Wikipedia to the Moon • Hacker News Board

Re: Wikipedia to the Moon

#41

Post by lucb1e » Thu, Apr 21, 2016, 6:39 PM UTC

guelo wrote: post #25

If an alien makes it all the way to the moon with the tech to read the disc why wouldn't they hop on over to Earth where there would be much more data? When Carl Sagan did it it was much more evocative because Voyager will be traveling for thousands of years into deep space.

> If an alien makes it all the way to the moon with the tech to read the disc why wouldn't they hop on over to Earth where there would be much more data?

If you read the FAQ[1], it says:

> [aliens] Probably not … but well, who knows? No, the Lunar challenge is mainly about pioneer spirit, curiosity, and visions for humanity. So, with the symbolic act of leaving a snapshot of human history on the surface of the Moon, we are thinking more about future generations than aliens.

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_to_the_Moon/FAQ

Re: Wikipedia to the Moon

#42

Post by morgante » Thu, Apr 21, 2016, 7:05 PM UTC

sparkzilla wrote: post #37

Houshalter wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure that's correct. Wikipedia contains detailed articles on many very obscure subjects. Searching for such topics on YouTube usually gives disappointing results. Wikipedia is missing some material though. A better choice might be the google book project or libgen, which contains a ton of obscure books and scientific papers. But compressing it all to 20 GB would be difficult or impossible. Much easier than co…

That's my point: They're assuming the aliens want to know about detailed, encyclopedic subjects. But what if they just want to know about Kim Kardashian?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Kardashian

That's more than anyone ever needs to know about Kim Kardashian.

Re: Wikipedia to the Moon

#43

Post by c22 » Thu, Apr 21, 2016, 7:12 PM UTC

jsmthrowaway wrote: post #39

danielvf wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does indeed. However compression may cause problems for future beings discovering or understanding the data.

Keep in mind they have to understand the text and image encodings. The concept of glyphs themselves, even. Words. Language. Bytes (why 8 bits). Bits. Knowledge expressed as sentences. How to read the media. Compression would be just another thing. There's a pretty big hurdle to comprehension even without compression because we are thinking in human terms. Imagine all of the prerequisite human knowledge you overlook t…

Imagine how disappointed the aliens will be to find our disc full of the boring old "discoveries" of a barely space-fairing species. Nothing to see here, move along.

Re: Wikipedia to the Moon

#44

Post by ohitsdom » Thu, Apr 21, 2016, 7:13 PM UTC

learc83 wrote: post #2

The deadline for the Lunar X Prize is next year, and according to wikipedia one of the teams has a launch contract with SpaceX. Does SpaceX have a rocket capable of making it to the moon?

SpaceX just goes into Earth orbit, the team's job is to get to the moon.

At least that's what the FAQ says [0]:

> [Part-Time Scientists] will join a commercial space flight, e. g. a rocket launch to orbit. From there, their own lunar lander module will travel to the Moon, the final task being to land safely and release the rover.

[0] https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_to_the_Moon/FAQ#...

Re: Wikipedia to the Moon

#45

Post by Houshalter » Thu, Apr 21, 2016, 7:17 PM UTC

jsmthrowaway wrote: post #39

danielvf wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does indeed. However compression may cause problems for future beings discovering or understanding the data.

Keep in mind they have to understand the text and image encodings. The concept of glyphs themselves, even. Words. Language. Bytes (why 8 bits). Bits. Knowledge expressed as sentences. How to read the media. Compression would be just another thing. There's a pretty big hurdle to comprehension even without compression because we are thinking in human terms. Imagine all of the prerequisite human knowledge you overlook t…

One of my favorite short stories is That Alien Message: http://lesswrong.com/lw/qk/that_alien_message/

Its about humanity trying to reverse engineer a message from space that has very few bits. One of the morals is that humans would be able to decode crazy encodings provided enough time. And more data helps a lot. With 20 GB, even compressed, common patterns could quickly be found.

I don't believe for a moment a race advanced enough to recover the disc wouldn't understand it.

Re: Wikipedia to the Moon

#46

Post by whatever_dude » Thu, Apr 21, 2016, 7:23 PM UTC

gooseus wrote: post #26

I wonder what the estimated cost per GB will be for this data transfer?

I bet they can get the data there faster than it'd take for me to upload it anywhere using Time Warner Cable.

Re: Wikipedia to the Moon

#47

Post by icebraining » Thu, Apr 21, 2016, 7:40 PM UTC

Houshalter wrote: post #34

guelo wrote: post #25

If an alien makes it all the way to the moon with the tech to read the disc why wouldn't they hop on over to Earth where there would be much more data? When Carl Sagan did it it was much more evocative because Voyager will be traveling for thousands of years into deep space.

Well hypothetically if the Earth was destroyed by grey-goo or something, the disc would still be there. But the other answer is that it's much easier to find. Where would you put a ceramic copy of wikipedia on Earth to maximize it's probability of being found? Anywhere you put it could get destroyed, buried, or stolen. Who knows what will happen to it over the Eons. This disc will be on the surface of the moon foreve…

This disc will be on the surface of the moon forever.

Or until a meteorite hits it.

Re: Wikipedia to the Moon

#48

Post by 9918231 » Thu, Apr 21, 2016, 7:45 PM UTC

coolspot wrote: post #27

Ruud-v-A wrote: post #19

Now I understand why they were begging for donations all the time

How to downwote comment on the HN? I only see "upvote" button.

You can down-vote once you've learned to use full sentences.

Re: Wikipedia to the Moon

#49

Post by fapjacks » Thu, Apr 21, 2016, 7:49 PM UTC

Sneakernet on steriods.

Re: Wikipedia to the Moon

#50

Post by notahacker » Thu, Apr 21, 2016, 7:51 PM UTC

Houshalter wrote: post #12

sparkzilla wrote: post #3

Sending an archive of YouTube would be much more useful for any aliens that happen to drop by. YT comes far closer to The Sum of All Human Knowledge than Wikipedia.

I'm not sure that's correct. Wikipedia contains detailed articles on many very obscure subjects. Searching for such topics on YouTube usually gives disappointing results. Wikipedia is missing some material though. A better choice might be the google book project or libgen, which contains a ton of obscure books and scientific papers. But compressing it all to 20 GB would be difficult or impossible. Much easier than co…

Video broadcasts of humans being human conveys a lot more information than a written language they don't understand (they may not even have the concept of a written language) and don't have any reference points to.

Admittedly, with YouTube they might get the idea that humans communicate with each other mainly via the medium of song and that cats are sacred, but at least they'd learn something