A Minecraft Player Set Out To Build the Known Universe, Block by Block (nytimes.com) 29
Christopher Slayton spent two months exploring black holes, identifying the colors of Saturn's rings and looking at his home planet from outer space. Mr. Slayton, 18, didn't have to leave his desk to do so. He set out to build the entire observable universe, block by block, in Minecraft, a video game where users build and explore worlds. From a report: By the end, he felt as if he had traveled to every corner of the universe. "Everyone freaks out about the power and expansiveness of the universe, which I never really got that much," he said. But after working for a month and 15 days to build it and additional two weeks to create a YouTube video unveiling it, "I realized even more how beautiful it is." Mr. Slayton, known as ChrisDaCow on his Minecraft-focused YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok accounts, has been playing the game for almost a decade, and he's not a user of any other games, he said. He started posting videos of his "builds," which are landscapes he creates inside the game, on YouTube in 2019. This channel has become his main priority since he graduated high school this spring.
[...] Exploring and learning concepts via Minecraft can be seen as a generational shift, said Ken Thompson, an assistant professor of digital game design at the University of Connecticut. About two-thirds of Americans play video games, according to a 2022 industry report. Professor Thompson said young people, such as Mr. Slayton, could apply problem solving and critical thinking when tackling projects such as the universe creation. "There are very serious applications," he said, adding, "then there's also this wonderful science side of it where we're experimenting with systems that are otherwise really hard to conceptualize." In 2022, some students at his university held a commencement ceremony in Minecraft, organized by the gaming club, after the in-person event was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. They created the campus and avatars representing students and even faculty to stage the virtual gathering.
[...] Exploring and learning concepts via Minecraft can be seen as a generational shift, said Ken Thompson, an assistant professor of digital game design at the University of Connecticut. About two-thirds of Americans play video games, according to a 2022 industry report. Professor Thompson said young people, such as Mr. Slayton, could apply problem solving and critical thinking when tackling projects such as the universe creation. "There are very serious applications," he said, adding, "then there's also this wonderful science side of it where we're experimenting with systems that are otherwise really hard to conceptualize." In 2022, some students at his university held a commencement ceremony in Minecraft, organized by the gaming club, after the in-person event was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. They created the campus and avatars representing students and even faculty to stage the virtual gathering.
How boring. (Score:1)
Better idea: Insult everyone in the known universe, in person, in alphabetical order.
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'he's not a user of any other games' (Score:2)
Honest; a video game as an addiction. It passes the major tests; it's legal, not fattening and not expensive...
This is awesome, but why does NYT care? (Score:5, Insightful)
But why is this considered newsworthy and important enough to devote a full profile, complete with "expert College professor" commentary, in THE NEW YORK TIMES?!
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Just like you spending your time bitching on slashdot instead of doing something productive.
Re:This is awesome, but why does NYT care? (Score:4)
Just because it sucks to be a "normie" who sells their labor to a corporation or has to hustle day and night doesn't invalidate the way that others are able to live their lives.
Re: This is awesome, but why does NYT care? (Score:1)
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Mumbo Jumbo was at about 7 milllion last time I looked. Grian was at 5 million. They are not even in the same league as Pew Dee Pie (who I don't watch). When I checked, he was making 2 million dollars per month.
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Just one problem... (Score:3)
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the best telescopes you can even dare to imagine will never ever expand the portion of the universe we can observe, which is inexorably shrinking.
the whole thing is just adolescent youtuber crap, but someone paid to make it a new york times' story. slashdot ofc couldn't be less.
Binary Data (Score:2)
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You jest, but this how the large hadron collider saves on their tremendous data storage needs. They only detect spin-up states and ignore the measured spin-down states.
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Six days. Not seven. If you believe the fairy tales.
IBM's lawyers will come calling (Score:2)
Here's the prior art: IBM OS/VU [weathergraphics.com]
That's nothing (Score:4, Funny)
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needless to say ... (Score:1)
... no, he didn't. it's not worth bypassing the paywall and not even watching the clickbait video, but at ease ... this is slashdot after all!
meh (Score:2)
meh
Error! Error! (Score:2)
Wouldn't a simulation of the known universe require more server space than the entire universe? And if somehow you could accomplish this, you would then have to expand the model to include the servers, and so on. Infinity would win again.