Download or read book Utopian Confederation Conspectus written by Matthew E. Gladden and published by Mnemoclave. This book was released on 2020-02-14 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imagining a different world This book offers an introduction to the Utopian Confederation RPG series and the peaceful, prosperous, and high-tech future society that provides the setting for its adventures. In this world, the island-republic of Utopia isn’t an imaginary land; it’s a diplomatic, economic, technological, and cultural trailblazer that has succeeded in unifying the world’s nations under a banner of peaceful collaboration – thanks largely to the Utopian mindset that combines a strong rationality and pursuit of scientific knowledge with a social and political philosophy that’s grounded in a deep spirituality and theological sensitivity. Will we find the answer around other stars? By the 2130s, the Utopian Confederation – and its technologically posthumanized society of human, animal, and artificially intelligent beings – has deftly mended and revitalized the earth and established new footholds throughout our solar system, on bodies including the moon, Mars, several asteroids, Callisto, Europa, Titan, and a number of orbital spacebases. No signs of life have yet been detected from from other worlds; contact with even a single alien civilization would be an epochal event that would rewrite our understanding of the universe. And advances in slower-than-light propulsion have finally brought within reach the dream of undertaking our first journeys to the nearest star systems. The recent perfection of the subluminal nuclear pulse (SNuP) drive by the Utopian Academy of Sciences has at last opened the door to the creation of true “starvessels” and made feasible the next step in our exploration of the cosmos: scientific missions to the extrasolar planets of Alpha Centauri, Barnard’s Star, Epsilon Eridani, Tau Ceti, and Wolf 1061. This endeavor is aimed at shedding light on the Fermi Paradox, which remains the most vexing scientific, technological, philosophical, and theological puzzle confronting humanity: why are we yet to discover any evidence of intelligent life “out there” in space, when all of the best scientific theories and evidence suggest that the galaxy should be teeming with advanced civilizations? Not just “utopian,” but “Utopian” Central to the game is the realm of Utopia. The remarkable history of the Utopian island-state – from its founding in ancient times up through the early 1500s – was described in detail in the eponymous volume published by Thomas More in 1516, which was based on the firsthand accounts of the traveller Raphael Hythloday, a former travelling companion of Amerigo Vespucci and one of the first modern Europeans to visit the island. Within the future gameworld of Utopian Confederation, Utopia is not a “nowhere” (as is suggested by the Greek roots of its name) but a concrete “someplace” that has played a critical role in shaping the course of events in our world – and beyond. The atmosphere of Utopian Confederation At its heart, Utopian Confederation is a game of better worlds. It is an intellectual, emotional, and spiritual exploration not only of the past worlds that might have been, if human beings had made wiser and more compassionate choices, but (more importantly) the future worlds that might yet be, if we manage not to continue destroying one another and our planet. It’s a fundamentally optimistic and hope-filled meditation on the mysteries of theodicy, metaphysics, science, and the depths of the human heart and mind. An gameworld with an “8-bit ethos” The world of Utopian Confederation also possesses a distinct aesthetic and philosophy: it’s lovingly wrapped in an “8-bit ethos” that inspired by classic video games that moves beyond the realm of graphic design to permeate all aspects of its gameplay experience and mechanics. This design philosophy not only lies at the heart not only of the Utopian Confederation computer games that are currently under development; it also serves as the foundation for a series of sourcebooks (to which this volume serves as a brief introduction) that will allow you to adapt the gameworld as a setting for tabletop RPG sessions or campaigns employing your favorite rule systems.

Download or read book Utopian Confederation From the Mall to the Stars written by Matthew E. Gladden and published by Mnemoclave. This book was released on 2024-02-14 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What would humanity’s future look like, if the isle of Utopia had been real – and had guided the creation of a joyful global civilization free from all selfishness, competition, and discord? Utopian Confederation: From the Mall to the Stars presents such a world. In the 22nd century, human society exists not as an array of rival “states” but as a halcyon confederation of all living persons everywhere that’s voluntarily reaffirmed with each new day. Here it isn’t just material goods that are held in common: even persons’ innermost thoughts are a shared public resource, thanks to advanced neurocybernetics. Written laws and politics no longer play any role in society, as all individuals are raised to embrace a single vision for achieving the greater good – and to live it continually. Scientific inquiry and thaumaturgy go hand in hand, as human beings seek to understand (and shape) their place in the cosmos through both technological and miraculous means. And now the perfection of SQuarM reactors and the SNuP drive has allowed construction of the first vessel capable of completing an interstellar journey in decades rather than centuries. The colonies on the Moon and the “Cinnabar Planet” of Euthyphrar have already expanded the horizons of human experience – but now it’s hoped that a multigenerational voyage to the planets of Arcana Centauri might shed light on the greatest spiritual and intellectual puzzle still facing humankind: namely, is it really possible that our Solar System is home to the only life in the cosmos? Is Earth the focal point of the universe? And if intelligent life is abundant in other star systems, why have we been unable to discover any evidence of it, despite centuries of effort? The Utopian Confederation series is a game of philosophical, theological, scientific, technological, and sociopolitical exploration – and From the Mall to the Stars is the 200-page sourcebook that introduces its hopeful, pacific, and intellectually inquisitive world. In this volume, you’ll discover: • The administrative structure that organizes 21 billion human beings into communities from households and agathanias up through conurbs of millions of residents. • The ingenuity of the 200,000 persons living offworld in colonies, spacebases, and spacevessels. • Technologies like the Wellspring and the SGI Seliadne that make real-time “cognitive publication” possible. • Elements of Utopian Synergeticist thought, including ratiomysticism, thaumaturgy, hypophenomics, Iridic Bubble Theory, and the field of aetheromechany that conceptualizes the natural sciences as “applied angelology.” • The societal spheres of the pragmatic demeyne, metapsychic demeyne, and Ecclesia Peregrinans that operate in natural synchronicity. • Why money and private possessions don’t exist – but “shopping malls” play a pivotal societal role. • Cosmopraxis, axionomy, and the management of fields like housing, transportation, energy, agriculture, education, and healthcare. • Utopian aesthetics, architecture, and fashion. • The stats of the biodimensionary, aretalogue, and propellibrium, through which persons assess their own psychic strengths and failings. • SQuarM reactors, SNuP drives, HERUs, and the basics of starvessel architecture. • The cosmic enigma that is the “Imperceptance”; the nature of the Starflume Collegium; and the aims of the mission to Arcana Centauri. • The historical path from the ancient Utopian Commonwealth to the “reunification” of humanity and the Utopian Confederation of ADI 2175. • Character sheets for a group of four 22nd-century Confederation citizens.

Download or read book GREAT ISSUES IN AMERICAN LIFE A CONSPECTUS written by and published by . This book was released on 1968 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book THE ANNALS OF AMERICA GREAT ISSUES IN AMERICAN LIFE A CONSPECTUS VOLUME I written by and published by . This book was released on 1968 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Annals of America Great issues in American life a conspectus written by and published by . This book was released on 1968 with total page 754 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This work 'is a chronological record of American life, events, and thought ... It is a comprehensive general compendium of source material containing laws, speeches, stories, transcriptions of dialogues, on-the-scene reports, reminiscences, and other primary sources." Wynar Guide to Ref Books for Sch Media Cent. 3d edition.

Download or read book A Treatise on Northern Ireland written by Brendan O'Leary and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second volume of the definitive political history of Northern Ireland.

Download or read book A Treatise on Northern Ireland Volume II written by Brendan O'Leary and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-04-17 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This landmark synthesis of political science and historical institutionalism is a detailed study of antagonistic ethnic majoritarianism. Northern Ireland was coercively created through a contested partition in 1920. Subsequently Great Britain compelled Sinn Féin's leaders to rescind the declaration of an Irish Republic, remain within the British Empire, and grant the Belfast Parliament the right to secede. If it did so, a commission would consider modifying the new border. The outcome, however, was the formation of two insecure regimes, North and South, both of which experienced civil war, while the boundary commission was subverted. In the North a control system organized the new majority behind a dominant party that won all elections to the Belfast parliament until its abolition in 1972. The Ulster Unionist Party successfully disorganized Northern nationalists and Catholics. Bolstered by the 'Specials,' a militia created from the Ulster Volunteer Force, this system displayed a pathological version of the Westminster model of democracy, which may reproduce one-party dominance, and enforce national, ethnic, religious, and cultural discrimination. How the Unionist elite improvised this control regime, and why it collapsed under the impact of a civil rights movement in the 1960s, take center-stage in this second volume of A Treatise on Northern Ireland. The North's trajectory is paired and compared with the Irish Free State's incremental decolonization and restoration of a Republic. Irish state-building, however, took place at the expense of the limited prospect of persuading Ulster Protestants that Irish reunification was in their interests, or consistent with their identities. Northern Ireland was placed under British direct rule in 1972 while counter-insurgency practices applied elsewhere in its diminishing empire were deployed from 1969 with disastrous consequences. On January 1 1973, however, the UK and Ireland joined the then European Economic Community. Many hoped that would help end conflict in and over Northern Ireland. Such hopes were premature. Northern Ireland appeared locked in a stalemate of political violence punctuated by failed political initiatives.

Download or read book Friedrich Engels written by W.O. Henderson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-02-01 with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Published in 1976. The first volume on this two-part biography traces Engels' carer from his youth in the Wupper valley, through his periods in Bremen and Berlin to the Manchester years and the beginning of his long collaboration with Marx. These early years are described against the background of the prevailing social unrest in Europe, culminating in the 1848 revolutions and portraits are included of many Marx's and Engels' friends and fellow communists.

Download or read book The Life of Friedrich Engels written by William Otto Henderson and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 1976 with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Published in 1976. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Download or read book Where Community Happens written by Henry Near and published by Peter Lang Pub Incorporated. This book was released on 2011 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In reaction to the spread of globalization, the number of collective communities has grown apace. In this collection of articles and lectures the author, a leading authority on the history of the kibbutz, analyzes various aspects of the philosophy of the kibbutz, and draws parallels with other societies and trends.

Download or read book Karl Marx written by Frank W. Elwell and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-12-15 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Karl Marx: A Reference Guide to His Life and Works covers all aspects of his life and works. Marx was a philosopher, a crusading journalist, as well as a political organizer and activist advocating democratic reforms, working-class political organizations, and the establishment of a socialist political order. Includes a comprehensive historical timeline of major events involving or related to Marx The A to Z section includes the major events, works, and concepts related to Marx Bibliography of major works by and about Marx and events surrounding his life and works The index thoroughly cross-references the chronological and encyclopedic entries

Download or read book The Labour Magazine written by and published by . This book was released on 1928 with total page 636 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Phenomenology of the Gameworld A Philosophical Toolbox for Video Game Developers written by Matthew E. Gladden and published by Defragmenter Media. This book was released on 2019-12-15 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The human mind is the most powerful game engine – but it can always use some help. This book is meant for developers who want to create games that will evoke richer and more memorable “gameworlds” in the minds of their players. We don’t just enter such unforgettable gameworlds when we play first-person 3D RPGs with high-resolution graphics; even relatively simple 2D puzzle or strategy games with 8-bit-style visuals can immerse players in worlds that are beautiful, terrifying, mysterious, or moving, that are brutally realistic or delightfully whimsical. Indeed, good video games can transport us to incredible new worlds. The process by which a particular gameworld emerges is a symbiotic collaboration between developer and player: the game system presents a carefully architected stream of polygons and pixels, which somehow leads the player’s mind to construct and explore an intricate world full of places, people, relationships, dilemmas, and quests that transcends what’s actually appearing onscreen. Drawing on insights from ontology and philosophical aesthetics, this volume provides you with conceptual frameworks and concrete tools that will enhance your ability to design games whose iconic gameworlds encourage the types of gameplay experiences you want to offer your players. Among other topics, the book investigates: · The unusual ways in which a gameworld’s contents can “shrink” or “grow” in players’ minds, depending on whether the players are mentally positioned within a game’s social space, cultural space, built space, or tactical space. · The manner in which players’ minds spontaneously “concretize” the countless gaps that exist in a game – and how this dynamic explains why so many players still enjoy 8-bit-style games with retro pixel art. · The differing ways in which players experience success and failure, danger and safety, good and evil, the future and the past, the known and the unknown, and engagement and retreat, depending on whether a game reveals its gameworld through a “1D” game environment (like that of a text-based adventure), 2D environment (like that of a sidescroller or a grand strategy game with a top-down map view), 2.5D environment (like that of an isometric turn-based tactics game) or 3D environment (like that of a first-person shooter). · The powerful way in which players are able to mentally “explore” a gameworld simply by shifting their conscious awareness between different senses, media, ontological strata, and constituent spaces – without needing to travel through the gameworld’s terrain at all. · Necessary and optional elements of the gameworld – from built areas, natural landscapes, laws of nature, and a cosmogony to the game’s player and designer – and their roles in shaping the gameplay experience. · How to strategically employ the architectural paradigms of the Cyberspatial Grid, Maze Space, Biomimetic Net, Simulacral World, Virtual Museum, and Protean World when architecting locales within your game, in order to evoke particular kinds of emotional gameplay experiences for your players. · The nature of the unique “sixth sense” that 2D games grant to player characters (and players). · Simple techniques for helping your 2D game to “feel” more like a 3D game. · The differing kinds of immersiveness, interactivity, and determinacy possessed by different types of games and their implications for the gameplay experience. Once you’ve undertaken this philosophical and artistic journey, you’ll never look at your games – or their gameworlds – in quite the same way again. Phenomenology of the Gameworld is a book by the award-winning video game designer, philosopher, and writer Matthew E. Gladden. He has over 20 years of experience with commercial and non-commercial game development, has published numerous scholarly and popular works relating to the philosophy of video game design, virtual reality, and neurocybernetics, and has served as a video game conference keynote speaker.

Download or read book The Culture of Cities written by Lewis Mumford and published by . This book was released on 1930 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Survey written by and published by . This book was released on 1918 with total page 750 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Australian Wage Policy written by Keith Hancock and published by University of Adelaide Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 742 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The advent of industrial regulation by tribunal came close to the turn of the century. Wages boards began in Victoria in 1896 and courts of arbitration in 1900. The first day of the new century was also the first day of the Commonwealth of Australia, endowed with a Parliament that was empowered to institute its chosen models of conciliation and arbitration for the prevention and settlement of interstate industrial disputes. This book is a study of the operation of conciliation and arbitration, especially by the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, from the inception of the system until World War II. It is not, however, a general history of conciliation and arbitration. It does not, for example, deal with the successes and failures of the tribunals in preventing strikes and lockouts; or with the manifold legal issues to which the system gave rise, unless they affected significantly the tribunals' exercise of their power to fix wages and conditions. Rather, it is about fixing the terms of employment; and it attempts to set the tribunals' performance in an economic context. It is about 'wage policy', if the term is interpreted broadly enough to include both prescribed wages and other factors that affect the cost of labour, including working hours and leave.

Download or read book The Survey written by and published by . This book was released on 1918 with total page 756 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: