Rick Skarbez

@rickskarbez.bsky.social

342 Followers 463 Following

Virtual reality, board games, sports and cats. Originally from the US of A, now residing in Naarm (Melbourne Australia). Never let a computer tell me shit.

A screenshot of the IEEE VR 2027 website, with key dates for papers highlighted: August 24 AoE for abstracts, August 31 AoE for full submissions.
82-0 with many Tony’s.
82 - 0 (113 points) PG - James Harden (2020s BKN) SG - Julius Erving (1970s PHI) SF - Jimmy Butler (2010s MIN) PF - Giannis Antetokounmpo (2020s MIL) C - Wilt Chamberlain (1960s PHI) Does Jimmy punch all 4 of his teammates over the course of the season? Probably!
PG - Luka Doncic (2020s LAL) SG - David Thompson (1970s DEN) SF - Antawn Jamison (2000s GSW) PF - Pascal Siakam (2020s TOR) C - Wilt Chamberlain (1960s GSW) 79-3 on HoopIQ mode.
Stacks of video games, primarily Gamecube, Playstation 1 / 2, Xbox eras.
Trending: 1. Noir Films 2. Election Concerns 3. NRA Criticism 4. Liverpool FC 5. Tariffs
ARC grant announcement: "This project aims to investigate the idea that virtual reality (VR) is an ‘empathy machine’ that can simulate the experiences of other people and thereby give us knowledge of what it is like to have those experiences. The project expects to advance our understanding of this issue by bringing together philosophical work on ‘what it is like’ knowledge and work in psychology on immersive VR. Expected outcomes include a theory of how VR can give us degrees of ‘what it is like’ knowledge, and a normative analysis of what can go wrong when we try to use VR to understand other people. This should provide significant benefits, including guidelines for the ethical use of these 'empathy machines', and practical advice on improving their accuracy."
A very fashionable Marv Levy.
Days since last novel iteration of the Torment Nexus: 0
A laptop covered in stickers relating to, among other things, Aesop Rock, Midwest Emo, the New York Mets, Adult Swim, The National, the mountain goats, and German idealism.
A stack of books on a desk: "The Question Concerning Technology" by Martin Heidegger "Non-things" by Byung-Chul Han "Against Method" by Paul Feyerabend "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" by Thomas Kuhn "The Whale and the Reactor" by Langdon Winner "Where the Action Is" by Paul Dourish "Rules of Play" by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman