Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Universal Paperclips

decisionproblem.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 178 posts

Re: Universal Paperclips

#71

Post by bo1024 »

daveslash wrote: post #62
NKosmatos wrote: post #15

A warning to fellow HNers that are not familiar with universal paperclips. Please don’t click the link as it will create a black time hole that will start absorbing your time and reduce your productivity. Be warned that this isn’t a naive lazy clicker game, it’s an instrument of destruction from the future, created by our paperclip overlords :-)

Me: What is this... I don't get it....[ clicks around ] Me 2 min later: Well, shit.... there goes my morning.... Me 20 min later: What the hell, I've already spent 20 minutes on this thing?!? Edit: Okay, all jokes aside.... I just spent a whole hour on this. Seriously.... holy cow....

See you next week

Re: Universal Paperclips

#72

Post by throw2500 »

agentwiggles wrote: post #63
adhesive_wombat wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Laughs in Factorio. Honestly I think that's a game made to destroy technological economies.

Haha, what a funny thought. It's like a special productivity poison, takes some percentage of your engineers and just deactivates them. That sounds like a great premise for a sci fi short, aliens sending some nerd-snipe super stimulus to soften up Earth.

From the Wikipedia article about the multi-armed bandit problem:

>Originally considered by Allied scientists in World War II, it proved so intractable that, according to Peter Whittle, the problem was proposed to be dropped over Germany so that German scientists could also waste their time on it.[13]

Re: Universal Paperclips

#73

Post by acutesoftware »

carl_dr wrote: post #55

Have there been any recent, good games of this genre? It seems to have reached a peak with Cookie Clicker, Kittens Game, A Dark Room and Universal Paperclips, others I've tried have been poor in comparison.

Not that recent, but another 2 good games are: Evolve ( https://pmotschmann.github.io/Evolve/ ) start as cells, evolve to humans (or anything), craft stuff, conquer space

Swarm Simulator ( https://www.swarmsim.com/ ) breed bugs, eat meat, consume universe

Re: Universal Paperclips

#75

Post by throw2500 »

literalAardvark wrote: post #44
mr_ploppy wrote: post #39

After 30 minutes I managed to close the browser. I feel like I danced with the devil, but then managed to run out and get in an Uber while they were in the bathroom.

If you've never played it, it's worth finishing once for the "story" and takes less than 10 hours if you grok exponential growth quick enough.

Does it have a branch where you hack your own utility function and gain +infinity utility?

Re: Universal Paperclips

#76

Post by bigyikes »

l0b0 wrote: post #31
NKosmatos wrote: post #15

A warning to fellow HNers that are not familiar with universal paperclips. Please don’t click the link as it will create a black time hole that will start absorbing your time and reduce your productivity. Be warned that this isn’t a naive lazy clicker game, it’s an instrument of destruction from the future, created by our paperclip overlords :-)

I've played through UP twice. When it comes to time sinks, it's nowhere near the ultimate death spiral that is Kittens Game. To date it has taken me about 5 times as long as a UP playthrough (and 500+ lines of JS automation which I seem to have to tweak every day to deal with the changing economy) and I don't seem to be anywhere near the end.

Oh my god, I put my phone down for a few minutes and killed 10 kittens.

Why did you do this to me?

Re: Universal Paperclips

#77

Post by Verdex »

throw2500 wrote: post #72
agentwiggles wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha, what a funny thought. It's like a special productivity poison, takes some percentage of your engineers and just deactivates them. That sounds like a great premise for a sci fi short, aliens sending some nerd-snipe super stimulus to soften up Earth.

From the Wikipedia article about the multi-armed bandit problem: >Originally considered by Allied scientists in World War II, it proved so intractable that, according to Peter Whittle, the problem was proposed to be dropped over Germany so that German scientists could also waste their time on it.[13]

"General, the Allies have dropped pamphlets containing what our top scientists are calling a memetic infohazard."

"An infohazard? Have the eggheads come up with a new term for propaganda, we've got people to handle this stuff, why are you bringing it up to me?"

"Well, sir, they say this time it's different. It's not propaganda for ordinary citizens, it's a distraction for scientists and technical personal."

"Okay ... do they have any recommendations?"

"Yes sir, they say the only thing we need to do is make sure that the eggheads don't read it."

"That's it? Well, these are men of science and discipline, that should be easy. Issue the order. I wonder why they thought it was so important that you would have to interrupt me."

"I couldn't say, sir. They seemed quite agitated."

Meanwhile, in the lab.

"So, this folder contains an enemy memetic infohazard. In order to prevent it from taking effect we've been ordered to not read it."

Several scientists give knowing glances to each other.

"A real memetic infohazard? I wonder how they accomplished that?" The scientist moves towards the folder.

"Wait, what are you doing? We're not supposed to read it."

"It's fine. I'll be the only one reading it and then I'll let you guys know what I find." The scientist opens the folder and looks at the papers within while making several 'hmm' sounds. "Hey, Frank, what do you think of this."

"No, you said you would be the only one!"

"Just me and Frank. Don't be a wet blanket."

Frank begins to look over the papers, "You know, I bet this applies to what Sarah has been working on. Let's go talk to her."

"Wait, no. You just said ..."

"Me, Frank, and Sarah, no big deal." The scientists leave the room with the folder.

Re: Universal Paperclips

#80

Post by joshspankit »

danuker wrote: post #58
l0b0 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've played through UP twice. When it comes to time sinks, it's nowhere near the ultimate death spiral that is Kittens Game. To date it has taken me about 5 times as long as a UP playthrough (and 500+ lines of JS automation which I seem to have to tweak every day to deal with the changing economy) and I don't seem to be anywhere near the end.

The way I broke out of addiction to the Kittens game is by using save game editors, which I warmly recommend. Before that, I have spent days with it piggybacking on my brainwaves. But after that, I lost interest, feeling overwhelmed with the complexity of the game.

This has been one of the only consistently successful techniques to break game addictions.
Post reply on HN