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http://motherboard.vice.com/read/gods-lonely-programmer http://motherboard.vice.com/read/gods-lonely-programmer https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8658283 ht

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/gods-lonely-programmer http://motherboard.vice.com/read/gods-lonely-programmer https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8658283 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8658283

SwellJoe 12y ago
The random number generator as God concept has been stuck in my head since I first read that Vice article. In games, both tabletop and computer games, the RNG plays the role of God (a mysterious power that can bring good or bad fortune and even life or death). It's interesting how that idea plays out in a schizophrenic mind.
- digi_owl 12y ago
  Heh, i keep seeing roguelike players go "bless RNGsius" or similar when they get a particularly potent item.
  - SwellJoe 12y ago
    I've spent a lot of time playing nethack (possibly the most hours I have spent in any game). That may be why this was such a striking thing to me. I may have internalized some of that logic, even if only in a humorous manner, and so perhaps it resonates with me that someone might genuinely believe that the RNG is a way to communicate with God. There's a charming, if naive, logic to it; after all, if God created everything and is omniscient, why couldn't they have built the universe such that you would ask the right question at the right time to get the right answer from an RNG (which are all deterministic, if you have control over enough of the variables, as God presumably would). It's kinda like a modern version of astrology, I guess, in that interpretation and what questions you ask determine the outcome more than the stars or the RNG.
javajosh 12y ago
Thank you. I found this quote most illuminating: But the idea of a digital oracle grew out of his earlier methods for talking to God. At first he’d open a Bible to a random page, and it would speak. TempleOS is technologically more sophisticated than a randomly opened bible, but no less (or more) holy a source of God's word. It would follow then that if you were not moved by the act of randomly accessing information from a book, then you would not be moved by digitally mediated random access. (The converse is also true.)

SwellJoe 12y ago

The random number generator as God concept has been stuck in my head since I first read that Vice article. In games, both tabletop and computer games, the RNG plays the role of God (a mysterious power that can bring good or bad fortune and even life or death). It's interesting how that idea plays out in a schizophrenic mind.

digi_owl 12y ago
Heh, i keep seeing roguelike players go "bless RNGsius" or similar when they get a particularly potent item.
- SwellJoe 12y ago
  I've spent a lot of time playing nethack (possibly the most hours I have spent in any game). That may be why this was such a striking thing to me. I may have internalized some of that logic, even if only in a humorous manner, and so perhaps it resonates with me that someone might genuinely believe that the RNG is a way to communicate with God. There's a charming, if naive, logic to it; after all, if God created everything and is omniscient, why couldn't they have built the universe such that you would ask the right question at the right time to get the right answer from an RNG (which are all deterministic, if you have control over enough of the variables, as God presumably would). It's kinda like a modern version of astrology, I guess, in that interpretation and what questions you ask determine the outcome more than the stars or the RNG.

javajosh 12y ago

Thank you. I found this quote most illuminating: But the idea of a digital oracle grew out of his earlier methods for talking to God. At first he’d open a Bible to a random page, and it would speak. TempleOS is technologically more sophisticated than a randomly opened bible, but no less (or more) holy a source of God's word. It would follow then that if you were not moved by the act of randomly accessing information from a book, then you would not be moved by digitally mediated random access. (The converse is also true.)