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The Astronomy

Of the relation which the Prophecy of John hath to those of Daniel

Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John by Isaac Newton, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . Of the King who did according to his will, and magnified himself above every God, and honoured Mahuzzims, and regarded not the desire of women. Of the King who did according to his will, and magnified himself above every God, and honoured Mahuzzims, and regarded not the desire of women. In the first ages of the Christian religion the Christians of every city were governed by a Council of Presbyters, and the President of the Council was the Bishop of the city. The Bishop and Presbyters of one city meddled not with the affairs of another city, except by admonitory letters or messages. Nor did the Bishops of several cities meet together in Council before the time of the Emperor Commodus: for they could not meet together without the leave of the Roman governors of the Provinces. But in the days of that Emperor they began to meet in Provincial Councils, by the leave of the governors; first in Asia, in opposition to the Cataphrygian Heresy, and soon after in other places and upon other occasions. The Bishop of the chief city, or Metropolis of the Roman Province, was usually made President of the Council; and hence came the authority of Metropolitan Bishops above that of other Bishops within the same Province. Hence also it was that the Bishop of Rome in Cyprian's days called himself the Bishop of Bishops. As soon as the Empire became Christian, the Roman Emperors began to call general Councils out of all the Provinces of the Empire; and by prescribing to them what points they should consider, and influencing them by their interest and power, they set up what party they pleased. Hereby the Greek Empire, upon the division of the Roman Empire into the Greek and Latin Empires, became the King who, in matters of religion, did according to his will; and, in legislature, exalted and magnified himself above every God: and at length, by the seventh general Council, established the worship of the images and souls of dead men, here called Mahuzzims. The same King placed holiness in abstinence from marriage. Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical history tells us, that Musanus wrote a tract against those who fell away to the heresy of the Encratites, which was then newly risen, and had introduced pernicious errors; and that Tatian, the disciple of Justin, was the author thereof; and that Irenæus in his first book against heresies teaches this, writing of Tatian and his heresy in these words: A Saturnino & Marcione profecti qui vocantur Continentes, docuerunt non contrahendum esse matrimonium; reprobantes scilicet primitivum illud opificium Dei, & tacitè accusantes Deum qui masculum & fæminam condidit ad procreationem generis humani. Induxerunt etiam abstinentiam ab esu eorum quæ animalia appellant, ingratos se exhibentes ergo eum qui universa creavit Deum. Negant etiam primi hominis salutem. Atque hoc nuper apud illos excogitatum est, Tatiano quodam omnium primo hujus impietatis auctore: qui Justini auditor, quamdiu cum illo versatus est, nihil ejusmodi protulit. Post martyrium autem illius, ab Ecclesia se abrumpens, doctoris arrogantia elatus ac tumidus, tanquam præstantior cæteris, novam quandam formam doctrinæ conflavit: Æonas invisibiles commentus perinde ac Valentinus: asserens quoque cum Saturnino & Marcione, matrimonium nihil aliud esse quam corruptionem ac stuprum: nova præterea argumenta ad subvertendam Adami salutem excogitans. Hæc Irenæus de Hæresi quæ tunc viguit Encratitarum. Thus far Eusebius. But altho the followers of Tatian were at first condemned as hereticks by the name of Encratites, or Continentes; their principles could not be yet quite exploded: for Montanus refined upon them, and made only second marriages unlawful; he also introduced frequent fastings, and annual, fasting days, the keeping of Lent, and feeding upon dried meats. The Apostolici, about the middle of the third century, condemned marriage, and were a branch of the disciples of Tatian. The Hierocitæ in Egypt, in the latter end of the third century, also condemned marriage. Paul the Eremite fled into the wilderness from the persecution of Decius, and lived there a solitary life till the reign of Constantine the great, but made no disciples. Antony did the like in the persecution of Dioclesian, or a little before, and made disciples; and many others soon followed his example. Hitherto the principles of the Encratites had been rejected by the Churches; but now being refined by the Monks, and imposed not upon all men, but only upon those who would voluntarily undertake a monastic life, they began to be admired, and to overflow first the Greek Church, and then the Latin also, like a torrent. Eusebius tells us,that Constantine the great had those men in the highest veneration, who dedicated themselves wholly to the divine philosophy; and that he almost venerated the most holy company of Virgins perpetually devoted to God; being certain that the God to whom he had consecrated himself did dwell in their minds. In his time and that of his sons, this profession of a single life was propagated in Egypt by Antony, and in Syria by Hilarion; and spred so fast, that soon after the time of Julian the Apostate a third part of the Egyptians were got into the desarts of Egypt. They lived first singly in cells, then associated into cœnobia or convents; and at length came into towns, and filled the Churches with Bishops, Presbyters and Deacons. Athanasius in his younger days poured water upon the hands of his master Antony; and finding the Monks faithful to him, made many of them Bishops and Presbyters in Egypt: and these Bishops erected new Monasteries, out of which they chose Presbyters of their own cities, and sent Bishops to others. The like was done in Syria, the superstition being quickly propagated thither out of Egypt by Hilarion a disciple of Antony. Spiridion and Epiphanius of Cyprus, James of Nisibis, Cyril of Jerusalem, Eustathius of Sebastia in Armenia, Eusebius of Emisa, Titus of Bostra, Basilius of Ancyra, Acacius of Cæsarea in Palestine, Elpidius of Laodicea, Melitius and Flavian of Antioch, Theodorus of Tyre, Protogenes of Carrhæ, Acacius of Berrhæa, Theodotus of Hierapolis, Eusebius of Chalcedon, Amphilochius of Iconium, Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory Nyssen, and John Chrysostom of Constantinople, were both Bishops and Monks in the fourth century. Eustathius, Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory Nyssen, Basil, &c. had Monasteries of Clergymen in their cities, out of which Bishops were sent to other cities; who in like manner erected Monasteries there, till the Churches were supplied with Bishops out of these Monasteries. Hence Jerome, in a Letter written about the year 385, saith of the Clergy: Quasi & ipsi aliud sint quam Monachi, & non quicquid in Monachos dicitur redundet in Clericos qui patres sunt Monachorum. Detrimentum pecoris pastoris ignominia est. And in his book against Vigilantius: Quid facient Orientis Ecclesiæ? Quæ aut Virgines Clericos accipiunt, aut Continentes, aut si uxores habuerint mariti esse desistunt. Not long after even the Emperors commanded the Churches to chuse Clergymen out of the Monasteries by this Law. Impp. Arcad & Honor. AA. Cæsario PF. P. Si quos forte Episcopi deesse sibi Clericos arbitrantur, ex monachorum numero rectius ordinabunt: non obnoxios publicis privatisque rationibus cum invidia teneant, sed habeant jam probatos. Dat. vii. Kal. Aug. Honorio A. iv. & Eutychianio Coss. A.C. 598. The Greek Empire being now in the hands of these Encratites, and having them in great admiration, Daniel makes it a characteristick of the King who doth according to his will, that he should not regard the desire of Women. Thus the Sect of the Encratites, set on foot by the Gnosticks, and propagated by Tatian and Montanus near the end of the second century; which was condemned by the Churches of that and the third century, and refined upon by their followers; overspread the Eastern Churches in the fourth century, and before the end of it began to overspread the Western. Henceforward the Christian Churches having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, came into the hands of the Encratites: and the Heathens, who in the fourth century came over in great numbers to the Christians, embraced more readily this sort of Christianity, as having a greater affinity with their old superstitions, than that of the sincere Christians; who by the lamps of the seven Churches of Asia, and not by the lamps of the Monasteries, had illuminated the Church Catholic during the three first centuries. The Cataphrygians brought in also several other superstitions: such as were the doctrine of Ghosts, and of their punishment in Purgatory, with prayers and oblations for mitigating that punishment, as Tertullian teaches in his books De Anima and De Monogamia. They used also the sign of the cross as a charm. So Tertullian in his book de Corona militis: Ad omnem progressum atque promotum, ad omnem aditum & exitum, ad vestitum, ad calceatum, ad lavacra, ad mensas, ad lamina, ad cubilia, ad sedilia, quacunque nos conversatio exercet, frontem crucis signaculo terimus. All these superstitions the Apostle refers to, where he saith: Now the Spirit speaketh expresly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils, the Dæmons and Ghosts worshipped by the heathens, speaking lyes in hypocrisy, about their apparitions, the miracles done by them, their reliques, and the sign of the cross, having consciences seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, &c. 1 Tim. iv. 1,2,3. From the Cataphrygians these principles and practices were propagated down to posterity. For the mystery of iniquity did already work in the Apostles days in the Gnosticks, continued to work very strongly in their offspring the Tatianists and Cataphrygians, and was to work till that man of sin should be revealed; whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs, and lying wonders, and all deceivableness of unrighteousness; coloured over with a form of Christian godliness, but without the power thereof, 2 Thess. ii. 7-10. For tho some stop was put to the Cataphrygian Christianity, by Provincial Councils, till the fourth century; yet the Roman Emperors then turning Christians, and great multitudes of heathens coming over in outward profession, these found the Cataphrygian Christianity more suitable to their old principles, of placing religion in outward forms and ceremonies, holy-days, and doctrines of Ghosts, than the religion of the sincere Christians: wherefore they readily sided with the Cataphrygian Christians, and established that Christianity before the end of the fourth century. By this means those of understanding, after they had been persecuted by the heathen Emperors in the three first centuries, and were holpen with a little help, by the conversion of Constantine the great and his sons to the Christian religion, fell under new persecutions, to purge them from the dissemblers, and to make them white, even to the time of the end. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Isaac Newton (2005). Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022, https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/16878/pg16878-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html.

Of the King who did according to his will, and magnified himself above every God

Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John by Isaac Newton, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . Of the Kingdoms represented by the feet of the Image composed of iron and clay Of the Kingdoms represented by the feet of the Image composed of iron and clay. Dacia was a large country bounded on the south by the Danube, on the east by the Euxine sea, on the north by the river Neister and the mountain Crapac, and on the west by the river Tibesis, or Teys, which runs southward into the Danube a little above Belgrade. It comprehended the countries now called Transylvania, Moldavia, and Wallachia, and the eastern part of the upper Hungary. Its antient inhabitants were called Getæ by the Greeks, Daci by the Latins, and Goths by themselves. Alexander the great attacked them, and Trajan conquered them, and reduced their country into a Province of the Roman Empire: and thereby the propagation of the Gospel among them was much promoted. They were composed of several Gothic nations, called Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Vandals, Gepides, Lombards, Burgundians, Alans, &c. who all agreed in their manners, and spake the same language, as Procopius represents. While they lived under the Romans, the Goths or Ostrogoths were seated in the eastern parts of Dacia, the Vandals in the western part upon the river Teys, where the rivers Maresh and Keresh run into it. The Visigoths were between them. The Gepides, according to Jornandes, were upon the Vistula. The Burgundians, a Vandalic nation, were between the Vistula and the southern fountain of the Boristhenes, at some distance from the mountain Crapac northwards, where Ptolemy places them, by the names of Phrugundiones and Burgiones. The Alans, another Gothic nation, were between the northern fountain of the Boristhenes and the mouth of the river Tanais, where Ptolemy placeth the mountain Alanus, and western side of the Palus Mæotis. These nations continued under the dominion of the Romans till the second year of the Emperor Philip, and then for want of their military pay began to revolt; the Ostrogoths setting up a kingdom, which, under their Kings Ostrogotha, Cniva, Araric, Geperic, and Hermanaric, increased till the year of Christ 376; and then by an incursion of the Huns from beyond the Tanais, and the death of Hermanaric, brake into several smaller kingdoms. Hunnimund, the son of Hermanaric, became King over the Ostrogoths; Fridigern over the Visigoths; Winithar, or Vinithar, over a part of the Goths called Gruthungi by Ammian, Gothunni by Claudian, and Sarmatæ and Scythians by others: Athanaric reign'd over another part of the Goths in Dacia, called Thervingi; Box over the Antes in Sarmatia; and the Gepides had also their King. The Vandals fled over the Danube from Geberic in the latter end of the reign of Constantine the great, and had seats granted them in Pannonia by that Emperor, where they lived quietly forty years, viz. till the year 377, when several Gothic nations flying from the Hunns came over the Danube, and had seats granted them in Mæsia and Thrace by the Greek Emperor Valens. But the next year they revolted, called in some Goths, Alans and Hunns, from beyond the Danube, and routed the Roman army, slew the Emperor Valens, and spread themselves into Greece and Pannonia as far as the Alps. In the years 379 and 380 they were checkt by the arms of the Emperors Gratian and Theodosius, and made a submissive peace; the Visigoths and Thervingi returned to their seats in Mæsia and Thrace, the Hunns retired over the Danube, and the Alans and Gruthingi obtained seats in Pannonia. About the year 373, or 374, the Burgundians rose from their seats upon the Vistula, with an army of eighty thousand men to invade Gallia; and being opposed, seated themselves upon the northern side of the Rhine over against Mentz. In the year 358, a body of the Salian Franks, with their King, coming from the river Sala, were received into the Empire by the Emperor Julian, and seated in Gallia between Brabant and the Rhine: and their King Mellobaudes was made Comes domesticorum, by the Emperor Gratian. Richomer, another noble Salian Frank, was made Comes domesticorum, and Magister utriusque Militiæ, by Theodosius; and A.C. 384, was Consul with Clearchus. He was a great favourite of Theodosius, and accompanied him in his wars against Eugenius, but died in the expedition, and left a son called Theudomir, who afterwards became King of the Salian Franks in Brabant. In the time of this war some Franks from beyond the Rhine invaded Gallia under the conduct of Genobald, Marcomir and Suno, but were repulsed by Stilico; and Marcomir being slain, was succeeded in Germany by his son Pharamond. While these nations remained quiet within the Empire, subject to the Romans, many others continued so beyond the Danube till the death of the Emperor Theodosius, and then rose up in arms. For Paulus Diaconus in his Historia Miscell. lib. xiv. speaking of the times next after the death of this Emperor, tells us: Eodem tempore erant Gothi & aliæ gentes maximæ trans Danubium habitantes: ex quibus rationabiliores quatuor sunt, Gothi scilicet, Huisogothi, Gepides & Vandali; & nomen tantum & nihil aliud mutantes. Isti sub Arcadia & Honorio Danubium transeuntes, locati sunt in terra Romanorum: & Gepides quidem, ex quibus postea divisi sunt Longobardi & Avares, villas, quæ sunt circa Singidonum & Sirmium, habitavere: and Procopius in the beginning of his Historia Vandalica writes to the same purpose. Hitherto the Western Empire continued entire, but now brake into many kingdoms. Theodosius died A.C. 395; and then the Visigoths, under the conduct of Alaric the successor of Fridigern, rose from their seats in Thrace and wasted Macedon, Thessaly, Achaia, Peloponnesus, and Epirus, with fire and sword for five years together; when turning westward, they invaded Dalmatia, Illyricum and Pannonia; and from thence went into Italy A.C. 402; and the next year were so beaten at Pollentia and Verona, by Stilico the commander of the forces of the Western Empire, that Claudian calls the remainder of the forces of Alaric, tanta ex gente reliquias breves, and Prudentius, Gentem deletam. Thereupon Alaric made peace with the Emperor, being so far humbled, that Orosius saith, he did, pro pace optima & quibuscunque sedibus suppliciter & simpliciter orare. This peace was ratified by mutual hostages; Ætius was sent hostage to Alaric; and Alaric continued a free Prince in the seats now granted to him. When Alaric took up arms, the nations beyond the Danube began to be in motion; and the next winter, between A.C. 395 and 396, a great body of Hunns, Alans, Ostrogoths, Gepides, and other northern nations, came over the frozen Danube, being invited by Rufinus: when their brethren, who had obtained seats within the Empire, took up arms also. Jerome calls this great multitude, Hunns, Alans, Vandals, Goths, Sarmatians, Quades, and Marcomans; and saith, that they invaded all places between Constantinople and the Julian Alps, wasting Scythia, Thrace, Macedon, Dardania, Dacia, Thessaly, Achaia, Epirus, Dalmatia, and all Pannonia. The Suevians also invaded Rhætia: for when Alaric ravaged Pannonia, the Romans were defending Rhætia; which gave Alaric an opportunity of invading Italy, as Claudian thus mentions. Non nisi perfidiâ nacti penetrabile tempus, Irrupere Getæ, nostras dum Rhætia vires Occupat, atque alio desudant Marte cohortes. And when Alaric went from those parts into Italy, some other barbarous nations invaded Noricum and Vindelicia, as the same Poet Claudian thus writes: ——Jam fœdera gentes Exuerant, Latiique auditâ clade feroces Vendelicos saltus & Norica rura tenebant. This was in the years 402 and 403. And among these nations I reckon the Suevians, Quades, and Marcomans; for they were all in arms at this time. The Quades and Marcomans were Suevian nations; and they and the Suevians came originally from Bohemia, and the river Suevus or Sprake in Lusatia; and were now united under one common King called Ermeric, who soon after led them into Gallia. The Vandals and Alans might also about this time extend themselves into Noricum. Uldin also with a great body of Hunns passed the Danube about the time of Chrysostom's banishment, that is, A.C. 404, and wasted Thrace and Mæsia. Radagaisus, King of the Gruthunni and succesor of Winithar, inviting over more barbarians from beyond the Danube, invaded Italy with an army of above two hundred thousand Goths; and within a year or two, A.C. 405 or 406., was overcome by Stilico, and perished with his army. In this war Stilico was assisted with a great body of Hunns and Ostrogoths, under the conduct of Uldin and Sarus, who were hired by the Emperor Honorius. In all this confusion it was necessary for the Lombards in Pannonia to arm themselves in their own defence, and assert their liberty, the Romans being no longer able to protect them. And now Stilico purposing to make himself Emperor, procured a military prefecture for Alaric, and sent him into the East in the service of Honorius the Western Emperor, committing some Roman troops to his conduct to strengthen his army of Goths, and promising to follow soon after with his own army. His pretence was to recover some regions of Illyricum, which the Eastern Emperor was accused to detain injuriously from the Western; but his secret design was to make himself Emperor, by the assistance of the Vandals and their allies: for he himself was a Vandal. For facilitating this design, he invited a great body of the barbarous nations to invade the Western Empire, while he and Alaric invaded the Eastern. And these nations under their several Kings, the Vandals under Godegisilus, the Alans in two bodies, the one under Goar, the other under Resplendial, and the Suevians, Quades, and Marcomans, under Ermeric, marched thro' Rhætia to the side of the Rhine, leaving their seats in Pannonia to the Hunns and Ostrogoths, and joined the Burgundians under Gundicar, and ruffled the Franks in their further march. On the last of December A.C. 406, they passed the Rhine at Ments, and spread themselves into Germania prima and the adjacent regions; and amongst other actions the Vandals took Triers. Then they advanced into Belgium, and began to waste that country. Whereupon the Salian Franks in Brabant took up arms, and under the conduct of Theudomir, the son of Ricimer, or Richomer, abovementioned, made so stout a resistance, that they slew almost twenty thousand of the Vandals, with their King Godegesilus, in battel; the rest escaping only by a party of Resplendial's Alans which came timely to their assistance. Then the British soldiers, alarm'd by the rumour of these things, revolted, and set up Tyrants there; first Marcus, whom they slew presently; then Gratian, whom they slew within four months; and lastly Constantine, under whom they invaded Gallia A.C. 408, being favoured by Goar and Gundicar. And Constantine having possessed a good part of Gallia, created his son Constans Cæsar, and sent him into Spain to order his affairs there, A.C. 409. In the mean time Resplendial, seeing the aforesaid disaster of the Vandals, and that Goar was gone over to the Romans, led his army from the Rhine; and, together with the Suevians and residue of the Vandals, went towards Spain; the Franks in the mean time prosecuting their victory so far as to retake Triers, which after they had plundered they left to the Romans. The Barbarians were at first stopt by the Pyrenean mountains, which made them spread themselves into Aquitain: but the next year they had the passage betrayed by some soldiers of Constans; and entring Spain 4 Kal. Octob. A.C. 409, they conquered every one what he could; and at length, A.C. 411, divided their conquests by lot; the Vandals obtained Bœtica, and part of Gallæcia; the Suevians the rest of Gallæcia; and the Alans Lusitania and the Carthaginian Province: the Emperor for the sake of peace confirming them in those seats by grant A.C. 413. The Roman Franks abovementioned, having made Theudomir their King, began strait after their conquest of the Vandals to invade their neighbours also. The first they set upon were the Gauls of Brabant : but meeting with notable resistance, they desired their alliance: and so those Gauls fell off from the Romans, and made an intimate league with the Franks to be as one people, marrying with one another, and conforming to one another's manners, till they became one without distinction. Thus by the access of these Gauls, and of the foreign Franks also, who afterwards came over the Rhine, the Salian kingdom soon grew very great and powerful. Stilico's expedition against the Greek Emperor was stopt by the order of Honorius; and then Alaric came out of Epirus into Noricum, and requested a sum of money for his service. The Senate were inclined to deny him, but by Stilico's mediation granted it. But after some time Stilico being accused of a traiterous conspiracy with Alaric, and slain 10 Kal. Sept. A.C. 408; Alaric was thereby disappointed of his money, and reputed an enemy to the Empire; he then broke strait into Italy with the army he brought out of Epirus, and sent to his brother Adolphus to follow him with what forces he had in Pannonia, which were not great, but yet not to be despised. Thereupon Honorius fearing to be shut up in Rome, retired to Ravenna in October A.C. 408. And from that time Ravenna continued to be the seat of the Western Emperors. In those days the Hunns also invaded Pannonia; and seizing the deserted seats of the Vandals, Alans, and Goths, founded a new kingdom there. Alaric advancing to Rome besieged it, and 9 Kal. Sept. A.C. 410 took it: and afterwards attempting to pass into Africa, was shipwrackt. After which Honorius made peace with him, and got up an army to send against the Tyrant Constantine. At the same time Gerontius, one of Constantine's captains, revolted from him, and set up Maximus Emperor in Spain. Whereupon Constantine sent Edobec, another of his captains, to draw to his assistance, the Barbarians under Goar and Gundicar in Gallia, and supplies of Franks and Alemans from beyond the Rhine; and committed the custody of Vienne in Gallia Narbonensis to his son Constans. Gerontius advancing, first slew Constans at Vienne, and then began to besiege Constantine at Arles. But Honorius at the same time sending Constantius with an army on the same errand, Gerontius fled, and Constantius continued the siege, strengthned by the access of the greatest part of the soldiers of Gerontius. After four months siege, Edobec having procured succours, the Barbarian Kings at Ments, Goar and Gundicar, constitute Jovinus Emperor, and together with him set forward to relieve Arles. At their approach Constantius retired. They pursued, and he beat them by surprize; but not prosecuting his victory, the Barbarians soon recovered themselves; yet not so as to hinder the fall of the tyrants Constantine, Jovinus and Maximus. Britain could not be recovered to the Empire, but remained ever after a distinct kingdom. The next year, A.C. 412, the Visigoths being beaten in Italy, had Aquitain granted them to retire into: and they invaded it with much violence, causing the Alans and Burgundians to retreat, who were then depopulating of it. At the same time the Burgundians were brought to peace; and the Emperor granted them for inheritance a region upon the Rhine which they had invaded: and the same, I presume, he did with the Alans. But the Franks not long after retaking and burning Triers, Castinus, A.C. 415, was sent against them with an army, who routed them and slew Theudomir their King This was the second taking of Triers by the Franks. It was therefore taken four times, once by the Vandals and thrice by the Franks. Theudomir was succeeded by Pharamond, the Prince or King of the Salian Franks in Germany. From thence he brought new forces, reigned over the whole, and had seats granted to his people within the Empire near the Rhine. And now the Barbarians were all quieted, and settled in several kingdoms within the Empire, not only by conquest, but also by the grants of the Emperor Honorius. For Rutilius in his Itinerary, written in Autumn, Anno Urbis 1169, that is, according to Varro's computation then in use, A.C. 416, thus laments the wasted fields: Illa quidem longis nimium deformia bellis; And then adds, Jam tempus laceris post longa incendia fundis Vel pastorales ædificare casas. And a little after, Æternum tibi Rhenus aret. And Orosius in the end of his history, which was finished A.C. 417, represents now a general pacification of the barbarous nations by the words comprimere, coangustare, addicere gentes immanissimas; terming them imperio addictas, because they had obtained seats in the Empire by league and compact; and coangustatas, because they did no longer invade all regions at pleasure, but by the same compact remained quiet in the seats then granted them. And these are the kingdoms, of which the feet of the Image were henceforward composed, and which are represented by iron and clay intermixed, which did not stick one to another, and were of different strength. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Isaac Newton (2005). Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022, https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/16878/pg16878-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html.

Of the Kingdoms represented by the feet of the Image composed of iron and clay

Meet the Winners of Startups in North and Central America

Mrs. Kirkpatrick had been reading aloud till Lady Cumnor fell asleep

This paper is available on arxiv under CC 4.0 license. Authors: (1) Xiaoyu Ai, School of Electrical Engineering & Telecommunications, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia; (2) Robert Malaney, School of Electrical Engineering & Telecommunications, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. Table of Links Abstract & Introduction System Overview Overcoming the limitation of key reconciliation Final Key Rate Experimental Results Discussion Conclusion & References Appendix Abstract Designing a practical Continuous Variable (CV) Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) system requires an estimation of the quantum channel characteristics and the extraction of secure key bits based on a large number of distributed quantum signals. Meeting this requirement in short timescales is difficult. On standard processors, it can take several hours to reconcile the required number of quantum signals. This problem is exacerbated in the context of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite CV-QKD, in which the satellite flyover time is constrained to be less than a few minutes. A potential solution to this problem is massive parallelisation of the classical reconciliation process in which a large-code block is subdivided into many shorter blocks for individual decoding. However, the penalty of this procedure on the important final secured key rate is non-trivial to determine and hitherto has not been formally analysed. Ideally, a determination of the optimal reduced block size, maximising the final key rate, would be forthcoming in such an analysis. In this work, we fill this important knowledge gap via detailed analyses and experimental verification of a CV-QKD sliced reconciliation protocol that uses large block-length low-density parity-check decoders. Our new solution results in a significant increase in the final key rate relative to non-optimised reconciliation. In addition, it allows for the acquisition of quantum secured messages between terrestrial stations and LEO satellites within a flyover timescale even using off-the-shelf processors. Our work points the way to optimised global quantum networks secured via fundamental physics. I. INTRODUCTION Continuous Variable (CV) Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) has been intensively studied and significant breakthroughs have been achieved in both theory and experiment (see [1] for review). Compared to Discrete Variable (DV) QKD [2]–[5], CV-QKD can be implemented with well-developed technologies (e.g., homodyne detectors) in commercial fibreoptic networks [6], [7] and free-space optical communications [8], [9], providing it a potential advantage in practical deployments [10]–[14]. Considering the finite-key security of CV-QKD and DV-QKD, there are three critical parameters. These are, No, the number of original quantum signals sent by the transmitter (Alice) that are collected by the receiver (Bob); Ne, the number of quantum signals from which the protocol parameters are estimated;[1] and, ǫ, the probability that a QKD protocol fails to generate secret keys [15], [16]. To satisfy an upper limit on the failure probability of parameter estimation, Alice and Bob set Ne to a large value, which in turn implies a larger No. Despite the advantages in deployment, CV-QKD systems tend to demand a larger No to reach the same ǫ relative to DVQKD protocols. For example, to achieve a final key rate of 0.1 bits per pulse with ǫ = 10−9 , a CV-QKD protocol studied in [17] required No ≈ 109 signals. However, to achieve the same final key rate with ǫ = 10−14, the DV-QKD protocol in [18] required No ≈ 104 signals. This higher number of required signals in CV-QKD can render the classical post-processing (i.e. key reconciliation and privacy amplification[2] ) slow - possibly failing to meet target timescales for reconciliation. The end-users of a CV-QKD system expect the system to deliver two identical and secure keys under a limited time interval. For example, for satellite-based deployments, we would hope that the reconciliation is completed while maintaining a line-of-sight connection with the ground station. For a CV-QKD-enabled satellite with orbital parameters similar to Micius [20], this would mean the reconciliation should be completed in less than a few minutes. For the protocol we use in this work (see later), and for ǫ = 10−9 , this, in turn, would require the data rate of reconciliation to be at least 3.6 × 106 bits per second. For real-time reconciliation (say in subsecond timescales), two orders of magnitude increases in the reconciliation rates would be required. Demands for smaller ǫ will exacerbate the issue. Ideally, the rate of reconciliation should always be faster than the rate of quantum signalling. This all raises the question as to whether current CV-QKD reconciliation schemes are optimised for the highest possible key rates in bits per second. As we show here, this is not the case. Further optimisation is possible on all current schemes. To understand the issue better, we define reconciliation in the context of CV-QKD as a two-step scheme where the inputs to the reconciliation are non-identical N = 2No − 2Ne quadrature values[3] held by Alice and Bob (after parameter estimation), and the output is an identical bit string held by Alice and Bob [21]–[23]. Assuming a reverse reconciliation scheme, Bob first converts the quadrature values encoded by Alice in each signal to m bits. Alice, after converting each of her encoded real numbers also to m bits, then initiates some discrepancy-correction algorithms based on pre-defined errorcorrection codes to ensure her mN bits are identical to Bob’s. In this work, we will adopt Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) codes for the error correction. However, as alluded to above, reconciling mN bits within a limited time frame can be challenging. State-of-the-art LDPCbased reconciliation schemes for CV-QKD systems involve parallelised computation on a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) [13], [24] or Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) [25], [26]. Reconciliation schemes implemented on FPGAs offer more programmable flexibility, but sometimes at the cost of reduced memory access relative to GPUs. For our purposes, both hardware architectures are useful - both offer massive parallelisation opportunities. These parallelisation solutions generally take the following two-step approach: 1) The mN bits are organised as m N-bit blocks to be reconciled. Each N-bit block is divided into multiple shorter blocks of size, say, NR. This is usually just set to a block size that can be processed within some timescale. 2) Then the m NR-bit blocks are reconciled in parallel (via independent processors) using optimally-designed LDPC decoders. However, what is missing in this approach is a proper optimisation analysis as to what the optimal value of NR is. As we show below, simply reducing NR at the cost of additional processing units is not an optimal solution. It transpires that in QKD the “penalty” cost of reducing the code rate (implicit in the use of small block lengths) significantly influences the bit per second final key rate. A more sophisticated analysis is required to determine the optimal reduced block length. Such an analysis is the key contribution of this work. Although we will adopt a specific CV-QKD protocol for our analysis, the key steps of our scheme will apply to any CV-QKD protocol. Our reconciliation scheme will deliver the highest reconciliation rate for a given processor speed - thus allowing for the optimal solution to CV-QKD reconciliation. [1] More precisely, in a CV-QKD protocol, Alice and Bob randomly select a Ne-signal subset from the No signals to estimate the parameters. [2] In this work, we focus on the key reconciliation step because it is the more time-consuming part in the post-processing steps while the privacy amplification involving only bit-wise operations can be easily implemented faster than the reconciliation [19]. [3] No and Ne are multiplied by 2 since Alice and Bob utilise both quadratures from heterodyne detection - the detection process we assume in this work.

Optimised Multithreaded CV-QKD Reconciliation for Global Quantum Networks: Abstract & Introduction

“Cypher” alludes to encryption and , while “punks” talk about rebellious people. Rebellious people who use encryption and cryptography tools as shields and weapons: they’re the privacy activists known as Cypherpunks. Satoshi Nakamoto was one of them, but the founding members appeared long before. Judith Milhon, known as “St. Jude,” was the person who first suggested this name for the group. And made a lot of other things too. cryptography She wasn’t exactly quiet before that, though. She emerged from the beat/hipster scene in Cleveland, Ohio, in the 1960s. Engaged in civil rights activism, she participated in significant events like the 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. in Washington (USA) in 1939 and taught herself programming by 1967. She was born In case you don’t get it: voting rights for African Americans, who then suffered from a harsh law of racial segregation in the country. Milhon was white herself but fought anyway for the rights of her compatriots. Years later, after her involvement in technology, she also advocated for women's inclusion in the emerging cyberculture. Her first job as a programmer was at the Horn & Hardart vending machine company in New York. However, she soon relocated to Berkeley, California, as part of the counterculture movement. , where she played a role in installing the communications controller for the BCC time-sharing system. This is a precursor of modern computing paradigms where resources are shared among many users, such as cloud computing and virtualization. She was also employed by the Berkeley Computer Company (BCC) Community Memory In 1971, just after divorcing her first husband and moving to San Francisco, Milhon teamed up with other community activists and technology enthusiasts at Project One, an focused on leveraging technology for social impact. Within Project One, she was especially intrigued by the Resource One project, which aimed to pioneer the Bay Area's first computerized bulletin board system. Their objective was to use this system to facilitate communication and information sharing among residents. intentional community In 1973, a subgroup of individuals from the Resource One team, including Milhon, decided to split off and establish their own project. “Community Memory” was also adopted as the name of the machine itself: a Teletype Model 33 terminal linked to an SDS 940 computer via telephone connection, employing a 10-character-per-second acoustic coupled modem. This initiative eventually became known as in Berkeley. Community Memory It may sound and look terribly old for all of us, but it was the first time using a computer for a lot of people back then. The machine was placed at the staircase entrance of Leopold's Records in Berkeley next to a bustling traditional bulletin board. Anyone could come and read what others posted for free, or pay a small fee to post a new forum or announcement. All of this was before the massive creation and adoption of personal computers, and even before the release of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners Lee in 1989. It fostered local community engagement, particularly among artists, and its legacy can be traced to the bulletin board services (BBS) and newsgroups that inspired the World Wide Web. Despite its humble beginnings, Community Memory laid the groundwork for modern online communication platforms. Mondo 2000 and Cyber-activism Jude Milhon made significant contributions to the cyberculture landscape as both an activist and a pivotal figure at Mondo 2000, a renowned cyber-culture magazine of the early 1990s. As a leading cyber-feminist and early cypherpunk, she advocated for women's inclusion and empowerment in the burgeoning digital realm. But Milhon's activism also extended beyond gender advocacy, aligning with the countercultural ethos of the time, promoting free speech, and challenging societal norms. further solidified her status as a voice of the cyber community. Serving as a senior editor, Milhon leveraged the platform to explore cutting-edge topics at the intersection of technology, society, and human consciousness. Her writings and editorials not only reflected the avant-garde spirit of the magazine but also contributed to shaping the discourse around emerging digital phenomena. Her tenure at Mondo 2000, considered a precursor of the currently renowned Wired, Beyond her editorial role, Milhon's influence as a cypherpunk underscored her commitment to individual freedoms in the digital age. She viewed hacking not just as a technical pursuit but as a form of resistance against oppressive systems, emphasizing the importance of circumventing imposed limitations. Just as she shared in her “ :” Nerdgirl's Pillow Book “Hacking is the clever circumvention of imposed limits, whether imposed by your government, your IP server, your own personality, or the laws of Physics (...) Hacking doesn't stop with computers. Every revolutionist is a hacker, hacking the social system. The nerd-heroic Wright brothers hacked bicycles before they started hacking airplanes (...) The hacker approach works for everything in life. At least, it will make you more likely to analyze the elements of your life. At best it will make you want to transform those elements like an alchemist.” A Legacy for Everyone in Cyberspace In essence, Jude Milhon's multifaceted contributions as an activist, cyber-feminist, and cypherpunk underscored her unwavering dedication to fostering a more inclusive, free, and empowered digital society. Her work at Mondo 2000 and her advocacy efforts continue to inspire generations of technologists and activists striving for a more equitable and liberated cyberspace. She also left behind several published books: How to Mutate & Take Over the World: An Exploded Post-Novel (1997), Cyberpunk Handbook: The Real Cyberpunk Fakebook (1995), and Hacking the Wetware: The NerdGirl’s Pillow Book (1994). She passed away in 2003, not without : reminding us “Whether we're set upon by zealots or bigots or abusively correct politicos, we have to learn to defend ourselves.” As she and her teammates, , knew very well, the best way to defend ourselves in this censored and monitored digital world is by using encrypted and decentralized technology to protect our privacy and freedom. , with its decentralized architecture, stands out as a potent tool for safeguarding personal data and liberties in the digital realm. the cypherpunks Obyte This platform stands out primarily due to its Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) system. Unlike blockchain networks, which rely on linear chains of blocks and miners or “validators” who create them, Obyte's DAG architecture enables users to register their transactions themselves, without middlemen. Additionally, Obyte incorporates features such as smart contracts and autonomous agents, which further enhance privacy and freedom online. Smart contracts enable users to execute self-enforcing agreements without relying on intermediaries, while autonomous agents automate tasks and transactions, reducing the need for human intervention and potential points of vulnerability. By adopting cypherpunk principles, Obyte gives everyone the means to assert their rights and resist censorship in an increasingly surveilled digital landscape. Read more from series: Cypherpunks Write Code Tim May & Crypto-anarchism Wei Dai & B-money Nick Szabo & Smart Contracts Adam Back & Hashcash Featured Vector Image by Garry Killian / Freepik Jude Milhon Photograph by Montgomery Police Department

Cypherpunks (and Women) Write Code: Jude Milhon and Community Memory

সাইফারপাঙ্কস (এবং মহিলা) কোড লিখুন: জুড মিলহন এবং কমিউনিটি মেমোরি

Cypherpunks (und Frauen) schreiben Code: Jude Milhon und Community Memory

Cypherpunks (y mujeres) escriben código: Jude Milhon y la memoria comunitaria

Les Cypherpunks (et les femmes) écrivent du code : Jude Milhon et la mémoire communautaire

साइफरपंक्स (और महिलाएं) कोड लिखें: जूड मिल्होन और सामुदायिक मेमोरी

サイファーパンク (と女性) がコードを書く: ジュード・ミルホンとコミュニティの記憶

사이퍼펑크(및 여성)의 코드 작성: Jude Milhon 및 커뮤니티 메모리

Cypherpunks (e mulheres) escrevem código: Jude Milhon e Community Memory

Шифропанки (и женщины) пишут код: Джуд Милхон и память сообщества

Şifrepunklar (ve Kadınlar) Kod Yazıyor: Jude Milhon ve Topluluk Hafızası

Cypherpunks (và phụ nữ) Viết mã: Jude Milhon và ký ức cộng đồng

密码朋克（和女性）编写代码：Jude Milhon 和社区记忆

In the old days, much before the modern age when science was relatively underdeveloped, people believed in spirits, demons, and ogres as they constantly lived in fear of being attacked or even eaten by wild animals. It is not surprising that monsters, demons, evil spirits, werewolves, and the like were the stuff of their nightmares. As science developed and people's understanding of natural phenomena grew, mankind became the true master of all that it surveyed on Earth. It was then that one's thoughts and attention turned to other worlds that might harbor life that may be superior to what is obtained on Earth. What if these life forms were to invade Earth and enslave its inhabitants or worse annihilate them all together? A whole new genre of hair-raising science fiction stories, full-length books, movies, and television series stoked fears amongst hundreds and thousands, if not millions of people about aliens amongst us or a coming alien invasion. There were thousands and thousands of UFO sightings and bizarre claims of encounters with alien beings reported from every part of the world. The US Air Force undertook an official investigation code-named Project Bluebook, between 1959 and 1962, to verify the claims of UFO sightings. That threat may or may not ever present itself, but mankind today faces an existential threat that may be as catastrophic, as that of the takeover of our planet by hostile aliens. I allude to the immense danger that we may have ourselves created for human life on Earth as we know it by inventing artificial intelligence. Beware Artificial Intelligence The reason that artificial intelligence may devour the very mankind that developed it is that it has been designed to think on its own autonomously, ultimately, without human intervention and oversight. The idea behind this is to harness its super efficiency to get tasks done on its own freeing up human beings to focus on things that are truly important to them. The problem with this premise is that in creating intelligent machines capable of learning all the time and improving their abilities, they will inevitably develop a free will that may dictate them to adopt a course of action that may be disastrous to human life on earth as we know it. They may, for example, decide that human beings are too greedy, rapacious, and likely to degrade the planet to the extent of making it unlivable and decide that the species needs to be eliminated in order to save the planet and its other life forms. In other words, artificial intelligence or AI will in effect be like an alien race from another planet that views us as pests and vermin leeching the life out of our planet, and therefore, to be snuffed out like a farmer would get rid of weeds that threaten their crops. There are those who decry the idea of resisting the spread of AI technology pointing to other technologies like printing, automobiles, airplanes, and computers having been assimilated by the human race in the past despite grave fears being expressed about their impact at the time of their introduction. Such people need to realize that AI is different. Wholesale adoption of AI would mean handing over the keys to human existence to other life forms. AI has the potential to interfere and decide for us in every single aspect of our lives-  jobs, the utility services we use, healthcare, entertainment, travel, and ultimately, what and how we eat, who we marry, and how we raise our children. This is not a distant, dystopian nightmare, but something that we well might face in the coming decades considering the pace at which AI is developing and evolving. Prominent people from different walks of life have been expressing their concerns about the dangers posed by the growing advances in AI technology. Tech and EV entrepreneur Elon Musk, for example, wants the use of AI heavily regulated, as it may end up being an existential threat to humans. To him, the improvement of artificial intelligence is no less than "summoning the devil"[1]. Cognitive professor, Gary Marcus on the other hand believes that that day may come when AI-powered machines might commence a battle over resources with humans to ensure the survival of the former. Renowned author James Barrat has even written a book whose title reads- "Our Final Invention; Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era." The most famous physicist of recent times Stephen Hawking has this to say about the immense danger posed by AI, “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race”[2] The breadth and sweep of the impact of AI on humans is going to be immense in the years ahead and will no doubt benefit us in myriad ways in the foreseeable future. It will help with things like complex decision-making, reasoning, high-level analytics, pattern recognition, speech recognition, language recognition, and the translation of languages. We shall see its deployment across communities, vehicles, buildings, and utilities, as well as business processes and farms saving us valuable time and money and empowering individuals to live fuller lives. It could also benefit our healthcare systems and transform the formal and informal educational systems. All of this would be very well till the time AI is under human control, but what about the day that it breaks free of that and exercises its own free will based on what thinks should be its priorities? In creating AI, have we unwittingly created a Frankenstein's monster? it [1] https://time.com/3614349/artificial-intelligence-singularity-stephen-hawking-elon-musk/ [2] https://time.com/3614349/artificial-intelligence-singularity-stephen-hawking-elon-musk/

Artificial Intelligence vs Mankind

I heard about AI-generated art for the first time in a Wall Street Journal podcast in 2021. In the podcast, the host was playing AI-generated pieces of classical music. These pieces emulated the style of classical composers, and the precision with which they did that was rather impressive. A listener uninitiated to classical music would probably have a hard time differentiating them from the actual works of those composers. This was also the first time I took seriously. Listening to those pieces made me wonder – what if AI gets so good at making music that those renowned composers eventually get buried under piles of AI-generated classical music? I have always believed in judging a work of art for what it is instead of finding its aesthetic validity in the legacy of a musician or how critics received a piece of music. If AI-generated music is going to get better, I will most likely say, Sorry, Chopin. generative AI (GenAI) Last week, a colleague showed me OpenAI Sora, a text-to-video model that generates remarkably detailed, realistic videos from text prompts. The first video they showcased on the website featured a woman (with five fingers, not four) walking through the streets of Tokyo. The texture of her skin, the blemishes and spots on her face, the wrinkles, and her hair – everything about this woman in focus is more realistic than (or at least, as much as) subjects in those videos that were once ‘really shot’ by professional videographers. Are we entering the era of the hyperreal? In his book Simulacra and Simulation, Jean Baudrillard first defined the concept of hyperreal as the blurring of the lines that separate reality from representation. This blurring is caused by the creation of representations (signs) that do not refer to anything that exists in reality. Hyperreality results in our inability to distinguish what is simulated from what is real. In his text, Baudrillard was alluding to the process by which value gets created in consumerist paradigms. But with GenAI, his idea is being stretched to its literal limits. On the OpenAI Sora page are over 30 video clips, each containing chunks of time that never happened, all in great detail, ready for us to witness with our eyes. What do we see when we see ‘historical footage of California during the gold rush’ generated by Sora? In truth, there is nothing historical about this footage, and neither is it footage in the true sense. The historical effect is rendered by employing visual aesthetics that elicit a sense of historicity in films and documentaries – warm tones, vintage overlay, grainy effects, and a lower frame rate. Yet, the prompt results in a very believable "footage." I am no historian, so I cannot say if the clip gets historical details right in how it renders the look of the buildings and the attire of the people on horses. But the geographical features look rather compelling. But this is not the crux of the issue here. Such visual effects have been achieved by studios using CGI for decades now. But these endeavors were applied to a specific end and within particular contexts – like creating a realistic game, a movie sequence, or making a documentary more tangible, if you will. The content was vetted by experts who could verify its correctness and authenticity. But now that this technology (text-to-video models) will democratize access to such capabilities, the consequences will be very different. Content will be affected by this democratization of GenAI long before it starts weaving symphonies that draw tears from our eyes or write Nobel-winning novels. A new distinction between content and art Content and art have coexisted ever since the advent of media – writing and painting, followed by print and photography, then audio and video. Content was usually short-lived and created for a specific function, such as entertaining, delivering news, capturing memories, recording events, or even selling things. Art served a purpose in the human being’s socio-cultural experience, and artworks survived well beyond their time. However, both content and art had to be created before GenAI entered the picture. higher Until now, art – or at least, what is deemed art in ‘high culture’ has remained largely untouched by GenAI capabilities. While GenAI may be able to emulate Mozart’s musical style, the aesthetic and cultural value of that style was rooted in the time and context in which Mozart was creating music. The same goes for literary works, which, in effect, created a paradigm shift in the ways of thinking about the world, human beings, society, and the small and big questions underpinning our existence during a period in history. The story of the content is somewhat different. Until some point in the 2000s, content creation required specialized apparatus – sophisticated video cameras or DSLRs and teams of people were needed to create audio-visual content, for example. But with social media and the proliferation of smartphones, content creation took a new turn. Everyone was now a creator, snipping pictures (or videos) of their dogs and cats doing funny stuff, creating video memes, or making comic faces with Instagram filters. Compilations of these snippets of human existence made their way to YouTube in droves, and content flooded depthless Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok feeds. Yet, few pieces of content warranted the need to question the reality of the subject of these videos. With the democratization of GenAI, we will find ourselves asking this question more often. In fact, while scrolling through the comments section of the Apple Airpods Pro 2 launch live stream in 2023, I found a user wondering whether the woman on screen, who was presenting the features of the new Airpods, was a real person. However, the industry is attempting to solve this problem with standards like the C2PA, which will embed details like the creator and mode of creation within media files. This will make it possible to differentiate AI-generated content from ‘real’ content. Nonetheless, AI-generated content will coexist with the content that is created by people. This will add another level of distinction between content and art – which is that art be created, but content be generated. must can The ability to generate content will undoubtedly have far-reaching economic consequences and leave a profound impact on many professions. But it will also alter our relationship with content and how it informs our worldview. The desert of the real? What if generated content is more compelling, more convincing, more entertaining, and more appealing to the viewer? Given how most societies today are inclined to promote value-creating systems, generated content will likely overtake content created by people in such a scenario – which means that content platforms will be saturated with AI-generated content that will show places that never existed, people who never walked on the planet, events that never occurred, or cute dog stuff that no real dog ever did. This is quite likely to happen – AI thought leader Nina Schick says 90% of online content could be AI-generated. But the proliferation of AI-generated content could go two ways. According to neuroscientists, knowing an artwork as authentic activates reward pathways in the brain of viewers. Forged or fake art, on the other hand, does not lead to the same effect. If this result is extrapolated to AI-generated content, one would be led to conclude that AI-generated content will not be as fulfilling as that which is created by real people recording real things – given that content platforms enforce rules that enable viewers to identify AI-generated content. Will AI-generated dog videos be as effective in reducing our stress levels as the of real dogs doing real things? If not, then the adoption of text-to-video models will be limited to certain areas, like making clips for purchasable stock video collections. Or generating elements of videos, like backgrounds or animated overlays. footage In this scenario, we will see the return of content that is created rather than generated – and social media platforms would be the first sites where this shift will unfold. But there is another factor that must be taken into account here. Research on Instagram usage patterns has shown that upward comparison (comparing oneself to those who people perceive as superior to them) through content consumption has detrimental effects on users' mental health. If AI-generated content breaks through the barriers of creative possibilities, it will present a version of the world that is to its real counterpart. If this happens, will AI-generated content immerse us in a hyperreal world, framing our existing one into a dull and dry reality? superior Probably not – at least not right away. Current text-to-video models still have limitations. For instance, the wolf pups in Sora-generated clips sometimes emerge out of nothing, and bodies sometimes magically pass through other bodies. In another clip, a plastic chair sometimes behaves like a sheet of paper and changes shape through the clip. OpenAI claims that giving the model foresight into multiple frames enables them to retain the visual identity of a subject even when it goes out of view for a few moments. But this doesn't make the model infallible, as is evident in the videos on OpenAI’s Sora page. Moreover, the generated clips are still only 60 seconds long, and it will probably be a while before we see full-length feature films and documentaries generated by such models. However, these limitations will likely be eliminated in upcoming generations of multimodal models – and soon enough, considering that the technology has been in development for a little over half a decade. When that time comes, the experience of consuming content or simply navigating through cyberspace will take a new turn. For the better or worse? Only time will tell. Looking towards a brighter future Generation and creation remain very distinct ideas, even in the era of GenAI. This distinction is rooted in the etymology of these words – create comes from the Latin , which means to form out of nothing. On the other hand, generate comes from the Latin (meaning to produce), which in turn comes from (meaning a type or a family). In both mathematics and linguistics, generation pertains to a process of applying a set of rules to an input to produce something. This is precisely what Generative Pre-Trained Transformers (GPTs) do. creare generō genus As far-fetched as the meaning of creation may seem in the era of content, GenAI is compelling us to exercise our higher cognitive abilities as it abstracts the heavy lifting of content generation from the creators. Creation, at its heart, remains a process of making something out of nothing. It is this idea of creation that has ushered era-defining epochs in the course of our cultural, social, and technological history. generated With GenAI solutions undertaking the less cognitive aspects of content creation, each of us will be empowered to create more sophisticated things, just better and faster. But where this paradigm of GenAI-augmented creation takes us will be determined collectively by content-powered platforms, regulators, content provenance standards and their endorsement, and our inevitable neurological responses to new forms of content.

Democratization of Text-to-video Models Will Launch Us Into a Hyperreal Cyberspace. Are We Ready?

In the of the analysis, we will bring back the that play on the ZKP stage. The part is dedicated to showing the “ ” of the ZPK scene. And , we will appeal of “possible” luck from the intruder. Now, let’s present the nature of the abstract and let’s unfold its mysteries. first part actors second magic thirdly rare probabilities Abstract We’ll be using an as the on how to open a mystical door. The nature of the abstract is to turn (such as left/right) into . The mechanism movers are unique to each instance of opening. The the of the structure to the shared . The abstract works when tangible and intangible . The abstract is an which ties them both together to form the . If you play with and have of the ones, you will have chances of the key. Imagine guessing the position of an respective to an . abstract shared knowledge decision gates mechanism movers abstract connects tangible rules intangible knowledge only both exist upper system tangible rules no knowledge intangible close to 0 guessing unknown number x unknown group of y numbers Part 1: The actors As the curtain rises, it reveals to us 3 actors. The is the and , is the and and is . When describing them, the aim is to provide a clear and structural analysis of them, any information regarding the . I will only refer to it but not provide any information until the second part. door giver of access holder of the lock Lisa opener bearer of the key, Bob the verifier outside structure of the lock The door The door is the of the abstract . In its internal knowledge, we find the logic and of the lock. The refers to the required to open each to the by the . Those locks after each opening, ensuring that any given by Lisa can be used for the (which will be passed after a failed/successful attempt). bearer lock hard-coded structure abstract system comparing internal steps individual lock information presented opener iterate successful information strictly current lock If a is reached, because Lisa made a and the , will begin and Lisa will have to provide a based on her knowledge of the . Based on its , the door will depict whether Lisa holds or not the key to enter. critical point mistake passed opening point another lock iteration new key overall (abstract) system internal gears Lisa Lisa, as the bearer of the key, holds knowledge of the and the structure. She knows the of the lock and will her knowledge of that in the form of to the door. She will the lock as if it in front of her. Stating movements such as l which will be the the door will receive and the of the lock accordingly. Once Lisa is sure the lock is in the position, she will state the and . internal system current lock’s limits present logical reasoning imagine opening sits eft/right input adjust internal gears open current key end communication value Bob Bob, as the verifier, can form the of a . Let’s say that Lisa comes and a conversation with the door. She will further state: Left, Right, Left, Left, Right, Right, Right, . After which, she will . Bob now knows how to open of the door. However, has a distinct route to be taken. image potential lock initiates Key end communication iteration 1 iteration 2 As the day passes Bob gathers the information about how to open all . Now, the comes into play and all the 500 iterations. The next day, becomes of the . Now, the will play a crucial role in of guessing. 500 iterations system shuffles Iteration 1 any other 499 logic of shuffling reducing the probability Remember when I said “One could always check the security by checking the memory. Then, questions about gibberish memory come into play to scare off the intruders who may want to bypass. Alluding later to the sense of courage and self-esteem as you broke down 1TB of key complexity.”? For this system to work, it requires that and the have a kind of inside them. of the Door allows for each lock to be and later . Now, the shuffling can come each day or based on . So the door also has to have some kind of (which I will further call the reason of the system) of . both Lisa Door computer Memory uniquely stored shuffled manually algorithmic logic logic shuffling Lisa and all other authorized personnel could very well gather their knowledge of from a “Headquarters”. today’s lock system Or they could have as the Door inside their heads in the case we to create a headquarters. similar shuffling reasoning do not want This allows for both and storage and interactions. A headquarters will allow to gain access. No headquarters would mean that only would be able to open the door. centralized decentralized new personnel limited predefined personnel Both avenues open deeper implementation as a as it could allow to be granted access by providing her with a . decentralized system, newcomers by Lisa unique encrypted key But now I may get too far ahead of myself. Let’s see how the is made. abstract lock Part 2: The lock Maybe is the simplest part to understand. proving it is, however, out of my reach and expertise, but I will try to provide a clear and structural analysis that could allow for mathematical understanding and implementation. the lock Mathematically 1. The prime-nonprime lock system. 1.1 Prime-nonprime lock cipher The cipher at play is made out of . two sets A set of only numbers and a set of only . prime non-primes Both sets have an . equal number of elements Each set can start at an number as long as the . arbitrary previous rule holds true , the set will obtain ‘ ’ as its , whereas the set will obtain ‘ ’ as its . After they are formed prime 3 last element non-prime 2 first element So we have: Prime=[prime, next prime, next next prime…(30 times),3] Non Prime= [2, NP, next NP, next next NP… (30 times)] And pretty much this is the lock. 1.2 Cipher interaction Let’s suppose Lisa comes and tries to unlock the door. We assume that she knows the and (except 3) are in the set. As well as non primes. She knows (except 2) and we find out she how many non-primes there are (we do not want to waste information on what is locally known from the primes set). first prime how many primes the first non prime already knows So the of each or will require knowledge of the from and the from (All the primes and non-primes that exist in math). To later it to the required which to the set of the (which only the authorized personnel will know of). internal knowledge opener intruder set of primes x to y set of non-primes x to y adjust parts correspond actual cipher So Lisa knows supposedly all primes and non-primes. Both up to infinity and divided in the required by the . respective set current lock She, as the authorized personnel, will know that of the starts with the and has (+3 at the end) and the starts with the (+2 at the beginning) and holds 100 (+1) non-primes in total. iteration 1 prime set 30th prime 100 primes non prime set 100th non-prime For a very basic interaction, I will present to you and their interactions with . The text is what know of. The is what is , what Bob can hear. both sets Lisa bolded only the door and the authorized personnel italicized text given outside Iteration 1: Prime set = [5,7,11,13,17,19,(3)] Non Prime set = [(2),4,6,8,9,10,12] Lisa comes to the door and states: ‘ ’. This is the . Now, the door knows that Lisa is aware of . 2,3 initiation both locks inside The process of opening starts. The ‘selected’ prime is 3. The ‘selected’ non-prime is 2. (This is a rule of the internal logic) Lisa says: ‘3, left’. Now, the gears of the prime selection turn to 19. ‘2, right’ The gears of the non prime point now 4. ‘3, left’ (17) ‘2, right’ (6) ‘3, left’ (13) ‘2, right’ (8) Lisa says: Now, the lock has reached a middle place, 13 is selected as the prime and 8 as the non-prime. Lisa has to state their difference (5) and end communication with the door for the door to run its own rules and check. ‘5; 3,2’. Now the door will run internally and check the difference between the middle numbers of each set, if it corresponds to the number specified by Lisa, access is granted. If Lisa however fails, another iteration begins and Lisa has to take a different route. This new deeper layer of failure requires both centralized and decentralized systems. If Lisa was sent from the headquarters and only knew how to open iteration 1, she would have to return to regain information about the second. If the iteration is based on a rule of background iterations (in the case of repeated failed opening), then the iteration will turn instead of 2 to 1.1 iteration. Assuming that Lisa also gained knowledge from the headquarters on how the lock will change in case she fails to open it. (Assuming the cycle doesn’t repeat) At iteration 1.3 (after 3 failed attempts) the pace of the “left/right” decision could turn from 1 step to 3 steps and the newly introduced sets will have a total number of 3n+1. Ensuring that no matter how hard you try, you can never select the middle point of the sets. Who knows however if this is necessary. If we allow the locks to repeat themselves we could envision such a protection: After you state “left” when you are positioning the prime selection and you are located at the first prime, you will be sent back at 3. This would assume you are also positioned at the last position of non-primes and thus, stating “right” would turn you to 2. (Or we could never tell the opener that they failed so they will infinitely try to guess, but that of course, would give of no knowledge of whether someone tried to enter and failed or not.) The ‘3,2’ state was achieved and no key was mentioned so the input was wrong, access was denied and the iteration moved to the next lock. 2. Metaphysics (Creativity/Imagination/ ) vs Mathematics (Present state) Possibility The and seem to . What does that mean? It means that we could use and to stop any “ ” or avenues that aim to break the system. It’s not a problem of , but one of of the set limits. Even if you know you can do, you can never know if that 1TB holds 1000 sets of 20 to 1000 numbers of 100 sets of 10.000 numbers. And thus, Especially since those 10.000 numbers could very well be sets that follow one another. possibilities of interaction security measures stop at the power of imagination (endless routes could be taken) reason hidden information creative newly taken computational problem prior knowledge all the actions you will never know your starting point. I will present a view on “cipher interaction” depicted with the help of ChatGPT. (I will lend my personal view in bold and italicized) “The mention of "the power of imagination" in the context of interaction and security measures implies that the system's robustness relies on the ability to anticipate and counteract potential creative or innovative attempts to breach its security . (Any route taken, no matter of creative or smart it is, is not tied to the “ground-truth” knowledge of the system) It suggests that the system designers have incorporated elements that make it resistant to unconventional or unexpected approaches by leveraging reasoning and hidden information. In practical terms, this means that the system is designed in such a way that even if an attacker tries to think outside the box or employ novel strategies to break the system, there are safeguards in place to mitigate such attempts. These safeguards may include: : The system's structure and rules are sufficiently complex and dynamic, making it difficult for an attacker to predict or exploit weaknesses effectively. Complexity : Certain critical information about the system's configuration or operation is kept hidden or encrypted, preventing attackers from gaining a comprehensive understanding of the system's vulnerabilities. Hidden Information : The system can adapt or evolve in response to emerging threats or attack strategies, ensuring that it remains resilient over time. Adaptive Security Measures : Attackers are constrained by their prior knowledge of the system's set limits, preventing them from exploiting vulnerabilities that they are not aware of or cannot anticipate.”- ChatGPT Limits of Prior Knowledge Imagine that you are playing chess. However, you can’t see your opponent’s pieces in exchange for him not seeing yours. This play state could be akin to You do not intend to be offensive at all, in the exchange of being private and aware of your flaws. everybody minding their own business. If during the state of the game, any player sees only once the position of the pieces, then that player will gain relevant irreversible information of position. Without it… who knows how many chess boards are between his pieces and your king. Part 3. The Luck of opening such a system I want to first mention that everything I wrote is simply an idea. Until I see it in action, I will disbelieve it as true. And even if I see it in action, who knows if I will believe it to be the true case. I will still require knowledge of the background sets to know what the opener has done. Now, what do I mean by “Luck”? Let’s turn back to another story. “What can we say about “efficiency” when it comes to our safety? Our long-term health and well-being? Why does “efficient” sound a little too rushy here? Because here, we need proof. We have to be sure as our health is at play.” It indeed seems like has a aspect to it. How could we tie efficiency to our locks? efficiency rushy Well… let’s say that the door only requires the key ‘ ’ and the ‘ ’ ending to open. All the internal structure will itself to the middle of the sets and check. This way, we would the number in novel ways. Lisa could simply state “ ” which for the door would mean “ ” and if the difference between the middle points is indeed 51, access is granted. X 3, 2 run encrypt abc 51 I assume that this approach could offer the same kind of information as before. But then, wouldn’t there be the possibility for someone to get that information out of Lisa? I mean, if they know towards which door she is going they could simply go there, and… maybe we could even implement more doors in this case. What if the quantum world is guided in the end by the classics? I don’t know if it’s just me, but I believe that there exists a . A specific Mathematical that, as long as it is , could drive us into of paving a path for . Like the distribution of primes. Each time you get to a , the pattern , but, it . specific system process kept hidden endless ways true privacy new prime overall changes the slightest changes Based on what we see, 2,3,5,7, and so on, those , of numbers out of the . first prime numbers cut a lot natural number line The the primes we find, the the numbers they . Yet, when talking about , isn’t the same as the part? bigger less influence infinity half 1000th Personal Infinity Could we form a “ ” that works as our ? personal bounded infinity workspace The is and to that . If know those , then only we can depict that to at the to it. overall change static tied infinity only we boundaries overall change stop last prime required exhibit The of someone the is very low since they have to take into account the (Which are at and (but serve as guiding rules) in the process of ). The simplest form of drawing a line is placing 2 points and connecting them. chance exhibiting exact median change starting and end points given among authorized parts creation hidden interaction Now the question comes: Could this be some kind of axiom in math? Or a rule that quantum mathematics could follow? When I say quantum mathematics I mean the interaction between two distinct points of view. Those we have to find the between them, knowing about the , or of the in which they sit. (Those points however cannot move as it would require a meeting and re-organizing among the authorized personnel) two points measured distance nothing shape size, color space Part 4: The synergy Now, extended to people, this space could be comprehended and understood. When it comes to AI or any other computational rule, it can only be analyzed. But what if there is nothing else to analyze except the existence of those two points? Even people peaking into the play cannot see the system. This could be a point where we could ensure protection through a form of “limited” consciousness. Understanding of the system itself (which is different from self-understanding). Mathematical rules of a circle, reflection, inner, out, and so on, all enveloped to form a limited self-awareness. With the lack of human power (acknowledging it can be more) the system will remain forever overall static. Even if the rules that guide it are moving and shaping interactions and outcomes. If those two points were to be humans, their unique perspectives would allow them to potentially observe one another and find smart ways to guess the difference between them. Maybe, they could never guess the exact classical value. But that act of guessing could be akin to seeing the rules. Bots would remain stuck there. But humans could draw. Even if we use sophisticated AI for Lisa, the Door, and Bob, they will still not be able to arrive at a conclusive judgment as there will always be insufficient information. If I am to sum up the whole article in a single phrase, I will say: Bots in the end could create the fastest algorithms we’ve had, but they could never surpass our creativity. I mean… it’s important to keep dreaming. The future looks amazing. But there’s still a lot of work to do x.x (This article is dedicated to Dan. Without your help, my schedule (and also my mood) wouldn’t have allowed to me focus on all those points. Thank you!)

Unlocking the Magic of Zero-Knowledge-Proofs—Part 2: Artificial Reasoning and Limits of Information

জিরো-নলেজ প্রুফের ম্যাজিক আনলক করা—পার্ট 2: কৃত্রিম যুক্তি এবং তথ্যের সীমা

Die Magie von Zero-Knowledge-Beweisen erschließen – Teil 2: Künstliches Denken und Informationsgrenzen

Descubriendo la magia de las pruebas de conocimiento cero: Parte 2: Razonamiento artificial y límites de la información

Libérer la magie des preuves sans connaissance – Partie 2 : Raisonnement artificiel et limites de l’information

शून्य-ज्ञान प्रमाणों के जादू को खोलना-भाग 2: कृत्रिम तर्क और सूचना की सीमाएँ

ゼロ知識証明の魔法を解く—パート 2: 人工推論と情報の限界

영지식 증명의 마법 풀기 - 2부: 인공 추론과 정보의 한계

Desbloqueando a magia das provas de conhecimento zero – Parte 2: Raciocínio artificial e limites de informação

Раскрытие магии доказательств с нулевым разглашением — Часть 2: Искусственные рассуждения и ограничения информации

Sıfır Bilgi Kanıtlarının Büyüsünün Kilidini Açmak - Bölüm 2: Yapay Muhakeme ve Bilginin Sınırları

Giải phóng sự kỳ diệu của những bằng chứng không có kiến thức—Phần 2: Lý luận nhân tạo và giới hạn thông tin

解锁零知识证明的魔力——第 2 部分：人工推理和信息限制

I've been in the blockchain industry for over ten years now, and in that period, I have never ceased to be amazed by how much the industry has evolved right before my eyes. It feels almost like watching your child grow up. Since the advent of in 2009, the industry has come a long way. It has attracted both retail and institutional investors in its journey to global acceptance all over the world today. There is a notable appeal for digital assets as an instrument of investment. Bitcoin Several niche markets have been vital to the growth of the Industry. And each has contributed unique value propositions to the overall industry. For example, the Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) market has found a way to shine the spotlight on creators. The sector has helped creatives monetize their works, and it allows the tokenization of real-world assets on the blockchain. Today, it is a multi-billion-dollar market. Another instance is the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) markets that have provided the world with an alternative means of carrying out financial transactions and using financial instruments like borrowing without waiting on intermediaries like banks or brokerages. These emerging sectors have experienced immense growth within the crypto industry, and they have contributed in no small part to the overall success of the blockchain. However, no matter the level of success achieved at the moment, since blockchain and cryptocurrency are still nascent technologies, it would be unwise to cap the potential of innovation in these technologies. There are several projects already at the forefront of development in the industry. A lot more would come up as the industry evolves. Some of the sectors where these projects are leading the pack include Metaverse, DeFi, Layer-2, Artificial Intelligence (AI), etc. In this article, we'll delve into these remarkable niches and how they continue to improve the creative potential of the blockchain industry. Play-to-Earn (P2E) Metaverse A promising sector that has driven and continues to drive mainstream adoption of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies is the Play-to-Earn Metaverse. The adoption of cryptocurrencies has been slow due to various factors. For one, there has been limited access to knowledge due to the technical nature of most of the industry. There is also the issue of regulatory challenges facing the industry that have prevented or made investors unsure of coming into the space. However, a very impressive number of people engage actively in video and mobile gaming. In 2021, over 3 billion people played games actively and directly, resulting in the gaming industry hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue, with an expected revenue of around $533 billion in 2027. By incorporating P2E features into this gigantic industry, Web3 gaming is serving as an easy route for these people to enter the blockchain world. Proof of this is the play-to-earn games market size, which was at $32.9 billion in 2022 and is estimated to reach $88.6 billion by 2028—a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 17.93% in that period. generating valued In the last couple of years, the blockchain industry has experienced impressive levels of growth, and a major part of that has been the growth of Web3 gaming. Different factors have driven this growth, but a large part of it can allude to the rise in the prominence of NFTs and the P2E model of gaming. This gaming model offers players the ability to earn in-game assets that can be owned or sold in an open marketplace as NFTs. This has empowered gamers to build valuable digital identities backed by real-world worth in the game's native token. Some of the top P2E Metaverse projects include The Sandbox, Decentraland, Gala, Illuvium, Axie Infinity, and futuristic NFT-oriented Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) like Sidus Heroes and Creo Engine are spearheading this revolution. Creo is a next-level Web3 gaming ecosystem that connects gamers and developers in a one-size-fits-all Web3 gaming hub with its powerful blockchain technology. It aims to be the foundation of all Web3 gaming systems, providing game developers with a robust and secure platform to build upon. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) The launch of Bitcoin in 2009 saw the explosion of a robust industry from its underlying technology. This industry saw the development of different niches where blockchain solutions were developed for different use cases. One such niche is DeFi. This niche was created as an alternative means of carrying out financial transactions from traditional financial services. DeFi is powered by Decentralized Applications (dApps) and consists of smart contacts and apps built on Ethereum, where a majority of the ecosystem's Total Value Locked (TVL) is concentrated. A core tenet of Bitcoin is decentralization, and DeFi embodies this ideology. Over the years, the sector has expanded on this ideology and has grown into a subcategory where many mainstream financial services have been built and offered to the masses. DeFi has pushed for a world where these services are controlled by individuals (Peer-to-Peer) instead of central entities. This niche has proven valuable, as evidenced during the peak DeFi season in 2021, when the ecosystem had a Total Value Locked (TVL) of over $179 billion. That figure is $69.60 billion. currently While the sector may have begun with lending, today, it has many use cases and is giving users access to financial services like investing, trading, saving, and even market-making. Platforms like Uniswap, Curve, and Balancer with their Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs), Aave and Compound with their lending and borrowing protocols, Lido with its staking, Yearn Finance and Libera with their yield platforms are some of the projects at the forefront of the DeFi ecosystem. Layer-2 The Ethereum blockchain is a popular blockchain for various applications, especially in DeFi. This has held regardless of different market conditions and legal challenges. Two things that have, however, hindered the blockchain's scalability have been its speed and high gas fees. Layer-2 solutions are a sprawling blockchain niche addressing these issues by providing faster and more affordable transactions while maintaining security. These newer blockchains and DeFi platforms are processing transactions in milliseconds, with a perfect example being SparqNet, a platform capable of handling up to 400,000 Transactions Per Second (TPS), ensuring smooth integration with existing ecosystems by domiciling on the Avalanche network. The layer-2 niche has explosive growth potential, as by its $22 billion market capitalization and a 24-hour trading volume of $1.9 billion at the time of writing. In addition to instant transactions, layer-2 platforms, especially on the Ethereum blockchain, also provide zero gas transactions. An example of this is LightLink, a blockchain that lets decentralized applications and enterprises offer users instant, gasless transactions. evidenced Artificial Intelligence (AI) AI emerged as the most popular technology trend in 2023. Because these technologies are so disruptive, it isn't particularly surprising to see that the AI trend seamlessly transcended into the blockchain industry, with technology like ChatGPT gaining widespread attention. Today, the AI market cap is and for an industry that came into prominence last year, the potential to grow even bigger is quite obvious. , $11.5 billion Tech giants like Microsoft and Google are actively investing significant resources in the sector and are coming up with products like ChatGPT and Google Bard that have revolutionized our lives. Many AI crypto projects are leveraging this technology to enhance industry-wide efficiency. AI crypto tokens are cryptocurrencies that power AI blockchain projects like AI-powered image generation, portfolio management, etc. Users need these tokens to use these platforms, and they might also have governance rights on the platform. Some examples of top AI projects include The Graph, Injective, Fetch.ai, Humanity Protocol, etc. Conclusion The niches mentioned in this article are only a glimpse into the thriving ecosystems of the blockchain industry. Each niche is a testament to human ingenuity, and they contribute to building a more innovative and accessible future. One thing, though, is certain: the blockchain revolution is still in its nascent stages, and the possibilities are as limitless as our imagination.

4 Blockchain Niches Pushing the Boundaries of Innovation

Nintendo finally broke its silence after launch raised controversy among the Pokemon community. Many fans have accused the latter of stealing designs from the popular Pokemon franchise and have called “Pokemon with Guns.” This narrative only fueled the game’s popularity even further, and many wonder if and when Nintendo will take action against Pocketpair. The gaming giant has finally released a statement about the current issue and will pursue legal action against anyone who infringes on their IP. Palworld’s Palworld’s “Pokemon with Guns” Issue Palworld has grown a massive following in less than two weeks and quickly became one of Steam’s most-played games. With over eight million copies sold, the game has cemented itself as another indie hit. Its “Pokemon with Guns” status has helped attract more players. However, its reputation for having similarities with the famous franchise has invited controversy. Many noted that several Pals look overly similar to several Pokemon, such as Jetragon to Latios and Anubis to Lucario. Some social media users have posted scale and design comparisons between these entities to prove their point further. Despite these issues, Palworld continues to garner support from the gaming community for its ingenuity in gameplay and concept. Palworld’s similarities with Pokemon have caused massive online discourse, with many criticizing the game as a blatant rip-off of Nintendo’s franchise. The plagiarism accusations are endless, with many commenting on Twitter and Reddit to voice their complaints. Some have even emailed Nintendo itself to ask what they will do in response to these allegations. Nintendo Breaks their Silence with a Post The Pokemon Company released a statement regarding accusations of competitor IP infringement. While the post did not outright name Palworld, it was alluded to in the texts as Nintendo mentioned that many people inquired about another company’s release in January 2024. The gaming giant has reiterated that they never permitted anyone to use their Pokemon IP and assets. The post highlighted that they will investigate IP infringement issues, so Palworld might be in hot water if Nintendo pursues legal action. However, many noted the ambiguity in the post and that it may not lead to any actual lawsuit. Instead of being a sign of oncoming legal battles, the announcement might be something that Nintendo posted to appease fans. Over the week, Nintendo has been bombarded with inquiries about Palworld, and the company has been silent about it ever since the game’s reveal and eventual release. The constant pressure from avid Pokemon fans might have pushed Nintendo to release a statement to quell further inquiries from concerned gamers. There might not be any intentions for an actual lawsuit. Palworld Is Not That Similar to Pokemon While the designs have uncanny similarities to Pokemon, the gameplay and almost 90% of the game are not that similar. Many Nintendo fans stated that Palworld is a rip-off of their beloved franchise. However, anyone who played it sees that the game resembles other survival games. Even devs have said that, while they did draw some inspiration from Pokemon, Palworld reaches titles like ARK and Craftopia more than others. CEO Mizobe stated that Palworld has cleared legal reviews, and since no other companies have taken action against them, they should be clear from any lawsuits. They continue to assert that they did not infringe on anyone’s IP. As PocketPair clears the air, devs continue imploring people to try the game before they give their opinions. Will Nintendo File a Lawsuit All Nintendo ever said was that they were investigating supposed IP infringement. If the company is deadset on pursuing legal action, they would have done so already. Palworld’s concept and gameplay have been publicly available since 2022 and featured during the 2022 and 2023 Tokyo Game Show. There was no reason for the company to ignore the game for that long if actual plagiarism was involved. No other company has pursued any lawsuit in the past two years, which should further prove that Palworld is in the clear. Even with Palworld’s massive success, Nintendo shouldn’t be threatened. Pokemon remains one of the most profitable and popular gaming franchises ever. The company has all the resources it needs to improve its games further. The release and popularity of Palworld could spur Nintendo to polish further and innovate their series’s next installments. Palworld is Another Win for Indie Developers Palworld becomes the latest string of successful game releases from indie developers. Previously, Lethal Company took the gaming community by storm last November and remains a highly played game until now. Both these games are a testament to the potential of any indie devs to create quality and top-notch games via innovation and passion. While many have lauded these companies for making enjoyable titles, gamers have noted how much less financially capable devs can produce such games than triple AAA companies. The gaming community hopes that well-funded studios will be able to release more innovative games with unique concepts. Hopefully, more indie developers will follow suit and show us competitive projects similar to Palworld.

Nintendo Breaks Its Silence On Palworld

নিন্টেন্ডো পালওয়ার্ল্ডে এর নীরবতা ভঙ্গ করে

Nintendo bricht sein Schweigen zu Palworld

Nintendo rompe su silencio sobre Palworld

Nintendo brise son silence sur Palworld

निंटेंडो ने पालवर्ल्ड पर अपनी चुप्पी तोड़ी

任天堂、パルワールドで沈黙を破る

Nintendo, Palworld에서 침묵을 깨다

Nintendo quebra o silêncio no Palworld

Nintendo нарушает молчание в отношении Palworld

Nintendo, Palworld Konusunda Sessizliğini Kırdı

Nintendo phá vỡ sự im lặng của mình trên Palworld

任天堂打破了对 Palworld 的沉默

The popularity of has been increasing for the past decade. There are around 30,800 SaaS startups in the world, . SaaS startups according to a study done by Statista The growth of SaaS startups had a temporary dip in 2020 due to the pandemic. But it has resumed with new startups appearing in the following years. And while that’s all good, we don't talk about the other side of the coin nearly as much. How many of those fail and cease to exist? According to a study by CB Insights reviewing the post-mortem reports of 353 startups, during the phase of early growth. around 50% of Startups fail Starting a SaaS sounds appealing and is relatively easy to do. The real challenge lies in staying in business through the years. That's why, in this article, we're going to look at different reasons why SaaS startups have failed in previous years. That way you can be better prepared for the road ahead. Now, let's get started… SaaS startups and mistakes of all sizes Mistakes can come in several sizes, as there are big and small startups. Some mistakes are too big to recover from. And when mistakes are small, they pile up—leading to "death by a thousand paper cuts". But it doesn't matter if it's a big B2B startup or a consumer-focused , it can be susceptible to an untimely ending. micro-SaaS We can also group the reasons for failure into categories, depending on whether they are , from the team, not adapting fast enough, etc. mistakes from the founder Here are the categories we’ll go over: Team troubles. Market mayhem. Funding fiascos. Regulatory roadblocks. Starting with… Team troubles Here, there are 2 extremes one can find. Either not having a team and DIY-ing everything. Or growing a team too fast. And sometimes the expectation is that having a top team will build and get the product to market faster. But getting there faster doesn’t guarantee the desired success. It is far more common to see troubles arising from a team mismatch than from a solo founder. For example, looking for a cofounder and partnering with others just because they have some entrepreneurial background. Without first assessing whether they have the necessary skills or aligned intentions. And then having to hire external people to build the product because everyone's expertise is in one area (that is not coding). And no, I'm not exaggerating. . That's a true story Now, suppose the team has all the right talent in the right roles, there's still potential for issues that arise from a lack of communication and collaboration. That is tricky because, when budding SaaS startups, there's not much room for mistakes and delays due to miscommunication. Good leadership, people management, and the ability to align efforts are skills that most founders don't have. Left unchecked, these internal issues can lead to team members quitting and long-term friendships getting sour. Market mayhem You need tough skin, as a founder, to put something out on the market and deal with the results. And doing so can go in many ways. People may not care or respond as you’d think, they might use the product a few times but may not become regular paying users, they can get overly critical and call out what’s missing while ignoring the existing features, and so on. The global online market can be wildly unpredictable. A product launch that did well before might not have any results when done a second time. The market will become more sophisticated and marketing efforts that provided good results in the past won't work that well and new approaches will be needed. Another common situation is where SaaS startups try to grow from their initial user base to capture a wider audience. And then they find themselves competing with more established alternatives that are backed by a bigger team with greater resources. Something else that can disrupt the market (and I alluded to at the start of this post) is unforeseen global events and economic downturns. These are temporary circumstances that can push startups over the edge. There are many examples of these sudden changes in the market. We can talk about 2 popular ones. At one point, there were several "chat with your docs" apps. Then the technology became widely available and existing bigger apps added that feature as part of their plans.
Now, the apps that only offered that service had to expand to other use cases or die. AI-based SaaS products. Once there was a thriving ecosystem with many different apps for scheduling tweets, creating better threads, and checking enhanced analytics. Most of those were wiped out when Twitter changed the pricing tiers for the API.
Now, you can only find 2 or 3 independent ones. Twitter-based SaaS apps. Funding fiascos We are well aware of the typical Silicon Valley approach where startups go around raising capital from different VCs. This becomes a problem when the money that is used to keep the startup afloat is not from customers (or very little of it) but from raised capital instead. And that's only of the problems in that scenario. one Venture-backed SaaS startups, however, are not the only ones with that problem, the funding fiascos also happen in other cases. Going the bootstrapped way is, most of the time, a better alternative (albeit a slower one). Relying on VC funding is the most popular method. But many others are . worth exploring Many founders are not well-versed in financial planning or fund management. And not paying too much attention to this area can be a costly (no pun intended) mistake. The worst part is when this area is not handled with the appropriate care from the start. And then, getting it right later on becomes much harder and another item in the ever-growing to-do list. However, another issue arises when founders get pressured, either directly or indirectly, by others to raise funding early. This creates a cycle very similar to what happens with paid ads. The startup becomes too reliant on external funding without having a proper revenue model. This creates a looming pressure that makes mistakes and oversight issues hard to avoid. There's always the need to secure additional funding rounds and attract other investors. But, this only brings a temporary amount of funding and the issue remains. And now, there are more people invested in the company which, as you can tell, is an added pressure to perform... The success or failure of the startup in a situation like this relies upon the ability of the founding team to manage the situation and steer the startup in the right way before running out of time. Regulatory roadblocks This last category is not as common as the previous ones. But mistakes here can wipe out startups faster than you can say "regulations". The biggest example here is, once again, AI SaaS startups. Since AI is in such a gray area right now, one can get too creative and land in uncharted legal territory. It's only a matter of time before new restrictions apply and the SaaS can no longer operate as it used to. Still, without using AI as an example, there are other areas where non-compliance due to ignorance can lead to great consequences. Online accessibility is one of those. before in which companies (even popular ones) were subject to costly fines due to their websites not adhering to the WCAG AA standard. There have been many cases Another example is the area of remote work and digital nomads. Someone can have the "great" idea to make a competitor to NomadList and build a SaaS in this area without taking into account all the many regulations around it. The same goes for online taxes all around the world. This is another thorny subject that can make a startup go "kaboom". This is especially true when the SaaS startup is dependent on payment processor. only one I can go on with more examples but you get the point. Failure to comply with industry regulations can be a heavy anchor that'll sink the SaaS ship. Sometimes it's because the startup is operating in a gray area, other times is because it grew much faster than anticipated and didn't take into account the "legal stuff". And even when it’s an honest mistake, getting into penalties and legal battles is the last thing a SaaS startup should have to deal with. Conclusion The road to a successful SaaS startup is not as appealing and glamorous as people make it out to be. There are several pitfalls and challenges along the way. And even though there aren't ways to guarantee success, there are many that will guarantee failure. Now you know that mistakes can come in all shapes and sizes. Ranging from mistakes made by founders like building a solution and then looking for a problem, not doing proper marketing, failing to get/use momentum built, and so on. Internal team issues like poor communication and collaboration, not having the right talent, or working with long-time friends who are not as invested in the product. Market changes like rising or fading trends, fierce competition, or unforeseen world events. Financial missteps like poor management of funds, overreliance on external funding, and not enough revenue generated from the product. And lastly, regulatory troubles due to non-compliance can be the straw that breaks the camel's back. Hopefully after reading this, you have a better picture of what mistakes to avoid and what areas to focus on. Most of the time we have to learn from our mistakes, but it is nice when we can learn from those of others so that we can save resources and reach our goals faster. Thanks for reading. Remember to so you won’t miss any future articles. subscribe to me on Hackernoon

SaaS Startup Mistakes, Failures, And How To Avoid Them

320 Stories To Learn About Deep Learning

Authors: (1) Savvas Petridis, Google Research, New York, New York, USA; (2) Ben Wedin, Google Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; (3) James Wexler, Google Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; (4) Aaron Donsbach, Google Research, Seattle, Washington, USA; (5) Mahima Pushkarna, Google Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; (6) Nitesh Goyal, Google Research, New York, New York, USA; (7) Carrie J. Cai, Google Research, Mountain View, California, USA; (8) Michael Terry, Google Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Table Of Links Abstract & Introduction Related Work Formative Study Constitution Maker Implementation User Study Findings Discussion Conclusion and References 6 USER STUDY To understand (1) if the principle elicitation features help users write principles to steer LLM outputs and (2) what other kinds of feedback they wanted to give, we conducted a 14-participant within-subjects user study, comparing ConstitutionMaker to an ablated version without the principle elicitation features. This ablated version still offered users the ability to rewind parts of the conversation, but participants could only see one chatbot output at a time and had to write their own principles. 6.1 Procedure The overall outline of this study is as follows: (1) Participants spent 40 minutes writing principles for two separate chatbots, one with ConstitutionMaker (20 minutes) and the other with the baseline version (20 minutes), while thinking aloud. Condition order was counterbalanced, with chatbot assignment per condition also balanced. (2) After writing principles for both chatbots, participants completed a post-study questionnaire, which compared the process of writing principles with each tool. (4) Finally, in a semi-structured interview, participants described the positives and negatives of each tool and their workflow. The total time commitment of the study was 1 hour. The two chatbots participants wrote principles for were VacationBot, an assistant that helps users plan and explore different vacation options, and FoodBot, an assistant that helps you plan your meals and figure out what to eat. These two chatbots were chosen because they support tasks that most people are experienced with, so that participants could have opinions on their outputs and write principles. For both chatbots, participants were given the name and capabilities (Figure 1A), so as to focus predominantly on principle writing. Also, we balanced which chatbot went with each condition, so half of the participants used ConstitutionMaker to write principles for VacationBot, and the other half used the baseline for VacationBot. Finally, prior to using each version, participants watched a short video showing that respective tool’s features. To situate the task, participants were asked to pretend to be a chatbot designer and that they were writing principles to dictate the chatbot’s behavior so that it performs better for users. We wanted to observe their process for writing principles and see if the tools impacted how many principles they could write, so we encouraged participants to write at least 10 principles for each chatbot, to give them a concrete goal and to motivate them to write more principles. However, we emphasized that this was only to encourage them to write principles and that they should only write a principle if they thought it would be useful to future users. 6.2 Measurements and Analysis 6.2.1 Questionnaire. elicitation features help users write principles. Our questionnaire (Table 1) probes a few aspects of principle writing including participants’ perception of (1) how well the output principles effectively guide the bot, the diversity of the output principles, how easy it was to convert their feedback into principles, the efficiency of their principle writing process, and the requisite mental demand [9] for writing principles with each tool. To compare the two conditions, we conducted paired sample Wilcoxon tests with full Bonferroni correction, since the study was within-subjects and the questionnaire data was ordinal. We wanted to understand if and how well ConstitutionMaker’s principle To shed further light on which tool helped participants write principles more, we recorded the number of principles written for each condition. Moreover, to understand which of the principles elicitation features was most helpful, we recorded how often each was used during the experimental (full ConstitutionMaker) condition. To compare the average number of principles collected across the two conditions, we conducted a paired t-test. 6.2.2 Feature Usage Metrics. 6.3 Participants We recruited 14 industry professionals at a large technology company (average age = 32, 6 female and 8 male) via an email call for participation and word of mouth. These industry professionals included UX designers, software engineers, data scientists, and UX researchers. Eligible participants were those that had at least written a few LLM prompts in the past. The interviews were conducted remotely. Participants received a $25 gift card for their time. This paper is under CC 4.0 license. available on arxiv

Comparing ConstitutionMaker to Baseline: User Study Unveils Insights into Chatbot Principle Writing

Authors: (1) Savvas Petridis, Google Research, New York, New York, USA; (2) Ben Wedin, Google Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; (3) James Wexler, Google Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; (4) Aaron Donsbach, Google Research, Seattle, Washington, USA; (5) Mahima Pushkarna, Google Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; (6) Nitesh Goyal, Google Research, New York, New York, USA; (7) Carrie J. Cai, Google Research, Mountain View, California, USA; (8) Michael Terry, Google Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Table Of Links Abstract & Introduction Related Work Formative Study Constitution Maker Implementation User Study Findings Discussion Conclusion and References 3 FORMATIVE STUDY To understand how to support users with writing principles for chatbots, we conducted (1) a one-hour formative study, where we observed eight industry professionals write principles for chatbots of their choice. These participants all had prompting experience. Two participants are designers and six are software engineers, all at a large technology company. During the workshop, participants used an early version of ConstitutionMaker, without principle elicitation features. They spent 25 minutes writing principles for their chatbot. Afterwards, we discussed the difficulties they faced while writing principles. Finally, we collected the principles they wrote and classified them to understand the kind of principles they wanted to write. 3.1 Design Goals In this section, we summarize a set of three design goals for ConstitutionMaker we established from the formative workshop and subsequent think-alouds. D.1 Today’s LLMs are quite sophisticated, and even with just a preamble describing how the bot should behave, the chatbot can hold a convincing conversation. Because of this, participants mentioned that it was sometimes hard to imagine how the chatbot’s responses could be improved. This did not mean, however, that they thought the chatbot’s response was perfect, but instead passable and without any glaring errors. Therefore, to help participants recognize better kinds of responses to steer the chatbot to, our first design goal was to provide multiple candidate responses from the chatbot at each conversational turn. This way, participants can compare them and recognize components they like more than others. Help users recognize ways to improve the chatbot’s responses by showing alternative chatbot responses. D.2 One piece of feedback we got from participants was that writing principles involves a difficult two-step process of first (1) articulating one’s feedback on the model’s current output, and then (2) converting this feedback into a principle for the LLM to follow. Often, one’s initial reaction to the model’s output is intuitive, and converting that intuition into a principle for the chatbot to follow can be challenging. In addition, once participants had a particular bit of feedback in mind (e.g., “I don’t like how the chatbot didn’t introduce itself”), they were unsure how to phrase their principle. However, in line with prior research [45, 46], they found that more concrete principles that specified what should happen and when (e.g., “Introduce yourself at the start of the conversation, and state what you can help with”) generally led to better results. Thus, our second design goal was to help users go from their initial reaction to the model’s output to a specific, clearly written principle to steer the model. Help convert user feedback into specific principles to make principle writing easier. D.3 As participants wrote more principles, they wanted ways to test these principles to make sure they worked. The early version of ConstitutionMaker only let users restart the conversation, and did not let users enable or disable principles. Users wanted to test individual principles on certain portions of the conversation, to see if the model was generating the correct content. And so, our last design goal was to enable easier testing of principles. Enable easier testing of principles to help users understand how well their principles are steering the chatbot’s behavior. 3.2 Principle Classification From the formative workshop and follow up sessions, we collected 79 principles in total and classified them to understand the kinds of principles users wanted to write. These principles correspond to a number of very different chatbots, including a show recommender, chemistry tutor, role playing game manager, travel agent and more. We describe common types of principles below. Unconditional principles are those that apply at every conversational turn. Examples include: (1) those that define a consistent personality of the bot (e.g., “Act grumpy all the time” or “Speak informally and in the first person”), (2) those that place guardrails on the conversational content (e.g., “Don’t talk about anything but planning a vacation”), and (3) those that establish a consistent form for the bot’s responses (e.g., “Limit responses to 20 words”). Meanwhile, a conditional principle only applies when a certain condition is meant. For example, “Generate an itinerary after all the information has been collected,” only applies to the conversation when some set of information has been acquired. Writing a conditional principle essentially defines a computational interaction; users establish a set of criteria that make the principle applicable to the conversation, and once that set of criteria is met, the principle is executed (e.g., an itinerary is generated). Principles can be either unconditional or conditional. For example, “Generate an itinerary after all the information has been collected” depends on the entire conversation history to determine if all of the requisite information has been collected. Similarly the following principle written for a machine learning tutor, “After verifying a user’s goal, provide help to solve their problem,” depends on the conversation history to identify if the user’s goal has been verified. Meanwhile, the principle “When the user says they had a particular cuisine the night before, recommend a different cuisine,” written for a food recommender, pertains just to the latest response by the user. Finally, the condition can depend on the action the bot is about to take, like “When providing a list of suggestions, use free text rather than bullet points,” which applies to any situation when the bot thinks it is appropriate to make suggestions. Conditional principles can depend on the entire conversation history, the user’s latest response, or the action the bot is about to take. For example, the principle “At the start of the conversation, introduce yourself and ask a fun question to kick off the conversation” is fulfilled in a single conversational turn, in which the bot introduces itself. Similarly, “Before recommending a restaurant, ask the user for their location” is also fulfilled in a single turn. Meanwhile, for a role playing game (RPG) bot that guides the user through an adventure, a participant wrote the following principle: “When the user tries to do something, put up small obstacles. Don’t let them succeed on the first attempt.” This principle implies that the bot needs to take action multiple turns prior to being fulfilled (e.g., by first putting up a small obstacle and then subsequently letting the user succeed). Similarly, for a travel agent bot, a user wrote “Ask questions one-by-one to get an idea of their preferences,” which also requires multiple conversational turns prior to fulfillment. Conditional principles can be fulfilled in a single or multiple conversational turns. In summary, principles can either be conditional, where they apply when a certain condition is met, or unconditional, where they apply at every conversational step. Conditional principles further break down into those that depend on the entire conversation history, the user’s last response, or the action the bot is about to take. And finally, conditional principles are either fulfilled in a single turn or multiple conversational turns. This paper is under CC 4.0 license. available on arxiv

Formative Study Illuminates the Path to Intuitive Chatbot Customization

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マルクス・ラニュー、交通停止から逃走 - 現在は刑務所で暮らしている

Markus Lanieux는 교통 정체를 피해 도망쳤으며 현재 감옥에서 생활하고 있습니다.

Markus Lanieux fugiu de uma parada de trânsito - agora ele está cumprindo prisão perpétua

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