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Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years

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Re: Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years

#82

What's really striking to me about timelapse videos of the Earth is how, at a grand enough scale, the growth of human settlements on Earth really looks no different than the growth of bacterial and fungal colonies on Petri dishes. We think of ourself as special, as having conquered environments, technology and more - and when zoomed out you could explain everything we've built and accomplished as the achievements of…

Sure, we’re the same if you ignore a bunch of important differences. Growing our own food, not reproducing rapidly during food excess, etc.

Re: Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years

#83

I kinda wish that there was a timelapse for Google search. Search seems to be heavily biased towards stuff popular right now. It seems older things disappear fairly quickly. I've been in a position where I wanted to search for a website that was popular in 2012 without having the exact name, and having to find an old forum post that linked to it to find it.

Google Search does let you limit the results to old sites (though I realize this isn't quite equivalent).

Re: Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years

#84
post #70

With Timelapse in Google Earth, 24 million satellite photos from the past 37 years have been compiled into an interactive 4D experience. Now anyone can watch time unfold and witness nearly four decades of planetary change. This is amazing, will this be included in the VR versions of google earth? For those who haven't tried it yet Google Earth is the first thing I show friends who've never tried VR before by giving t…

I have a Play Station VR headset and it's awesome but I always felt sad that I coudln't experience this. How is the experience? I know a lot of friends felt sick when we play a space videogame or some game where the environment isn't clear and they can't see where they are standing, I guess having a view from outer space can trigger same feelings.

It's got the usual "comfort controls" (i.e. vignetting while moving). If you leave those switched on then it's OK for people that haven't got their VR legs yet.

But - yeah - with everything switched off it can be at the "intense" end of the spectrum.

Re: Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years

#85
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Joe Rogan talks about the idea in an old clip: I think human beings are just a very complicated form of bacteria. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zyc12-neTjM

Honestly can't stand the guy but I think of this soundbite constantly - he MUST have gotten it from someone else, right? lol

I've heard the idea expressed by many people in many different ways. Most versions compare our civilizations progress to a cancer or virus instead of just any old bacteria, because of the way we treat our environment. My favorite example is this[1] post about Factorio, which is a game in which you constantly add to a factory and expand to use more resources.

[1]https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comments/b6gsxp/spreading_...

Re: Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only difference being that we can understand the impact we're having. And yet...

If we REALLY understood it then maybe we would stop doing it. My bet is that we don't really get it.

I think “we” do, but we don’t quite care as much about future generations as we like to think we do. Especially not when others today are disproportionately benefiting.

Re: Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years

#87
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about the GP, but I use a Quest 2.

Via Link? (I hadn't ever gotten around to verifying that would work. I partly ask, as the Google Earth VR experience was particularly epic in a way the Google Street View app--which was available on Quest--was not, even if the latter still causes a feeling of wonder in me... and the GP is talking about street view and people surrounding their position and the such.)

I have yet to run into anything on Steam VR that won’t work on the Quest 2 with a link cable

Re: Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years

#88
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Joe Rogan talks about the idea in an old clip: I think human beings are just a very complicated form of bacteria. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zyc12-neTjM

Honestly can't stand the guy but I think of this soundbite constantly - he MUST have gotten it from someone else, right? lol

Yes this has been around for a long time. Sometimes instead of bacteria it's viewed as a cancer because cancer is metabolic and will continue to grow until is destroys it's host.

Re: Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years

#89
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have a look at mortality and poverty rates globally. There is good news, as well as bad.

One could argue a cancer spreading faster is bad news

I would respectfully suggest that referring to people as 'a cancer' says more about the person than whatever point they're trying to make.

Re: Time flies in Google Earth’s biggest update in years

#90
post #70

With Timelapse in Google Earth, 24 million satellite photos from the past 37 years have been compiled into an interactive 4D experience. Now anyone can watch time unfold and witness nearly four decades of planetary change. This is amazing, will this be included in the VR versions of google earth? For those who haven't tried it yet Google Earth is the first thing I show friends who've never tried VR before by giving t…

I have a Play Station VR headset and it's awesome but I always felt sad that I coudln't experience this. How is the experience? I know a lot of friends felt sick when we play a space videogame or some game where the environment isn't clear and they can't see where they are standing, I guess having a view from outer space can trigger same feelings.

It's amazing.

The motion sickness factor isn't zero, but its' small.

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