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Human Shader

humanshader.com

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Re: Human Shader

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can be done. To submit a pixel you have to take a photo proof of your calculations on paper, it’s already “moderated”

Interesting, how come there are obviously incorrect pixels ?.

Some of the calculations are pretty big and the operation to trim LSD is easy to mess up if you forget to round.

Re: Human Shader

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quote from imdb movie description: > mathematicians that served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in U.S. history In this case, aren't they more like hands than brains? The brains should be the ones who created the code. These people are just processing it, it's like manual labor.

An unkind assessment. They used their brains to perform the calculations, I don't see how you could see it otherwise.

Sure they used their brains. But "brains behind the operation" is a term of art.

Is the McDonald's cashier the "brains behind the operation" because they count change as part of their duties?

Counting change accurately is very important to the continued successful operation of a retail establishment. But it's menial work.

Even Wikipedia agrees with me:

> Alan Turing described the "human computer" as someone who is "supposed to be following fixed rules; he has no authority to deviate from them in any detail."

I think the term "human computer" is extremely misleading without the cultural context behind the term, i.e. that these people were essentially doing 5th grade math worksheets all day. Reading numbers, plugging them into a calculator (yes, really), and writing down the results.

Usually we call these mechanical turks?

Re: Human Shader

#94
This was as much fun as it looked like. I got some nice paper, a nice pen, and made neat boxes for steps, rough columns, etc. I also converted the final RGB to hex for fun, and made a rough representation of it via colored pencil combinations. Total time was about an hour, I think, but the time wasn’t important to me. This was enjoyable.

Re: Human Shader

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose by using a non-human shader and comparing the results :D

Well then why is showing so many mistakes? It makes the experience worse.

I mean if you want to do it perfectly with no chance of error, let a computer do it, or just find the reference image. This is communal mathematics, and the errors are a part of the experience.

Saying the mistakes make this worse is like saying "I'd really enjoy spaghetti, I think, but all the noodles are ruining it."

Re: Human Shader

#96

This was as much fun as it looked like. I got some nice paper, a nice pen, and made neat boxes for steps, rough columns, etc. I also converted the final RGB to hex for fun, and made a rough representation of it via colored pencil combinations. Total time was about an hour, I think, but the time wasn’t important to me. This was enjoyable.

It’s funny that “This was as much fun as it looked like,” could be interpreted accurately in either direction, depending on your personal predilections.

Re: Human Shader

#98
I don’t know anything about shaders, so forgive the question.

My understanding from looking at the worksheet is the person who created the target image has created three separate formulas (depending on the area of the image), that when you feed in the X and the Y coordinates, it spits out the correct RGB value for that pixel. Is that correct? That’s wild.

Re: Human Shader

#99

I don’t know anything about shaders, so forgive the question. My understanding from looking at the worksheet is the person who created the target image has created three separate formulas (depending on the area of the image), that when you feed in the X and the Y coordinates, it spits out the correct RGB value for that pixel. Is that correct? That’s wild.

At their heart, that's what pixel/fragment shaders are. They're calculations for determining what color a pixel should be.

A really basic one returning red for every pixel would make a red screen. The most common use would be rendering a textured mesh and determining how lighting should effect it (is it skin? A metal surface?).

Then you can look at crazy things like https://www.shadertoy.com/ which are all purely made in pixel shaders (also that site is run by the creator of the Human Shader)

Re: Human Shader

#100

I don’t know anything about shaders, so forgive the question. My understanding from looking at the worksheet is the person who created the target image has created three separate formulas (depending on the area of the image), that when you feed in the X and the Y coordinates, it spits out the correct RGB value for that pixel. Is that correct? That’s wild.

Basically, yes. A shader is basically a function which passes in the x,y coords and spits out a color, and this is done for every pixel on the screen.

So a simple shader would be something like (in pseudo code):

function shader( x, y ) { if( x > 0.5 ) return white; else return black; }

would color one half of the screen black, and the other white.

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