14. SWEET PORRIDGE

Child with no food.

Old woman gives her magic pot.

Must say “Boil, Little Pot, boil!” and "Stop, Little Pot, stop!”

Always had food. One day mother forgot how to stop it.

Filled village!

Girls then saw and stopped it.

Now can only enter village by eating the porridge!

13. DOCTOR KNOWALL

(Not good for game: about pure luck, not decisions.)

Peasant called Crab. Wants to be doctor.

Needs: 1. book     2. equipment     3. sign "Doctor Knowall"

Becomes doctor.

Rich man wants help in getting stolen money.

Crab's wife, Grethe, comes too.

Servants bring food.

"That is first" (meaning first course). Servant thinks he means "first thief"

Same with 2nd and 3rd. Fourth course is crabs. (Hidden.)

Rich man says prove your skill by guessing the food.

Does not know, so says “Alas! poor Crab!”

Servants heard and confessed. Doctor Knowall became rich and famous.

12. THE QUEEN BEE

(still looking for the shortest stories)

Two King’s Sons left for adventure. Lost.

Third, called Simpleton, found them. They mocked him for being simple.

The two want to destroy ants nest for fun. Simpleton said no.

The two want to kill and roast ducks. Simpleton said no.

The two want to burn bees nest. Simpleton said no.

Found castle with stone horses.  And door with three locks.

Man silently gave them food. Then beds.

3 tasks to save the castle, or be turned to stone.

1. find 1000 hidden pearls. The two brothers failed, and were turned to stone. The third got the ants to help him.

2. find key in lake. The ducks helped him.

3. Choose from three identical daughters. One had eaten honey. One, sugar. One, syrup. The bees helped.

The castle was saved, Simpleton married the youngest and sweetest princess, the other brothers married the other two.

11. THE THREE BROTHERS

(Looking for the shortest stories, to start my story code)

Man has 3 sons, 1 house, nothing else.

All want the house. Cannot divide: only has value as a whole.

Son who makes best object gets house.

blacksmith, barber, fencing-master.

barber shaved hare while running


blacksmith shoed horse while running

fencer stopped torrential rain from hitting him.

He got the house, BUT THEY ALL LIVED IN IT.

Happily ever after. When one died, so much love that the others died too, laid in same grave.

10. HAENSEL AND GRETHEL (Hansel and Gretel)

Woodcutter and wife very poor. Food runs out.
Wife: give children last bread, lose them in forest.
Husband hates the idea but knows they will starve at home.
Hansel collects white stones. Leaves trail back home.

Next time, drops the bread crumbs.
But the birds ate them.
Became very lost.

Found house made of food.
Owner gives them more.
Planned to eat them.

Shut Hansel in stable, made Gretel cook food.
(Four weeks later)
Told Gretel to climb into the oven to see if it is hot.
Gretel acted dumb.
Witch showed her by climbing in. Fell over and burnt to death.

Rejoice. And took her pearls (instead of the white stones)

On way home: cannot cross river.
Duck carries them across, one at a time.

Find their way home. Father is overjoyed. And bad wife is dead.

Happily ever after.

"My tale is done, there runs a mouse, whosoever catches it, may make himself a big, big fur cap out of it!"

9. THE WHITE SNAKE

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/52521/52521-h/52521-h.htm#hdr_2
GOOD FOR GAME: SIMPLE PUZZLES - GET THINGS TO SOLVE.

Very wise king: seemed to know everything!
Ate a special dish every day, alone. Nobody knew what was in it.
Eventually the most trusted servant (who took the dish away) looked.
A white snake.
The servant ate a bit.
Could understand the birds talking!

Queen lost ring.
They suspected that servant (as he was most trusted, so had access to the ring)
Gave him 24 hours to produce it or be executed.
Heard a duck say she had eaten the ring!
Got cook to kill the duck.
The queen got her ring, realised a duck had eaten it.
Apologised to the servant. Asked him to name his reward. A horse and money to travel.

He saved 3 fishes who were caught in reeds out of water.
He saved ants from getting trodden by his horse.
He saved hungry birds - killed his horse for their food!
Each promised to help him.

Walked to city. Saw beautiful princess.
The man who could do whatever task she asked could marry her. If failed, killed.

Had to fetch golden ring cast into the sea.
The fish helped him.

She did not want to marry a commoner, so...
Had to pick up ten sacks of scattered seed.
The ants helped him.

Wanted an apple from the Tree of Life.
He searched three kingdoms.
Lay down by a tree to sleep.
The birds helped him.

He married the princess and they lived happily ever after.

8. THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFE

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/52521/52521-h/52521-h.htm#hdr_2

Poor fisherman caught a large Flounder.
The Flounder said it was an enchanted Prince. The fisherman let it go.
His wife said he should have asked for a wish first.
He called to the fish, and the fish granted his wish: a nice cottage.

After a few weeks the wife wanted a castle instead.
The husband protested, but asked, and got it.
(Each time the sea water looked worse. Darker, smellier.)

The wife was still not content.
The castle had lots of land. She wanted to be the king of the land.

She got it. But wanted to be emperor.
Again the husband protested. But she insisted.

After this, she wanted to be Pope.
(Each time her palaces grew more majestic. By this time emperors queued up to kiss her feet.)

After this she wanted to be like God.
The husband tried to refuse, but she flew into a rage.
He asked the flounder to make her like God.
And as a result they were back in their filthy hovel.

7. THE STAR-MONEY

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/52521/52521-h/52521-h.htm#hdr_2

Orphan girl. Had nothing except

1. the clothes she wore
2. A piece of bread some kind person gave her

A poor man asked her for the bread.
It was freezing.
A cold child asked for her hood.
Another cold child asked her for her jacket.
Another cold child asked her for her frock.
Another cold child asked her for her shirt.
It was dark in the forest, so she thought nobody would see, so gave it as well.

And she so stood, and had not one single thing left. Then suddenly some Stars from heaven fell down, and they were nothing else but hard smooth pieces of money!
And the finest clothes

Then she gathered the money and was rich all the days of her life.

6. LITTLE BROTHER AND LITTLE SISTER

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/52521/52521-h/52521-h.htm#hdr_2

Little brother + little sister
Mother died, stepmother beats them
left home
rained
came to forest
hungry
slept in hollow tree

wicked stepmother was a Witch
had bewitched all the brooks in the forest.
each brook said "Who drinks of me, a [wild animal] be!"
finally so thirsty, brother drank. Became a roe deer.

Girl looked after deer,
Found empty house in forest.
Sister gathered roots and berries and nuts each day

The king sees them

King had hunt
Brother wanted to watch
“When I hear the bugle-horns I feel as if I must jump out of my skin.”
They injured his foot, and followed him back

The girl had grown up and was beautiful,
The king followed and wanted to marry her.
The roe deer lived with them.

The witch heard
Her daughter was jealous

The witch's revenge

The queen (the sister) had a baby boy.
That day, the witch took the form of a servant, ran a bath for the exhausted queen,
the heat suffocated the queen

The witch made her daughter look like the queen
Only had one eye, so lay on one side

The true queen came back (as a ghost) but nobody except the nurse saw her
She watched over her child and over the deer,
she could only come back one more time

The nurse told the king
The king waited, realised this was his true wife
She came back to life

The witch's daughter was judged: torn to pieces by wild beasts in the forest
The Witch was burnt.
The deer then changed back to be human again.
Ant they lived happily ever after.

5. Rapunzel

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/52521/52521-h/52521-h.htm#hdr_2

Couple want child

She sees beautiful rampion (Campanula rapunculus. salad plant) in a witch's garden
drama: "want it more each day! If I don't get it I shall die!"
// game: a good way to add interest to random plants!

Late in the evening, her husband stole some

She wanted some more.
Husband stole more. But the witch caught him.

She felt sorry for him.
Made a deal: punished OR, she will give him the rampion, AND let his wife have a child,
as long as the witch can adopt that child. // substitute any desired thing and high cost
Promised to be kind to it.

Husband agreed.
Later, wife has baby, and witch takes it as agreed.

Rapunzel grew very beautiful. Witch kept her in a tower in the woods.
Only way in: “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down thy hair.”

When bored, Rapunzel would sing.
Attracted attention of King's son.
Saw witch. Did same. // “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down thy hair.”

Brings silk when he visits (or anything easy to carry).
Silk + talent = ladder

Witch found out.
Cut off Rapunzel's hair.
Took her to live in a desert.

Next time that king's son visited, it was the witch!!!
He escaped, but fell into thorns and was blinded.

Years later wandered to the desert. Heard Rapunzel singing again.
Her tears healed his sight.
Married and lived happily ever after.

4. THE WOLF AND THE SEVEN LITTLE KIDS

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/52521/52521-h/52521-h.htm#hdr_2
watch out for danger! // (like the start of Treasure Island):

sign 1: rough voice, not soft
sign 2: black feet, not white

The wolf says he is their mother.
The kids see sign 1 and know it is him.

wolf + chalk = soft voice

The wolf says he is their mother.
The kids see sign 2 and know it is him.

wolf + flour = white feet // threatens to eat the miller if he does not help

The wolf says he is their mother.
The kids see no signs and let him in.
PANIC!! (drama)

Each kid hid in a different place
The wolf found (and ate)  all but one kid: youngest, in clock case.

Wolf is now tired, so slept under a tree.

Mother returns, cannot find children. // (the previous events can happen in cut scene)
Calls one at a time (for maximum drama) last one, the youngest, replies "I am in the clock case"
Weep (drama)

Later, find wolf snoring under tree
Look at wolf: stomach moves

Get scissors and needle and thread (and anaesthetic???)
Cut open stomach, kids escaped. Had been swallowed whole due to the wolf's greed
Rejoice! (drama)

To defeat wolf: sewed stones inside instead
     // military idea: get danger inside enemy camp
     // also, like disease
Wolf woke.
Went for a drink
leaned over well, stones made him fall in. Drowned!
Rejoice! (drama)

0. Types of books

Books that might be useful in a game about ideas:

(First) Story structures:

These provide the code format: the building blocks. More complicated ideas can then be fitted into these structures.  It might be tempting to merely simplify a longer novel instead, but in doing so you often lose what makes it interesting. 

• Grimm's fairy tales
• Hans Andersen's tales
• Arabian Nights
• Folk tales from around the world

Note how there are so many of these that they can provide minor stories for every possible location. Every tree can hide a pixie!

Semi-fiction (half structure, half list):

This format bridges the structured but small fairy tales with the less structured but larger non-fiction lists.

• Explorers' tales: "we did THIS and then THIS amazing thing happened."
• New Age ideas (e.g. Zak)
• Magic: again, "do THIS, and then THIS amazing thing happens"

Non-fiction (for lists):

Useful for creating lists of interesting locations, mysteries, technologies, etc. These can then be slotted into existing structures.

• TV Tropes for magical, horror, etc.
• Science, history, Wikipedia, etc.

Ancient ideas:

These provide the big ideas, the most proven, the most essential.

• The Bible
• Other ancient books (e.g. Gilgamesh)
• Other ancient scripture (e.g. Hindu)
• Myths and legends of every region: not just Greek!
• Esoterica: for the more amazing stuff 

Short stories

Shorter is easier

• Edgar Allan Poe
• Edward Page Mitchell
• Ambrose Bierce
• etc.

Plays

Longer than fairy tales, but not as long as novels. Bonus: as they are designed to be played, they tend to have clearer plots and less reliance on hard to draw events.

• Shakespeare
• Etc.

(Later) Novels:

These are long and complex, made from multiple sub blocks. No point in trying to build this house until I have perfected the strength and versatility of individual bricks (the fairy tale structure). 

• Good: simple "A causes B". E.g. Treasure Island.
• Bad: inner monologue. E.g. Jane Austen. I will do monologue in my own way - e.g. adapting AnswersAnswers into conversations with strangers.

Detective novels?

Seems like a natural fit for a game, BUT they usually rely on tiny details. E.g. secret mechanism in window frame, scratches on a lock, types of tobacco flake. I need:

• Stories that rely on large objects, that are easy to click  

History:

Like novels, but takes more effort - not pre-digested. On the plus side, history has far more choices - e.g. a given war can be traced to multiple causes, and surely one of them will be easy to code.

• Classical history - the kind any educated person used to know
• Modern history - not in copyright! Hooray!

Last: modern books (in copyright)

Only useful later, once the game already works. All modern ideas are based on older ideas (there is nothing new under the sun). Once I have a big pool of older ideas I can then recreate the form of a modern book but without any of the copyrighted elements. 

• The Fantastic Four
• Harry Potter
• Modern sci-fi. (robots, galaxies, space ships, etc.) For robots, see the golem or demons or Greek metal beings. For planets, see esoteric stories of progressing through the nine planets and heir associated spheres, as reflected in Dante's Paradisio.

Useless ideas:

These seem like a great idea at first, but are worse than useless. They are designed for novelists, not coders. Code has to be unambiguous. But these books are ambiguous by design: the absolute opposite of what  need. These books produce abstract skeletons with gaps that the writer must fill. But code cannot abide gaps. So for coding a game it is better to start with a completely finished story and then add one story at a time.

• The Hero's journey
• Plotto
• Existing procedural stories. These are usually built around a very restrictive premise, e.g. only Russian folk tales, or only dungeons and dragons. 
• Existing procedural theory. This is usually far too technical for me, or when I begin to understand it, I realise that it is like the other very limited procedural stories. 
• Commercial procedural story games. This stuff is commercially secret, usually not as good as it pretends, or limited as in the previous example.
• User created. These ideas tend to be low quality (the user has no experience of the code), and take more time than they save (I need to create complex code for accepting new ideas, I need time to assess them, have to protect the input from cyber attacks, etc.)

3. The Murders in the Rue Morgue, by Edgar Allan Poe

OK, this one is called the first detective novel. Let's see how far I get!

intro: the analyst derives pleasure from even the most trivial occupations bringing his talent into play. He is fond of enigmas, of conundrums, of hieroglyphics; exhibiting in his solutions of each a degree of acumen which appears to the ordinary apprehension præternatural.

Intro

Paris: Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin. From illustrious family, but reduced to poverty
But his creditors allowed him enough to live on. He loved books.

The writer has more money, and they live together in "a time-eaten and grotesque mansion, long deserted through superstitions into which we did not inquire, and tottering to its fall in a retired and desolate portion of the Faubourg St. Germain".

Dupin could watch what you look at and hence deduce your train of thought.

The crime

Newspaper (the “Gazette des Tribunaux,”)
“EXTRAORDINARY MURDERS
3AM
shrieks from the fourth story of a house in the Rue Morgue
occupied by Madame L’Espanaye, and her daughter Camille L’Espanaye.
Gendarmes broke in
two or more rough voices from upper part of the house.
large back chamber in the fourth story, locked, key on inside
apartment was in the wildest disorder
On a chair lay a razor, besmeared with blood.
On the hearth were two or three long and thick tresses of grey human hair, also dabbled in blood, and seeming to have been pulled out by the roots.
Upon the floor were found four Napoleons, an ear-ring of topaz, three large silver spoons, three smaller of métal d’Alger, and two bags, containing nearly four thousand francs in gold.
drawers had been searched but many articles still remained in them.
A small iron safe was open and empty except for a few papers.
Corpse of daughter had been forced up the chimney.
Apparently throttled to death.
Paved yard behind: Corpse of mother, throat cut so that head fell off when moved. Body mutilated.

Next day's papers:
Said that mother told fortunes for a living, but nobody ever saw people enter
 (except woman for laundry).
Was reputed to have money put by.
No servants. No furniture except in the fourth story: did not like to be around people.
Male voice at crime was French.
Higher voice (not the victims). Different witnesses had different experience of languages and disagreed over what it was. Not THEIR language. Harsh, not shrill.

3 days earlier, woman withdrew 4000 francs.
Street very quiet
3-5 minutes for the men to disappear

Adolphe Le Bon had been arrested and imprisoned—although no real evidence against him.

Dupin's deductions

Dupin realised the window was the only way out.
The police could not open it, but Dupin deduced there had to be a hidden spring, and he found it.

The other window had a similar spring.
Both windows seemed nailed shut, but one nail was deceptive: the head and main part were broken. Nobody had tried it because they did not know of the hidden spring. So they assumed the nail (not the hidden spring) was holding the window shut. They knew the nail would not come out: they did not know that it would slide up once the window spring was released.

Dupin's genius was to know that the window was the only possible escape, and therefore there had to be some hidden catch so that the windows opened.

Outside the window: lighting rod and unusual shutters made climbing easy.

The murderer:

• Non-human strength. Forcing body up chimney so that it took five people to remove her. And tearing out thick bunch of hair by its roots.
• Climbing down would take extreme agility and strength.
• Nobody of any country can recognise words from the second person.
• And the wild mess
• And the money was not taken, so, lack of motive.
• And forcing up a chimney is not a human thing: why do that??

= non-human, non human, non human. So look for ape trainer.

+ found non-human hair among the carnage, and shape of hand print

+ found knot of ribbon: knot of  akind Maltese sailors use. (also good for game?)

Action: (good for game): place ad in paper that the suspect is likely to read (Le Monde, read by businessmen and shipping: sailors would carry the orangutan. Sherlock Holmes does the same thing!
Local police don't like being made to look fools but have no choice but to cooperate.

2. The Frog King

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/52521/52521-h/52521-h.htm

Grimms Fairy Tales for a change

there lived a King whose daughters were all beautiful, but the youngest was so beautiful that the sun itself, which has seen so much, was astonished whenever it shone in her face.

castle -> forest -> old lime-tree -> fountain.

[this is great fodder for the game! The game has lots of trees just looking for a story!]

Princess lost her golden ball in the fountain

Cried

A frog asked her what was wrong. Said he could help, if she promised to be his friend, let him eat at her table, sleep in her bed, etc.

“Oh, yes,” said she, “I promise you all you wish, if you will but bring my ball back again.”

He found the ball She ran away, happy.

Next day he knocked at the door. She slammed it and ran away.

The king said she must keep her promise.

She let him eat from her plate, but she almost choked - was so disgusted

The frog now said he would sleep in her bed. She began to cry.

The king made her keep her promise.

When in her bedroom "Then she was terribly angry, and took him up and threw him with all her might against the wall."

“Now, you will be quiet, odious Frog,” said she.

But when he fell down, he was no Frog but a King’s Son with beautiful kind eyes!

They stayed the night together (does not say how).

Next day his coach and horses arrived. With the  young King’s servant, Faithful Henry. Faithful Henry had been so unhappy when his master was changed into a Frog, that he had three iron bands laid round his heart, lest it should burst with grief and sadness. As the two lovers rode away on the carriage they heard the cracking sound of the three bands breaking because he was now so happy.

1. Genesis 10-20 Abraham

Gen 10 Tower of Babel

Nimrod: a mighty hunter. Everyone had the same language. 

As they journeyed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar. Built a great tower "whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth."

But the Lord made divisions between the people, and they broke into different tribes and separated, not agreeing with each others' words. So the plan failed.

Gen 11-12: Abraham

Abraham lived on Ur of the Chaldees.

His wife Sarai could not have children.

The Lord told him to leave and live on Canaan. Promised to make him powerful.

There was a famine, so he went to Egypt instead. Told his wife to pretend to be his sister, because she was beautiful and Pharaoh might kill Abraham to have her.

Pharaoh became very close to Abraham because he liked Sarai. Loos like Abraham brought a disease with him from the east, and unlike Abraham the Egyptians were not immune. Gave Abraham money to leave.

Gen 13-16: the war of kings

Abraham had so many animals that had to split into two groups: Abraham and Lot. Nomadic, taking their herds over Canaan.

The Lord said he would give the whole land to Abraham. Abraham became "confederate with" some local kings. A war developed with other kings. "Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled."

Lot (Abraham's brother) was taken captive. Abraham defeated the captors and took all their stuff.

Melchizedek king of Salem sided with Abraham.

The lord told Abraham he would rule the whole region and have as many descendants as the stars in heaven.

Abraham wanted proof. So the Lord told him to sacrifice some animals. Then Abraham had a dream that his descendants would be prisoners in Egypt but would the come back and conquer all of Canaan.

Gen 17: Ishmael

Sarai had no children, so gave Abraham Hagar, her servant. Hagar conceived. Sarai hated her, and she ran away. Then Hagar she met a messenger of the landlord, who asked what happened. And told her to go back.

She bore a son, Ishmael.

The Lord made Abraham circumcise everyone as proof of their loyalty.

Gen 18-19: Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed for rebelling

Back in the wars of the kings, Sodom and Gomorrah had been among the rebels against Chedorlaomer - i.e. against Abraham's side. The landlord's people (three messengers) met with Abraham to plan its destruction. Abraham thought they were going too far: would they save the cities if he could find some supporters? They said they would save the city if Abraham he could find ten "good" men.

The men heard that Lot, Abraham's brother, had visitors from the landlord. They demanded to see the men. Lot offered to send his daughters out instead. "Do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing"

The lord's men managed to hide the door, OR blind the men?  "smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door."

They told Lot to escape and not look back. "But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt."

"Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire" (presumably burning pitch: pitch was common around the city).

"the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace".

Lot's daughters were concerned that they had no children, so got their father drunk and committed incest. This insulting story was used to explain where the Moabites and Ammonites came from.

Gen 20

While they were visiting Abimelech, Sarah allegedly had a son to Abraham. Called him Isaac.

At this point I grew bored. Time for another book!

1. Genesis 2-5: Adam, Cain, Noah

Gen 2: the garden of Eden

No rain. So needs a servant (Adam) to dig irrigation.

Planted lots of trees. Including tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Garden in Eden (the plains outside the city). 

River went out of Eden. Parted into four: 

1. The Pison, which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold
2. The Gihon: compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
3. The Hiddekel: goes toward the east of Assyria. 
4. The Euphrates.

If he eats of the tree of knowledge he will be killed.

Adam slept. The Lord took one of his ribs and made a woman (Eve). 

Gen 3: they rebel

Serpent tells Eve she can eat from the tree and not be killed.

Instead they will be like the gods.

They ate, and made clothes like the gods.

The lord came for a walk in the garden, and they hid.  He said, who told you to have clothes?

Curses the serpent: they are now enemies.

Curses Adam and Eve, says he will make their lives unpleasant. Bans them from his land.

Placed Cherubims at his border "with a flaming sword" to keep people out.

Gen 4: Cain

Adam and Eve son Cain, "I have gotten a man from the LORD" - rape?

Cain: farmed the ground. The brother Abel farmed animals. Each paid tax to the landlord. Landlord did not like Cain. Said that Cain killed Abel, but had no proof (did not know where Abel was). Cursed Cain. 

Cain went to live in Nod, east of Eden. Had a son, Enoch. Built a city, named it after Enoch. Sokme descendants nomads. Others created musical instruments and metalwork. Lamech said he killed a man.

Gen 5-9: Noah

"Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him."

"all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.

Population growth

"the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." Their children became strong and popular.

The Lord saw this as wickedness: a threat to his system, Vowed to kill everybody through flooding.

Told Noah to make a boat from gopher wood, and covered in pitch. Save seven of every clean beast and two of the rest.

Floods came. "Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered."

40 days, then the rainy season ended and temporary rivers dried up (i.e "fountains of the deep" no longer gave water). 150 days: back to normal. Noah sent a raven: he came back. Then a dove: he did not.

Boat now rests on (toward?) the mountains of Ararat.

God said Noah could rule and kill all animals, but not eat their blood.

Forbade murder.

Rainbow = reminder of covenant with Noah

Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: Got drunk. Ham saw him naked. So Noah cursed Ham's son Canaan.

1. Genesis 1: creation

Genesis 1: creation

http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/8001/pg8001-images.html

God creates heaven and earth
Start: formless, dark
Spirit of God moves over waters.

day 1: Light

Click "light" -> light

Only in the daytime

day 2: Heaven

Start: everything wet. THink: constant thunderstorms (science: oceans brought by meteors)

Creates "firmament" - firm barrier in sky = heaven

Now: waters in low parts (sea), waters above sky, dry in between

day 3: seeds

day 4: calendars and clear skies

work out seasons for planting

day 5: sea creatures

day 6: land creatures (including humans)

human given dominion: becomes a lord

About REDDIT NO MORE

Reddit, books, and games

I once played a very good game, full of ideas. But I never found another like it, so decided to make my own. I will fill it with ideas from books. But coding the game us exhausting. So I relax by reading Reddit. Or at least I did.

I slowly realised that Reddit, like all social media, is neither relaxing nor informative. It is designed not to inform but to to make money for advertisers. Regardless of its intentions, to succeed it must create addicts who lack critical skills. That is, it must create an ever greater noise of confusion, to attract people and not give them time to think, so they can be persuaded by the next advertiser.

Therefore a person would be more relaxed and better informed by leaving social media, and instead reading old books. So now, whenever I need time to relax, I open some old book and make notes that might be useful in my game. Thanks to project Gutenberg there is no shortage of old books to hand.

The day this blog began

This all began when my latest post to Reddit was deleted. Along with the graphic I had carefully prepared to illustrate my thesis. Some mindless algorithm counted that my title had four words in common with another post. The algorithm therefore decided that my post was a duplicate. The automated reply specifically said I could NOT appeal to the mods, and strongly hinted that I had not read the rules. I had of course read the rules thoroughly, but the automated response had not: how could it? It was simply an algorithm that for comparing key words. It had no understanding of what those words mean. And why should Reddit care anyway? Millions of people are writing material for free. Why should Reddit care about any one of those posts?

This was not the first time a carefully thought out post was deleted by Reddit without thought. And it was not the first time I realised "this machine does not care - why am I writing this stuff?" Sometimes a carefully considered post would get through, and get almost no response. While mindless grunt type replies get plenty of upvotes. Then another time I re-posted a cute animal picture (can't recall why) and got thousands of upvotes. I begin to detect a pattern.

Reddit of course is merely one of many social media platforms. And as far as I can tell, the others are generally worse. So what is going on? Why do we post? Why do we read?

Social media = machines that eats brains

In the famous words of Mark Zuckerberg (early messages leaked to Business Insider, published May 13, 2010)

[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one? 

Zuck: People just submitted it. 

Zuck: I don't know why. 

Zuck: They "trust me" 

Zuck: Dumb fucks

Reddit is a machine that eats human time. Why do I continue to feed it?

Social media has nothing to offer

Yes I know the answer. "Find a subreddit that suits your tastes." I did. I started a sub on the topic of idealism, the idea that drives me. I think it got two subscribers. I found another sub on the topic of panpsychism, another of my driving passions. It was similarly almost dead. Same goes for the words of hunter gatherers: nobody cares. Or the writing (not the art) of Jack Kirby. Nobody is interested.

There is also the issue that, being mildly autistic, I have no interest in creating and promoting social groups. Quite the opposite! It exhausts and repels me. I so have one good friend (my wife) and that is all I need. I also have a loving family who will probably email me if there is a war or pandemic I should know about. That is all the social networking I need or want.

I also know three people on Facebook who have expertise in Jack Kirby's writing. So I stay on Facebook to see what they say. But even here I wonder if that is wise. By focusing on too many "hobbies" at once, I don't have time to do any of them well. Any hobby that needs social media is a hobby that feeds the machine more than it feeds the humans. One day I may drop the Kirby hobby too, to focus on my original research and my game. We shall see.

How social media hooks us

So why did I ever waste time on social media? Why not do something useful? Because doing useful things takes a lot of mental effort. I have a day job. I have responsibilities. So I am often mentally  exhausted. Social media gives the illusion that you might learn something useful with minimum effort. But that is an illusion. The reality is as I have said: social media are machines that eat human time. They sell that time to advertisers, or Russian trolls, or anyone else who wants to use human minds as food. Yes, they eat human minds. They are zombie machines. Brains! Braaaaaainsss! They need the illusion of content to act as bait, in much the same way that a fisherman puts a fake feather on a hook. But when you get close to that content, or to that feather, you find it is not satisfying, but is instead designed to hook you, making it as hard as possible to get away.

The hook used by social media is easy information. Our desire for easy information is strong. But where can we get it, without sending a big red flag, a flag that says "attention all advertisers and trolls, here is a tired and busy brain, weakened and primed for eating" ?

Books do everything social media does

Luckily there is a source of easy information that does everything social media does, but without the predator at the end of the hook. This source of easy information is called "old books". Even if old books were designed as propaganda,  all their owners are now dead. And because they are fine tuned to the needs of the past, they cannot be read mindlessly: they trip your brain into working from time to time. So for example the Bible might still be used as propaganda, but you can always find passages to contradict whatever is said now.

If you are not autistic and you have a deep need for social networking, books can help here as well. Find  asocial network based on books, and you have a social network that rewards thought and allows people to disagree. That is healthy.

And so, this blog

From now on (Monday 14 April 2020) whenever I am tired, and feel tempted to browse Reddit, I will browse a book instead. And if I have my laptop, I will blog. Badly. "Badly" is important, because the whole point of social media is that you use it when your brain is tired.  I will skip chapters and spoil endings and completely miss the point. Just like on Reddit. But at least I might learn something. Something real, not just some machine algorithm based hook.

Mostly these will be old books (from around 1900 or before, i.e. copyright free), in case I want to use them in a game I am making. And I will focus on stuff that is easy to add to a game. So if it fits the "click here, something happens" model I get interested. Poetry and nuance, not so much.

Yes, I get the irony. I don't want to be slave to a machine, so I let a machine of my own making determine how I read. But this just hints at the bigger picture: writing itself is a form of dumbing down, and coding is simply writing on steroids. Socrates was correct: writing is bad. But if we want to survive in the modern world we have to use it. Which raises some even more profound questions about right and wrong. But in the final analysis the world is a social network, so we cannot move faster than the people around is, so for the time being "old books" are the best compromise between "part of a machine" and nature.

About the numbering

If this "no more Reddit" thing is to work, it has to be just as easy as reading Reddit. So I might start any book at any point, change books when I lose interest, and so on. So I will number each book to keep track. The numbers only mean "this is the same book" and is merely the order in which I happen to read them.

About superficiality

I won't be analysing the Hebrew or pointing out that their concept of God actually referred to logic, and how the nonsense "two creations" theory is disproven by the Enuma Elis, etc. I will read each book superficially, as if it was an adventure game played by a ten year old child.

Enough writing.

Let's start reading books badly!