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Show HN: Give 7B people an instant physical address

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Re: Show HN: Give 7B people an instant physical address

#81

Post by ktta »

james_pm wrote: post #57
jakobegger wrote: post #50

What makes this better than actual coordinates? I can easily find numeric coordinates on a map, without any special tables or computations. I can immediately see if two numeric coordinates are close just by looking at the numbers. Very many people understand how to use standard numeric coordinates.

Seems more easily remembered and therefore easier to accurately share without reliance on technology. 6342 LAY TRANSCENDENT (my location right now) is easier to write down, and comes with a built in typo checker (icon is the earth in this case).

Probably not a good idea to post your address where people can see who you are (you have your keybase details on your profile)

Re: Show HN: Give 7B people an instant physical address

#82

Post by Melkor765 »

mabbo wrote: post #80

Maybe I'm missing something but why does "Pearl" mean 8480 and "Magical" -6129? If that's a hash, I really dislike this, because A: humans can't do hashing in their heads, and B: get one letter wrong and suddenly you don't have the right address. This has also been my big opposition to what3word. Addresses need to be resilient. If I make a tiny mistake in my address, there should be enough redundant data to help fix…

This is why he's incorporated the avatar - in the example he provides you wouldn't see the "boot" avatar if you had missed a letter, the boot is part of the address and should be communicated verbally when giving the address verbally.

Re: Show HN: Give 7B people an instant physical address

#83

Post by [deleted] »

mabbo wrote: post #80

Maybe I'm missing something but why does "Pearl" mean 8480 and "Magical" -6129? If that's a hash, I really dislike this, because A: humans can't do hashing in their heads, and B: get one letter wrong and suddenly you don't have the right address. This has also been my big opposition to what3word. Addresses need to be resilient. If I make a tiny mistake in my address, there should be enough redundant data to help fix…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Give 7B people an instant physical address

#84

Post by losteverything »

igravious wrote: post #74
losteverything wrote: post #65

Remember, addresses are very personal. They are reflective; they are metallic and have a magnetic quality; they are outwardly expressive; they have a perceived value; they are understandable; they are historic (having a history)

That's not what this is though.

Directly no - you are absolutely right. Indirectly yes - if a human is associated with it. As I'm making deliveries now with addresses on it there is no way anyone with a current address will change it. Or should I say allow anyone to change their address. People already have at least two addresses (lat long ) and a third (parcel block for taxes)

Re: Show HN: Give 7B people an instant physical address

#85

Post by tener »

Melkor765 wrote: post #82
mabbo wrote: post #80

Maybe I'm missing something but why does "Pearl" mean 8480 and "Magical" -6129? If that's a hash, I really dislike this, because A: humans can't do hashing in their heads, and B: get one letter wrong and suddenly you don't have the right address. This has also been my big opposition to what3word. Addresses need to be resilient. If I make a tiny mistake in my address, there should be enough redundant data to help fix…

This is why he's incorporated the avatar - in the example he provides you wouldn't see the "boot" avatar if you had missed a letter, the boot is part of the address and should be communicated verbally when giving the address verbally.

If you are sending or telling someone the adress you can't expect them to check the avatar. How would it work e.g. over the phone?

Re: Show HN: Give 7B people an instant physical address

#86

Post by Programmatic »

yladiz wrote: post #60
jakobegger wrote: post #50

What makes this better than actual coordinates? I can easily find numeric coordinates on a map, without any special tables or computations. I can immediately see if two numeric coordinates are close just by looking at the numbers. Very many people understand how to use standard numeric coordinates.

Try remembering and telling someone your home's coordinates. Then try telling them the coordinates of the restaurant up the street.

This would seem to suffer from a similar problem, given that we travel on and interact with roads primarily.

Decoupling from that seems like it would be set to fail for human memory, since there would probably be nothing to reinforce the memory over time for your restaurant example.

Re: Show HN: Give 7B people an instant physical address

#87

Post by IanCal »

jeeeeefff wrote: post #69
jakobegger wrote: post #50

What makes this better than actual coordinates? I can easily find numeric coordinates on a map, without any special tables or computations. I can immediately see if two numeric coordinates are close just by looking at the numbers. Very many people understand how to use standard numeric coordinates.

Same reason we have DNS instead of remembering IP addresses.

DNS allows us to keep swapping the IP address associated with a service though, this (afaik) doesn't.

Re: Show HN: Give 7B people an instant physical address

#88

Post by someone7x »

nradov wrote: post #78
rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have long maintained that an extension of the postal service should provide a one-stop-shop for your addresses. I have moved nearly every year since I left for college and I hate having to reset every address on every service I have. I'm sick of it.

Right the USPS should provide a layer of indirection. Give everyone a virtual mailing address, and then they could automatically route your mail to wherever you actually happen to live at the moment.

I didn't know it until now, but this is the disruption I've been waiting for.

Re: Show HN: Give 7B people an instant physical address

#89

Post by clarkmoody »

sly010 wrote: post #75

As a sidenote, Australia moves about 7cm north annually [1], so any encoding of GPS location is not flexible enough in the long term. Also only encoding lat/long makes it so you would not be able to address a single floor in a large building. [1] http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36912700

Given the spatial resolution of this project (10m) and the lifetime of humans (80 years), it should be alright :-)

Floor / apartment number / suite number could just be tacked onto the end.

Re: Show HN: Give 7B people an instant physical address

#90

Post by parennoob »

I have seen a lot of these co-ordinate based alternative address mechanisms (in fact the author gives a list -- https://github.com/roberdam/Xaddress#compare-encodings). But in my opinion, one thing they all ignore or get wrong is establishing some kind of linking mechanism between real world and co-ordinate based addresses. This is a hard problem, but one without which it is not going to be able to gain significant adoption.

How do we solve it? I am not sure. Maybe somehow augmenting regular national postcodes with coordinates would work better than these (kinda like the 4-digit augmentation to US ZIP codes) – because those are things you use on a daily or atleast monthly basis, and remember. Something like 98002-MAGICAL PEARL would be more easily remembered, and not get rid of existing information.

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