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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

#291

Post by nate_meurer »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #257
stared wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a c…

Somewhere, some overlord in a galaxy far, far away is looking at us through a faster-than-light telescope and going "Yeppers. They are about to hit critical mass. Either a population crash is imminent or they start colonizing their solar system. Schedule a diplomatic mission for their corner of their galaxy to invite them to the intergalactic council should they survive this completely normal, though adolescently awk…

The eternal optimist in me hopes their spies on Earth tell them that humans are entering a third industrial revolution which has a chance of making future growth sustainable, or at least much more so.

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

#292

Post by ianbutler »

IgorPartola wrote: post #285
Grimm1 wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mind providing me some of that research? I've heard this a few times but when I go looking for it nothing really pops up, it's mostly things saying we need to act now but can avoid the biggest issues.

Not proper research but this is as visual as it gets: https://xkcd.com/1732/

And here's NASA and the general gov saying what I said in my last comment,

https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/16/is-it-too-late-to-prevent-cl...

https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-qa/can-we-slow...

Going to need something a little stronger than xkcd here. I'm not a climate scientist but a lot of the names attached to both links seem to be and they're saying if we act decisively in the next 29 years we can avoid the worst effects, which in that second link is defined as this century

Edit: I also want to make it clear just in case anyone misinterprets my skepticism over the depth of the effects as skepticism in climate change or the urgency of it in general. I agree we need to do what we can to make sure things like this don't come to pass because I happen to like our somewhat diverse ecosystem and that we continue to damage it isn't great.

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

#294

Post by gbrown »

FabiansMustDie wrote: post #246
gbrown wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd be more interested in what you think it "should" look like for an "advanced" species besides optimal? In a word, sustainable. An advanced civilization should be able to develop in a coordinated and self sustaining way, rather than as a grand experiment in tragedy of the commons. Microbes don’t coordinate their growth, and therefore fall into boom-bust cycles that dominate and exhaust their local environment. Hu…

I think deferring to reason is a nouveau fad among men of letters -- as if it's some truth machine; wherein one inputs one's observations and, by the grace of reason, out pops "what should be done." This ignores the very basest of truths that all men's* reason is self-centered, generating only courses of action that benefit him -- no matter how indirectly (ex. donating to a charity does help others, but it also helps…

I'm not 100% sure what you're getting at, but I don't think it really addresses my point. Much of what you've said could be read as just a descriptive reason why the human world is the way it is - no objection there, except to note that I'd hope for better from an "advanced civilization", regardless of what mechanisms were at play. Preferably, a super-majority would be aware of the issues and willing to coordinate extensively to mitigate them for the greater good, but I don't think anyone would argue that we're there yet.

As a stylistic choice, I also have an aversion to dressing up human decision-making in such abstract and flowery terminology. We've invented lots of cool tools for thinking and doing, but we're still simply advanced primates with lots of baggage.

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

#295

Post by BoiledCabbage »

siculars wrote: post #280
Grimm1 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can say the same thing about ant colonies. I think it's probably just what anything that groups and branches around resource deposits looks like. If I recall slime molds are optimal planners regarding surrounding resources so it just sounds like a natural optimality to me. I'd be more interested in what you think it "should" look like for an "advanced" species besides optimal? Looking at it is disparagingly is we…

I don't think it is possible for humans to be optimal vs, say, slime. Slime, presumably, does not have incentive structure that individual humans collude in at their benefit to the detriment of others. For example, why did the US build roads at the expense of rail? The incentive structure of the auto industry.

And yet, would the rail corridors have looked drastically different, or stopped at different cities? Or would it still have run between the same major metro hubs we have now?

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

#296

Post by azernik »

gbrown wrote: post #185
Grimm1 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can say the same thing about ant colonies. I think it's probably just what anything that groups and branches around resource deposits looks like. If I recall slime molds are optimal planners regarding surrounding resources so it just sounds like a natural optimality to me. I'd be more interested in what you think it "should" look like for an "advanced" species besides optimal? Looking at it is disparagingly is we…

> I'd be more interested in what you think it "should" look like for an "advanced" species besides optimal? In a word, sustainable. An advanced civilization should be able to develop in a coordinated and self sustaining way, rather than as a grand experiment in tragedy of the commons. Microbes don’t coordinate their growth, and therefore fall into boom-bust cycles that dominate and exhaust their local environment. Hu…

Sustainability is orthogonal to the geographic patterns of development - it's always going to be more efficient (even in environmental impact!) to cluster around resources and transportation.

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

#297

Post by _2d30 »

scubbo wrote: post #214
globular-toast wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't grow our food. The chloroplast inside plants that we live around grow it. Fungi can do the same thing. See lichen, for example.

Did you honestly believe that the person you are replying to was under the mistaken impression that humans photosynthesize, or were you instead choosing to willfully misinterpret their shorthand phrase standing in for "engaging in agriculture"?

Obviously the entire point of this thread is to disparage humanity and not come to meaningful conclusions. For your own sanity, just leave the anti-humanists to their own devices.

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

#298

Post by goldenchrome »

joeberon wrote: post #220
jayd16 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Google has bailed on VR apps Yeah, whats up with that? Unless its all under wraps, Google is letting what lead they had whither away. Its silly to think they had working inside out tracking (Tango) in 2014.

It's standard Google practise to abandon old projects and move onto fresh new ones. It's due to how the internal promotion system works. Everyone should be aware of this by now..

Technology enthusiasts (read: HN users) may not like it, but it's a business practice that's working as intended. Sometimes Google may seem shortsighted but often times they're just measuring the market correctly.

I worked on AR/VR at Google and the projects have mostly paused because there's no visible financial benefit. No one in the real world cares enough about VR to justify it as a business. We prototyped hundreds of applications—every idea you can possibly think of—and all of them are either impractical with today's technology, or not useful enough to bother putting a VR headset on your head.

AR/VR is one of those things that feels so magical that you think, "There must be amazing things we can do with it!" but it turns out there's not. At least not yet. The situation is pretty clear because Facebook, Apple, and Google all bet big on AR/VR and all of them have stalled indefinitely.

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

#299

Post by bngybmgrglflps »

gbrown wrote: post #185
Grimm1 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can say the same thing about ant colonies. I think it's probably just what anything that groups and branches around resource deposits looks like. If I recall slime molds are optimal planners regarding surrounding resources so it just sounds like a natural optimality to me. I'd be more interested in what you think it "should" look like for an "advanced" species besides optimal? Looking at it is disparagingly is we…

> I'd be more interested in what you think it "should" look like for an "advanced" species besides optimal? In a word, sustainable. An advanced civilization should be able to develop in a coordinated and self sustaining way, rather than as a grand experiment in tragedy of the commons. Microbes don’t coordinate their growth, and therefore fall into boom-bust cycles that dominate and exhaust their local environment. Hu…

Who does the coordinating, to what purpose? By what right, at whose expense?

Why isn't coordination the grand experiment? Glancing nervously through history, or in the mirror, it's never sufficient -- and not for lack of vigor.

Suppose each microbe is unique: every one has a name, dreams, fears, love, grief, joy -- stories.

I can't understand the enduring appeal of reducing people's lives to fungible grey mush.

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

#300

Post by GareyBaldo »

ishjoh wrote: post #266
gbrown wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd be more interested in what you think it "should" look like for an "advanced" species besides optimal? In a word, sustainable. An advanced civilization should be able to develop in a coordinated and self sustaining way, rather than as a grand experiment in tragedy of the commons. Microbes don’t coordinate their growth, and therefore fall into boom-bust cycles that dominate and exhaust their local environment. Hu…

Are you suggesting government mandated population control?

Are you? That's a strange response. Your question is a non sequitur.
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