"I had always thought that the earth in which I stood was a solid object that would last forever. Or rather, I had never thought about such a thing at all. I had simply taken it for granted.
But in fact, the earth was nothing but a chunk of rock floating in one little corner of the universe: a temporary foothold in the vast emptiness of space. It - and all of us with it - could be blown away by a momentary flash of something or a tiny shift in the universe’s energy. . . The uncertainty of my own existence struck me full force.”
— Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Last night, I was rereading my favorite book, and came upon that paragraph.
Then, this morning, I was reading Brian Greene’s The Elegant Universe (AKA “the pleb’s guide to quantum physics”), and confirmed that the above line wasn’t just literary bullshit.
The amount of potential energy in what we currently consider the base building blocks of everything in the universe is absurd.
Here’s what I mean:
Electrons have a negative electromagnetic charge. Opposite charges attract, so protons (with positive charges) are drawn toward electrons, while other electrons are repelled.
Electromagnetic forces are just one of four fundamental forces in our universe. Gravity is another, and all objects with mass are drawn to each other by their gravitational pulls. However, gravity is weak. The electromagnetic force (which has an unlimited range of effect) is about 1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 (10^42) times stronger (roughly how the length of the universe compares to the length of your bicep).
The only reason electromagnetic forces don’t rip everything apart, completely disregarding gravity, is because there are generally an equal amount of positive charges and negative charges to cancel each other out.
Similarly, matter and antimatter are opposing natures which, when brought together, cancel out in the form of pure energy. The reason this entire universe doesn’t go up in a big ball of light is because there’s currently far less antimatter than matter present in our observable universe (despite general consensus that they were created in equal proportions during the Big Bang).
Weird.
We live in an incredibly precise universe, the precision of which we don’t fully understand. This means we live in a very fragile universe, as disrupting that balance is technically only a matter of a poorly-timed blindspot and the right technology.
For example, it’s somewhat reductive, but imagine we had tools at the time of the creation of the atomic bomb capable of interacting with subatomic particles to the degree that we do now, only we didn’t know any more than we did. It’s entirely possible Oppenheimer could have blown up the entire planet testing his bomb, or worse.
Of course there was plenty of theoretical testing first, in the form of math and physics. But when we don’t have clues as to why or how, for example, gluons or the yet-unconfirmed gravitons maintain their particular masses and force charges, there are invisible cliffs within our safeguards.
Ignorance is a dangerous game, and science, by definition, is a process of diving into our ignorance in the pursuit of growing our understanding.
So too is this project, and every aspect of our lives.
People, especially in crypto, love to grandstand and act like they know things with certainty.
The only thing I can tell you with certainty is that they don’t, especially not in a space as young and as dynamic as this one.
If TradFi isn’t completely predictable to Wall Street and the only thing keeping you from exploding into a second Big Bang is we-don’t-actually-fucking-know-once-you-get-deep-enough, dickcheese.eth certainly doesn’t completely understand inter-chain GameFi tokenomics (which hasn’t been done like this before, to be clear).
But that’s good news.
We’re doing something new, and huge.
It’s going to take time, testing, trial-and-error, and some backbone. But be patient with yourselves, and with each other.
We might all be fragile, but we’re not weak. We can take the hits that come, and just keep trying (and, keep explaining it to the newcomers from the “traditional” crypto space who think they’re just here to pump a coin. Be patient with them, and pull them up with us).
We’re going to make it.
Anyway, that’s enough existential crisis for one night, I don’t want to find this post on r/I’m14andthisisdeep. (Unless you’re into my rants, in which case, read this.)
Now, for the
TL;DR
Development/Design
— We added XP aggregation to missions, which will be launching later this week.
— We added some fancy little UI redesigns to the app, which will go live with missions.
— We built the ability for Architects (landowners) to make their lands private once missions go live, in case you want to play on your own plots.
— We built the logic for power plant upgrades to increase the number of missions playable on a plot.
— We made upgrades to the missions UI in the base station. Now you’ll never have to see what it looked like before…
— We made progress on those rare NFTs for mission rewards in release 1.2, which will be tradable on that in-game NFT marketplace we began drafting.
— After missions, we’ll release the DEX, begin a beta testing campaign, add avatar upgrades, and start building the in-game NFT marketplace.
Community
— We published the Player’s Guide (GitBook)
— You got a BTS look at the first step in the design process for Guild Zero
— We had an impromptu hangout call again! Just like old times.
— We closed the Telegram (praise the worms), so join the Discord, it’s where all the fun and new info is. Why did we close TG? It’s a disgusting cesspool of bots and shitcoin pumper-and-dumpers that adds no value to the Colony (just because you were in the TG doesn’t mean you’re one of them, it just means you’ll feel more at home in the Discord <3).
— DFK had some drama and Harmony took a hit, as has CLNY. We dove headfirst into a bear market and are still alive. Be proud.
— We have a Twitter Space AMA (Space AMA?) this Thursday at 10am ET! Link to be published tomorrow.
— There’s a new channel in the Discord for gaming with each other in our spare time. Join #spartan-hq to see what people are playing, or invite others! Maybe we’ll do a tournament soon?
I know day-by-day it’s hard to stay sane without releases (imagine how we feel), but you’ve almost made it. The first release of missions is just the beginning of a cascade of… “visible activity”. But I’ll explain what I mean [soon], can’t spoil my surprises (though to be fair, the first teaser you’ll see will be very obvious).
Forward.
— brother
