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'Big Void' Identified in Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza

bbc.co.uk

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Re: 'Big Void' Identified in Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza

#61

Post by sigstoat »

moftz wrote: post #32
ivanhoe wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like it's a safer option, but requires that you have the technology and energy sources to communicate with that satellite - which is not really 100% reliable if you are about to experience a planet-wide catastrophe of such magnitude that it would require storing data outside of the Earth surface in a first place.

You could put in an orbit that would have a predefined reentry in the future. Design the satellite to survive reentry and somehow safely land in a way that relies on a mechanical system that wouldn't degrade like electronics in space would.

> You could put in an orbit that would have a predefined reentry in the future.

it isn't clear what you mean by this, but there's no picking where something will reenter hundreds of years in the future. if you just want to ensure that it will reenter, sooner or later, that's easily done.

> Design the satellite to survive reentry and somehow safely land in a way that relies on a mechanical system that wouldn't degrade like electronics in space would.

chunks of satellites are far more likely to survive reentry already than you might expect. i expect it would be feasible now to produce an insert sphere filled with information etched on nickel-superalloy plates that would survive uncontrolled reentry and impact with the earth's surface.

i'd suggest storing the information in something covered with retro-reflectors, and dropping it onto the moon's surface, though. need more delta-V to get it there and retrieve it, but it'd be a simpler object to construct, and then later deconstruct.

Re: 'Big Void' Identified in Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza

#62

Post by acqq »

radiorental wrote: post #56
kevindqc wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Egypt's main pyramid sites in Giza are accessible to the general public every day, all year long. Although you can go inside the Great Pyramid of Khufu when you visit, one of the smaller two pyramids usually is closed for restoration work. To further complicate your tourist plans, at the time of publication, only 300 tickets are sold per pyramid, per day. You must arrive early to secure your visit inside

I've also read that given the economic instability in Cairo, it's just a royal PITA to visit. Tourists get aggressively hassled to buy stuff, camel rides, tours, etc. I've been to New Grange and Stonehenge. While it's pretty neat to go there, it's just a structure. The real value and interest for me is reading up on what the researchers have found out. Let the plinths for Stonehendge were quarried 150 miles away in w…

> it's just a structure

You haven't been in front of it, right? Not being there once, needing to spend your time and energy, standing there and thinking how old it is, seeing how big it is, makes easier to say something like that.

Re: 'Big Void' Identified in Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza

#63

Post by kbenson »

_jal wrote: post #55
dredmorbius wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stuff in the middle of a lot of not-stuff is fairly findable. Particularly if it has a strong signature on radar or microwave imaging.

Depends on your definition of 'findable', I suppose. Flight 370 wasn't found after "the most expensive search operation in aviation history[1]" performed by a multinational effort over almost three years. There are distinctions to quibble about, sure, and there are things that could be done to make things not designed to shuttle meatbags around easier to find. But the area comprising the middle of the not-stuff you r…

> There are distinctions to quibble about, sure

That's an example of stuff in the middle of a whole bunch of other stuff, not in the middle of a bunch of non-stuff. I'm not sure that it's all that similar at all, beyond as a a very general "finding stuff can be hard" example.

Re: 'Big Void' Identified in Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza

#64

Post by acqq »

paulsutter wrote: post #28
yoodenvranx wrote: post #2

Slightly off-topic but perhaps someone has an answer: After finishing "Dark Forest" / "Death’s End" I somehow ended up with the questions if our way of doing archaeology is actually a good idea. Currently we i) remove a lot of things from the ground / graves / ruins, ii) analyze them, iii) put them in a museum and iv) write books about them. This means that all the knowledge about those artifacts and our history is s…

The Internet Archive has that goal (archive.org), it’s paid for by Brewster Kahle personally. > Is there any project which strives to preserve our current knowledge about humanity in some sort of long-term storage so that also people in 500 or 2000 years will be able to reconstruct

The Internet Archive accepts donations too!

https://archive.org/donate/

(Disclaimer: not working there, just a happy supporter.)

Re: 'Big Void' Identified in Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza

#66

Post by _jal »

kbenson wrote: post #63
_jal wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on your definition of 'findable', I suppose. Flight 370 wasn't found after "the most expensive search operation in aviation history[1]" performed by a multinational effort over almost three years. There are distinctions to quibble about, sure, and there are things that could be done to make things not designed to shuttle meatbags around easier to find. But the area comprising the middle of the not-stuff you r…

> There are distinctions to quibble about, sure That's an example of stuff in the middle of a whole bunch of other stuff, not in the middle of a bunch of non-stuff. I'm not sure that it's all that similar at all, beyond as a a very general "finding stuff can be hard" example.

Oh, I may have become confused as to which part of this thread I was responding to - I thought we were talking about finding a satellite after reentry.

Re: 'Big Void' Identified in Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza

#67

Post by wuliwong »

vowelless wrote: post #26
f_allwein wrote: post #14

Interesting how the pyramids have been around for 4500 years and we still don't know all about their structure... Fun fact: there's a Neolithic site in Ireland, Newgrange, that's actually older than the pyramids. Fascinating and worth a visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange

Nothing blows my mind more than Göbekli Tepe, especially its age. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Göbekli_Tepe

Yes! Göbekli Tepe is so fascinating!

Re: 'Big Void' Identified in Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza

#69

Post by acqq »

iamben wrote: post #40
dkersten wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope they're recording all of the data on stone tablets in cuneiform, instead of in some digital format for which reading hardware will be obsolete in a few years... ;-)

I remember reading about this a while back (probably on HN). They're storing a bunch of data along with the OSs and devices to read it in a bunker in Switzerland, so if we do leave a bunch of digital data, future generations can actually access it. Tried to find a decent article, but this was about the best I could do: https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2363904,00.asp

"They" in that case aren't the "Internet Archive" but the European research projects about the digital preservation.

The Internet Archive collects the donations now for the Canada site:

"this year, we have set a new goal: to create a copy of Internet Archive’s digital collections in another country. We are building the Internet Archive of Canada because lots of copies keeps stuff safe. We estimate this will cost $5 million. With your support, we are more than halfway there."

https://archive.org/donate/

Re: 'Big Void' Identified in Khufu's Great Pyramid at Giza

#70

Post by qubex »

singularity2001 wrote: post #65

does that disprove Jean-Pierre Houdin's beautiful theory, that there is an inner construction passage? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lasCXujNPfs&list=PLf_5zbxiQ4...

On the contrary, it is no coincidence that it this has been found by a team comprised of (also) French academics. This is very much compatible and inspired by his work.

His theory involves the Grand Gallery being a purely functional structure required to accodate a trolley that helped serve as a counterweight to heave the massive stones that relieve the weight acting upon the roof of the King’s Chamber. Implicit in this theory is the idea that there are other ”ceremonial routes” from the outside to the King’s Chamber. It is very possible that this is actually the unopened anteroom that contains the provisions for the Pharos’ afterlife (or other artefacts that could be carbon-dated).

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