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tcpipIt's a couple of months late but RPG Review Issue 49-50 has been released. This is the Cyberpunk 2020, Year of the Stainless Steel Rat double issue, with transcripts from the conference proceedings, a setlist of cyberpunk music, various cyberpunk scenarios and campaign settings, film and soundtrack reviews of Blade Runner 2049 (OK, that's previous work of mine) and a review of the Cyberpunk 2077 computer game. I feel that the publication is really a little moment in the history of the genre, and I am so thankful to all of those who contributed during the day. I am a little embarrassed that it is late, but as many will know life events have hit me very hard indeed in recent months.
Still, if any good did come out of the conference on a personal level it was my introduction to the new genre of "solarpunk", and their practical engineering perspectives and optimism (founded on good science, I might add) that despite the unnecessary barriers (usually relating to political economy) we can actually make a better world. An immediate case in point is The Economist's modelling that SARS-COV-2 has resulted in 7m and 13m excess deaths worldwide (in stark contrast to the 3.3m as stated cause of death) but contrasted with the prospect that new mRNA vaccines may also provide pre-emptive protection against future variants. I must quickly add, you do not need to be a research scientist to be contributing to saving the world or even a single life. You just need to have eudaimonia, the path of virtue, as your motivation. That is the only criteria on which one should judge another for equality.
It also brings me a little bit of pleasure to know that today I finished the second chapter of my thesis for my masters in higher education. This was a bit of a challenge as I initially found myself going down various rabbit holes until I reached the point, where I had pretty much start from scratch, with a greater sense of mental discipline. The chapter, some five thousand words in length, includes a review of studies on how information and communication technologies have influenced the university, various economic theories relevant to public funding of education (positive externalities, public goods, rent-seeking) with an emphasis on institutional economics, and finally the cognitive and cultural side, where andragogy is one vector along with that of high-context and low-context communication cultures and how this influences online course design and delivery. Now, on to the rest of the week; I have a gruelling six-hour exam on Wednesday for macroeconomics, followed by a job interview the following day. Then, after that, a brief break and - assuming all goes well - I'm off to Sydney for a few days.
Still, if any good did come out of the conference on a personal level it was my introduction to the new genre of "solarpunk", and their practical engineering perspectives and optimism (founded on good science, I might add) that despite the unnecessary barriers (usually relating to political economy) we can actually make a better world. An immediate case in point is The Economist's modelling that SARS-COV-2 has resulted in 7m and 13m excess deaths worldwide (in stark contrast to the 3.3m as stated cause of death) but contrasted with the prospect that new mRNA vaccines may also provide pre-emptive protection against future variants. I must quickly add, you do not need to be a research scientist to be contributing to saving the world or even a single life. You just need to have eudaimonia, the path of virtue, as your motivation. That is the only criteria on which one should judge another for equality.
It also brings me a little bit of pleasure to know that today I finished the second chapter of my thesis for my masters in higher education. This was a bit of a challenge as I initially found myself going down various rabbit holes until I reached the point, where I had pretty much start from scratch, with a greater sense of mental discipline. The chapter, some five thousand words in length, includes a review of studies on how information and communication technologies have influenced the university, various economic theories relevant to public funding of education (positive externalities, public goods, rent-seeking) with an emphasis on institutional economics, and finally the cognitive and cultural side, where andragogy is one vector along with that of high-context and low-context communication cultures and how this influences online course design and delivery. Now, on to the rest of the week; I have a gruelling six-hour exam on Wednesday for macroeconomics, followed by a job interview the following day. Then, after that, a brief break and - assuming all goes well - I'm off to Sydney for a few days.
