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Oh hay! I was actually just reading something that was mentioning this intersection of politics and language. I was reading "The Art of Not Being Governed" in a section describing the process of how people or groups would deliberately avoid or remove themselves from the power of the state by a process he calls "dissimilation" (as opposed to assimilation). "State Space" for Scott isn't just that area under political state control, which could be rather small. It would project itself beyond the boundaries under direct control through cultural influence: religious ideas that would emphasize a divine king, social structures that emphasized hierarchical organization, and critically common languages that would allow people to easily communicate, trade, negotiate, or command if enslaved. So various peoples, both expats from the state and outsider peoples who resisted domination, would not just "run to the hills" to put physical distance between themselves and the state but also emphasize, embrace, or in some cases wholly construct separate cultural identities to "dissimilate" themselves from the culture of the state peoples. This would go as far as for a non-state people whose language would be linguistically similar to a state people language to claim ignorance, as though they're not speaking the same language, similar to how African and Indian slaves in the Americas would resist their colonial masters by claiming not to understand instruction.

So in opposite to the Nation-State idea of a shared cultural identity creating a political system, this is a political system creating a shared cultural identity.

Also random related question: I know in America-land, when people want to emphasize the differences between each other (for political or other reasons) we will quite often first emphasize the "weird" way the other talks. Like how resistance to the Bush administration loved to make fun of Texan accent, or rural populists will exaggerate an almost posh-like accent for city-folk. Is that also true for other languages/places?

I just finished reading Chris Kohler's 'Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life' so a lot of my thoughts probably derive or have been influenced by that. But if you want more reading, that is probably a good place to look.

On one hand, while Nintendo doesn't really push the boundaries of graphical fidelity, I would argue that they do push the boundaries of technical mechanics. They invented/pushed the boundaries of the d-pad, analog thumbstick, shoulder buttons, the save system (beyond passwords), controller rumble, portable gaming, touchscreen gaming (before smartphones), motion control and the use of gyroscopes/accelerometers, VR gaming (hellow Virtual Boy), and probably more. The visuals of a video game are only one of the ways in which you interface with the game. Nintendo simply chooses to refocus their efforts of player-game interface away from visuals and more to tactile UX. One of Miyamoto's earliest jobs at Nintendo as a designer was to improve the design of a driving wheel for a game, making it able to be used both left and right handed, and changing instructions from short text blocks to more universally understood icons.

Speaking of Miyamoto, I think another contributing factor of the overall cohesive aesthetic that Nintendo has is the long continued leadership by frankly some geniuses of the industry. This may stems from the Japanese mentality of loyalty to one's company. Takeda started at Nintendo since 1971, Miyamoto at Nintendo since 1977, Iwata at HAL laboratories in 1980, Taijiri at Game Freak since 1981, Aonuma at Nintendo since 1991, Sakurai at HAL Labs since 1992 and so on. This allows for a continued vision that can last throughout the decades. A Zelda or Mario game from today has the same "feel" as that of the early years, even if many things have changed because the same creative talent behind the two games are the same. That sort of institutional knowledge is invaluable in keeping a cohesive feel between and within franchises.

Nintendo's desire to also create a game that plays well and feels right is also invaluable. See modern games that basically are beholden to hit specific deadlines and have a sequel out every year, and compare that to how Breath of the Wild was continually delayed in order to "get it right." The "polish" that often describes Nintendo games is a result of that. Miyamoto often talks about the "feel" of how it is to play Mario games has to be right and is constantly being tweaked. Again, this is a focus on gameplay and mechanics as the defining feature of a game, as opposed to graphics. It bears noting that one of Iwata's famous speeches at GDC is the "Heart of a Gamer" speech. Not to say that other game developer studios don't have the same passion for games. But I think the fact that Nintendo has control as both publisher and developer over the game development process is pretty key. When as a developer you don't have to care about hitting a publisher's imposed deadline because you are the publisher, you have more liberty to apply the polish or push back things as necessary. Blizzard and Valve's success with Overwatch is another example of this success where publisher and developer are the same.

I also will point to, as Kohler does in his book, the Japanese tradition of visual storytelling. Ukiyo-e woodcuts and later manga point to this. Yes we have comic books and cartoons here in the States as well, but I think culturally it isn't quite as ingrained as it is in Japanese culture. See how the haiku as a Japanese form of poetry is meant to convey the imagery, feeling and emotions of nature in such a limited scope. This tradition carried onto video games. Before Donkey Kong, the most "narrative" there was to a video game was Pac-Man. However Donkey Kong really pushed that idea of narrative in a video game with cut scenes in between levels and with a full three-arc narrative. This narrative was carried on between games in Donkey Kong Jr. Obviously other games have caught on, but this idea of story telling even with limited technical limitations has always been part of Nintendo's DNA. Even with only 8 bit graphics, they were creative enough to figure out how to convey Mario's features. That's why he has gloves and a moustance. Link has a green hat in order to tell direction. I think Nintendo clings to the adage - Constraints breed Creativity.

As others have pointed out, this idea of a cohesive aesthetic within and between franchises is not exclusive to Nintendo. Square Enix does this as well, with Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, and Dragon Quest, as does Atlus with Persona.

With mathwashing and related discussions on algorithmic bias, you guys have scratched the surface of an amazing discussion on bias and the ethics of Big Data. Cathy O'Neil is an awesome writer to follow on this topic. Just last week she released a new book Weapons of Math Destruction that discusses how algorithms are used to oppress and marginalize people throughout their lives and the guise of 'objectivity'. Here is a link if you want a quick review or countless others.

I'd love to hear more from Mike on this topic and the injustices perpetuated by algorithms for the sake of efficiency.

I'm going to challenge your assumption that non-violent 'protest' was ineffective against Nazis.

There's a book called Eichmann in Jerusalem, The Banality of Evil.

Amongst the many interesting things, it details how the holocaust was accomplished, and it wasn't through German engineering as it's often portrayed, but by simple local compliance. In other words, in regions that cooperated with the Nazis, extermination rates were upwards of 90%, in those that simply refused to turn in the neighbors, or actively harbored Jews from discovery, the rates were very low.

Non violence in Nazi occupied Europe was actually very effective a thwarting Nazi goals, and this is where the banality part comes in. We're comforted by the idea that evil is thrust upon us by overwhelming force, but the truth is far more insidious. It accomplished by simple cooperation. As impressive as the Nazi war machine was, it can't make people tell the truth or rat out their neighbors, and it's that kind of corporation that gets things done. The Nazis relied on local law enforcement and local institutions for control. They couldn't send an S.S. unit to every village.

The most controversial parts of the book even detail how Jewish organizations themselves helped seal their fate.

There wouldn't have been a holocaust if people had just refused to cooperate. Effective non-violent resistance is rarely about holding signs or posting graffiti.

War, by contrast, is sort of after the fact, and collateral damage is inherent to the process. Even "the good guys" engage in serious injustices. At all levels it represents the greatest of human failures, which is sometimes necessary, but only at the cost of much better solutions.

I mostly scoff at the idea that physical books are fundamentally somehow better than their digitized counterparts, but for some reason I prefer physical dictionaries, thesauri and RPG Core Rulebooks. I think it has something to do with my attachment to flipping through these kinds of books.

If anybody is willing to spend a littttle more, I've been told this is a far better translation

Also, to what extent is having a working knowlege of Christianity/Christian texts necessary for understanding this particular work?

• Anything by Issac Asimov (esp. The Roving Mind and Foundation novels)
  
• Mike suggested The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
  
• S by Dorst and JJ Abrams is a fantastically complex story on a story in a story

I recommend reading "You Died".

On more than one occasion, Mike's brought up Layrinths. I think he even named it as a 'desert island' book.

Non-mobile: there is already a book

^That's ^why ^I'm ^here, ^I ^don't ^judge ^you. ^PM ^/u/xl0 ^if ^I'm ^causing ^any ^trouble. ^WUT?

>Why don't you go write a paper about it if you are really that invested in the topic.

He does not need to write a paper because there is already a book.

Here is the mobile version of your link