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Kasimir

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  1. Kasimir
    In OOC blue: My current difficulty is trying to tackle this theory called the JUSTA PIRATICA/Just Piracy Theory. While I agree with the conclusion (or at least for the sake of the paper, will be agreeing with the conclusion) that piracy is morally permissible under certain kinds of circumstances, the issue is that the guy I'm writing against used Just War Theory as a motivation for/template for the Justa Piratica. So my issue is this: 1. If acts of piracy were committed as part of warfare historically, then one would think that they should be addressed by the Just War Theory. (In theory, Just War Theory would say they're not permissible, but that's a separate issue entirely.) 2. However, for acts of piracy now, they tend to fall under the Just Piracy Theory which really reads more like a Robin Hood Theory. But then, a Robin Hood Theory doesn't really cover piracy: in theory, it covers any type of crime, more or less. So: why is there such a discrepancy, given they're both really piracy? How can one combine the theoretical resources of either theory and devise one theory to rule them all, one theory to find them one Unifying Theory that can account for both aspects of the same phenomenon? (i.e. that can unify these aspects under a single theoretical account/description?) That's what I'm currently trying to do, because it's sub-optimal and non-aesthetically pleasing and non-simple if we have two rather different and separate theories for more or less the same thing. Edit: I now return you to your regularly scheduled non-programming, while I try to make this work :/
  2. Kasimir

    Is attempting to come up with a unifying theory of piracy...

  3. Kasimir
    Going to have to add my name to the ranks of the people expressing some busy-work or other. Was supposed to have this weekend plus a solid three day bloc to polish up my paper. Turns out it just got revoked and I've got classes filling the gap (...sigh), so it's imperative I work on the paper now. I'll be taking a backseat until the paper's in on Sunday, but regardless, will endeavour to respond to PMs and say something in the Day thread. Usefulness will go up again after it's in and submitted. Cheers, -Kas Edit: P.S. If anyone has spare luck, I'd take it. I'm trying a very risky move, but the pay-offs will be pretty storming good if I can pull that argument off and find this overarching Unifying Theory
  4. Kasimir
    I'll let this stand, but it should be noted that Lark does not identify as female, which is why I couched my question the way it did, in order that we remain respectful of our fellow Sharders. An easy substitution includes Elbereth, who is also female
  5. Kasimir
    1. Lightsworn Panda 2. Surgebound Rainspren 3. lord Claincy Ffnord 4. Elsa Steelheart 5. Delightful 6. Eolhondras 7. Haelbarde ...I am not responsible for any mispellings that might've arisen due to my habit of naming #1 Jain, #2 Karlin, #6 Eol and so on... >> I should also protest that the M'Hael properly lives in the Black Tower... Alright, time for something (somewhat different)... Representin' all the women: gimme the names of 10 female Sharders! Same additional caveats apply, guys: 1. I'm referring to gender here. If a Sharder does not identify as female, please do not cause them distress by including them in this list! 2. Sorry, ladies, you can't include yourself on the list 3. Safety above all: if a Sharder is female but does not want to publicly out themselves on the forum as female, please respect their wishes and not include them--this is, after all, just a game!
  6. Kasimir
    You know what? I'm gonna be massively cheeky. Here's a test of how well you know your fellow Sharders: WLIU, name four Sharders who currently live/work in the UK Additional caveats: -If you live and work in the UK, you cannot add yourself to the list. -If you know, through personal/off-public forum reasons, that a Sharder is from the UK but they have not indicated so in public, please do not out them. Let's stick to people who are well and truly outed and practice Internet safety -...Please resist the urge to be more specific about where they are. (See: Internet safety.) Thanks, guys, and have fun
  7. Kasimir
    1) Manwë, Mandos 2) Mithrandir, The Grey Pilgrim, The White Rider, Olórin
  8. Kasimir
    "IN Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round; And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery." --Kubla Khan, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  9. Kasimir
    Fair enough I'll always agree with never attempting to assume how troll the GM can be. *cough* Wyrm *cough* Edit: Adavantos, now that Creccio is dead, you mentioned during the Day that he had claimed near the end of the evening to be an Elantrian, at one point. Would it be possible for you to express (in GMT or otherwise, as long as we know the timezone...) at what point Creccio switched to roleclaiming Elantrian? I hope this shouldn't be dangerous information; I'm simply trying to see if it matches up with a hypothesis.
  10. Kasimir
    I somewhat dislike this argument. Not in a 'Oho, you must be a Traitor!' way but because I find it problematic. ...This is an Elimination game. We are (presumably) Crew. It means we don't start knowing who the Traitors are. And why does that matter? Well, because there are three types of reasoning: deductive, inductive, and abductive/inference to the best explanation. [As y'lot are not my grading committee, I assume I can get away with collapsing the distinction between Peircean abduction and IBE. ] 1. Deduction only works if you already have the information. That is why deduction is considered a truth-preserving way of reasoning: because a person who deduces uses known information and simply applies it to spell out more known information. Consider this case: P1 All men are mortal. P2 Kasimir is a man. C Kasimir is mortal. In a sense, you don't gain any new knowledge from the deduction. So while a proper deduction guarantees that true premises entail a true conclusion, it can't expand or increase our knowledge. If we want to learn new things from given information, we have to turn to: 2. Induction. This generally involves, for instance, statistical inference. Clanky's claim is a very good example of enumerative induction: P1 We lynched all the Lifeless Operators in LG14 and none of them were evil. C Therefore, all the Awakeners in this game are not evil. Of course, one might claim I am being slightly unfair to Clanky. He is, after all, not making a certain claim. And that is true. Because inductive claims do not deal in certainty. Because they allow us to extend our knowledge, inductive conclusions always carry with them a certain amount of inductive risk. A more fair version of Clanky's argument would therefore be: P1 We lynched all the Lifeless Operators in LG14 and none of them were evil. P2 What has happened is possible. C Therefore, it is possible that all the Awakeners in this game are not evil. Note, however, that his conclusion doesn't actually need to follow from P1 and P2. In fact, the weakness of enumerative induction more or less boils down to an assumption we call the Uniformity [of nature] Assumption: that it is, in fact, safe to assume that future cases will follow past cases. But is it a valid assumption? 3. Abduction/IBE. This is my favourite model of reasoning and the one I'm studying at great length. Abductive reasoning means we take a phenomenon to be explained and we accept a putative explanation because it would prove most explanatory. So, for instance, we look at the phenomenon of Maili's death. There are many different explanations: E1: Maili decided to quit so Wyrm killed him. E2: The Eliminators were bored and rolled dice. E3: Maili faked his death. He's Keyser Söze. E4: Maili was killed on the basis of a fearkill. E5: Maili was killed because someone knew his role. I submit that if one were, as I do, to consider E5 the best explanation, it is because A. one considers it the most likely explanation, and/or B. one considers it the best explanation, because it provides the most understanding of why Maili died. However: note the word--'most likely.' Similar to induction, abduction/IBE cannot guarantee truth. Once again, to gain knowledge involves risk. THE UPSHOT: I am opposed to Clanky's arguments because of the nature of the game. We cannot and generally do not have enough information to be able to help ourselves to deduction. Furthermore, it is a mistake to conflate assuming with making assumptions. I want to draw a distinction between making tentative assumptions, marking them as assumptions and holding them fluid and open to change, against making assumptions and stubbornly clinging to them without being aware of their contingent nature. Clanky seems to think I endorse the second claim. I endorse the first. Recall, again, my discussion on the nature of reasoning. My point is simply that we are in the business of making risky inferences because we want to gain information we do not already possess: namely, the identity of the Traitors. That it is possible that a Crew chose to role-block on Day One does not entail it is unfair to assume that such a move is more irrational for a Crew-member to make than a Traitor. Those are two very separate claims; once again, Clanky makes a conflation. Similarly, that it was the case that all Lifeless Operators in LG14 were Village does not entail that it is the case here; furthermore, Clanky seems to assume that it was a mistake of rationality made by the Village in LG14. I challenge that further claim; I argue it was a perfectly rational move for the Village. If we condemn it as having been wrong, it is from the epistemically unlimited position of hindsight, rather than being a player in the game. Last, my point is simply two-fold: 1. We have to make assumptions, at some point. I have judged these likely; that other alternatives exist or are possible is frankly a banal claim. It is obvious that many possibilities exist in this game. The claim that others must actually then make is that these other possibilities are more probable. Furthermore, I claim that the issue is not with making assumptions. It is with failing to revise them properly with new evidence. Frankly, neither Clanky nor I can be considered to be right at this point. Unless either of us is a Traitor, we're just guessing based on our intuitions of play and based on past experience. We need evidence of how Team Traitor is playing, in order to be more reliable with our assumptions. Furthermore, I want to point out that because neither of us possesses such evidence right now, we are making a priori [=armchair] claims that neither of us are, from the standpoint of certainty, rationally entitled to. That's just the nature of the beast. 2. I have, at every point, sought to clarify, and am consistently tired of the number of straw mans concerning what I've been saying flying around. Man, guys, I didn't know there were so many Awakeners in this Crew! I have claimed, and will claim again, until I am sick and tired of doing so, that making assumptions provides us with a defeasible line of investigation/questioning. What does that mean? It means that these assumptions can help us question people who would be implicated by these assumptions, in order to gain more evidence. With more evidence, we can decide if a lynching is or is not warranted. At the end of the day, I AM NOT CLAIMING THAT THESE IN THEMSELVES NECESSARILY SUFFICE OR WARRANT AN IMMEDIATE LYNCH. I would make these letters bigger, if I could. Thank you. I am not going to repeat myself again. Edited for formatting and for the benefit of Mr STINK.
  11. Kasimir

    Kaysh meg miit'gaana, oyacyi.

  12. Kasimir
    “Seriously?” Sonder muttered, as he glanced at the name the ship’s automated systems had filled in on the report. SONDER KESSLEIGH, read the entry in the name field. He rubbed his weary eyes with the heel of his hand. “It’s Kessligh, without the ‘e’. Rhymes with ‘fly’, sounds like ‘light’…” He swore he was fighting a losing battle. He’d registered himself right on his contract and on his ship’s ID, but for whatever reason, the automated reports and crew manifest would persistently record a SONDER KESSLEIGH. The thought occurred to him that it would be ridiculous to be considered a stowaway or regarded as an illicit saboteur, simply because they couldn’t spell his last name right. At least he didn’t have an accented character in his name. He couldn’t imagine what the ship’s systems, much less the Captain, would’ve made of István. The Captain. Apart from that terrifying incident in the engine room, and that moment when he’d accidentally blasted Scadrian post-rock over the PA system in the Captain’s Quarters for a couple of minutes before he’d discovered his mistake, Sonder’d little contact with the Captain. And he liked it that way. Wurum Heron was rather terrifying, even if he knew the man was supposed to maintain a certain distance from the rest of the crew on the Shardship. Of course, that hadn’t stopped him from stammering and panicking when the Captain’d showed up again in the engine room earlier that day. “Who’s the duty officer? You? Kessleigh, isn’t it?” “Er, well, it’s Sonder Kessligh, Cap—” “Kessleigh, Kesslight, whatever,” Wurum Heron said, with a negligent wave. “You the duty officer?” “Well, uh, yes, Cap.” “Good. I need you to sign off on these forms.” Awkwardly, as he realised that he was in fact staring at the Captain and that no one was going to sweep in and rescue him, not even Second, who was, at this point in time, off-duty, Sonder inched forward and gingerly took the forms from the man. He scanned them, thankful for something to do that allowed him to ignore the Captain’s presence. “Uh, Cap. Why do we need routine maintenance of the, uh, waste disposal unit?” Wurum Heron said, with exaggerated patience, arms folded across his chest, “Inor Haze tried to make a run for it.” “Oh.” He’d been one of the crew members who’d signed off on that deposition, about some of the stranger activities Haze had been up to. Sure, most of the crew on the ship were a few wires short of a circuit, but Haze’d seemed so half-hearted about finding the traitors in their midst…Sonder swallowed heavily as he saw the expression on the Captain’s face. “Uh, I…” “We’re going to need,” the Captain said, deliberately, “A new janitor. And we’re going to need more people to get the blood and squishy bits out of the waste-disposal unit, which means getting these,” he rustled the forms Sonder was holding, “Signed and getting some of your engineers to work. Unless you’d like to volunteer yourself?” From the expression on the Captain’s face, Sonder wasn’t sure if he was joking; more pertinently, he wasn’t sure if Wurum Heron was referring to volunteering himself for the newly-vacated position of janitor, for repairing the waste-disposal unit, or for throwing himself into the waste-disposal unit and having done with. “Er. Well, I guess I can do that, Cap…uh, I mean, getting the forms signed, and all of that…” Why was his mouth running away with him? He read through each form, making sure everything was in order and then signed off on it. For accountability’s sake, of course. “Er, Cap?” “What is it?” “Was he…y’know, uh, a traitor?” Wurum Heron looked more than faintly annoyed; as if the entire proceedings had been a severe trial meant to test his patience. “Why no,” the Captain replied, “He wasn’t. I don’t suppose you’re volunteering yourself, are you, Kessleigh?” “It’s Kessligh, Cap. And uh, I’m not a, uh, traitor. Would never be. I’m loyal, Cap.” “So you are,” Wurum said, sardonically. He took the signed forms. “Get people working on that waste-disposal unit.” “Yes, Cap. Uh, right away.” Had to rib Wyrm about his consistent inability to get Sonder's name right...Also, Cap, you want anything changed, just let me know... >> He who baits the GM consistently, he who aggravates the GM, that's me... Can't say that's very conducive to living a long, healthy, and happy life, but hey, what can I say...I love to live dangerously, it seems!
  13. Kasimir
    Highlighted for your convenience Reading is such a wonderful skill, I'm told... Edit: Don't really understand why y'all are so adamant on reading 'prima facie' as 'definite, let's do this.' Assumptions can be made if they're measured ones; i.e. if we're cautious about them, mark them as assumptions, and regard where they point us as 'suggested avenues/lines of investigation', rather than one-way tracks for the lynch-train... -.-''' If you're adamant on never making any marked and carefully circumscribed assumptions, the only place you'll ever end is like Descartes: convinced only of the truth and certainty of your own existence, and in this case, your own allegiance.
  14. Kasimir
    Thank you; even better, that strengthens my point then. I wouldn't necessarily go by role-lynching since we don't want to kill our way through our own helpful roles to get there, but I think it definitely accentuates how certain roles (BioChromancer included) are going to be ones we should be wary of. I'd say same for the Feruchemists, actually. However, this is really only applicable to scans rather than claims, since there's a decent chance the Traitors simply might refuse to roleclaim... Also, everytime you say 'Edited for Justification', I can't help but think you've edited your post to add justificatory reasons for a claim...which is rather funny to think about
  15. Kasimir
    Hi, welcome to the forums! Have an upvote, just for that awesome name
  16. Kasimir
    Araris, thank you for your answer. One more comment I have to make is that with Creccio's death, assuming that we began with a pool of 2-3 Awakeners, the probability that any discovered Awakener [=BioChromancer] is a Traitor is now higher. IMO, if the HI scans an Awakener, we should immediately be suspicious and probably discuss that in thread. Here is my reasoning. 1. On Day 1, Alv claimed to have been role-blocked. On Day 2, Adavantos claimed to have been role-blocked. [ASSUMPTION 1]: Alv is not lying. [ASSUMPTION 2]: Adavantos is not lying. I argue that it is less likely for an Awakener to randomly role-block people if they're on the side of the Crew. They could, for instance, risk role-blocking a Kandra, a Forger, or an Elantrian. None of which are optimal. Therefore, my conclusion is that the role-blocking Awakener is more likely to be a Traitor than Crew. [Note: We would get a better picture if we knew if Wilson had been role-blocked. If Creccio really did role-block Wilson, then one good point is that this means we now know there was definitely a second, hostile Awakener. Otherwise, it is not impossible that Creccio decided to target Alv on Day One, possibly due to worries about the Wyrm vote and asking for a Forge, and then decided to go for Adavantos on Day Two, since Creccio had been vascillating on whether to trust Ad or not.] Upshot: I consider it probable that the Traitors have an Awakener of their own. 2. Given 1 [i.e. if 1 doesn't hold, then 2. becomes pointless], our situation can be modelled after the case of retrieving coloured balls from a bag without replacement. Factor out, for now, the assumption that Forgers will be stamping people with Creccio's role. Assume that we begin with 3 Awakeners. (Really, you can take any value, as long as x > 0.) Assume that at least one of them is evil. With Creccio dead and confirmed as a loyal Awakener, the odds that either of the remaining two is our Traitor has now improved. Imagine a bag, in which you have three balls. Two of them are white, and one of them is black. At the start, your chances of getting a black ball, assuming you pick randomly, are 1/3. But now, imagine you've removed a white ball from the bag and are picking again. Now, you have a 1/2 chance of picking out a black ball. The black ball is our Traitor. [While one might object that a reforged Awakener would only muddy the waters, I suggest that in the case of the Reforged Awakener, there is, hopefully, a way of being able to check; at least, if they were targeted by our Forger.] tldr; I think this is a decent way to cast prima facie suspicion [i.e. defeasible grounds of suspicion], but it shouldn't in itself be the deciding factor. But I brought this up because I think such a possibility should not be overlooked. Oya, Crew!
  17. Kasimir
    What if you just opened a PM with everyone? Okay, no, I did not just suggest that, I'm sorry Wyrm... >>
  18. Kasimir
    I have one suggestion to make. I do not know if this is wise. The hour is late, so I'm just gonna do it for myself, and leave everyone else to decide if they want to do it. Remember my talk of the communication network? Adavantos pointed out one difficulty with tracing who Maili might've leaked to is the fact that if Maili was in a 2-person conversation with a Traitor and never mentioned it to anyone else, we'd not be able to find a person that way. Kas's PMs: For purposes of contact-tracing. I see no harm in revealing this information and it might very well be helpful, if we had more of those.
  19. Kasimir
    You probably meant that in jest, but it's better not to go there, I feel. 也许不用这种话吧。。。‘诅咒’/骂臭话是不必要的。。。
  20. Kasimir
    Hey! Stop calling the language of my ancestors a 'fictional language'! [Just kidding ] What is this Englis of which you sprechen? I ist not being of teh understanding. #KascannotintoEnglish
  21. Kasimir
    对极了。蓑衣，相煎何太急?
  22. Kasimir
    So you could use us as your Windtalkers, except, oh, you don't know if you could trust us, so that'd be a bad idea. And second, because Mando'a is ridic easy for anyone with a dictionary
  23. Kasimir
    Ni gedeteya, ner vord. Ner Mando'a cuyi shabla.
  24. Kasimir
    Forgot about this pre-written RP sitting in a doc, so I'm just gonna surreptitiously post it and backdate it to last cycle and come in again... Sonder flopped back on his bunk with a quiet sigh. It was a luxury he hadn’t quite gotten used to, having an entire cabin to himself, even if, truth to be told, it wasn’t much better than a closet. How was it possible, on a ship of this size, teeming with beings from the various worlds, scattered throughout space—how was it possible to feel so alone, so small, so insignificant? Probably for the best that he didn’t have a window, Sonder thought. He wasn’t sure he wanted to look out at the immense darkness without; with the occasional floating chunk of rock. He pulled out his PDA and began typing. CHIEF, he hesitated. Hard to stop thinking of Karsten Arnkell as the Chief, even though the man was no doubt on the Wolfhound and halfway to Roshar by now, with more fresh engineers under his wing. There was always an old hand, the others had said, the first to take you on and to tell you what needed doing. The first to take a fresh, graduated officer and to shape them into someone who knew what to do on board a ship; who wasn’t as likely to blow them all up to Adonalsium, or to crumble in the face of any sort of shipboard disasters. You asked yourself what he would do, Ersken had said, abruptly, one shift standing watch together. You knew he left his stamp on you then, when you knew he was the sort of officer you wanted to be. One of the ship’s engineers, Miral, died hours ago. They’d heard the explosion that’d gone off in the carefully-maintained gardens, shattering panes of precious, toughened glass. The automated systems had kicked in, sealing the atmosphere breach temporarily, until the technicians on duty had managed to arrive to swiftly deal with the situation. The first responders had, of course, had stumbled upon the remains. Probably too badly-damaged to be identifiable as Miral. Instead, according to rumour, they’d gone by his ship-issue boots, a trace of engine lubricant still in the treads. And they’d gone by his ID chip, which had, fortunately, not been melted to slag by the blast. Fortunately. I think it was planted. He hesitated, staring at the backlit screen of the PDA. Dangerous, he thought, venturing the thought when he hadn’t seen Miral. He hadn’t even known the man well. All he’d heard was furiously-whispered snatches from the engine room during his shift—Miral had been someone no one held grudges against, that much was clear. He’d been recognised, it was said, as one of the most skilled Hemalurgists on the ship. So it wasn’t a stretch of the imagination that Miral would’ve been assigned to the Hemalurgic systems, given the installation of the HI. He tapped the next set of keys. They found the ID chip. I don’t see how that kind of thing survives an entire explosion, especially when M. was at the blast centre. But that was not the only thing bothering him. Everyone had vouched for Miral, had said he wasn’t the kind to be a traitor. That made sense, probably, in light of the fact that if there were any saboteurs, they’d be interested in taking down the engineers and technicians assigned to the Hemalurgic systems, rather than those watching the engines or cooling systems. They could go dead in space, with no power, but Sonder figured the traitors’d want to leave themselves an escape route. On the other hand, if they subverted the HI… He shivered. Recalled the conversation between da Gama and the other engineers working in comms. Not a pleasant thought. How had the gardens blown up? He didn’t know much, if at all. Sonder sighed; his breath hissing out between his teeth in frustration. Don’t say it isn’t your job, he thought. You’re an engineer on this ship, which means that it is your job. Anything could go wrong out there in space, and that meant you had to be prepared to do what needed doing. He refocused back on the PDA screen, and instead, began a fresh line. MIRAL, he typed. I didn’t really know you. You probably didn’t really know me either. Still, brother, —he hesitated over that last word, thought of the bond of the ship; the fact they had been both engineers working on the same ship, and changed his mind and kept it. It was appropriate, Sonder decided. I hope to find the people who murdered you. Not just for you, but because if we don’t stop them, I think they won’t stop until we’re all dead. I promise you: You will be avenged. He ended the entry there, shut off the PDA, and carelessly tossed it aside, into the gaping pocket of his jacket, hanging from the single chair in his cabin. Easy to think that it wasn’t his business. That night in the comms centre, the ship’s network had been buzzing with chatter. He’d deliberately flicked the equipment off, uninterested in overhearing. Still, rumour carried: people were trading information; why he didn’t know. It wasn’t as if any of them had witnessed either of the deaths. Still, there was a saying they’d had, back before he’d even tried for his engineer’s qualifications. You measure a person, they’d said, not by how they act in times of prosperity, but in times of crisis. He thought: now was the time for him—for all of them—to be measured. He carefully undid his shirt-cuff and rolled it up. There it was, the simple bracelet that bound the etched medallion to the inside of his wrist. It was easy to forget about it, by now. He’d grown used to wearing it with him. He undid the knots, working entirely from memory, and the thin cord fell open. He picked it up and rubbed at the worn surface of the coin, worried at over the years. It had accompanied him through his academy years, and through his first contract, and now, they were both here. The thought soothed him, somewhat. He carefully—deftly, for all he was using his non-dominant hand—redid the knots, tying István’s lucky coin back in place; cool against the inside of his wrist. Hard not to believe in luck, Sonder thought, when he’d gotten this job on this ship. Now, he just had to hope it would see him through the rest of the journey; back to Scadrial. - Ni su'cuyi, gar kyr'adyc, ni partayli, gar darasuum.
  25. Kasimir
    Ooh, awesome Alright then: name five pirate havens, either historical or current
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