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nellied-reviews · 4 years

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The Sound and the Fury Re-listen

Well, I've reached episode 7 in my Wolf 359 re-listen, which means it's time for:

The Sound and the Fury

In which Hera and Minkowski are fighting, Eiffel gets caught in the middle, and Hilbert just wants them all to submit to the biologically superior will of the Blessed Eternal.

Straight up, I should probably admit that I forgot about this episode, or rather I didn't link the episode title to the episode's events until I was listening to it. And then I was like "oh, yeah, this is that episode" all the way through. For whatever reason, I thought, in particular, that the plant monster didn't come back until Season 2, with The Paranoia Game. That said, I love the plant monster to a possibly unreasonable degree, so its return here was more than welcome, and the rest of the episode was also fun!

We open in the middle of an argument - and for once, it's not Eiffel's fault. In fact, Eiffel isn't even involved, except insofar as he's trapped in the middle between Hera and Minkowski, and is forced to be the voice of reason as the two of them have it out.

And look, that is always going to be a funny set-up. Hera and Minkowski are both incredibly stubborn personalities, and not at all shy about asserting their opinions, so there's definitely potential for a comically drawn-out, petty argument there. And casting Eiffel as the reasonable, level-headed peacekeeper, in contrast to the two of them, is perfect. It's in character - Eiffel always has been the most pacifist crew member - but it's also a role he's just totally unsuited to, because faced with the combined stubbornness of Hera and Minkowski, he's outmatched, and he knows it.

In an effort not to get involved, then, Eiffel briefly runs through the week's schedule, in a section that isn't really linked to the rest of the episode, but is full of little oddities that remind us just how weird the Hephaestus is. They have a compulsory chess tournament that Hilbert always wins. They have movie night, but only a VHS of Home Alone 2. "On Friday we'll have mustard." It's so weird, and I love it.

We're interrupted, at this point, by Hilbert, who sounds very strange, even for him. And naturally, Eiffel ignores it completely at first, focussed as he is on the unfolding Hera-Minkowski conflict. I've said it before, but I'll say it again, for such a pop culture-savvy guy, Eiffel falls into literally every horror movie cliché. He's so oblivious!

For the rest of us, it's obvious that something's wrong, and our suspicions are confirmed when we learn over the course of his conversation with Eiffel that Hilbert went looking for the plant monster, which now seems to be mind-controlling him, to the point where he's convinced that it's "the most evolutionarily competitive lifeform on this station, the most deserving of life."

And okay, I love the plant monster, but that's very alarming, and is made even more so by the fact that it's something that Hilbert might conceivably have said anyway? I mean, it's cold and Darwinistic and smacks of eugenics, yes, but it also has a callous ruthlessness to it that's totally Hilbert's style, as well as that trademark lack of concern for human life. It's like the plant monster just exaggerated what was already there, turned the mad scientist dial up to eleven. In other words, it made Hilbert even more Hilbert-y.

Luckily, Eiffel realises soon enough that something's wrong, and goes to warn Minkowski. Minkowski, being a mature, rational individual, immediately drops her argument with Hera and goes to - oh, wait, no, she does basically the opposite of that, ignoring Eiffel in favour of continuing her argument with Hera. Great. Good job, Commander.

It's at this point, of course, that we finally learn exactly what Minkowski and Hera are arguing about. And is it petty. Turns out, Minkowski wants Hera to submit reports on the various systems she runs around the station in case there's an emergency, but also just because Minkowski wants to know what's going on behind the scenes. We don't get to hear Hera's side of things just yet, but already, we can see the irony in Minkowski's arguments. Sure, she wants to be better appraised of everything going on onboard the Hephaestus in case of an emergency - but her stubbornness here means she's missing the emergency that's unfolding right under her nose!

Eiffel's attempts to make her see sense don't really help either, at this juncture. Instead, they just get him dragged into Minkowski and Hera's argument. Which I'm sure is that last thing he wants, because those two play dirty. First Minkowski pressures him into saying, to Hera's face, that he doesn't think AIs should be trusted. And then Hera, angry, plays Eiffel's words from earlier back to Minkowski, twisting what he said around so that both parties are angry at him. As a result, Eiffel ends up walking an impossibly thin line, trying to appease both of his friends, while keeping himself out of their argument as best he can and while getting increasingly frustrated with the both of them. It's a painfully awkward situation, and I genuinely feel sorry for him.

That said, the argument that then plays out is fascinating to me, because I think it shines a really interesting light on the power dynamics onboard the Hephaestus, putting the focus on Hera and Minkowski's relationship in a way that we haven't really seen before. Up until now, after all, they seem to have worked in tandem pretty well, with Minkowski giving orders and Hera carrying them out. Here, for the first time, we see a tension between them, stemming from the fact that Minkowski, as the commanding officer, nominally has the most power onboard the Hephaestus, while Hera, as the ship's AI, probably actually has the most power, between her vast sensory array, her huge databanks, and her literally running the entire Hephaestus. Yes, Minkowski is technically in charge, purely by virtue of her being a human. But Hera, on a day-to-day basis, is actually more crucial to their ongoing mission - even though, as an AI, she doesn't get to hold an official ranking position.

That's possibly why Hera takes Eiffel's well-meaning dismissal ("It's just her programming") so personally. It's a reminder of her different, subordinate status, and it reeks of a double standard - she's right that nobody would think to blame a human's erratic behaviours on their biology. That would be patronising, right? As much as Eiffel means well, writing Hera's reactions off as mere programming strips her of her agency - something that comes up again and again in her character arc. How much is Hera responsible for her actions, if she can also be programmed to act a certain way? In what ways has she been "made" a certain way, against her will? And how can she best deal with that while still retaining a sense of agency and control over her life and identity? They're big, complicated questions, and we're only really scratching the surface here, but I do think it's a solid foundation for later developments. At the very least, we get the impression that Hera doesn't like to be reduced to her programming - and rightly so, I suspect. To some extent, at least, she is more than just the code that she is made of, just like humans are more than the sum of their biology. And that's a good thing to be establishing now, buried in the middle of a relatively low-stakes argument, before the more plotty stuff kicks off later on in the show.

And of course, it also bleeds into Hera and Minkowski's argument, which really picks up steam at this point, after an impassioned but ultimately futile speech from Eiffel about how it's a stupid fight to begin with and how making him pick sides is dumb and unfair. Hera, ignoring this, accuses Minkowski of feeling threatened by the big, powerful AI. That, for Hera, is why Minkowski is micromanaging her. It's because she's a typical human, insecure about an AI having more power than her.

Hera's point is almost immediately complicated by Minkowski, who rightly points out that the issue, for her, isn't that Hera's an AI. It's that Hera' unreliable. She keeps breaking down and glitching, and so the crew keep experiencing emergencies that could maybe be avoided if Hera would just give Minkowski the reports she wants. We've seen Hera break down as recently as last episode, and so this does kind of ring true, even if the way that Minkowski brings up Hera' vocal glitching feels like a bit of a low blow.

Both of them, then, have a point, and I think it's also worth noting that it's also, as Minkowski points out to Eiffel, a question of protocol. Whether Hera likes it or not, Minkowski is, technically, her commanding officer, and should be able to just give her commands and demand reports from her. Refusing to do so undermines Minkowski's authority. That said, Hera didn't exactly have a choice when it came to joining whatever weird sort-of military thing Goddard has going on. She never signed up for the whole "commanding officer" thing, so why should she obey Minkowski? Because she's programmed to?

It's messy, grey situation, with no clear answers, and it's worth noting that the argument doesn't really get resolved. Neither Minkowski nor Hera back down at any point. Instead, a combination of Eiffel calling them out for being childish and Hilbert attempting a coup snaps them out of it, reminding them that they have bigger problems right now. There is a time and a place for the discussion they were having. But that time is not now, and so they decide, without really discussing it, to set aside their grievances. It's not that their respective opinions aren't valid. But keeping each other (and the rest of the crew) safe comes first, and so they bond over being annoyed at Eiffel, and they set off to save Hilbert. It's sweet, in a way, and I like how quickly they both just get on with it. And Eiffel's dejected resignation at the end is the cherry on top. Bless him.

And so we get to the end of an episode that, while it's reliably funny, also gives us an outline of the main points in an argument that we probably should have seen coming. It's yet another example of how stress and tension can easily build up in the contained, isolated atmosphere of the Hephaestus - only this time, we don't get Eiffel cracking and hoarding toothpaste, we get Hera and Minkowski cracking and unleashing the titular sound and fury. The points raised get us thinking, in particular, about Hera's status, as an AI, but also just as a member of the Hephaestus' crew. Eiffel, meanwhile, is forced into a responsible, mediating role that he is neither comfortable in nor particularly good at. And at the end of the day, we're reassured that Minkowski and Hera do, at least, have their priorities straight. Arguing over reports is fine and dandy, but it's not worth getting killed over.

And of course, perhaps most excitingly, the plant monster returns. Surrender your flesh, and feed your new master :)

Miscellaneous thoughts:

It doesn't escape my attention that this is the second title that's a Shakespeare reference. Keeping it classy there, Doug

"Umm... that's all it says for Friday."

The schedule bit is basically the Night Vale Community Calendar segment, but in space

Hilbert's voice in this is sooo weird and dull and creepy ugh

I know the science of it isn't really the focus here, and I'm 100% down with that, but also how does a plant mind control people?!? I want to know!

"Our operating system is a tin-headed, insubordinate, feckless fool!"

"Sit your Swiss ass down, and take a side, Doug."

Aww, Eiffel just sounds so confused and stressed-out by the whole situation :(

And finally we get the obvious Little Shop of Horrors plant monster joke :)

I didn't go into much detail about Eiffel in this, but his speech where he finally gets them to shut up and work together again is also great and I love it jsyk

"Shut up, Plant-Hilbert." Bwahahahaha.

#wolf 359 #wolf359 #w359 #wolf 359 relisten #the sound and the fury #nellied reviews #time to overanalyse Minkowski and Hera's argument #also #plant monster!#my not-so-small herbaceous child is back #gotta love it

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hectorgamesmksq846-blog · 4 years

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4 Dirty Little Secrets About the Full Version Games Industry

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#Download Elamigos #Games #Download

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irarelypostanything · 4 years

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The Well - I was very ill-prepared for life after college

First of all, I got out with more than most people got to have - a degree, the support of my parents, and a job. I don’t want to trivialize the amount of privilege I had. But life in the “real world,” as they call it (as if college were some sort of extended tutorial), is different from the school world in ways it took me a long time to really understand. When you work on an assignment in college, it’s like getting to play a whole game of chess all the way through; when you work on an assignment at work, it’s like having to play a single move in a complex and already developed position...and ALSO not having full control over which pieces you can move. Some people like real work more. It has its advantages. But I don’t think anything short of a rigorous internship could have prepared me for what was ahead.

I was living alone at Davis at an empty town house, and I mean empty. Two of the housemates had more or less cleared out, and one wasn’t around. Even my own room was in disarray because I was preparing for a move, and the summer weather (July, 2016) was so hot that I once found a colony of ants going after the water in the bath spigot.

It was about a 30-minute drive to work. That was pretty convenient.

In work after college, when you’re new, you’re probably going to learn a lot from someone. I had a mentor who was also my boss. Without belaboring the point, I don’t think it worked. I think there are two extreme ends of management - micromanaging to the point of being overbearing, and giving the other person so much freedom that there isn’t guidance. Good mentorship comes in between, but she was an interesting hybrid who would provide autonomy but then come down hard when milestones weren’t met...and, to her credit, her style worked fairly well on other people but it didn’t work well with me.

I didn’t do well at all. Looking back on it now, there are things I know that I at least could have tried. Real code is complex--thousands and thousands and thousands of lines--but sometimes analysis is as simple as compiling, as making a few test changes, as going a little more high-level than looking line by line but (and this is the part I missed) being tech-focused enough to understand the basic layout of inputs and outputs, of the features that were ahead, of what the system really did and areas in which it was failing. I was still looking at things like a writer, and the world of programming is different. If you know how to write, that’s probably not a bad thing...but the language of coding is data, and the best way to describe data is with block diagrams, with sequence diagrams, and with a little good old-fashioned print statements (or, alternatively, a debugger).

But that was actually two weeks. It didn’t work, she went on vacation, and they found an assignment for me with someone else. I had obstacles, but then he was happy with the code I wrote and they went the extra mile to rigorously code review it, pointing out efficiency improvements line by line. Things were better. Things got better.

Still, there’s something...else...I can’t describe about work. I was partnered with this person I initially thought was really condescending and arrogant, until later realizing that he was grappling with insecurities and perceived weaknesses of his own. And he did get better--we all did--but it took time, and effort, and always there was that expectation ahead, and perceived goal of how much we ought to improve for the amount of time we spent. It was a very slow and complex thing, those first few months, and I found myself enjoying the feature-driven world of IRADs more than that enormous effort to understand legacy.

******

I toured places in Roseville. They were really nice, but a little out of my price range. My first Friday after work, I felt really scared and alone in Davis and needed someone to talk to. So I reached out, and I met someone from my old dorm who was still in town, and we talked until 2 or 3AM into Saturday.

I kept touring Roseville. I heard Citrus Heights was cheaper. I went to a Circle K summer thing and talked to Huynh for a full hour, and then one night I met an old first-year friend who was also still in Davis. We went to Black Bear Diner. We shared stories of past break-ups. We passed through Woodstocks and I tried to take her to a rooftop where we had gone stargazing so many years ago, but decided against it when I realized there was now a dumpster blocking the way. The last thing she said that night was to let her know if I needed any help moving.

I didn’t. My dad made the long two-hour drive to Davis, and we took care of most of the heavy stuff with a single trip in a Sienna. Jeffrey met me back at the Davis house, briefly. Jon and Kris were really far away, and as the two of us cleaned I remember thinking about how even though they weren’t there, their personalities were kind of projected. Did Kris really use this entire arsenal of spices? Why had Jon purchased so many lunch bags?

I took the lunch bags, and still regret not taking the spices to this day.

*****

Everything worked. It was nice to finally have a place. I unpacked, I tested the heating, and I used the wi-fi to play a few games of chess.

That’s when things really felt like they began - not the first day at work, but the day I finally moved out of that empty house in my favorite college town.

#20-minute freewrite #personal

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