Gnats and camels | The Talos Principle #15

[@meridiasbeacon7669]

Listening to Oliver explain Astronomy stuff while "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" is playing was such a vibe...

[@CakeForJack]

It was a transcendental experience

[@bluecorvidart]

Oh the easter eggs make narrative sense! It's the devs of the in-game game putting in little references to their favorite things.

[@HugoBaesJr]

All in all, it's just another plug in the hole xD

[@inter-loper]

That was one of my easiest stars in the whole game somehow. Being really insistent on a wrong assuption really is the greatest enemy ever :D

[@mlahut]

31:20 That band is Pink Floyd and the album cover is Dark Side of the Moon. I don't know their music well enough to know exactly which song it is, but the cover art is very iconic.

[@TeomanDogan-c6n]

I mean I love oliver but cmon man you gotta know pink floyd, its one of the best bands ever!!

[@meridiasbeacon7669]

Shine On You Crazy Diamond

[@TheUberDark]

But not from that album. It's on Wish you were here.

[@cucucachu3276]

It was great how you were saying how there's no way the fan would fling you across the map... and that was a cool bit of astronomy in there, i always appreciate bits like that from you!

[@Vodboi]

Seeing the title... oh no, he is gonna find another red herring which wasn't even designed to be a red herring, isn't he?

[@AboutOliver]

i.imgur.com/06Udjkg.gif

[@n16r3d0]

At least between Oliver being a completionist and this game being structured the way it is, we're unlikely to get a Southern Observatory. But yeah, this episode does veer dangerously close to a Frenchman.

[@AirsickDolphin]

Oliver and plugging holes, name a more iconic duo.

[@ingloriousbaxter]

I want to see him play Donut County

[@elizabethrollo7827]

Haha… ummm - Oliver and whatever he’s currently using to his advantage?

[@cmmc.]

I'm glad to see you're enjoying the recorder puzzles so much. A lot of players hate them to the point where they were left out of the sequel, but they were one of my favourite mechanics :)

[@jakeread9668]

Neural network is actually a bit of a misleading name. Neurons are far far more complicated than just adjusting weights, to the point that we've never been able to reconstruct the workings of a single one. Very complicated subject :)

[@AboutOliver]

True, and backpropagation is not a thing in brains either. 🤯

[@Faptimus420]

@@AboutOliver Gonna be -commenting- info-dumping here on a video that's 2 months old since I'm only just getting to it, but neural networks are both my special interest and my job, so I can't stop myself from not doing so. I'll try to keep it as non-technical as possible. The theory behind present-day neural networks originates back in the 40s, and it is based on what our understanding of biological neurons was back then. The difference is that while neuroscience has made leaps since then leaving the theory digital neurons are based on behind, we've only relatively recently gotten computer hardware powerful enough to execute them at any meaningful scale, so that's the theory computer scientists are still trying to milk. However, in the fields of both computer science and computer engineering, we do now have equivalents that are closer to our present understanding of biological neurons, they're just not getting nearly as much funding as the established neural networks. In the computer science side of things (the software), we have spiking neural networks. A spiking neuron resembles the biological one much more closely, and unlike the classic digital neuron, it's weight is only one real number - it's action potential (approximated by a float, if you're running this on regular hardware of course). When a spiking neuron receives input (a spike) of a high enough magnitude (either from just one of its inputs, or all of its inputs combined), if that input crosses the action potential, it sends out it's own output spike with a magnitude proportional to the input and its action potential (its wight), modifies its action potential in the process, and enters a short refractory period where it cannot fire again for a bit. This is called rate coding, but if you think about it, it's very similar to how the classic digital neurons operate. A more advanced (and more biological neuron-resembling) scheme is temporal coding, where the precise timing (on the millisecond scale) of spike inputs being received is what can trigger the neuron to output its own spike, rather than the whole thing being based just on "strong-enough inputs". Spiking neural network are significantly more energy-efficient, a temporal coding-based neuron can represent significantly more information than a classic neuron (indeed, there's research that shows that a single biological neuron, and theoretically, a spiking neuron, has the same computing capacity as a classic neural network with about 5 hidden layers), and they're particularly good at processing spatiotemporal data (e.g. video, real-time camera input, etc.). In the computer engineering side of things (the hardware), there's the field of neuromorphic computing, trying to recreate (analog) processors that resemble the brain better, particularly the fact that in the brain, the "CPU" and the "RAM" are one and the same, they're not two separate components. They typically use memristors instead of transistors, which is like a transistor that "remembers" all that passed through it. The memristor has its own internal "weight" reminiscent of the SNN's action potential, which is a real number between 0 and 1. When an electrical impulse passes through it, a two-way interaction happens - depending on the memristor's "weight", the electrical properties of the impulse are changed to make it more 0-like or more 1-like, but the existing properties of that impulse are modify the memristor's "weight", also pushing it closer to either 1 or 0, which will affect all the future impulses that pass through it. On classic, digital hardware, a classic neural network is purely a software abstraction, the hardware remain unchanged. The neat thing about neuromorphic hardware is that training a (usually spiking) neural network on it causes the hardware itself to become/represent the neural network - the "weights and biases" of the trained neural network are represented in the electrical properties of the hardware actually being changed. Intel Loihi and IBM NorthPole are probably the two most well-known neuromorphic chips.

[@black_crest]

Plugging holes is just the signature act of Oliver now

[@rechtebanana]

getting stuck on something is part of the puzzle game expierence, glad you have the patience to keep trying stuff

[@TheTmLev]

Oh, thank you! Hope your trip is going well!

[@francjirachi]

31:15 yeah, that is pink floyd lmao

[@Tryforce8000]

Yup, Dark Side of the Moon is the album, if I remember correctly.

[@martycullen1981]

I respect trying to get all the stars, but totally agree it's fine to skip it if you can't figure it out! We gotta figure out more about the tower and ELOHIM!

[@AboutOliver]

This game is so good I want to do absolutely everything😍

[@Ryuchitoran]

​@@AboutOliver Of course, but progressing further may unlock additional strategies, and allow you to find little tricks that you could come back later and use. :)

[@JDsenrandir]

I think it's great that he is so persistent. However, sometimes it's good to take a break.

[@roborob4296]

the obsession with the solution having to be in that one puzzle is really kicking your ass lol. Could always set a time limit to spend on a star before moving on then note it as something to return for later?

[@Raykon333]

Spoiler I can think of two at least solutions through that puzzle, one a bit janky, and one clean (which I used in my playthrough). There is also a way through another puzzle, but the solution is the exact same as the solution that would help him with the one he's stuck in.

[@Twisted_Hammer]

​@@Raykon333 Heavy Spoiler - - - - - It definitely doesn't surprise me that there's more than one solution to this puzzle. The way I solved it in my playthrough didn't involve the 'Iron Curtain' room at all! (I just grabbed both a fan and a connector from the 'four chambers of flying' room. - the jump panel in the middle is high enough that you can jump straight onto the wall from a box placed there, carrying whatever you want with you!)

[@aymbaut9361]

spoiler i'm pretty sure i used the slightly elevated sigil for the connector my first playthrough, this is actually one of the most open-ended stars in the game

[@n16r3d0]

Oliver: I swear to God, if I drop this thing again this episode ends immediately. Elohim: Swear to me!

[@TheUberDark]

Unlike some mentioned the album cover with the prism is not the one the song is on. The song that is parodied (its reminiscent but not the same) is "Shine on you crazy diamond" which is on an album called "Wish you were here". The prism cover refers to "Dark side of the moon". Same band, different albums.

[@Bhyure33]

smh all you had to do was to plug the hole in the weeds

[@AboutOliver]

I knew it !!

[@jakeread9668]

56:00 huh, so it is possible with your approach after all, always amazes me how many alternate solutions there are in this game. Shame you didn't find this one, but you got very close

[@bbrandonh]

More plugging, yay!

[@ze_rubenator]

Oh my God. Oliver. Go listen to The Dark Side Of The Moon. Right now.

[@ze_rubenator]

By the way, the song is not actually Pink Floyd. It's a royalty free parody of the intro to Shine On You Crazy Diamond.

[@AboutOliver]

Of course I've heard it before, I just don't remember cover pictures very well ! :D

[@mozeytown]

I'm still on my first playthrough but this was one of the most fun levels for me so far. [Spoilers if you ever return to this level looking for exploits.] I believe the most you can accumulate outside the puzzles is 3 fans, 1 box, 1 more fan _or_ box, 2 connectors, and 1 jammer - but there might be more I haven't figured out yet. Also, putting a connector on top of the obelisk and connecting it to all the blue lasers makes a terrific light show.

[@SystemBD]

It is painful to see how he finds a way to take the two boxes and the laser redirector her needs from the pit (the most difficult part)... but doesn't come up with the proper order of operations to achieve that, because he forgets he cant take the stacked boxes from the top.

[@LB_]

There is no need to take a second box nor a connector out of any puzzle to get the star here.

[@WinterWarlock261]

@@LB_ No, but it is one method: Coming out of that one puzzle with a connector, a fan and a box and that right there would do it. But, I won't explain how (I don't want to ruin it for Oliver). There's more than one method, though.

[@LB_]

@@WinterWarlock261 It is perhaps possible, but it's clearly not intended given that the fan on top of the pillars seems to only be for the Pink Floyd secret and there's a significantly easier solution for the star. Evidently the dev who added the secret and the dev who added the star did not talk to each other and oops, redundant items in the level.

[@mozeytown]

​@WinterWarlock261 you don't even need a box for the star, just a fan and connector.

[@KwehTheBird]

35:45 holyyyyy Did Oliver just reference "Dinner for one"? I know its massive in Germany but is it a thing in Denmark too?

[@WinterWarlock261]

If it's any help, there are 2 separate ways to get that star. I dunno if that counts as a "hint" since I'm not saying how to.

[@Twisted_Hammer]

Not at all important, just a fun little piece of cultural vocabulary: "I can't even solve these simple things in the beginning anymore; I'm that much out of my mind right now." I'm not sure if this is a phrase in your country as well, but in the US this feeling is referred to as being "tilted" - where you create a self-feeding loop of frustration causing mistakes which cause more frustration.

[@odo324]

People have also "short-circuited" a brain's hemisphere in order to disable it in adults which shown that the "surviving half" will fully take over as much as it possibly can ~ causing, what seems to be, a different personality (since the difference is so dramatic). Some memories will be inaccessible while others will remain. Some preferences will remain while others will switch dramatically. 32:24 I learned about this a couple of months ago! It was a video on how sunlight, when split up in a prism, will have missing spots in it. When the "normal way" of learning something is inaccessible, we have to figure out abnormal ways to learn about it. 👍 Yeah, definitely come back later ~ after a couple of puzzles. Don't forget about it like I did. Approaching it with zero knowledge, far later in the game, is... unpleasant... as well.

[@LB_]

30:57 congrats on finding the Pink Floyd secret! Hopefully the music doesn't get your video a Content ID match.

[@hmmmooops]

Obligatory boat

[@n4rf645]

The "brain" is just neurons, which is basically a bunch of cells reacting to electrical impulses generated by purposefully generated imbalances of ions. If you want to really simplify it, it's basically comparing the difference of electrical charge inside to outside of the cell (so either comparatively positive charge or negative charge). Or in even simpler terms, it's reacting to the difference between 0 and 1.

[@JDsenrandir]

Sorry for complicating again :P But as far as I know half of the brain consists of glia cells not neurons. They provide very efficient insulation and stability for the neurons and thus ensure the high speed of transmission. They also play a role in neuronal plasticity, i.e. in the formation of new neurons, new neuronal connections and the strengthening/weakening of existing neuronal connections.

[@JDsenrandir]

I think it is important to emphasize that the brain also forms the main stage for consciousness conceivable only in its embedding in a body, continuously disturbed by signals, external as well as internal. I suppose there is no consciousness in the physical vacuum of matrix multiplication.

[@sudarshanjs7988]

if you're struggling with a puzzle, stepping away and coming back to it later genuinely does help. It's not just ELOHIM propaganda

[@AboutOliver]

It's true. I'm sometimes too stubborn though ! :D

[@Doker40056]

Thank you for the video, science man

[@wulf2121]

I don't know what the actual solution to this star puzzle is (I played in VR and I am pretty sure I janked it abusing VR), but watching Oliver struggle made me pretty sure that you don't need to bring a connector out. Because if you could, there would be no reason for the connector at the far side of the lake he spotted to exist.

[@Arachne4168]

WARNING, SPOILER-ish: I like to think the Pink Floyd cave and some other easter eggs are "in-universe", someone thought this album is important human heritage, but not everyone agreed so they hid it.

[@SubliminalCorp]

Oliver, could I suggest the game castle story, it’s an amazing game that nobody uploads anymore, there are multiple game modes I think you would enjoy!

[@peterthomson7099]

Would you like a small hint for the B5 star Oliver? Loving the playthrough 😊

[@NumberJ42]

dark side of the moon baby

[@artyy3742]

yo oliver, recently discovered a game called "Voices of the Void" and man is it good. It is spooky as shit though, I dont really know if you like horror or not but if youre willing to give it a shot i would love to see you play it, its a very very immersive game and its just overall a great time.

[@crimsonharvest]

oh no i feel blown up by this terminal after my last episode comment lol

[@rabelaisian-crow]

Uh oh.

[@devonwilliams9576]

38:42 watching Oliver struggle and say "Im so close" when he literally just misses the "take hexahedron" several times is peak Oliver edit: aaaaaaaand he reset lmao 1:08:50 "what am i not seeing here?" the text that said "take hexahedron" 30 minutes ago

[@aymbaut9361]

for as blind as oliver gets, you must have been watching with the video off when you missed the multiple times he tries that and gets pulled through because you cant pick up an object from the other side of a gate

[@doctor_whoey3857]

He already tried taking the box from the other side of the gate, every time he does, the game forces him to that side of the gate.

[@devonwilliams9576]

@@doctor_whoey3857 except for the time he did get it without getting pulled through

[@devonwilliams9576]

@@aymbaut9361 except there was one time he didn't get pulled through, bud

[@mozeytown]

​@aymbaut9361 you can, it's just inconsistent. I generally have to try 4-5 times to make it work but it always does eventually. One of Oliver's worst habits in these games is assuming something won't work, trying and failing once or twice, and never trying again.

[@QuantumFeldspar]

When does he learn RMB keeps all connections?

[@metaKnightSpamer777]

I wish You Inspiration & Clarity;

[@magus104]

I mean the moon could be a Dysons sphere and at the core of it a white dwarf... Or thats just an amusingly bad movie