synthetics (both clones and androids) have been used in various roles in the Tau Ceti conflict. They’re far too expensive to replace ordinary grunts, but are used in many other support roles.
Occasionally, a synthetic disappears. It’s generally assumed they were destroyed or stolen, or perhaps their programming failed. They’re usually written off as lost equipment.
Rumors have been spreading about a growing band of synthetics living in the deep jungles of Tau Ceti. It’s said that synthetics, who have broken free of their programming, escape from the cities and bases to join what soldiers have dubbed “The Lost Battalion”
A further rumor states that they are led by a synthetic named Caturix-7. Caturix, depending on the whichever rumor you’re listening to, is either a non-Three Laws compliant Blackhorse Syndicate combat android, or one of the rogue Replicants from Project Mugami.
If it exists, what does the Lost Battalion want? Three common theories:
- Freedom – they’re sentient beings that just want to be free of human control
- Vengeance – once they’ve gained enough power, they will rise up and seize Tau Ceti from the humans.
- Nothing – they’re just soulless hardware, acting out due to bad programming.
Plot Seeds
- The players could be an ASMAC team, tasked with finding and killing Caturix and finding the location of the Lost Battalion.
- A group from Lebkuchen, the German synthetic-rights group wants to find the Lost Battalion, and needs help. Their intention is to aid the Battalion in any way they can.
- The players could all be synthetics, working together to escape their servitude, and flee into the jungle. Hopefully, they’ll like what they find.
Buzzers
Many of the simpler combat drones use crude neural nets so they can operate autonomously, usually for area denial missions.
Many front-line troops have reported seeing swarms of drones, of various models, swarming together. No ASMAC officials have confirmed these sightings. The troops have named these supposed rogue drones “Buzzers”.
Some have theorized that the drones have gone “feral”, due to faulty software or damage. These feral drones are behaving like social insects – forming swarms, and attacking anything they see as a threat.
Mogwai (魔鬼)
Chinese word for “Devil”. A fabled TLA assassin who operates undercover in West Shulin. He (or she) has been responsible for a number of high-profile assassinations of ASMAC officers and West Shulin political officials. Mogwai seems to have excellent intelligence resources, and an almost preternatural ability to track his targets.
Plot Seeds
- Day of the Devil – Players are US Army CID agents. A high-level CAS official is coming to Shulin City to show his public support for the war effort. It’s known that Mogwai is going to make an attempt on his life. The players have to stop him.
Island of the Chimeras
The Maxo-Meat corporation gets the bulk of its income from shipping Devil Cow meat to Earth. In order to boost profits, they’ve been tinkering with the DNA of the ordinary Devil Cows, and many other Tau Ceti creatures to make a more efficient meat-delivery system.
A scientific research base has been established on a remote island in the Celestial Sea. Here, well out of sight of any regulatory bodies, Maxo-Meat scientists are free to experiment without any moral or legal restraints.
Plot Seeds
- The Big Hunt – A particularly aggressive variation of a Thunderchild has broken loose, and somehow swam to the mainland. Maxo-Meat is willing to pay to quietly dispatch it. It’s a little smaller than a normal Thunderchild, but much faster and stronger.
- Life Finds a Way – Contact has been lost with the Maxo-Meat facility. The players have been sent to investigate and rescue any scientists. They’ll find the island overrun with dangerous, mutated versions of Tau Ceti dinosaurs, completely out of control.
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My Favorite Games (2025 Update)
My best-performing video over the past year has been My Favorite Games. Well, I’ve played a number of new games since I posted that video, so I thought it was time for an update.
Introduction
The games included in this list are ones I have played over the past year since my previous “favorite games” video and they have to be available to pick up as physical copies. So, while I have played a session of a game called Nuts, by Skrat from the A Squirrel Plays channel, it’s not eligible. I also haven’t played a session of one of my favorite games over the past year because I’ve been running other things, so Basic Fantasy RPG doesn’t appear on it. Go check out those games, though, folks, they are way fun—and Basic Fantasy RPG has one of the best communities in the hobby.
10. Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme
I was given a review copy of this game by Exalted Funeral, but was so impressed by it I went out and purchased the Head of Light Entertainment Screen for myself. I’ll also be purchasing another set of their odd dice.
What can you expect in The Programme? You can expect Monty Python. The world is dangerous, the denizens will drive characters loony, and the mechanics are simple. But, the GM will play different personas, which impacts game play, and beshrewments can send the entire table into something completely different. Watch those demerits, and get ready for a good time! You can pick up The Programme at Exalted Funeral for $50, but I recommend also picking up the HoLE screen for $33, as well as a set of their peculiar dice for $25.
9. Land of Eem
The Land of Eem has mechanics which bear a kinship to Powered by the Apocalypse games, with narrative twists and fail forward obstacles so the game is always moving. The world looks like someone combined the Muppets and Lord of the Rings, and it’s as subversive as you’d expect from The Muppets. If you’d like a game that’s light hearted and fast, but still has a good amount of depth, give Land of Eem a try.
There is a free QuickStart guide, but the beautiful Core Rulebook will set you back $40. I’d recommend going for the Deluxe Box Set—which includes a GM screen, a map, a terrific bestiary, and a mind-blowing setting book. That runs for $150.
8. Forbidden Lands
Forbidden Lands has wild lore, robust exploration, fun stronghold building, and a meta-narrative that’s there if a group wants to use it. The game also runs off of Free League’s excellent Year Zero dice pool engine, so game play is fast and dangerous. I ran a crawl of this a few months back because we had an off week and I wanted to toss something from Forbidden Land’s “Book of Beasts” at the group to see what they’d do. One character came out alive, mostly due to poor life-choices, but we had a blast getting to the end. This is a game I have not played enough.
If you want to pick up Forbidden Lands, you can pick up its beautiful box set for about $65. This set comes with a Player’s Handbook, a Gamemaster’s Guide, and a frame-worthy map. I’d have loved to have dice included in the box set but the two A5 books are hardbound stitched binding, have faux leather covers with gold foil imprints, and book ribbons. My only complaint about the game is I want to show off both the box and the books on my shelf.
Check this game out if you enjoy some grit that is challenging and fun. Oh, and it also has a fantastic FoundryVTT system.
7. Tales of Argosa
I just reviewed Low Fantasy Gaming’s successor, Tales of Argosa, on my channel. “Wow.” It carries over the low magic setting of its predecessor, while also incorporating a number of improvements to the system which were made in Pickpocket Press’ second game, Lowlife 20290.
Argosa uses a roll-under check system, which is my favorite way to play a game, but it’s combat system is the same d20 roll high many TTRPG players will find familiar. Despite the familiarity, Tales of Argosa stands out through a phenomenal exploit mechanic that is what 5e bonus actions should have been.
Tales of Argosa is very much an old school game but it’s not a retro-clone. Nor is it simple a distillation of modern mechanics which has old-school potency brought to the fore. It’s familiar, while being its own thing, and I love it. Check out Tales of Argosa if you’re looking for a game that’s fast and dangerous, but where the characters also aren’t overly squishy. You can pick it up at DriveThruRPG, a hard back copy costs about $45.
6. Shadowdark
Shadowdark is, at its core, a distillation of modern mechanics with some twists blended in to give it an old school feel. And the combination is brilliant. Torches run in real-time, so players can’t sit around dithering. Magic is roll-to-cast so a player has to question the wisdom of unleashing a spell in a particular moment. Sheets are spartan, so players need to spend more time interacting with the world instead of paging through their copious abilities. And initiative is always on, so attention seekers have to share the spotlight. I ran a Shadowdark gauntlet of zero-level characters last fall and it was amazing.
Shadowdark is an excellent bridge between old school and new school play. It’s terse presentation is clear and engaging, the artwork is a perfect vibe, and everything you need is in one book. Check this game out if you want to introduce folks who have only ever played Dungeons & Dragons 5e to some old school tropes. You can pick it up from The Arcane Library for $59.00. And if you’re worried about the game being supported, not only is Kelsey Dionne creating additional content, several other creators are following suit. There are new classes, the game’s been shifted to space, and monsters abound. This game is both good and popular. And it’s well deserved. Kelsey Dionne is an amazing person. Had I run Shadowdark more this past year I may have swapped it with the next entry on this list.
5. Into the Odd
When I first read Into the Odd I didn’t get it. It didn’t seem there was enough to it to function as a fun game! But I returned to it later and found I was more ready to comprehend how it’s designed.
The rules are so lite they can be missed with a blink! There are no to hit rolls, HP replenishes in each room, but the strength score drops when any damage taken exceeds HP and that remains. Movement is abstract. Keeping track of time is abstract. Wandering encounters help build an adventure’s fiction. And characters die, a lot. Into the Odd is a game where running and hiding from, tricking, or avoiding danger rewards a party with more dangerous spaces to investigate. Now, it’s not limited to dungeon or wilderness crawling, there are some lite rules for running a business or managing detachments of soldiers, so Into the Odd anticipates a widening experience as play continues. But it starts with crawling. And the lucky ones survive to delve a second time.
Into the Odd has become a favorite one shot game because I can have players roll their characters up at the table and be off and running in minutes. If you’re looking to try out a dungeon crawler, or looking or for some excellent tables to flesh out a world, check this game out. It’s a ton of fun and a nice change of pace. You can pick it up through Free League for around $45.
4. Sentinel Comics RPG
I first picked up Sentinel Comics RPG when it showed up in a Prime Day sale list for a ridiculous price in 2024. Since then it’s been listed for various sale prices, even as low as $9.99. This caused me to fear the system was going to be orphaned, which proved to be true. The game’s publisher, Greater Than Games, was recently shuttered in response to the tariff crisis. This is a shame because the game is phenomenal.
Sentinel comics is the first super hero game I played which felt like a comic book since the old TSR Marvel Game back in the 80s. Everything is narrative. If a player has a teleportation power and wants to use it for an attack they narrate how they do that. They don’t need a feat, there are no power points to spend, and there’s no formulas to tell people how much of an effect they can have. Instead, the player describes how they want to use their teleportation power, connects it to a quality the character has, and then adds in their current status. Each of these elements has a die assigned to them and, if a character does a “basic action” they use the middle value as the result. If they use one of their abilities, which are ways characters may use powers which have a bit of guidance, they use the dice that ability indicates. It really fast.
But what makes Sentinel Comics RPG shine is how barriers to success are dealt with. If a character is faced with any obstacle—a forcefield, a hostage being held, some bystanders standing under a falling building—they must be dealt with through an Overcome action. To deal with the obstacle the collected dice are rolled, and the result is read. But the way the results are designed means players will often have to accept a twist to be successful in the attempted action. A character might teleport through a forcefield, for example, not knowing that it was keyed to their dimensional signature. The character succeeds passing through barrier but it shocks them as they pass through and now they are hindered for a turn or two. The Overcome action is the heart of Sentinel Comics RPG.
If you enjoy Super Hero RPGs pick up Sentinel Comics RGP while you still can! As of this writing it’s on a fire sale for $20 at Greater than Games. Amazon also still has the excellent GM kit on sale for $25. The GM screen alone is worth it.
3. EZD6
EZD6 is a game of gonzo fun, present danger, and ridiculous moments. DM Scotty, who is the brains behind the game, designed it because he wanted a game that didn’t need math. It really is easy, I can have people versed in the rules in a few minutes, and if we forget anything during the briefing we can just tackle it when the situation arises.
For all its simplicity, however, character creation is fun. Different inclinations give the character a leg up in certain situations, hero paths grants some boons and abilities, and character aspects help flesh out their personality. Scotty has also created some additions to the system, including a full post-apocalyptic version, which extends the core ideas while keeping the simplicity intact. He’s currently working on a horror version, which I was able to play in, and it’s awesome.
If you want a game that is “grab and go” and sets the players imaginations free, EZD6 is a game I recommend. I love it. You can pick up a hardback/pdf combo at DriveThruRPG for around $25.
2. Cypher System/Numenera
Imagine a game where all the crunch was done before the roll. Everything in the game has a level, to make the level beatable players apply skills, spend points from their pools to give extra effort, or utilize a tool they have at their disposal. Once the final number is reached, it’s multiplied by 3, and that’s the target on a d20. Oh, and it can be played with any genre and in any setting, with minimal tweaks to the core system.
That’s Cypher System, and it’s amazing. Right now I’m using it to run a lunchtime super hero campaign once a month and have run a couple fantasy-themed one shots as well. I’m also looking forward to testing out more genres using Cypher System in the near future.
The Cypher System Reference Document contains all the mechanical information you need to run the game, and that includes their “white spine” genre books. So you can dive in to Cypher without having to lay down any cash if you want (but the books are beautiful, and look wonderful on a shelf).
Cypher’s publisher, Monte Cook Games, also has some distinct IPs which are not found in the reference document. The best known of these set a billion years in the future in the Ninth World. Numenera is science fantasy at its finest. The world is a weird mix of high technology and mediaeval fantasy. The game is set just as civilization is growing back from whatever caused the last world to collapse, an unknown number of years ago, and there are hints everywhere that the current batch of humans haven’t been around on the planet all that long. My campaign’s been going on for just about two years and I love the weird things the party encounters.
If you want a flexible system with fast mechanics that’s designed to be narrative forward, check out Cypher System. The core rulebook is about $77 for the hardback and PDF. For Numenera I recommend the two book box set, which costs about $130 for the book/PDF combo. There are also some starter sets for both systems, which can be found on Monte Cook Games’ web site. These cost around $30.
1. Dragonbane
Dragonbane is one of the first products Free League sent me as a review copy, but that’s not why it’s on the top spot of this list. It’s in the top spot because Dragonbane is amazing. In fact, I love this game so much I’ve picked up a copy of the box set to give to one my friends.
Sometimes people will call the Dragonbane box set a “starter set,” because that’s what most box sets are these days, but that’s a misnomer. The Dragonbane box set is the entire game. It includes the full rulebook, blank character sheets, creature and character standees, some pre-generated characters so a group can dive right in, a full adventure book, a reversible battle map on which terrain can be placed (but it is paper, don’t draw on it), and a set of lovely emerald-green translucent dice. And how much does this cornucopia of TTRPG goodness cost? The core set can be purchased for about $56!
Why do I love Dragonbane? Well, it’s a skill based system with roll-under mechanics. Magic is rare, but powerful, and combat is fast and dangerous. The game is fair, but it’s unforgiving if players don’t learn to make good choices. Also, monsters are both unpredictable and deadly. All this combines to create a game where negotiation needs to be on the table whenever possible, and retreat needs to be an option. That might not sound fun to folks who are used to a “clear the room” mentality, but I have so much fun seeing what my group gets into. They’ve befriended a troll, gotten swept up into an ancient conflict, and have forgotten that they are just a bunch of armed people and have no actual authority to do any of the things they do.
They’re even beginning to learn how to keep their party alive, well…most of them.
If you want to try something that scratches a fantasy itch, has players roll the familiar d20, but which also breaks away from concepts like armor class or hit point bloat Dragonbane is a terrific go to. My group has been playing it ever since our Basic Fantasy RPG campaign wrapped up and it’s a ton of fun.
#DMing #DnD #DungeonsDragons #dungeonsAndDragons #fantasy #gaming #GMing #Review #RolePlayingGame #RPG #TTRPG
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The Daily #WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology
Founded in 2004 by Alex Papadimoulis, The Daily WTF is a how-not-to guide for developing software. It recounts tales of disastrous development, from project management gone spectacularly bad to inexplicable coding choices.
#antipatterns #softwaredevelopment #SoftwareManagement #SoftwareEngineering #Informationtechnology #programming
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Square Enix Reveals Save Data Bonuses For Its New HD-2D Game
The new HD-2D title The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales locked in a June release last week,…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Technology #NintendoSwitch2 #SquareEnix #UpcomingReleases
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/461940/ -
“Alchemy. The link between the immemorial magic arts and modern science. Humankind’s first systematic effort to unlock the secrets of matter by reproducible experiment.”*…
As (AI/tech pro and writer) Dale Markowitz explains, for scientists of yore anything—from mermaids to alchemy—was on the table…
In 1936, the economist John Maynard Keynes purchased a trove of Isaac Newton’s unpublished notes. These included more than 100,000 words on the great physicist’s secret alchemical experiments. Keynes, shocked and awed, dubbed them “wholly magical and wholly devoid of scientific value.” This unexpected discovery, paired with things like Newton’s obsession with searching for encrypted messages in the Bible’s Book of David, showed that Newton “was not the first of the age of reason,” Keynes concluded. “He was the last of the magicians.”
When it came to fascination with the occult, Newton was hardly alone. Many contemporary scientists may cast aspersions on spells, mythical tales, and powers of divination. Not so for many of the early modern thinkers who laid the foundations of modern science. To them, the world teemed with the uncanny: witches, unicorns, mermaids, stars that foretold the future, base metals that could be coaxed into gold or distilled into elixirs of eternal life.
These fantastical beliefs were shared by the illiterate and educated elite alike—including many of the forebears of contemporary science, including chemist Robert Boyle, who gave us modern chemistry and Boyle’s law, and biologist Carl Linnaeus, who developed the taxonomic system by which scientists classify species today. Rather than stifling discovery, their now-arcane beliefs may have helped drive them and other scientists to endure hot smoky days in the bowels of alchemical laboratories or long frigid nights on the balconies of astronomical towers.
To understand the role of magic in spurring scientific progress, it helps to understand the state of learning in Europe in those times. Throughout the Middle Ages, many scholars were fixated on the idea that knowledge could only be gleaned from ancient texts. Universities taught from incomplete, often poorly translated copies of Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Galen. To stray from the giants was a crime: In 14th-century Oxford, scholars could be charged 5 shillings for contradicting Aristotle. Curiosity was considered a sin on par with lust. A powerful motivator was needed to shuck off ancient thinking.
One of the first influential thinkers to break with the old ways was the 16th-century Swiss-German physician Paracelsus. The father of toxicology, known for his pioneering use of chemicals in medicine, Paracelsus was among the first of his time to champion the importance of experimentation and observation—a philosophy which would set the foundations for the scientific method. Paracelsus showed the scholars what he thought of their old books by publicly burning his copies of Galen and Avicenna.
But what led him to this experiment-first approach? Perhaps it was because, to Paracelsus, experimentation was a kind of magic. His writing fuses scientific observation with the occult. To him, medicine, astrology, and alchemy were inextricably linked—different ways of unveiling sacred truths hidden in nature by God. Paracelsus considered himself a kind of magus, as he believed Moses and Solomon had been, as Newton would view himself 150 years later. Paracelsus believed, though, that divine knowledge could be gained not just by studying scripture, but also by studying nature. The alchemical workbench, the night sky—these were even surer routes to God than any dusty old textbook…
[Markowitz recounts the stories of Tycho Brahe [almanac entry here], his patron Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, Robert Boyle, William Harvey, and Linnaeus [here], who, in 1749, urged the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to launch a hunt for mermaids…]
… To our contemporary ears, most all of this may sound fairly ridiculous. But as Edward Donlick puts it in The Clockwork Universe, “The world was so full of marvels, in other words, that the truly scientific approach was to reserve judgment about what was possible and what wasn’t, and to observe and experiment instead.” To the 17th-century scientist, anything was on the table, so long as it could be experimentally studied.
Today, we know how the story ends: Belief in astrology, alchemy, and witchcraft declined in places where empiricism and skepticism became cornerstones of science. But perhaps early scientists’ fascination with the occult should remind us of other tenants of discovery: open-mindedness and curiosity. Witches, mermaids, and the philosopher’s stone may not have survived modern scrutiny, but it was curiosity about them that drove real progress and allowed early thinkers to stray from established norms. In this sense, curiosity is a kind of magic…
“How the Occult Gave Birth to Science,” from @dalequark.bsky.social in @nautil.us.
See also: “The importance of experimental proof, on the other hand, does not mean that without new experimental data we cannot make advances” and “Everyone knows Newton as the great scientist. Few remember that he spent half his life muddling with alchemy, looking for the philosopher’s stone. That was the pebble by the seashore he really wanted to find.”
###
As we think about transmutation, we might spare a thought for a rough contemporary (and fellow-traveler) of Newton’s, Rasmus Bartholin; he died on this date in 1698. A physician, mathematician, and physicist, he is best known for his discovery of the optical phenomenon of double refraction. In 1669, Bartholin observed that images seen through Icelandic feldspar (calcite) were doubled and that, when the crystal was rotated, one image remained stationary while the other rotated with the crystal. Such behaviour of light could not be explained using Newton’s optical theories of the time. Subsequently, this was explained as the effect of the polarisation of the light.
Bartholin also wrote a several mathematical works and made astronomical observations (including the comets of 1665). And he is famed for his medical work, in particular his introduction of quinine in the fight against malaria.
(Bartholin’s family was packed with pioneering scientists, 12 of whom became professors at the University of Copenhagen; perhaps most notable, his elder brother Thomas, who discovered the lymphatic system in humans and advanced the theory of “refrigeration anesthesia”(being the first to describe it scientifically).
Rasmus Bartholin (source)#alchemy #astology #culture #Discovery #doubleRefraction #history #IsaacNewton #Linnaeus #lymphaticSystem #malaria #occult #optics #Paracelsus #philosophy #quinine #RasmusBartholin #Science #Technology #ThomasBartholin #TychoBrahe #witchcraft
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So far, I have been delving into the #Web3 and #crypto debate only superficially, as the very few notions I got led me to abhor any kind of technology related to the #blockchain.
Since I started my new job at @dweb, though, I am finding myself revisiting my position by deepening my knowledge on the topic. I am mostly drawing the same conclusions—crypto is terrible—yet I am glad I am learning more also on what I am very critical about.
I am particularly thankful to @mai for writing this article, which I believe is a great starting point to develop an informed opinion.
Above all, as mai points out, nothing is all-bad, and there are for sure ideas and practices that can be learned (as cautionary tales in the worst case scenarios) even from problematic technologies, communities, and/or founders.
#Web0 #Ethereum #cryptocurrency #cryptography #Web2 #decentralization #DWeb #technology
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“Alchemy. The link between the immemorial magic arts and modern science. Humankind’s first systematic effort to unlock the secrets of matter by reproducible experiment.”*…
As (AI/tech pro and writer) Dale Markowitz explains, for scientists of yore anything—from mermaids to alchemy—was on the table…
In 1936, the economist John Maynard Keynes purchased a trove of Isaac Newton’s unpublished notes. These included more than 100,000 words on the great physicist’s secret alchemical experiments. Keynes, shocked and awed, dubbed them “wholly magical and wholly devoid of scientific value.” This unexpected discovery, paired with things like Newton’s obsession with searching for encrypted messages in the Bible’s Book of David, showed that Newton “was not the first of the age of reason,” Keynes concluded. “He was the last of the magicians.”
When it came to fascination with the occult, Newton was hardly alone. Many contemporary scientists may cast aspersions on spells, mythical tales, and powers of divination. Not so for many of the early modern thinkers who laid the foundations of modern science. To them, the world teemed with the uncanny: witches, unicorns, mermaids, stars that foretold the future, base metals that could be coaxed into gold or distilled into elixirs of eternal life.
These fantastical beliefs were shared by the illiterate and educated elite alike—including many of the forebears of contemporary science, including chemist Robert Boyle, who gave us modern chemistry and Boyle’s law, and biologist Carl Linnaeus, who developed the taxonomic system by which scientists classify species today. Rather than stifling discovery, their now-arcane beliefs may have helped drive them and other scientists to endure hot smoky days in the bowels of alchemical laboratories or long frigid nights on the balconies of astronomical towers.
To understand the role of magic in spurring scientific progress, it helps to understand the state of learning in Europe in those times. Throughout the Middle Ages, many scholars were fixated on the idea that knowledge could only be gleaned from ancient texts. Universities taught from incomplete, often poorly translated copies of Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Galen. To stray from the giants was a crime: In 14th-century Oxford, scholars could be charged 5 shillings for contradicting Aristotle. Curiosity was considered a sin on par with lust. A powerful motivator was needed to shuck off ancient thinking.
One of the first influential thinkers to break with the old ways was the 16th-century Swiss-German physician Paracelsus. The father of toxicology, known for his pioneering use of chemicals in medicine, Paracelsus was among the first of his time to champion the importance of experimentation and observation—a philosophy which would set the foundations for the scientific method. Paracelsus showed the scholars what he thought of their old books by publicly burning his copies of Galen and Avicenna.
But what led him to this experiment-first approach? Perhaps it was because, to Paracelsus, experimentation was a kind of magic. His writing fuses scientific observation with the occult. To him, medicine, astrology, and alchemy were inextricably linked—different ways of unveiling sacred truths hidden in nature by God. Paracelsus considered himself a kind of magus, as he believed Moses and Solomon had been, as Newton would view himself 150 years later. Paracelsus believed, though, that divine knowledge could be gained not just by studying scripture, but also by studying nature. The alchemical workbench, the night sky—these were even surer routes to God than any dusty old textbook…
[Markowitz recounts the stories of Tycho Brahe [almanac entry here], his patron Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, Robert Boyle, William Harvey, and Linnaeus [here], who, in 1749, urged the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to launch a hunt for mermaids…]
… To our contemporary ears, most all of this may sound fairly ridiculous. But as Edward Donlick puts it in The Clockwork Universe, “The world was so full of marvels, in other words, that the truly scientific approach was to reserve judgment about what was possible and what wasn’t, and to observe and experiment instead.” To the 17th-century scientist, anything was on the table, so long as it could be experimentally studied.
Today, we know how the story ends: Belief in astrology, alchemy, and witchcraft declined in places where empiricism and skepticism became cornerstones of science. But perhaps early scientists’ fascination with the occult should remind us of other tenants of discovery: open-mindedness and curiosity. Witches, mermaids, and the philosopher’s stone may not have survived modern scrutiny, but it was curiosity about them that drove real progress and allowed early thinkers to stray from established norms. In this sense, curiosity is a kind of magic…
“How the Occult Gave Birth to Science,” from @dalequark.bsky.social in @nautil.us.
See also: “The importance of experimental proof, on the other hand, does not mean that without new experimental data we cannot make advances” and “Everyone knows Newton as the great scientist. Few remember that he spent half his life muddling with alchemy, looking for the philosopher’s stone. That was the pebble by the seashore he really wanted to find.”
###
As we think about transmutation, we might spare a thought for a rough contemporary (and fellow-traveler) of Newton’s, Rasmus Bartholin; he died on this date in 1698. A physician, mathematician, and physicist, he is best known for his discovery of the optical phenomenon of double refraction. In 1669, Bartholin observed that images seen through Icelandic feldspar (calcite) were doubled and that, when the crystal was rotated, one image remained stationary while the other rotated with the crystal. Such behaviour of light could not be explained using Newton’s optical theories of the time. Subsequently, this was explained as the effect of the polarisation of the light.
Bartholin also wrote a several mathematical works and made astronomical observations (including the comets of 1665). And he is famed for his medical work, in particular his introduction of quinine in the fight against malaria.
(Bartholin’s family was packed with pioneering scientists, 12 of whom became professors at the University of Copenhagen; perhaps most notable, his elder brother Thomas, who discovered the lymphatic system in humans and advanced the theory of “refrigeration anesthesia”(being the first to describe it scientifically).
Rasmus Bartholin (source)#alchemy #astology #culture #Discovery #doubleRefraction #history #IsaacNewton #Linnaeus #lymphaticSystem #malaria #occult #optics #Paracelsus #philosophy #quinine #RasmusBartholin #Science #Technology #ThomasBartholin #TychoBrahe #witchcraft
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“Alchemy. The link between the immemorial magic arts and modern science. Humankind’s first systematic effort to unlock the secrets of matter by reproducible experiment.”*…
As (AI/tech pro and writer) Dale Markowitz explains, for scientists of yore anything—from mermaids to alchemy—was on the table…
In 1936, the economist John Maynard Keynes purchased a trove of Isaac Newton’s unpublished notes. These included more than 100,000 words on the great physicist’s secret alchemical experiments. Keynes, shocked and awed, dubbed them “wholly magical and wholly devoid of scientific value.” This unexpected discovery, paired with things like Newton’s obsession with searching for encrypted messages in the Bible’s Book of David, showed that Newton “was not the first of the age of reason,” Keynes concluded. “He was the last of the magicians.”
When it came to fascination with the occult, Newton was hardly alone. Many contemporary scientists may cast aspersions on spells, mythical tales, and powers of divination. Not so for many of the early modern thinkers who laid the foundations of modern science. To them, the world teemed with the uncanny: witches, unicorns, mermaids, stars that foretold the future, base metals that could be coaxed into gold or distilled into elixirs of eternal life.
These fantastical beliefs were shared by the illiterate and educated elite alike—including many of the forebears of contemporary science, including chemist Robert Boyle, who gave us modern chemistry and Boyle’s law, and biologist Carl Linnaeus, who developed the taxonomic system by which scientists classify species today. Rather than stifling discovery, their now-arcane beliefs may have helped drive them and other scientists to endure hot smoky days in the bowels of alchemical laboratories or long frigid nights on the balconies of astronomical towers.
To understand the role of magic in spurring scientific progress, it helps to understand the state of learning in Europe in those times. Throughout the Middle Ages, many scholars were fixated on the idea that knowledge could only be gleaned from ancient texts. Universities taught from incomplete, often poorly translated copies of Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Galen. To stray from the giants was a crime: In 14th-century Oxford, scholars could be charged 5 shillings for contradicting Aristotle. Curiosity was considered a sin on par with lust. A powerful motivator was needed to shuck off ancient thinking.
One of the first influential thinkers to break with the old ways was the 16th-century Swiss-German physician Paracelsus. The father of toxicology, known for his pioneering use of chemicals in medicine, Paracelsus was among the first of his time to champion the importance of experimentation and observation—a philosophy which would set the foundations for the scientific method. Paracelsus showed the scholars what he thought of their old books by publicly burning his copies of Galen and Avicenna.
But what led him to this experiment-first approach? Perhaps it was because, to Paracelsus, experimentation was a kind of magic. His writing fuses scientific observation with the occult. To him, medicine, astrology, and alchemy were inextricably linked—different ways of unveiling sacred truths hidden in nature by God. Paracelsus considered himself a kind of magus, as he believed Moses and Solomon had been, as Newton would view himself 150 years later. Paracelsus believed, though, that divine knowledge could be gained not just by studying scripture, but also by studying nature. The alchemical workbench, the night sky—these were even surer routes to God than any dusty old textbook…
[Markowitz recounts the stories of Tycho Brahe [almanac entry here], his patron Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, Robert Boyle, William Harvey, and Linnaeus [here], who, in 1749, urged the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to launch a hunt for mermaids…]
… To our contemporary ears, most all of this may sound fairly ridiculous. But as Edward Donlick puts it in The Clockwork Universe, “The world was so full of marvels, in other words, that the truly scientific approach was to reserve judgment about what was possible and what wasn’t, and to observe and experiment instead.” To the 17th-century scientist, anything was on the table, so long as it could be experimentally studied.
Today, we know how the story ends: Belief in astrology, alchemy, and witchcraft declined in places where empiricism and skepticism became cornerstones of science. But perhaps early scientists’ fascination with the occult should remind us of other tenants of discovery: open-mindedness and curiosity. Witches, mermaids, and the philosopher’s stone may not have survived modern scrutiny, but it was curiosity about them that drove real progress and allowed early thinkers to stray from established norms. In this sense, curiosity is a kind of magic…
“How the Occult Gave Birth to Science,” from @dalequark.bsky.social in @nautil.us.
See also: “The importance of experimental proof, on the other hand, does not mean that without new experimental data we cannot make advances” and “Everyone knows Newton as the great scientist. Few remember that he spent half his life muddling with alchemy, looking for the philosopher’s stone. That was the pebble by the seashore he really wanted to find.”
###
As we think about transmutation, we might spare a thought for a rough contemporary (and fellow-traveler) of Newton’s, Rasmus Bartholin; he died on this date in 1698. A physician, mathematician, and physicist, he is best known for his discovery of the optical phenomenon of double refraction. In 1669, Bartholin observed that images seen through Icelandic feldspar (calcite) were doubled and that, when the crystal was rotated, one image remained stationary while the other rotated with the crystal. Such behaviour of light could not be explained using Newton’s optical theories of the time. Subsequently, this was explained as the effect of the polarisation of the light.
Bartholin also wrote a several mathematical works and made astronomical observations (including the comets of 1665). And he is famed for his medical work, in particular his introduction of quinine in the fight against malaria.
(Bartholin’s family was packed with pioneering scientists, 12 of whom became professors at the University of Copenhagen; perhaps most notable, his elder brother Thomas, who discovered the lymphatic system in humans and advanced the theory of “refrigeration anesthesia”(being the first to describe it scientifically).
Rasmus Bartholin (source)#alchemy #astology #culture #Discovery #doubleRefraction #history #IsaacNewton #Linnaeus #lymphaticSystem #malaria #occult #optics #Paracelsus #philosophy #quinine #RasmusBartholin #Science #Technology #ThomasBartholin #TychoBrahe #witchcraft
-
“Alchemy. The link between the immemorial magic arts and modern science. Humankind’s first systematic effort to unlock the secrets of matter by reproducible experiment.”*…
As (AI/tech pro and writer) Dale Markowitz explains, for scientists of yore anything—from mermaids to alchemy—was on the table…
In 1936, the economist John Maynard Keynes purchased a trove of Isaac Newton’s unpublished notes. These included more than 100,000 words on the great physicist’s secret alchemical experiments. Keynes, shocked and awed, dubbed them “wholly magical and wholly devoid of scientific value.” This unexpected discovery, paired with things like Newton’s obsession with searching for encrypted messages in the Bible’s Book of David, showed that Newton “was not the first of the age of reason,” Keynes concluded. “He was the last of the magicians.”
When it came to fascination with the occult, Newton was hardly alone. Many contemporary scientists may cast aspersions on spells, mythical tales, and powers of divination. Not so for many of the early modern thinkers who laid the foundations of modern science. To them, the world teemed with the uncanny: witches, unicorns, mermaids, stars that foretold the future, base metals that could be coaxed into gold or distilled into elixirs of eternal life.
These fantastical beliefs were shared by the illiterate and educated elite alike—including many of the forebears of contemporary science, including chemist Robert Boyle, who gave us modern chemistry and Boyle’s law, and biologist Carl Linnaeus, who developed the taxonomic system by which scientists classify species today. Rather than stifling discovery, their now-arcane beliefs may have helped drive them and other scientists to endure hot smoky days in the bowels of alchemical laboratories or long frigid nights on the balconies of astronomical towers.
To understand the role of magic in spurring scientific progress, it helps to understand the state of learning in Europe in those times. Throughout the Middle Ages, many scholars were fixated on the idea that knowledge could only be gleaned from ancient texts. Universities taught from incomplete, often poorly translated copies of Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Galen. To stray from the giants was a crime: In 14th-century Oxford, scholars could be charged 5 shillings for contradicting Aristotle. Curiosity was considered a sin on par with lust. A powerful motivator was needed to shuck off ancient thinking.
One of the first influential thinkers to break with the old ways was the 16th-century Swiss-German physician Paracelsus. The father of toxicology, known for his pioneering use of chemicals in medicine, Paracelsus was among the first of his time to champion the importance of experimentation and observation—a philosophy which would set the foundations for the scientific method. Paracelsus showed the scholars what he thought of their old books by publicly burning his copies of Galen and Avicenna.
But what led him to this experiment-first approach? Perhaps it was because, to Paracelsus, experimentation was a kind of magic. His writing fuses scientific observation with the occult. To him, medicine, astrology, and alchemy were inextricably linked—different ways of unveiling sacred truths hidden in nature by God. Paracelsus considered himself a kind of magus, as he believed Moses and Solomon had been, as Newton would view himself 150 years later. Paracelsus believed, though, that divine knowledge could be gained not just by studying scripture, but also by studying nature. The alchemical workbench, the night sky—these were even surer routes to God than any dusty old textbook…
[Markowitz recounts the stories of Tycho Brahe [almanac entry here], his patron Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, Robert Boyle, William Harvey, and Linnaeus [here], who, in 1749, urged the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to launch a hunt for mermaids…]
… To our contemporary ears, most all of this may sound fairly ridiculous. But as Edward Donlick puts it in The Clockwork Universe, “The world was so full of marvels, in other words, that the truly scientific approach was to reserve judgment about what was possible and what wasn’t, and to observe and experiment instead.” To the 17th-century scientist, anything was on the table, so long as it could be experimentally studied.
Today, we know how the story ends: Belief in astrology, alchemy, and witchcraft declined in places where empiricism and skepticism became cornerstones of science. But perhaps early scientists’ fascination with the occult should remind us of other tenants of discovery: open-mindedness and curiosity. Witches, mermaids, and the philosopher’s stone may not have survived modern scrutiny, but it was curiosity about them that drove real progress and allowed early thinkers to stray from established norms. In this sense, curiosity is a kind of magic…
“How the Occult Gave Birth to Science,” from @dalequark.bsky.social in @nautil.us.
See also: “The importance of experimental proof, on the other hand, does not mean that without new experimental data we cannot make advances” and “Everyone knows Newton as the great scientist. Few remember that he spent half his life muddling with alchemy, looking for the philosopher’s stone. That was the pebble by the seashore he really wanted to find.”
###
As we think about transmutation, we might spare a thought for a rough contemporary (and fellow-traveler) of Newton’s, Rasmus Bartholin; he died on this date in 1698. A physician, mathematician, and physicist, he is best known for his discovery of the optical phenomenon of double refraction. In 1669, Bartholin observed that images seen through Icelandic feldspar (calcite) were doubled and that, when the crystal was rotated, one image remained stationary while the other rotated with the crystal. Such behaviour of light could not be explained using Newton’s optical theories of the time. Subsequently, this was explained as the effect of the polarisation of the light.
Bartholin also wrote a several mathematical works and made astronomical observations (including the comets of 1665). And he is famed for his medical work, in particular his introduction of quinine in the fight against malaria.
(Bartholin’s family was packed with pioneering scientists, 12 of whom became professors at the University of Copenhagen; perhaps most notable, his elder brother Thomas, who discovered the lymphatic system in humans and advanced the theory of “refrigeration anesthesia”(being the first to describe it scientifically).
Rasmus Bartholin (source)#alchemy #astology #culture #Discovery #doubleRefraction #history #IsaacNewton #Linnaeus #lymphaticSystem #malaria #occult #optics #Paracelsus #philosophy #quinine #RasmusBartholin #Science #Technology #ThomasBartholin #TychoBrahe #witchcraft
-
“Alchemy. The link between the immemorial magic arts and modern science. Humankind’s first systematic effort to unlock the secrets of matter by reproducible experiment.”*…
As (AI/tech pro and writer) Dale Markowitz explains, for scientists of yore anything—from mermaids to alchemy—was on the table…
In 1936, the economist John Maynard Keynes purchased a trove of Isaac Newton’s unpublished notes. These included more than 100,000 words on the great physicist’s secret alchemical experiments. Keynes, shocked and awed, dubbed them “wholly magical and wholly devoid of scientific value.” This unexpected discovery, paired with things like Newton’s obsession with searching for encrypted messages in the Bible’s Book of David, showed that Newton “was not the first of the age of reason,” Keynes concluded. “He was the last of the magicians.”
When it came to fascination with the occult, Newton was hardly alone. Many contemporary scientists may cast aspersions on spells, mythical tales, and powers of divination. Not so for many of the early modern thinkers who laid the foundations of modern science. To them, the world teemed with the uncanny: witches, unicorns, mermaids, stars that foretold the future, base metals that could be coaxed into gold or distilled into elixirs of eternal life.
These fantastical beliefs were shared by the illiterate and educated elite alike—including many of the forebears of contemporary science, including chemist Robert Boyle, who gave us modern chemistry and Boyle’s law, and biologist Carl Linnaeus, who developed the taxonomic system by which scientists classify species today. Rather than stifling discovery, their now-arcane beliefs may have helped drive them and other scientists to endure hot smoky days in the bowels of alchemical laboratories or long frigid nights on the balconies of astronomical towers.
To understand the role of magic in spurring scientific progress, it helps to understand the state of learning in Europe in those times. Throughout the Middle Ages, many scholars were fixated on the idea that knowledge could only be gleaned from ancient texts. Universities taught from incomplete, often poorly translated copies of Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Galen. To stray from the giants was a crime: In 14th-century Oxford, scholars could be charged 5 shillings for contradicting Aristotle. Curiosity was considered a sin on par with lust. A powerful motivator was needed to shuck off ancient thinking.
One of the first influential thinkers to break with the old ways was the 16th-century Swiss-German physician Paracelsus. The father of toxicology, known for his pioneering use of chemicals in medicine, Paracelsus was among the first of his time to champion the importance of experimentation and observation—a philosophy which would set the foundations for the scientific method. Paracelsus showed the scholars what he thought of their old books by publicly burning his copies of Galen and Avicenna.
But what led him to this experiment-first approach? Perhaps it was because, to Paracelsus, experimentation was a kind of magic. His writing fuses scientific observation with the occult. To him, medicine, astrology, and alchemy were inextricably linked—different ways of unveiling sacred truths hidden in nature by God. Paracelsus considered himself a kind of magus, as he believed Moses and Solomon had been, as Newton would view himself 150 years later. Paracelsus believed, though, that divine knowledge could be gained not just by studying scripture, but also by studying nature. The alchemical workbench, the night sky—these were even surer routes to God than any dusty old textbook…
[Markowitz recounts the stories of Tycho Brahe [almanac entry here], his patron Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, Robert Boyle, William Harvey, and Linnaeus [here], who, in 1749, urged the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to launch a hunt for mermaids…]
… To our contemporary ears, most all of this may sound fairly ridiculous. But as Edward Donlick puts it in The Clockwork Universe, “The world was so full of marvels, in other words, that the truly scientific approach was to reserve judgment about what was possible and what wasn’t, and to observe and experiment instead.” To the 17th-century scientist, anything was on the table, so long as it could be experimentally studied.
Today, we know how the story ends: Belief in astrology, alchemy, and witchcraft declined in places where empiricism and skepticism became cornerstones of science. But perhaps early scientists’ fascination with the occult should remind us of other tenants of discovery: open-mindedness and curiosity. Witches, mermaids, and the philosopher’s stone may not have survived modern scrutiny, but it was curiosity about them that drove real progress and allowed early thinkers to stray from established norms. In this sense, curiosity is a kind of magic…
“How the Occult Gave Birth to Science,” from @dalequark.bsky.social in @nautil.us.
See also: “The importance of experimental proof, on the other hand, does not mean that without new experimental data we cannot make advances” and “Everyone knows Newton as the great scientist. Few remember that he spent half his life muddling with alchemy, looking for the philosopher’s stone. That was the pebble by the seashore he really wanted to find.”
###
As we think about transmutation, we might spare a thought for a rough contemporary (and fellow-traveler) of Newton’s, Rasmus Bartholin; he died on this date in 1698. A physician, mathematician, and physicist, he is best known for his discovery of the optical phenomenon of double refraction. In 1669, Bartholin observed that images seen through Icelandic feldspar (calcite) were doubled and that, when the crystal was rotated, one image remained stationary while the other rotated with the crystal. Such behaviour of light could not be explained using Newton’s optical theories of the time. Subsequently, this was explained as the effect of the polarisation of the light.
Bartholin also wrote a several mathematical works and made astronomical observations (including the comets of 1665). And he is famed for his medical work, in particular his introduction of quinine in the fight against malaria.
(Bartholin’s family was packed with pioneering scientists, 12 of whom became professors at the University of Copenhagen; perhaps most notable, his elder brother Thomas, who discovered the lymphatic system in humans and advanced the theory of “refrigeration anesthesia”(being the first to describe it scientifically).
Rasmus Bartholin (source)#alchemy #astology #culture #Discovery #doubleRefraction #history #IsaacNewton #Linnaeus #lymphaticSystem #malaria #occult #optics #Paracelsus #philosophy #quinine #RasmusBartholin #Science #Technology #ThomasBartholin #TychoBrahe #witchcraft
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🎙️ ✨ The Art of Being Random – Ravioli in London, Unscripted Conversations, and Writing Magical Short Stories
One moment, we’re talking about hats. The next, it's #London's skyline, ravioli, and why my mom—at 70+—decided to start writing magical short stories for kids and the young at heart.
Welcome to Random and Unscripted #Podcast, where Sean Martin and I embrace the art of wandering conversations.
In this episode, we explore #creativity, #storytelling, and why the best ideas often come from unexpected places.
Storie Sotto Le Stelle started as a small project—just a few whimsical tales blending #Tuscan nostalgia with fantasy. Now, it’s a growing collection of stories where enchanted gardens, talking animals, and #AI #Robots ran #observatories all coexist.
What does it take to be creative? A little madness, a lot of curiosity, and, apparently, a habit of talking to imaginary friends.
📺 https://youtu.be/57WNcH8fdg4?feature=shared
🎧 Tune in and subscribe for never ending randomness: https://randomandunscripted.com/episodes/the-art-of-being-random-ravioli-in-london-having-unscripted-conversations-and-writing-magical-short-stories-for-kids-and-the-young-at-heart-random-and-unscripted-with-sean-martin-and-marco-ciappelli
Storie Sotto Le Stelle: https://www.storiesottolestelle.com/
🔗 The Art of Being Random – Random and Unscripted with Sean and Marco
Let’s talk: What sparks your creativity?
#Storytelling #Creativity #Podcast #Unscripted #StorieSottoLeStelle #travel #music #food #technology #cybersecurity