Spiders

Long-time listener, first-time caller. You seemed really excited talking about toxoplasmosis (which I will from now on call "toxo"). I'd like to recommend a great book called Parasite Rex by Carl Zimmer. It's a concise non-academic read that covers parasite evolution, behavior, and their place in the food chain. It's fascinating to learn about the ingenious ways different parasites manage complex life-cycles through multiple organisms with simple behaviors and (debatably) no intelligence. I think there is an untapped application in game design, particularly in AI. Most intelligence in games seems to be based on insect-like nervous systems: routes and simple responses to stimuli, sometimes with a little RNG. Parasites are far more proactive and stack simple behaviors with little decision making into elaborate results. I always thought someone much smarter than me could make some really interesting AI models based on that. Insect group behavior (as opposed to individual nervous systems) as well seems like a game AI goldmine. I loved the last few episodes. Mario theory-crafting might be the best thing I've ever heard in a gaming podcast, and "are bats birds?" almost got me in a traffic accident I laughed so hard. From reading other posts, it sounds like this is an intentional pivot away from games. I've always appreciated that you don't talk about games in a vacuum. Though I hope that gaming remains at the core of the show, I'll be listening no matter what direction you guys want to take.