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

bbc.co.uk

211–220 of 246 posts

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

#211
post #74

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

Imagine if they find an opened chamber, and that it contains artefacts that can be carbon-dated, and they turn out to be thousands of years older than conventional Egyptology expects. (I expect there will be artefacts, and I expect their dates will coincide with what we already expect, but I’m always holding out for ”new science” that needs to be explained.)

I still subscribe to theory that the pyramid was meant as a landing pad for starships.

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

#213
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine if they find an opened chamber, and that it contains artefacts that can be carbon-dated, and they turn out to be thousands of years older than conventional Egyptology expects. (I expect there will be artefacts, and I expect their dates will coincide with what we already expect, but I’m always holding out for ”new science” that needs to be explained.)

I still subscribe to theory that the pyramid was meant as a landing pad for starships.

Been watching too much stargate lately?

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

#214
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun fact: Cleopatra and Mark Antony etc. lived closer in time to the invention of mobile phones than to the construction of the Great Pyramids. Egyptian history is deep . Funner fact: the Great Pyramids were built closer in time to the invention of mobile phones than to the construction of Göbekli Tepe. Human history is way deep. Funnest fact: if we don't fuck it up, we're still only at the dawn of history, not at th…

Yeah but I am pretty worried about us fucking it up these days.

People have been complaining about the imminent collapse of society for pretty much all of recorded history. We're not special.

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

#215
post #196
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is something I think about a lot. How do we build a "data pyramid" that can be interpreted by future generations. I feel like much of our culture will be lost to bit rot.

One line of thought I was going down recently was information encoded by printing very specific and precise three-dimensional "monoliths" that display information based on postion of the nearest star (which I assume would still be Sol, and would still be around in this distant future). To give an illustration of what I am trying to describe, I am imagine something like the cover of GEB ( https://images.gr-assets.com/…

Nice idea for short term (galacticly) but as far as I know the orbits of the solar system (even the 'stable' ones[1]) are unpredictable (chaotic) to a certain degree over long timescales. Assuming sol doesn't screw us over and the output behaves as we expect.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stability_of_the_Solar_System

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

#216
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me too. If this is a worry of yours, though, may I suggest, in no way rhetorically, going into the "not fucking it up" business? The pay is generally terrible, but nothing beats making your own hope.

I could really go for some hope and would very much like to do something of that nature, but it's hard to figure out where my skills are best allocated. As for the pay I am very difficult to motivate with money beyond what makes for housing and food security.

You should check out 80000hours.org! It‘s a yc company focused on helping bright people find the best job to make a positive impact in this world. I highly recommend it :)

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

#217

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...

almost lost in the main news they found a corridor just near the outside of the pyramid too : https://youtu.be/ZB-MOGw0RMo?t=3m0s !

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

#218
post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still subscribe to theory that the pyramid was meant as a landing pad for starships.

Been watching too much stargate lately?

Been missing StarGate too much lately. It was a damn good show.

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

#219
post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could really go for some hope and would very much like to do something of that nature, but it's hard to figure out where my skills are best allocated. As for the pay I am very difficult to motivate with money beyond what makes for housing and food security.

> it's hard to figure out where my skills are best allocated Better is the enemy of good enough -- just do something, and if that doesn't work, do something else. There are so many issues facing the world: climate change, population growth (/collapse, depending on where you are), food security, energy security, biodiversity, civil society, socioeconomics in the face of automation, supervolcanos, etc. etc. etc. There…

Thank you for sharing your inspiring story!

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

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems that peoples through the ages have respected the pyramids enough to leave them mostly intact and undisturbed, giving us the unique heritage that we have today. I can't help but contrast this with the British explorers who just started blowing through it with explosives and pulling stuff out wholesale.

I'm aware that they were subjected to grave robbing. That seems like more low-level thieving than actual organized pillaging though, which required destroying structure to pull off, as evidenced by the fact that the most important artifacts, including the riches of the burial chamber and the sarcophagus itself, were still there until modern times.

We have written confessions of systematic grave robbing from the time of the Pharoahs, and successive generations of Pharoahs came up with ever-more-elaborate schemes to make tombs more difficult to break into, none of which succeeded.

Finding Tutenkhamen's tomb that hadn't been systematically cleared of all its contents was unprecedented but owed nothing to being protected by any elaborate superstructure that needed destroying, and everything to do with it being concealed by mudslides and workers' huts rather than the sort of superstructure graverobbers were used to partially dismantling to find a way in.

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