Feedback, New Scientist’s recurring feature, shines a sideways glance at the latest developments in science and technology, often highlighting the quirky and unexpected. This week’s focus spans remarkable dedication to hobbyist pursuits—from a working AI built within Minecraft to a return to analog task management.
Minecraft’s Improbable AI: CraftGPT
The piece spotlights the incredible effort of YouTuber sammyuri, who has constructed a large language model, dubbed CraftGPT, entirely within the block-based world of Minecraft. Using redstone, the game’s equivalent of electrical circuitry, sammyuri has created a working AI capable of basic conversation and responding to prompts, like ChatGPT or Claude. The sheer scale of the project is striking: a towering structure of redstone blocks mimicking the components of an LLM, including a tokenizer, KV cache, and rectified linear unit (ReLU). While technically a “small language model” with just 5 million parameters, its existence showcases extraordinary dedication and ingenuity. The conversation example – “Hello, how are you today?” “I am feeling quite happy today, thank you for asking” – and CraftGPT’s surprisingly self-aware acknowledgement of being a machine highlights the project’s intriguing nature.
A President’s Departure and the Allure of Analog
The focus shifts to the gaming world, noting the departure of Nintendo America’s president after a decade overseeing iconic franchises like Mario. The coincidental departure of a president named Doug Bowser, facing off against Bowser the tortoise, provides a moment of playful irony.
The article then explores a surprising trend: the resurgence of analog task management. Ugmonk’s “Analog” to-do manager—essentially index cards and a wooden block—is gaining traction as an alternative to digital task management tools, appealing to those seeking offline focus and a departure from the distractions of social media. While costing £75 for a starter kit plus ongoing card refills (priced at around £141 annually or through a monthly subscription), Analog taps into a yearning for simplicity and a rejection of digital overwhelm. This trend highlights a broader desire for mindful productivity and a reconnection with tangible tools.
The dedication showcased in these seemingly niche pursuits reveals a fundamental human desire to create, tinker, and pursue interests beyond purely practical needs.
The article concludes with a touch of self-aware irony regarding the magazine’s own subscription model, offering a reminder that even critical commentary exists within a subscription-based framework. This week’s Feedback demonstrates that whether it’s constructing an AI within Minecraft or returning to index cards, dedication to hobbies can take remarkably inventive and sometimes delightfully paradoxical forms
