That wasn't First Edition, it was the parallel Basic, Expert, Companion, Masters, Immortals (aka BECMI) D&D line that had 36 levels and came out between about 1980 and wrapped up in the mid-90s. AD&D First Edition did have a few paragraphs on divine ascension, noting that it was "remotely possible" and removed the character from play. BECMI, in contrast, had multiple defined pathways to divinity/immortality, along with rules for playing immortal characters.
Of the BECMI paths for immortality, the one you mentioned is the polymath. There are others. The epic hero quests after legendary artifacts of good and evil, accomplishes great deeds and leaves behind a successor. The paragon creates a unique artifact of power, recruits and train powerful minions, reshapes the landscape, and vanquishes any potential equals. The dynast founds a mighty empire and ensures it withstands the tests of time.
I was recently catching up on Dark Horse's Conan the Avenger, and sure enough, Conan and his companions of circumstance end up facing a monstrous beast from the outer dark. Conan's plan?
"Hit whatever attacks us, man or beast, repeatedly, until it dies."
Conan is the best type of character to deal with terror-inducing beings like shoggoths or Cthulhu. His extremely uncomplicated conscience coupled with high intelligence makes him totally immune to fear that suppresses 'civilized' people.
There have been a lot of versions and revisions of D&D over the years. Amongst players of the earlier (or "classic") versions of the game, 'B/X' stands for play based around the Basic Set edited by Tom Moldvay, and the Expert Set edited by "Zeb" Cook, both published in 1981.
The 'B/X' edition of the game came after the "Holmes" boxed set,first published in 1977 and edited by J. Eric Holmes, and before the BECMI (Basic, Expert, Companion, Masters, Immortals) published in 1983 and later (and eventually compiled in the D&D Rules Cyclopedia published in the early '90s). They existed at the same time as Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, which had more, and more complex, rules.
>People should treat others the way they want to be treated if they happen to be on the "wrong" side.
How should someone be treated who has made it clear that they will never follow the Golden Rule, no matter how they're treated? Because that's the situation we appear to find ourselves in.
I find it useful, although not particularly encouraging, to think in terms of the Prisoners' Dilemma. In theory, initial co-operation followed by judicious application of the golden rule will lead to both parties converging on the best outcome. But if one party makes it clear that they will always betray the other (and demands that the other stay silent, in order to give the first party their desired better outcome) how should the other respond?
Sure, cooperation (silence) is objectively the better choice. But once you are confident it will always be met with betrayal, what does the correct or best action become?
And that's setting aside the inherent quality of the speech in question. "Drinking bleach is awesome and you should chug as much as possible as soon as you get home," and "washing your hands is good and should be done frequently" are not equivalent, nor should they be treated as such.
I haven't read the dissertation yet. But just reading the cartoon you linked put me in mind of a friend who's spendt the last year headed down various cult/conspiracy theory rabbit holes, despite the efforts of their friends and family. They would absolutely agree that our society is dominated by authoritarian mind control. And angrily complaining that no one takes them seriously when they question the consensus narrative has become their favorite pastime. As presented in the previous posters cartoon, from their perspective B(I)TE describes what they see as a conspiracy against "the real truth". For example:
>"Of course you're allowed to ask questions. Here is the list of approved questions."
Why aren't candidates for office all tested by <my pet kook> to make sure they aren't really lizard people?
Why don't flat-earthers get equal academic research funding?
What are the real reasons why we haven't gone back to the Moon?
>"You're absolutely free to study and investigate for yourself. Here is the list of approved sources."
These YouTube videos all tell me I'm right.
So do all these people on Twitter.
Academic journals, mainstream media and PhD are all in on the scam, except for this one who agrees with what I think.
>"We're not trying to stifle thought! We want you to learn everything you can as you reach the approved conclusions."
Why does no one take my concerns about cancer from 5G wifi seriously?
Why do you all look at me strangely when I saw the Earth is really only 6000 years old?
Lamarckian evolution really makes sense. You're all sheep for believing in that Darwin crap!
Is it possible that you and I are as susceptible as all humanity throughout history to consensus beliefs?
You would probably disagree with how Christianity framed the common worldview in Europe in the Middle Ages. Or how Islamic beliefs did the same in the Islamic countries. Or Ancient India. Etc. But you are convinced that you are closer to a true understanding of reality now than they were. Why? Can you explain why your view of reality is better via the use of reason alone, without reference to your culture?
I would think you would struggle. Perhaps some older views of the world were as well or better reasoned than the beliefs we presently take for granted. And I say 'belief' because even if we think such-and-such is 'known to us' unless you have personally verified it, is is a belief not knowledge to you. It is an illusion of knowledge.
Questions about understanding objective reality are mostly answered by consensus answers ('palmed off', is more accurate). Most of us live in a world of belief, where we cannot truly claim to know very much. For example - how did you prove the earth was a ball to yourself such that you can call that knowledge, even though the intuitive working assumption that we all share is that it is flat? Most likely you assume that some scientist has got this, so you don't need to know.
I say that accepting this sort of 'fast and loose' belief despite any personal experience, is to do a dis-service to oneself. It leaves one susceptible to common misunderstandings, unable to evaluate things for oneself, demanding an authority figure to guide one through the morass of difficult questions.
This is plainly a dis-empowered position. There are surely lots of nefarious characters that would seek to take advantage of people's misplaced faith, no?
The bean counters got their salaries and bonuses. Why should they care what happens next?
It seems to me that historically the real controls on our business models were social, not regulatory. And with ethics and conscience removed, we've become a society being slowly devoured by a close relative of paper-clip optimizer AIs, running on distributed and fungible human wetware.
Would you trust a source of medical information less if it declined to present or link to information that breathing CO is healthy, drinking mineral spirits is fine, and handling mercury with bare skin is safe and fun?
I don’t know. Since this sort of thing isn’t happening and the general atmosphere of everything is unlike your hypothetical. I’m not sure it much matters.
The united states has several states passing laws so doctors can proscribe ivermectin for covid, we genuinely live in a world where homeopathy is a the option Steve Jobs took instead of cancer therapy.
I have no understanding of why you would say this is not happening when product brands like GOOP make tons of money from outright hocus pocus health bs.
I think Ivermectin was part of the CDC’s COVID prevention or when you have light levels of Covid lists back in 2020 and early 2021. I remember seeing it from progressive people sharing stuff before it became the term and meme it became today. That makes it a really interesting point too, but it makes all sides look bad.
OTOH, you’re right Steve Jobs and what he did...yikes. That sort of thinking is harmful for society.
I think Ivermectin was part of the CDC’s COVID prevention or when you have light levels of Covid lists back in 2020 and early 2021. I remember seeing it from progressive people sharing stuff before it became the term and meme it became today. That makes it a really interesting point too, but it makes all sides look bad.
OTOH, you’re right Steve Jobs and what he did...yikes. That sort of thinking is harmful for society.
Yes GOOP is disgusting. So disgusting.
None of this is close to laws being passed for serious misinformation sort of stuff like your original post said. GOOP is bullshit and like so much others. It just happens to be peddled by some famous people. Since the ivermectin thing is more complicated, it doesn’t work.
America having its massive problem with opoids and how much it got prescribed shows how difficult the situation is. Or how anti steroids America and the world is. It seems too nuanced and difficult to decipher. Or to say one way is correct.
Overall in spirit and likely general vibes. I believe we are overall closer to the same thinking than not.
Yeah, actually. Let me tell you about something that will illustrate. Once upon a time, Amazon had a flood of fake reviews. They would rate to 5 and be in terrible Engrish and the different styles were pretty easy to detect. I could use that as a signal that the product was bad and that the field of these products is likely risky.
Eventually, Amazon started getting rid of all these reviews. There are still fake reviews but they're more subtle than that. So now I have lost my signal that said "tread carefully for products in this class" and I have lost some signal that said "this product has fakers involved or in its competitors".
So now, yes, I trust Amazon less.
I am not making up a hypothetical universe. I am sure others have shared this experience.
Well, I started trusting the sources of medical information less since they quickly moved from “masks don’t help common people” to “everyone should wear a mask” in a heartbeat even though we had a dozen of epidemics and a couple pandemics before so surely that sounds like something that should a settled issue (saying we don’t know and it heavily depends on the infection would also count as a good answer).
>Would you trust a source of medical information less if it declined to present or link to information
Unfortunately, there's a wide ecosystem of conspiracy minded sites that link to each other. They even have papers supporting them, eg. studies in favor of homeopathy https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9310601/
The solution doesn't fit the problem though. Sure, in theory bitcoin-style cryptocurrencies can replace centralized financial systems. But, as keeps being demonstrated, including by this very example, in practice what you end up with is different, less-efficient, centralized financial systems dominated by fraud.
how is it less efficient? Obviously btc can't replace the financial system but crypto can.
Investors in the next 10 years are going to realise that an omnipool was all that was needed in the first place and the NYSE is a dinosaur in comparison.
Can you buy options, derivatives, futures?
Can you invest in startups?
Can you easily send money anywhere in the world in seconds?
99% of the world can't, either because of where they live, or the government deciding they're not allowed to because they're not rich enough to join the elites.
This is the world Ethereum unlocks - a global financial system that allows anyone to participate regardless of where they were born or their background.
If you value freedom you'll see it's a far superior financial system than the one we have today.
It's not technically ready yet, but the path is clear and it will be there sooner than you think.
I'm just going to point out that you said nothing about proof of stake here, and I am getting the sense from your other comments that you do not understand the technicalities of the traditional finance system, or cryptocurrencies.
I'm fully aware how PoS in context of crypto works.
But let me tell you what the PoS part is in our current fiat system:
I get my salary in fiat. I save my fiat in a bank account for being used later. I might not need to hold 1tb of ram available and proof that i have it running, but i already proof that i trust my fiat because i get my salary in it. I pay with it, i save it.
I have a high stake in it. I also have systems/tools available to me for my fiat like banks and laws.
This is no different to what etherium proposes: For PoS you need to buy and hold etherium and you get etherium for doing so.
this comment shows a bit of misunderstanding on what the point of POS is.
It is not some saving mechanism, it is a concensus mechanism. It ensures fraud doesn't occur and that more crypto isn't being created out of thin air. It is a way to incentivice node operators to act fairly.
If the USD had a POS system, I would 100% have all my money in it. but i can't verify the whims of the FED
- transparency
Crypto, besides privacy coins is the most transparent you can possibily get. It's a public, immutable ledger. The US can literally go in an change the total supply anytime with zero transparency. And since USD is the global denomination of debt, when i increase my supply it actually makes my currency more valuable since everyone is shorting their own currency (Since their debt is in USD) and inflation leads to asset inflation which is a good thing for the wealthy, but a negative thing for those holding and dealing in USD. = us plebs.
- fraud detection
See point above, fraud is built into the system.
- political sanctions (russia vs. ukraine, north korea, iran...)
Political sanctions have been this economic philosophy that hasn't entirely played out in the countries doing the sanctions favor. These economies, due to force have been required to be much more verticly integrated and invest into the economies most hit by sanctions. Sanctions don't do much and the problem is, the more you sanction the less leverage you have.
- fairness due to transparency (you pay your taxes, i do: we both pay our fair share of infrastrucutre cost etc.)
What is fair about the current tax system? See my transparency point above, all those people trying to evade crypto taxs are in for a rude awakening when the governmeent develops machine learning to track and trade public ledgers... Everyone knows it's a public ledger... exactly the oposite of being descrete.
- easy to use (my grandparenst were able to use it)
Becausee it started being built when your grandparents grandparents were alive. Most shops didn't accept CC's when they first came out and it took a generation for the technology to preliforate. I'd say crypto has done what the old system did in 1/4 of the time.
- save
I get 4% APR on my stablecoins. 20+% on my DeFi Pools paid in stable coins.
- easy authentication and authorization system (i can get money with my passport)
I can provide authorization with a 10 word pneumonic.
- globally accepted
What is globally accepted exactly? USD? no it's not... it's only acceepted in the US. If i want to do business globally i have to swap to that asset. I not only have to worry about remittance, currency exchanges, trade fees and loan denomination. Terra has the ability to swap between many different currencies using stablecoins with almost no transaction fees.
- low transaction fees
BTC and Eth have extremely high transaction fees, but any V3 crypto has lower transaction fees than the current financial system.
- self optimizing system due to capital market (one bank can do transactions faster and cheaper than you can)
self optimizing system due to capital market (one bank can do transactions faster and cheaper than you can)
Play around with some decentralized exchanges, solona or DOT. they can do transactions faster and cheaper than any incumbent, including VISA or the NYSE.
You make a lot of wrong assumptions. Not sure why or if you do this on purpose though.
- Crypto is not transparent. Its continuously mentioned as a benefit of crypto. You should be fully aware of all the methods crypto provides to be intransparent. Tumblers, Lightning network or when you go away from bitcoin, monero is inherent intransparent.
- You might ignore the Efficiency of political sanctions, but the struggles for those people are real. I have been to Iran and have seen it by my own eyes.
- Crypto is still not easy to use. Stop lying to yourself. Go to el salvador and look how they use it. There is only one small city able to use the lightning network properly. The rest of the country doesn't know how to handle it properly. They also have fraud as most of them never got their crypto which was promised to them.
- " 20+% on my DeFi Pools" you should understand better what you are actually doing. You do high risk, low sanctioned, under the radar gambling. Stop comparing 20% of some shitty gambling/ponzi schema to anything real life
- "I can provide authorization with a 10 word pneumonic." wow. I forgot my 4 digit pin a few times in the last 10 years. I literally lost my company password and the muscle mnemonic for half a day. I literally can't lose my passport. My country will make a new one for me. Try to rememeber your 10 words when you are 70. Try to make sure that you do not enter your 10 words in a system which can transparently steal your money as soon as you tell it your 10 words.
Have you ever spend the amount of time you spend on learning about crypto to learn about fiat?
Graphic design played a large role, I'd guess. Warcraft imagery had this unique mix of cartoon, fantasy, and realistic in a way that most of its successors (and even later versions of WoW itself couldn't match. Plus, the open world aspect of it was the first time many players had ever encountered something like it. There were loading screens only for dungeons and continents. You could walk, run, or ride in Azeroth for hours without anything from outside intruding on the experience.
One sheep rancher I knew back in college was a huge fan of wolf reintroduction. According to him, the wolves killed a few sheep and almost all the coyotes, which meant he wasn't losing any sheep to coyotes. Which worked out to a major net decrease in "sheep lost to predators". That was twenty years ago, so maybe things have changed in intervening decades.
Of the BECMI paths for immortality, the one you mentioned is the polymath. There are others. The epic hero quests after legendary artifacts of good and evil, accomplishes great deeds and leaves behind a successor. The paragon creates a unique artifact of power, recruits and train powerful minions, reshapes the landscape, and vanquishes any potential equals. The dynast founds a mighty empire and ensures it withstands the tests of time.