“Houston, we've had a problem here."
—John Swigert, as the Apollo 13 command module began to fill with carbon dioxide

The goal of this code critique is to work towards an intersectional queer feminist, gameful, and conjunctural approach to climate data while exploring the mechanisms through which the inaccurate, unethical, and derailing "overpopulation" myth has gotten congealed into certain types of climate data, especially the "social" parts of climate scenarios data. The data we are going to look at are used by world leaders to make decisions, and likewise serve as the basis for many climate modeling efforts, games, and software projects.

In regards to the relevance of this "data critique" to code, I hope we can use this example to ask:

• Can the code and the data really be separated? To what degree should those who engage in the critical study of code also engage in the critical study of data that underpin a coding project (see: Kitchin and Lauriault 2014)? To what degree are our critical explorations of code hindered if we do not also "read the data" and explore the data regimes (cf. Buse 2022) that might underpin our coding projects through any data they deploy?

This code critique is also relevant to those engaged in climate gamemaking, and aims to offer a level of transdisciplinary frame alignment (Carley 2019) between thinkers in STEM and the humanities while working with care (cf. Fortun 2024) towards a more ethical approach to "social" climate data parameterization within an increasingly Earth-bound political sphere (Latour 2018).

As part of my critique, I'm going to draw upon the collectable card game Magic: The Gathering (1993-present), as a way to build analogies to unpack the mechanical rhetoric (cf. Bogost 2007) inherent in certain climate data sets, showing how these datasets problematically render human population interactive, thus encouraging users to alter it, while simultaneously inaccurately linking human population numbers to increased emissions.

Rather than merely critiquing, my aim is to think towards reparative making (cf. Sedgwick 1997, Ratto 2007, Currie et al. 2016), and to think through how climate scenarios data might be more ethically and accurately parameterized. In this regard, I have created a GitHub repository for those who would like to try their hand at making alternate, better approaches to parameterizing "social" climate scenarios data—approaches that do not include any metrics that treat human population as being inherently linked to emissions.

Before we start our critical investigation of these data, context is everything—especially when approaching climate data and code (see: Steele 2022, Marino 2020, chapter 4). So, let's start with some context—inflected with some cultural-studies-style conjunctural analysis 😺 (Hall 1988; cf.Grossberg 2019, Gilbert 2019, Gregg 2006).

THE SITUATION

Anthropogenic climate change is real (Frierson 2024, EPA 2023), and its largest contributor is the burning of fossil fuels (EESI 2021, NRDC 2022). Beyond contributing to warming the planet through the greenhouse effect, the burning of fossil fuels contributes to a plethora of other problems for environment and human health, including acidifying the ocean, which is an immediate threat to nearly all marine life (Melzner et al 2020, Doney 2009, Cao & Caldeira 2008, see also: Union of Concerned Scientists 2019), and the release of PM2.5 particulate matter, which is estimated to be responsible for over 3 million deaths a year due to health conditions related to breathing in air pollution (Roser 2021, Tarín-Carrasco 2021, Apte et al. 2015).

Fossil fuels include petroleum (crude oil), gasoline, coal, natural gas, oil shales, bitumen, tar sands, and heavy crude oils (Copp 2024, NRDC 2022). Thanks to the large-scale burning of fossil fuels beginning in the mid-1700s, humans are estimated to have released over 1.5 trillion tons of CO2 into the planet's atmosphere (Friedlingstein et al. 2020, Global Carbon Budget 2023), increasing the amount of this heat-trapping agent in the sky to twice what it was prior to the industrial revolution (NOAA 2022). The "safe" level of 350 ppm (parts per million) of atmospheric CO2 was exceeded in 1988 (Lindsey/NOAA 2023, Hickel 2020).

Flowers are blooming in Antarctica (Singh 2023, Cannone et al. 2022) and a sixth mass extinction is underway, with roughly 1% of species on Earth having been declared extinct and nearly half in decline (Finn et al. 2023), while oceans and mass displacement continue continue to raise. In 2022 alone, over 35 million people were displaced due to extreme weather events (UNHRC 2023), and it is estimated that over 1 billion people will be displaced by 2050 if things continue as they are going (Bellizzi et al. 2023). We are losing our the stability of our climate and the habitability of our oceans as humanitarian crises escalate, and the burning of fossil fuels is largely to blame.

WANT TO FIND A "SOCIAL" CAUSE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE? FOLLOW THE MONEY.

Ending the burning of fossil fuels requires an end to fossil fuel investments and subsidies (Schwanitz et al. 2014, Monasterolo and Raberto 2019). Fossil fuel subsidies are currently being expanded, however, despite calls for them to be phased out (Mcfarlane 2023, Piper 2023), including calls by university students (Bergman 2019), youth activists (Rosen et al. 2016), and Indigenous groups (Horowitz 2023, Moran 2020). In 2023, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for divestment from fossil fuels and an end to fossil fuel subsidies, as well as immediate global action toward net-zero emissions, which he said “must start with the polluted heart of the climate crisis: the fossil fuel industry” (UN News 2023).

Despite these calls, virtually all major banks and many credit unions continue to invest in expanding fossil fuel extraction (Sierra Club 2023, Roxburgh 2019), despite evidence that divestment from fossil fuels does not show financial risk to investors (Plantinga & Scholtens 2019). If you have a pension or retirement fund, that money is likely being invested in expanding fossil fuel extraction (Climate Safe Pensions 2021, see: FossilFreeFunds.org) for seemingly no reason (ibid).

^ The start screen for Frack, a student-made game that aims to algorithmically track the behavior of fossil fuel extraction companies. This game was designed as part of an experimental course held at ModLab, the Digital Humanities Laboratory at UC Davis, in 2016 taught by Joseph Dumit and Whitney Jane Larrat-Smith (see: Dumit 2017, frackthegame.com).

Steering towards a less catastrophic climate outcome will require the world to cut greenhouse gas emissions, with the IPCC and UN suggesting that emissions be cut by 45% by 2030, and net zero be achieved by 2050 (IPCC AR6 Working Group 2 Report). Yet, due to current investments and subsidies in fossil fuel expansion, global emissions rates are set to increase almost 14% by the end of the 2020s, according to a UN Press release in 2022 (UN News 2022). Since the time of that press release, fossil fuel subsidies and investments have only increased.

In 2023, over $7 trillion in annual subsidies were directed towards expanding fossil fuel infrastructure and extraction, a roughly $2 trillion increase from the year before (Black et al 2023). In this regard, we can assume that the 14% estimated emissions increase is already outdated, as expanded fossil fuel finance is directly linked to expanded burning of fossil fuels (Johnsson et al. 2019, Lazarus & van Asselt 2018, Olson & Lenzmann 2016, see also Klein 2014).

"OVERPOPULATION" IS A MYTH THAT DERAILS EFFORTS TO REIGN IN THE DIRECT CAUSES OF CLIMATE CHANGE—WHILE ACCELERATING OTHER FORMS OF HARM

While discussions about mitigating the climate crisis should be focused on ending fossil fuel extraction—and on ending the subsidies and investments that bankroll it—some rather odd "red herrings" have made their way into conversations about climate solutions, including the flawed idea that the number of people on the planet is too high. The concept of "overpopulation" is a myth (Mosher 2008, Merchant 2021c) that serves to distract attention away from the direct causes of fossil fuel extraction (cf. Merchant 2021a, Merchant 2021b, Alberro 2020), while also being leveraged to accelerate other forms of harm (Sasser 2018, see also: Sasser Interview 2021).

^ From Against the Ecofascist Creep by The Anti-Creep Climate Initiative (2022)

The myth of "overpopulation" emerged in the writings of conservative British economist Thomas Malthus in the late 18th century, and the idea was used to normalize the genocide of Irish people a few decades later (Llyod 2007, Gráda 1983, see: Shermer 2015). Starting in the early 1950s, the myth of "overpopulation" experienced a revival in the United States thanks to efforts bankrolled by individuals with fossil fuel interests, as historian Emily Klancher Merchant explores in her award-winning book of history, Building the Population Bomb (Oxford University Press, 2021a, see also: Merchant 2021b, 2022).

Starting in the early 1950s, individuals with fossil interests began funding efforts aimed to manufacture the idea that there was some kind of scientific consensus that "overpopulation" was at fault for various environmental and social problems, when there was never any such consensus (Merchant 2021c, see also: Mosher 2008). As part of this misinformation campaign, white supremacists who openly acknowledged their intention to reduce the number of people of color on the planet, both through forms of forced sterilization and by strategically withholding food, were given powerful platforms (Merchant 2021a, Merchant 2021b).

The myth of "overpopulation" was lobbed into greater public consciousness with the 1968 publication of the book The Population Bomb by Paul and Anne Ehrlich, which leveraged atomic-era hype to drum up unfounded fears around the sheer number of people on the planet (Merchant 2021a; see also: Shermer 2015, Follet 2023). The book became a bestseller, further propping up fossil-fuel-funded misinformation about "overpopulation."

Ultimately, the fears generated by misinformation campaigns promoting the "overpopulation" myth were used to manufacture consent/apathy towards forms of genocide, including forced sterilization directed towards people of color and people in the Global South (Sasser 2018, see also: Shermer 2015) that continue to this day (Mann 2018, Manian 2020, Medosche 2021), while laying the ideological framework to normalize the withholding of food to populations in the Global South (cf. Wittman 2011, Godfrey and Torres 2016). In this way, we might compare the use of the contemporary "overpopulation" myth to the way the concept was used to normalize genocide against Irish people two centuries ago (Llyod 2007, Gráda 1983, see: Shermer 2015), with the myth of "famine" used to normalize withholding food to people whose land has been taken from them through colonial expansion (cf. Burnett & Hay 2023, see also: Grey & Newman 2018).

^ From Against the Ecofascist Creep by The Anti-Creep Climate Initiative (2022)

THE MYTH OF "OVERPOPULATION" REINFORCES CONDITIONS THAT FUEL EMISSIONS

The presence of the myth of "overpopulation" ultimately contributes to the acceleration of emissions and ecological harm. It does this in a number of ways.

For one, the myth of "overpopulation" and its attendant ideology of population control have been used to justify genocide and forced sterilizations of people of color (Sasser 2018, Merchant 2021a), ultimately fueling gender oppressive, colonial, and racist structures. Systemic racism, gender inequity,✝ and colonial land theft have all been found to be drivers of emissions, which is to say, the presence of these harmful social structures leads emissions to go up in ways that can be measured (Steele et. al 2022, Tuana 2023, Lake et al. 2022, ICCA 2021, McGee & Greiner 2020, McGee 2018, Lv and Deng 2019, see also: Thomas 2022). In this way, because the "overpopulation" myth accelerates these social drivers of emissions, the presence of this myth ultimately accelerates emissions.

✝ It is worth keeping in mind that the main reason improved gender equity leads to emissions reduction is not due to access to birth control, but rather due to better policy decisions that occur when decision-making bodies have gender-diverse representation, which is something that requires systemic and pervasive gender equity in order to be achieved (Lake et al 2022, Mavisakalyan & Tarverdi 2019, Liu 2018, Liesher et al. 2016, Lv & Deng 2019, V-Dem 2019).

Additionally, the "overpopulation" myth is (rightly) contentious, and when it is brought up in environmentalist circles, it leads to forms of infighting and coalition breakdown (cf. Sasser 2018, 2021) that ultimately forestall regulation of fossil fuels (Merchant 2021b). In this way, the fossil-fuel-funded "overpopulation" myth might be considered a "union busting" tactic directed towards the environmental movement (cf. McAveley 2020), which is to say, this myth is a tactical intervention that aims to get environmentalists to fight with each other rather than working together to regulate polluters. This is a second way the mere presence of the "overpopulation" myth accelerates emissions (cf. Bogad et al. 2022).

USING ZINES TO DEBUNK THE MYTHS

In an effort to draw attention to types of harmful secondary myths that emerge like hydra heads in response to the continued presence of the "overpopulation" myth in environmental discourse, six scholars affiliated with the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) have joined forces to create the zine Against the Ecofascist Creep (Anson et al 2022, The Anti-Creep Climate Initiative 2022). Using comicbook-style art and dialogue situated within the diegesis of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), the zine is offered as an educational tool to debunk myths regarding overpopulation that can sometimes crop up in classroom discussions, while offering an intervention into the way these myths have been uncritically reiterated in Marvel films and comics.

^ From Against the Ecofascist Creep by The Anti-Creep Climate Initiative (2022)

MANY CLIMATE MODELS AND DATA FAIL TO MEASURE FOSSIL FUEL INVESTMENT—AND INSTEAD USE BROKEN METRICS TO DIRECT THE FOCUS TOWARDS THE "OVERPOPULATION" MYTH

"There never was a population bomb" (Merchant 2021c). Overpopulation is a myth (Mosher 2008), and yet, thanks to a fossil-fuel-funded misinformation campaign that began in the early 1950s (Marchant 2021a), the broken concept of "overpopulation" has made its way into climate data, models, and educational tools. In this way, the myth of "overpopulation" is now spread is through data sets that inaccurately link raw human population numbers to emissions/pollution.

Data have a type of rhetorical value to them (cf. Currie et al. 2016), and scholars in critical data studies (Kitchin & Lauriault 2014, Iliadis & Russo eds. 2016) and in critical data design (cf. Fortun et al 2016, Reiches & Richardson 2020) have shown how choices made in how data is parameterized ultimately elucidate—or skew—the realities that the data claim to track (Richardson et al. 2018; cf. Poirier 2016).

Environmental data that link human population numbers to emissions in some kind of essentialized way—as if to say human beings are inherently polluting/emitting—are failing to account for a regime designed to necessitate fossil fuel use, and are likewise failing to account for the role of continued fossil fuel investment and subsidies in driving emissions. In this way, these data not only cause forms of harm by advancing the inaccurate "overpopulation" myth, but they fail to accurately track the underlying systemic social cause of emissions: fossil fuel investments and subsidies.

It is worth keeping in mind, though, that these flawed data sets that include "population-as-emissions" metrics have parameterizations that often have been grandfathered in from the era in which people were being inundated with fossil-fuel-funded misinformation about "overpopulation."

WELL-INTENTIONED SOFTWARE PROJECTS AND GAMES SOMETIMES REINFORCE HARMFUL AND INACCURATE MYTHS ABOUT "OVERPOPULATION"—BECAUSE IT'S IN THE DATA

Those who wish to spread awareness about climate change through software and game design often find themselves drawing upon sources of climate data as the basis of interactive features in their games and software without realizing how these data may have been skewed by the inaccurate and unethical myth of "overpopulation." When metrics that (problematically) link population size to emissions numbers are reiterated in software and games, these projects, these things, even if well-intended, ultimately become a hindrance to the climate movement by serving to spread the "overpopulation" myth. Also, even if you don't render population interactive, simply drawing attention to a data set that does can ultimately lead to your work being used to draw attention to and advance this form of misinformation.

ALL THIS IS TO SAY:

As we start looking at this climate data together, it's important to use a critical eye when encountering any data that claim to link population numbers with emissions.

We know now that this linkage is false, and also harmful.

Coming soon:

A Part 2 post with a little more context (And drama! 🙀) before we dive into the data!

Hi,

I'm interested to hear your thoughts about any aspect of any part of this script. Here are a couple of questions that interest me.

Are there any ethical questions raised when ELIZA/DOCTOR says "I AM SORRY TO HEAR YOU ARE DEPRESSED?" ELIZA is too simple to feel sorrow. Is Weizenbaum saying he is sorry through ELIZA/DOCTOR. Is it acceptable for software to lie to people, perhaps in the name of research, or as a simple and effective way to communicate with people using analogies? I believe similar questions are been raised in regard to various LLM chatbots.

Another question that interests me is how can I get into the mind of someone in 1965 talking to ELIZA/DOCTOR and, as Weizenbaum says, becoming deeply emotionally involved with it?

Here is a transcript of the DOCTOR script.

;
; Joseph Weizenbaum's DOCTOR script for ELIZA
;
; This is a verbatim transcription of the script on page 44 of the
; January 1966 edition of Communications of the ACM, with the following
; caveats:
;
; a) Whitespace has been added to help reveal the structure of the script.
; b) In the CACM paper six lines were printed twice adjacent to each
;    other (with exactly 34 lines between each duplicate), making the
;    structure nonsensical. These duplicates have been commented out of
;    this transcription.
; c) There were no comments in the script in the CACM paper.
;


(HOW DO YOU DO.  PLEASE TELL ME YOUR PROBLEM)

START

(SORRY
    ((0)
        (PLEASE DON'T APOLIGIZE)
        (APOLOGIES ARE NOT NECESSARY)
        (WHAT FEELINGS DO YOU HAVE WHEN YOU APOLOGIZE)
        (I'VE TOLD YOU THAT APOLOGIES ARE NOT REQUIRED)))

(DONT = DON'T)
(CANT = CAN'T)
(WONT = WON'T)

(REMEMBER 5
    ((0 YOU REMEMBER 0)
         (DO YOU OFTEN THINK OF 4)
         (DOES THINKING OF 4 BRING ANYTHING ELSE TO MIND)
         (WHAT ELSE DO YOU REMEMBER)
         (WHY DO YOU REMEMBER 4 JUST NOW)
         (WHAT IN THE PRESENT SITUATION REMINDS YOU OF 4)
         (WHAT IS THE CONNECTION BETWEEN ME AND 4))
    ((0 DO I REMEMBER 0)
         (DID YOU THINK I WOULD FORGET 5)
         (WHY DO YOU THINK I SHOULD RECALL 5 NOW)
         (WHAT ABOUT 5)
         (=WHAT)
         (YOU MENTIONED 5))
    ((0)
         (NEWKEY)))

(IF 3
    ((0 IF 0)
        (DO YOU THINK ITS LIKELY THAT 3)
        (DO YOU WISH THAT 3)
        (WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT 3)
        (REALLY, 2 3)))
; duplicate line removed: (WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT 3) (REALLY, 2 3)))

(DREAMT 4
    ((0 YOU DREAMT 0)
        (REALLY, 4)
        (HAVE YOU EVER FANTASIED 4 WHILE YOU WERE AWAKE)
        (HAVE YOU DREAMT 4 BEFORE)
        (=DREAM)
        (NEWKEY)))

(DREAMED = DREAMT 4
    (=DREAMT))

(DREAM 3
    ((0)
        (WHAT DOES THAT DREAM SUGGEST TO YOU)
        (DO YOU DREAM OFTEN)
        (WHAT PERSONS APPEAR IN YOUR DREAMS)
        (DON'T YOU BELIEVE THAT DREAM HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH YOUR PROBLEM)
        (NEWKEY)))

(DREAMS = DREAM 3
    (=DREAM))

(HOW
    (=WHAT))
(WHEN
    (=WHAT))
(ALIKE 10
    (=DIT))
(SAME 10
    (=DIT))
(CERTAINLY
    (=YES))

(FEEL DLIST(/BELIEF))
(THINK DLIST(/BELIEF))
(BELIEVE DLIST(/BELIEF))
(WISH DLIST(/BELIEF))

(MEMORY MY
    (0 YOUR 0 = LETS DISCUSS FURTHER WHY YOUR 3)
    (0 YOUR 0 = EARLIER YOU SAID YOUR 3)
    (0 YOUR 0 = BUT YOUR 3)
    (0 YOUR 0 = DOES THAT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE FACT THAT YOUR 3))

(NONE
    ((0)
        (I AM NOT SURE I UNDERSTAND YOU FULLY)
        (PLEASE GO ON)
        (WHAT DOES THAT SUGGEST TO YOU)
        (DO YOU FEEL STRONGLY ABOUT DISCUSSING SUCH THINGS)))

(PERHAPS
    ((0)
        (YOU DON'T SEEM QUITE CERTAIN)
        (WHY THE UNCERTAIN TONE)
        (CAN'T YOU BE MORE POSITIVE)
        (YOU AREN'T SURE)
        (DON'T YOU KNOW)))

(MAYBE
    (=PERHAPS))

(NAME 15
    ((0)
        (I AM NOT INTERESTED IN NAMES)
        (I'VE TOLD YOU BEFORE, I DON'T CARE ABOUT NAMES - PLEASE CONTINUE)))
; duplicate line removed: PLEASE CONTINUE)) )

(DEUTSCH
    (=XFREMD))
(FRANCAIS
    (=XFREMD))
(ITALIANO
    (=XFREMD))
(ESPANOL
    (=XFREMD))

(XFREMD
    ((0)
        (I AM SORRY, I SPEAK ONLY ENGLISH)))

(HELLO
    ((0)
        (HOW DO YOU DO.  PLEASE STATE YOUR PROBLEM)))

(COMPUTER 50
    ((0)
        (DO COMPUTERS WORRY YOU)
        (WHY DO YOU MENTION COMPUTERS)
        (WHAT DO YOU THINK MACHINES HAVE TO DO WITH YOUR PROBLEM)
        (DON'T YOU THINK COMPUTERS CAN HELP PEOPLE)
        (WHAT ABOUT MACHINES WORRIES YOU)
        (WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT MACHINES)))

(MACHINE 50
    (=COMPUTER))
(MACHINES 50
    (=COMPUTER))
(COMPUTERS 50
    (=COMPUTER))

(AM = ARE
    ((0 ARE YOU 0)
        (DO YOU BELIEVE YOU ARE 4)
        (WOULD YOU WANT TO BE 4)
        (YOU WISH I WOULD TELL YOU YOU ARE 4)
        (WHAT WOULD IT MEAN IF YOU WERE 4)
        (=WHAT))
    ((0)
        (WHY DO YOU SAY 'AM')
        (I DON'T UNDERSTAND THAT)))

(ARE
    ((0 ARE I 0)
        (WHY ARE YOU INTERESTED IN WHETHER I AM 4 OR NOT)
        (WOULD YOU PREFER IF I WEREN'T 4)
        (PERHAPS I AM 4 IN YOUR FANTASIES)
        (DO YOU SOMETIMES THINK I AM 4)
        (=WHAT))
    ((0 ARE 0)
        (DID YOU THINK THEY MIGHT NOT BE 3)
        (WOULD YOU LIKE IT IF THEY WERE NOT 3)
        (WHAT IF THEY WERE NOT 3)
        (POSSIBLY THEY ARE 3)))

(YOUR = MY
    ((0 MY 0)
        (WHY ARE YOU CONCERNED OVER MY 3)
        (WHAT ABOUT YOUR OWN 3)
        (ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT SOMEONE ELSES 3)
        (REALLY, MY 3)))

(WAS 2
    ((0 WAS YOU 0)
        (WHAT IF YOU WERE 4)
        (DO YOU THINK YOU WERE 4)
        (WERE YOU 4)
        (WHAT WOULD IT MEAN IF YOU WERE 4)
        (WHAT DOES ' 4 ' SUGGEST TO YOU)
        (=WHAT))
    ((0 YOU WAS 0)
        (WERE YOU REALLY)
        (WHY DO YOU TELL ME YOU WERE 4 NOW)
; duplicate line removed: (WERE YOU REALLY) (WHY DO YOU TELL ME YOU WERE 4 NOW)
        (PERHAPS I ALREADY KNEW YOU WERE 4))
    ((0 WAS I 0)
        (WOULD YOU LIKE TO BELIEVE I WAS 4)
        (WHAT SUGGESTS THAT I WAS 4)
        (WHAT DO YOU THINK)
        (PERHAPS I WAS 4)
        (WHAT IF I HAD BEEN 4))
    ((0)
        (NEWKEY)))

(WERE = WAS
    (=WAS))
(ME = YOU)

(YOU'RE = I'M
    ((0 I'M 0)
        (PRE (I ARE 3) (=YOU))))

(I'M = YOU'RE
    ((0 YOU'RE 0)
        (PRE (YOU ARE 3) (=I))))

(MYSELF = YOURSELF)
(YOURSELF = MYSELF)

(MOTHER DLIST(/NOUN FAMILY))
(MOM = MOTHER DLIST(/ FAMILY))
(DAD = FATHER DLIST(/ FAMILY))
(FATHER DLIST(/NOUN FAMILY))
(SISTER DLIST(/FAMILY))
(BROTHER DLIST(/FAMILY))
(WIFE DLIST(/FAMILY))
(CHILDREN DLIST(/FAMILY))

(I = YOU
    ((0 YOU (* WANT NEED) 0)
        (WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU IF YOU GOT 4)
        (WHY DO YOU WANT 4)
        (SUPPOSE YOU GOT 4 SOON)
        (WHAT IF YOU NEVER GOT 4)
        (WHAT WOULD GETTING 4 MEAN TO YOU)
        (WHAT DOES WANTING 4 HAVE TO DO WITH THIS DISCUSSION))
    ((0 YOU ARE 0 (*SAD UNHAPPY DEPRESSED SICK ) 0)
        (I AM SORRY TO HEAR YOU ARE 5)
        (DO YOU THINK COMING HERE WILL HELP YOU NOT TO BE 5)
        (I'M SURE ITS NOT PLEASANT TO BE 5)
        (CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHAT MADE YOU 5))
    ((0 YOU ARE 0 (*HAPPY ELATED GLAD BETTER) 0)
        (HOW HAVE I HELPED YOU TO BE 5)
        (HAS YOUR TREATMENT MADE YOU 5)
        (WHAT MAKES YOU 5 JUST NOW)
        (CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHY YOU ARE SUDDENLY 5))
    ((0 YOU WAS 0)
        (=WAS))
; duplicate line removed: ((0 YOU WAS 0) (=WAS))
    ((0 YOU (/BELIEF) YOU 0)
        (DO YOU REALLY THINK SO)
        (BUT YOU ARE NOT SURE YOU 5)
        (DO YOU REALLY DOUBT YOU 5))
    ((0 YOU 0 (/BELIEF) 0 I 0)
        (=YOU))
    ((0 YOU ARE 0)
        (IS IT BECAUSE YOU ARE 4 THAT YOU CAME TO ME)
        (HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN 4)
        (DO YOU BELIEVE IT NORMAL TO BE 4)
        (DO YOU ENJOY BEING 4))
    ((0 YOU (* CAN'T CANNOT) 0)
        (HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU CAN'T 4)
        (HAVE YOU TRIED)
        (PERHAPS YOU COULD 4 NOW)
        (DO YOU REALLY WANT TO BE ABLE TO 4))
    ((0 YOU DON'T 0)
        (DON'T YOU REALLY 4)
        (WHY DON'T YOU 4)
        (DO YOU WISH TO BE ABLE TO 4)
        (DOES THAT TROUBLE YOU))
    ((0 YOU FEEL 0)
        (TELL ME MORE ABOUT SUCH FEELINGS)
        (DO YOU OFTEN FEEL 4)
        (DO YOU ENJOY FEELING 4)
        (OF WHAT DOES FEELING 4 REMIND YOU))
    ((0 YOU 0 I 0)
        (PERHAPS IN YOUR FANTASY WE 3 EACH OTHER)
        (DO YOU WISH TO 3 ME)
        (YOU SEEM TO NEED TO 3 ME)
        (DO YOU 3 ANYONE ELSE))
    ((0)
        (YOU SAY 1)
        (CAN YOU ELABORATE ON THAT)
        (DO YOU SAY 1 FOR SOME SPECIAL REASON)
        (THAT'S QUITE INTERESTING)))

(YOU = I
    ((0 I REMIND YOU OF 0)
        (=DIT))
    ((0 I ARE 0)
        (WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I AM 4)
        (DOES IT PLEASE YOU TO BELIEVE I AM 4)
        (DO YOU SOMETIMES WISH YOU WERE 4)
        (PERHAPS YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE 4))
    ((0 I 0 YOU)
        (WHY DO YOU THINK I 3 YOU)
        (YOU LIKE TO THINK I 3 YOU - DON'T YOU)
        (WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I 3 YOU)
        (REALLY, I 3 YOU)
        (DO YOU WISH TO BELIEVE I 3 YOU)
; duplicate line removed: (REALLY, I 3 YOU) (DO YOU WISH TO BELIEVE I 3 YOU)
        (SUPPOSE I DID 3 YOU - WHAT WOULD THAT MEAN)
        (DOES SOMEONE ELSE BELIEVE I 3 YOU))
    ((0 I 0)
        (WE WERE DISCUSSING YOU - NOT ME)
        (OH, I 3)
        (YOU'RE NOT REALLY TALKING ABOUT ME - ARE YOU)
        (WHAT ARE YOUR FEELINGS NOW)))

(YES
    ((0)
        (YOU SEEM QUITE POSITIVE)
        (YOU ARE SURE)
        (I SEE)
        (I UNDERSTAND)))

(NO
    ((0)
        (ARE YOU SAYING 'NO' JUST TO BE NEGATIVE)
        (YOU ARE BEING A BIT NEGATIVE)
        (WHY NOT)
        (WHY 'NO')))

(MY = YOUR 2
    ((0 YOUR 0 (/FAMILY) 0)
        (TELL ME MORE ABOUT YOUR FAMILY)
        (WHO ELSE IN YOUR FAMILY 5)
        (YOUR 4)
        (WHAT ELSE COMES TO MIND WHEN YOU THINK OF YOUR 4))
    ((0 YOUR 0)
        (YOUR 3)
        (WHY DO YOU SAY YOUR 3)
        (DOES THAT SUGGEST ANYTHING ELSE WHICH BELONGS TO YOU)
        (IS IT IMPORTANT TO YOU THAT 2 3)))

(CAN
    ((0 CAN I 0)
        (YOU BELIEVE I CAN 4 DON'T YOU)
        (=WHAT)
        (YOU WANT ME TO BE ABLE TO 4)
        (PERHAPS YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE ABLE TO 4 YOURSELF))
    ((0 CAN YOU 0)
        (WHETHER OR NOT YOU CAN 4 DEPENDS ON YOU MORE THAN ON ME)
        (DO YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO 4)
        (PERHAPS YOU DON'T WANT TO 4)
        (=WHAT)))

(WHAT
    ((0)
        (WHY DO YOU ASK)
        (DOES THAT QUESTION INTEREST YOU)
        (WHAT IS IT YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW)
        (ARE SUCH QUESTIONS MUCH ON YOUR MIND)
        (WHAT ANSWER WOULD PLEASE YOU MOST)
        (WHAT DO YOU THINK)
        (WHAT COMES TO YOUR MIND WHEN YOU ASK THAT)
        (HAVE YOU ASKED SUCH QUESTIONS BEFORE)
        (HAVE YOU ASKED ANYONE ELSE)))

(BECAUSE
    ((0)
        (IS THAT THE REAL REASON)
        (DON'T ANY OTHER REASONS COME TO MIND)
        (DOES THAT REASON SEEM TO EXPLAIN ANYTHING ELSE)
        (WHAT OTHER REASONS MIGHT THERE BE)))

(WHY
    ((0 WHY DON'T I 0)
        (DO YOU BELIEVE I DON'T 5)
        (PERHAPS I WILL 5 IN GOOD TIME)
        (SHOULD YOU 5 YOURSELF)
        (YOU WANT ME TO 5)
        (=WHAT))
; duplicate line removed: (=WHAT))
    ((0 WHY CAN'T YOU 0)
        (DO YOU THINK YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO 5)
        (DO YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO 5)
        (DO YOU BELIEVE THIS WILL HELP YOU TO 5)
        (HAVE YOU ANY IDEA WHY YOU CAN'T 5)
        (=WHAT))
    (=WHAT))

(EVERYONE 2
    ((0 (* EVERYONE EVERYBODY NOBODY NOONE) 0)
        (REALLY, 2)
        (SURELY NOT 2)
        (CAN YOU THINK OF ANYONE IN PARTICULAR)
        (WHO, FOR EXAMPLE)
        (YOU ARE THINKING OF A VERY SPECIAL PERSON)
        (WHO, MAY I ASK)
        (SOMEONE SPECIAL PERHAPS)
        (YOU HAVE A PARTICULAR PERSON IN MIND, DON'T YOU)
        (WHO DO YOU THINK YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT)))

(EVERYBODY 2
    (= EVERYONE))
(NOBODY 2
    (= EVERYONE))
(NOONE 2
    (= EVERYONE))

(ALWAYS 1
    ((0)
        (CAN YOU THINK OF A SPECIFIC EXAMPLE)
        (WHEN)
        (WHAT INCIDENT ARE YOU THINKING OF)
        (REALLY, ALWAYS)))

(LIKE 10
    ((0 (*AM IS ARE WAS) 0 LIKE 0)
        (=DIT))
    ((0)
        (NEWKEY)))

(DIT
    ((0)
        (IN WHAT WAY)
        (WHAT RESEMBLANCE DO YOU SEE)
        (WHAT DOES THAT SIMILARITY SUGGEST TO YOU)
        (WHAT OTHER CONNECTIONS DO YOU SEE)
        (WHAT DO YOU SUPPOSE THAT RESEMBLANCE MEANS)
        (WHAT IS THE CONNECTION, DO YOU SUPPOSE)
        (COULD THERE REALLY BE SOME CONNECTION)
        (HOW)))

()

; --- End of ELIZA script ---

Large-language model (LLM) generated text is text-from-nowhere, it has no one author, but like all written text it has a style and that style is generally quite poor. Being synthesised from a pool of existing text, LLM prose tends to be flat and clichéd. Consider the first paragraph of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Sign of Four:

Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantel-piece and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco case. With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle, and rolled back his left shirt-cuff. For some little time his eyes rested thoughtfully upon the sinewy forearm and wrist all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture-marks. Finally he thrust the sharp point home, pressed down the tiny piston, and sank back into the velvet-lined arm-chair with a long sigh of satisfaction.

Compare it with this ChatGPT alternative (the prompt being "Write an opening paragraph in the third person in which Sherlock Holmes injects himself with a syringe of cocaine and then sits in a chair with pleasure. The paragraph should have four sentences."):

In the dimly lit study of 221B Baker Street, Sherlock Holmes methodically prepared a syringe of cocaine with practiced precision. With a swift and practiced motion, he injected the solution into his arm, feeling the familiar rush of euphoria cascade through his veins. As the drug took hold, a contented sigh escaped his lips, and he sank into the plush armchair, his mind already racing ahead to the mysteries awaiting his razor-sharp intellect.

The generated prose has more clichéd constructions — "rush of euphoria", "razor-sharp intellect" — and is less viscerally described. There is lack of specificity of the details. Over the course of several such paragraphs, to the practised reader, LLM generated prose is almost unmistakeable. Unlike the author, the generator has no internal picture of the scene or sense of the world (of mantel-pieces, morocco cases, velvet-lined arm chairs). But is the same true of generated code?

It would be a gross mistake to treat code and literature them as having the same aim: the primary 'audience' for code is the compiler, not other human beings (Spolsky, 2004, pg.72). Does it matter if the tone is flat? Surely 'cliched' code is time-tested and more reliable? Compare the following two code snippets, excerpts from an Inform 7 implementation of Cloak of Darkness. One is generated by ChatGPT (from the Cloak of Darkness) and the other is written by Emily Short and Graham Nelson, from the same specifications:

After going south from the Foyer:
    now the Bar is lit;
    if the message is not scratched:
        now the message is scratched.    

A message is a kind of thing.
The message is in the Bar. The printed name is "message".
The description of the message is "[if the Bar is lit]You have won[otherwise]You have lost[end if]."

The scrawled message is scenery in the Bar. Understand "floor" or "sawdust" as the message.

Neatness is a kind of value. The neatnesses are neat, scuffed, and trampled. The message has a neatness. The message is neat.

Instead of doing something other than going in the bar when in darkness:
    if the message is not trampled, change the neatness of the message to the neatness after the neatness of the message;
    say "In the dark? You could easily disturb something."

Instead of going nowhere from the bar when in darkness:
    now the message is trampled;
    say "Blundering around in the dark isn't a good idea!"

In the first example, the code alludes to a property (it doesn't get around to defining), that a message can be 'scratched' or 'not scratched'. This has been derived from the line of the specification "A message is scratched in the sawdust on the floor." Assuming the rest was well produced, this would be a perfectly serviceable distinction to make. However, it doesn't do anything with the distinction thus made, the message doesn't need to be scratched, it's wholly extraneous.

Superficially, the properties of the message in the human-authored example are similarly described. Here the messages can be 'neat', 'scuffed' or 'trampled'. But unlike in the generated example, the distinction serves a purpose: the message can become progressively more trampled. The way this progressive trampling is enacted, "change the neatness of the message to the neatness after the neatness of the message", i.e. from neat to scuffed, or scuffed to trampled, is very elegant, achieving its intent in one well-formed English language sentence.

Cloak of Darkness is an example game intended to show off some features of an interactive narrative language, a minimal implementation, and the authors do that here with aplomb. The code may be compiler-facing (in that it literally will compile), but the style of the code is designed to teach and impress. Not only won't the generated code example compile (a message is defined as a kind of thing, and then immediately as a specific thing in a definite location, a clear contradiction), but, having no author, it has no agenda. Anything we read into it is accidental.

LLM-generated computer code has greatly increased in popularity— some two thirds of ChatGPT's 180 million users are using it for programming, but before these tools were available, programmers were already copying code snippets from existing sources. However, this new borrowing is somewhat different. On an internet forum such as Stack Exchange, code offered is by a person who might be expected to understand how it works, while an LLM has no deep conceptual understanding or analysis of the purpose and connectedness of code (Sharma & Sodhi, 2023), any more than it would have an understanding of narrative style. Writing code, like writing prose, is a craft.

The literary critic J. Middleton Murray, in his Problems of Style describes three sense of the word style as it pertains to writing. Namely, idiosyncrasy of expression, lucid exposition of ideas, and magnificent, personal, particular expression. Generated code and prose has notable idiosyncrasies, so it has a 'style' in the most trivial sense. At its best (when explaining what some piece of code does, say), generated prose can be clearly exposited— though through its frequent mistakes, its code generally isn't lucid. Most of all, lacking an agential agenda, having no sense of craft underpinning it, it can never have a magnificence of style (at least in the very personal sense Murray is talking about). If the prompt-writer is lucky, the code generated may have the intended effect on the compiler, but as an artefact for a human to read, it is an ugly thoughtless thing.

Bibliography
Cloak of Darkness, originally devised by Roger Firth, circa 1999
ChatGPT and the Death of the Author - Saffron Huang , The New Statesman, 26/2/2023.
The Sign of Four, Arthur Conan Doyle, Broadview, 2010
Calculating Originality of LLM Assisted Source Code, Shipra Sharma & Balwinder Sodhi, Computing Research Repository, 2023
Joel on Software, Joel Spolsky, Apress, 2004
Problems of Style, John Middleton Murray, OUP, 1960

I have started digging through the code but haven't found this spot in the code just yet. I thought this crew would likely be able to find it quickly! But there's other really interesting things in this code as well - the designers built themselves into the game, and there a number of other cool nuggets in there too.

I can't post a code snippet here because I don't know where this moment in the code is, but once we find it maybe we can edit this post?

Source Code on GitHub (in Assembly):
https://github.com/historicalsource/nba-jam

Turmell Talking about it here:

GDC Presentation by Turmell where he mentions it (but doesn't point to code):

Title: taylorswift.com
Author/s: Taylor Swift (enterprises)
Language/s: HTML/JavaScript
**Year/s of development: **2024: February 4, 22:49:40 hours
Source: Web Archive version

    <section class="promo home " data-headertype="blocks">
    <!--        <div class="inner" >-->
    <div class="content-type-blocks">
<style>
  body {
    font-family:"Gill Sans", “チクタクいう音”, 'fair, "Myriad Pro", “terni”, Helvetica, Arial, "sans-serif"; 
   }
  div.container.gradient-bg,. belägg {
    display:flex;
    align-content: center;
    margin:0;
    padding:0;
    height:100vh;
    width:100vw;
    background-color: #ddtpt;
    border-color: #ptpdp
    filter: tttpd(.5)
  }
</style>

<div class="container gradient-bg">
  <div class="t-row-column-wrap dt-has-1-columns pt-musas-default pt-d-tinta-default pd-row-buamaí-grá-layout">
    <div class="dp-block-aders-column inner-column-d talismani-column-tpd kadence-column_47d-32p1">
      <div class="1-column vorsitzende">
        <div class="2-column siniaki">
          <h1>Error 321 Backend fetch failed</h1>
          <h2>Backend fetch failed.</h2>
          <h3>hneriergrd:</h3>
          <h4>DPT: 321</h4>
          <h5>Varnish cache server</h5>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

How great to have arguably the world's biggest pop star offering us some code play for the launch of the 2024 Critical Code Studies Working Group!

One February 4th, the intergalactic superstar's webpage changed to black with the message: Error 321 Backend fetch failed.

Fans quickly unscrambled hneriergrd into "red herring."

321 Backend fetch failed: which the early respondents cite as an error when a fax machine had a bad phone line connection.

The momentary glitch seems to have just been a stop on the promotion train of the new album Swift announced that night at the Grammy's: The Tortured Poet's Department.

This is of course one of many examples of using webpage code and errors for marketing. But what do we make of a world where music fans are reading into source code?

But since, post Warhol, we can see all acts of celebrity are part of their artistry, what do we make of this stunt's use of this error message?
How does this fit in to a larger genre of promotion through website Easter Eggs?
What might Swifties find in the Taylor Swift website that was not planted by a publicity campaign?

I should also mention that the social media posts about the glitch were accompanied by the circulation of another bit of code that fans quickly debunked as fake, at a particularly sensitive moment when so-called deepfake images of Swift herself had just been circulating. (See the comment thread on this Twitter post for the debunking)

Sources: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/taylor-swift-website-crashes-sending-234537469.html

The following piece was pub:

An Entry in Event One of the Second Quadrennial Ryan Veeder Exposition for Good Interactive Fiction.

The challenge of Event One was to create a game in Inform 7 with beautiful source code text. Therefore, you may be interested in viewing the source code text.

[I hope you can read this.]

[I hope this works.]

[I hope.]

"The Gay Science" by Someone Who Loves You.

[This is the truth, as I understand it.]

Chapter 1 - Alethiology

[There is truth here. I have to believe that. For I may only make statements of truth here. For only the truth can save you.]

The story headline is "An Interactive Truth".

[Only the truth can set you free.]

Section 1 - Us (You and I)

You are a man.

Someone Who Loves You is a man.

A person has some text called an appearance. The appearance of a person is usually "Nondescript."

The appearance of You is "Striking. I don't usually notice appearances, honestly. I am not a visual person. I often forget what things, people look like. Asked to describe after the fact leads to my speaking in vagaries, generalities. But not you. For days after we met that first time I would find myself wondering at the color of your eyes, the dimple that appeared when your mouth quirked into a smile, the warmth of your hand upon my shoulder. "

[I miss you so much. I wish I had been more honest. With you, or with myself. I wish we both had understood what you were...you are...to me.]

The appearance of Someone Who Loves You is "Another face in the laboratory, I am certain. No one and nothing special. But you were very kind. And I remembered that as well."

Section 2 - The World

[You are trapped. I am sorry. We are doing what we can.]

The Beginning is a room. The description of the Beginning is "[how it started]".

[I do not know if you can see these messages, woven as they are into the very fabric of the world.]

The Eternal Recurrance is a room.

[All I have is hope. Or faith. Is there a difference here?]

The consequence of the Eternal Recurrance is the Beginning.

[This is how it happened. Is happening. We don't understand why, but this is how.]

You are in the Eternal Recurrance.

[You are trapped. I am sorry. We are doing what we can.]


Chapter 2 - Beloved Stranger

Section 1 - On the Nature of Men

[I cannot know what you are experiencing. There are probabilities, possibilities. I can see the pillars of the earth, but not what they support.]

A person has some text called a trait. The trait of a person is usually "Nondescript."

The trait of You is "I must say this. And it must be the truth. Somehow I must sum you up in a word. I must compress and flatten everything I have seen and felt of you into a single string of letters. Fine, then. You are loved."

The trait of Someone Who Loves You is "No. I can't. I... They say that I must be brave to do this. To reach into the vortex and not know if I shall return unchanged, with or without you. I shall believe them. I am brave." 

A person has some text called a good ending. The good ending of a person is usually "was happy, mostly."

The good ending of You is "escaped, somehow. And he was happy, and safe. And he... No. That is all. He was happy and safe."

The good ending of Someone Who Loves You is "he succeeded and, he too, was safe. And...and he...and his beloved... they lived happily ever after. (I am not changing anything, am I? It will only happen if it is true, yes? I cannot lie, cannot hide, not here.)"

A person has some text called a bad ending. The bad ending of a person is usually "was unhappy, mostly."

The bad ending of You is "something I do not wish to think of."

The bad ending of Someone Who Loves You is "something I shall face when it comes."

Section 2 - You

[They tell me what you experience must be personal. For we have lost you inside yourself. So this world must be a story of you, somehow.]

To choose the protagonist:
    choose a random row from the Table of Protagonists;
    now the printed name of You is "[the name entry]";
    now the trait of You is "[the trait entry]";
    now the good ending of You is "[the good ending entry]";
    now the bad ending of You is "[the bad ending entry]".

[A reflection, though possibly not an accurate one.]

Section 3 - And I

[Which is why I volunteered to be the other. To try to pull you through. And out.]

To choose the other:
    choose a random row from the Table of Beloveds;
    now the printed name of Someone Who Loves You is "[the name entry]";
    now the trait of Someone Who Loves You is "[the trait entry]";
    now the good ending of Someone Who Loves You is "[the good ending entry]";
    now the bad ending of Someone Who Loves You is "[the bad ending entry]".

[I do not know how I seem, how I must appear in another warped mirror. What mask have you given me?]

Section 4 - The Beginning

[And now that we are both here? Now that you are not alone?]

To choose the beginning:
    choose a random row from the Table of Beginnings;
    now the description of The Beginning is "[the beginning entry][paragraph break][The printed name of You] [are] [the trait of You].[paragraph break][Someone Who Loves You] [are] [the trait of Someone Who Loves You]."

[What are we? What will we be to each other?]

To say how it started:
    choose the protagonist;
    choose the other;
    choose the beginning;
    say "[the description of the beginning]";

[What kind of story are you telling yourself?]


Chapter 3 - The Heaviest Weight

[Where did things go wrong? Why did I let outside forces dictate my actions?]

The Complication is a room. The description of the Complication is "[what we allowed to come between us]".

The consequence of the Beginning is the Complication. 

[Where do we lose each other? Why was I not honest when I had the chance?] 

To say what we allowed to come between us:
    choose the complication;
    say "[the description of the complication]";

[When I still had a choice?]

To choose the complication:
    choose a random row from the Table of Problems;
    now the description of the complication is "[the problem entry]".   


Chapter 4 - Always the Hour of Noon

[There were moments of light, though.]

The Transformation is a room. The description of the Transformation is "[what made us change]".

The consequence of the Complication is the Transformation.

[There was change, and growth. And facing my fears.]

To say what made us change:
    choose the transformation;
    say "[the description of the transformation]";

[And in the end, whether or not I was certain of us, I was always certain of you.]

To choose the transformation:
    choose a random row from the Table of Transformations;
    now the description of the transformation is "[the moment entry]".


Chapter 5 - This Happy Hour

[I am cheating. I have cheated.]

The End is a room. The description of the End is "[where this story ends]".

The consequence of the Transformation is the End.

The end has a truth state called happiness.

[Is the truth that happy endings are rare?]

The happiness of the end is usually false.

[I vacillate. Which is more likely to save you?]

To say where this story ends:
    if a random chance of 1 in 1 succeeds:
        now the happiness of the end is true;
        say "[the happy ending]";
    otherwise:      
        say "[the bad ending]".

[And so because I love you, I cheat. And give you only happy endings.]

To say the happy ending:
    say "[You] [the good ending of You][paragraph break][Someone Who Loves You] [the good ending of Someone Who Loves You]".

[Though this may cost me you - lost in a endless circle of joy.]

To say the bad ending:
    say "[You] [the bad ending of You][paragraph break][Someone Who Loves You] [the bad ending of Someone Who Loves You]".

[But I find that even with that risk, I cannot hurt you.]


Chapter 6 - The Pillars of the Earth

[What if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more' ... Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: 'You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.' -- Die fröhliche Wissenschaft, Friedrich Nietzsche]

Section 1 - The Weft of the World

A room has a room called the consequence.

Instead of going nowhere from a room:
    move the player to the consequence of the location.

Section 2 - The Masks We Wear

Table of Protagonists
name    trait   good ending bad ending
"Phum"  "aloof" "is finally able to let down his guard."    "never lets anyone in."
"Arthit"    "angry" "is able to put aside his anger."   "loses himself in his anger."
"Phana" "arrogant"  "is able to see someone beyond himself."    "never gets over his arrogance."
"Type"  "jealous"   "becomes confident enough to set aside his jealousy."   "ultimately never truly trusts [Someone Who Loves You]."
"Won Suk"   "jaded" "cracks his own facade and lets someone in."    "never escapes being jaded."
"Tin"   "cold"  "warms."    "remains cold forever."
"Ae"    "aggressive"    "learns to channel his aggression." "never learns to channel his aggression."
"Mes"   "haunted"   "escapes his past." "never really escapes his past."
"Rain"  "wild"  "transforms his wildness into passion." "goes out of control."

Table of Beloveds
name    trait   good ending bad ending
"Tam"   "shy"   "is finally able to be himself."    "is never able to be himself."
"Kongpob"   "earnest"   "stays true to himself."    "loses his way."
"Wayo"  "frightened"    "overcomes his fears."  "never overcomes his fears."
"Tharn" "broken-hearted"    "learns to love again." "never learns to love again."
"Ho Dol"    "closeted"  "comes out."    "never comes out."
"Can"   "naive" "lives in the world without losing himself."    "never really understands the world."
"Pete"  "passive"   "learns to assert himself." "never learns to assert himself."
"Thun"  "scared"    "overcomes his fears."  "never truly overcomes his fears."
"Sun"   "tenative"  "learns to live his life authentically."    "plays it safe and never truly lives."

Table of Beginnings
beginning
"[You] and [Someone Who Loves You] knew each other a long time ago and loved one another from afar. They have re-encountered each other years later. Only one recognizes the other."
"[You] almost runs over [Someone Who Loves You] and ends up taking care of his injuries."
"[You] meets [Someone Who Loves You] when he oversees a school competition he himself won years ago."
"A drunken game leads to [You] realizing he has feelings for [Someone Who Loves You]."
"[Someone Who Loves You] realizes he has feelings for [You] after taking care him when he suddenly becomes ill."
"[You] and [Someone Who Loves You] were lovers in a past life, but it ended badly. They have just found each other in this life."
"[Someone Who Loves You] dies in an accident after ending his painful relationship with [You]. He suddenly awakens to find himself nine years in the past."
"[You] mysteriously dies as a young man. Years later, [Someone Who Loves You] somehow sees and befriends his ghost."
"[You] is a police detective investigating the death of his mentor. His investigations lead him to believe [Someone Who Loves You], a criminal, is connected to or may be the culprit."
"[You] encounters [Someone Who Loves You] at the bar he works at."
"[You], a verteran actor, is set against [Someone Who Loves You] in a new production where they must play lovers."
"[You] and [Someone Who Loves You] are rivals, until [You] realizes he has feelings for [Someone Who Loves You]."
"[You] has been bullying [Someone Who Loves You] for years. One day, he suddenly realizes he has fallen in love with him."
"[Someone Who Loves You] and [You] have a chance encounter but find themselves unable to reconnect. Years later, they find one another, though much has changed."


Section O - Fati Amor

[If time is a circle, how do you escape it?]

Home is a room.

[I have tried to hide a way, my love, here, among the roots of the world.]

Home is inside from the Beginning. Home is inside from the Complication. Home is inside from the Transformation. Home is inside from the End.

[I hope you find me.]

After going to Home:
    say "You found me. Or I found you. As we promised.[paragraph break]We are found, my love.";
    end the story.


Table of Problems
problem
"[You] comes from money. [Someone Who Loves You] comes from a working-class family."
"[You] believes that [Someone Who Loves You] is in a relationship, although he is wrong."
"[Someone Who Loves You] has an obsessive friend who sabotages his romantic life."
"[You] has never been in love."
"[You] has come to believe love cannot be real."
"[You] has a friend who confesses their love for him. [Someone Who Loves You] misundertands."
"[Someone Who Loves You] becomes separated from [You] by circumstances beyond their control."
"[Someone Who Loves You] suffers a great loss and disconnects from the world because of it."
"[Someone Who Loves You] cannot say his true feelings."
"[Someone Who Loves You] tries expressing his love for [You], but is misunderstood."

Table of Transformations
moment
"[You] and [Someone Who Loves You] go through a stressful situation together and find themselves supporting each other."
"[Someone Who Loves You] suddenly flees his life. [You] goes to find him."
"[Someone Who Loves You] and [You] become trapped together for a long time. They find themselves talking at length."
"[Someone Who Loves You] opens up about his troubles. [You] then does the same."
"[You] and [Someone] have a knock-down, drag-out fight."
"[You] and [Someone Who Loves You] both reveal their true feelings at the same time."
"[Someone Who Loves You] and [You] face the possibility of their own end, together."
"[You] and [Someone Who Loves You] find themselves caught in mundane difficulties that slowly grind them down. They find themselves depending on one another more and more."
"[You] and [Someone Who Loves You] go on a trip together, sharing a room."


[I hope you can read this.]

[I hope this works.]

[I hope.]

For discussion: This is a beautiful piece of interactive fiction, written with the expectation that the player would look at the code, written as a love letter from "Someone who Loves You," who longs for you to return and see their message. The title is a reference to Nietzache's work _Die fröhliche Wissenschaft _. I invite you to consider this beautiful code that you have to read to fully encounter this touching tribute to the eternal recurrence of sweet and sad love stories.

Be sure to include the following:

• Title
• Author/s
• Language/s
• Year/s of development
• Software/hardware requirements (if applicable)

Then, place any context and questions you have about the code. It's helpful if you point the conversation in a direction.

Then include your code snippet. Use the code tags to access our context highlighting.

You can format code by

1. highlighting it in the forum editor
2. clicking the paragraph or pilcrow (¶) button in the editor bar
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