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It’s an age of marvels

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Re: It’s an age of marvels

#31

Post by perlgeek »

changoplatanero wrote: post #11
pfdietz wrote: post #2

I believe GPS also uses multiple wavelengths to allow estimation of signal delay from passage through the ionosphere. The way Martian meteorites are identified is from isotopes of inert gases (neon, argon, for example). Mars has a particular pattern of these that's been measured by landers there. Meteorites from the moon are identified by oxygen isotopes, which are on the same line on the oxygen isotope plot as Earth…

The gps thing is even more amazing that what he said in the article because it turns out that the receiver doesn’t need an accurate clock of its own for it to work

That's right, you get rid of the requirement of its own clock, and instead accept that you need to "see" one more satellite than you'd need otherwise.

The (oversimplified) mental model is this:

If the receiver knows the exact time, and sees a signal from one satellite, it knows its position in one spatial dimension.

For each satellite signal you add, you can determine the position in one more dimension. Once you get to the 3rd satellite, you have no more dimensions to add. Instead, the 4th satellite lets you drop the requirement for your own (absolute) time keeping.

After that, each satellite you see improves the overall precision.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#32

Post by epiccoleman »

AStrangeMorrow wrote: post #8

I am just glad to see I am not the only one making up imaginary scenario where I bring people from the past to have them marvel at our world.

My favorite "one of these" is the idea of taking a Raspberry Pi, or ATtiny, or modern Macbook Pro back to the ENIAC guys. Can you imagine how they'd have reacted to see these tiny little devices which pack orders of magnitude more computational power than their warehouse-sized computer? The mind boggles.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#33

Post by 77pt77 »

empath-nirvana wrote: post #21
77pt77 wrote: post #3

[flagged]

The letters you're referring to were written in 1753 and 1755, and has he got older, his views on race softened to the point that he was an outright abolitionist by the end of his life. In 1763 he wrote the following in a letter: This is chiefly to acquaint you, that I have visited the Negro School here in Company with the Revd. Mr. Sturgeon and some others; and had the Children thoroughly examin’d. They appear’d all…

> he thought _Germans_ weren't sufficiently white for america in his 50s

50s!

I repeat, 50s!

This was no teen edgelord.

This was a man in his 50s in a time when most people he grew up with didn't get any more life experience than that.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#34

Post by jajko »

chefkd wrote: post #26
Rinzler89 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who WASN'T racist back then? Except it wasn't called being racist, it was just the norm for everyone back then, it was the societal default. You can meet some old people today who still have very wrong views about minorities and immigrants, let alone people who lived in the 1700's.

A lot of the world had hospitality rules and treated outsiders kindly. Lots of people were allowed to come and go as they pleased they actually provide interesting reads. Borders as we understand them today were invented in the 18/1900s. Mass slavery spanning multiple continents and racism on that magnitude hasn't happened since and hopefully won't happen again (except maybe Rome & Egypt but that wasn't trans contine…

One doesn't exclude the other. You / anybody could be most welcoming to visitors and have your slaves serve them the best you had and treat them very well. Norms change, sometimes shockingly, and even within one's lifespan. Now young generations will most probably realize this when they will become out of touch and rejected by new young generation in maybe 2 decades.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#35

Post by qlm »

Rinzler89 wrote: post #27
ertgbnm wrote: post #23

More than anything else, I think the modern American super market would blow the minds of anyone born before 1900 more than any other marvel that exists. You have blueberries for sale in January??? A variety box of tea from 7 different countries? A wall of spices? Pineapples? Packaging made from aluminum that is just thrown away? The bread isn't full of sand and grit? And it's sliced!!! All relatively affordable and…

>I think the modern American super market would blow the minds of anyone born before 1900 more than any other marvel that exists Mate, the 7-Eleven Big Gulp, the Walmart 5-gallon bucket of Snickers and the giant Costco bulk bag of peanut butter M&Ms blows my present day European mind, let alone someone from 1900.

The quantity of chocolate for sale in bulk certainly is surprising. Unfortunately I find American chocolate to be borderline inedible.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#36

Post by petesergeant »

ertgbnm wrote: post #23

More than anything else, I think the modern American super market would blow the minds of anyone born before 1900 more than any other marvel that exists. You have blueberries for sale in January??? A variety box of tea from 7 different countries? A wall of spices? Pineapples? Packaging made from aluminum that is just thrown away? The bread isn't full of sand and grit? And it's sliced!!! All relatively affordable and…

> would blow the minds

I think there are two aspects to this. I think anyone who's ever been to a food market in the history of time would conceptually understand it's possible to have a bigger market, and perhaps even a faster horse or mechanical bird to bring the items there. Commerce bringing you items from the other side of the world is millennia old. So I think it would be more of a case of "how did u mad lads actually pull this off", rather than a true mind-blown situation.

True mind-blown'ness I think comes from other examples he brings up, like GPS, and making items apparently hover a hundred miles above the earth and transmit information from above there, instantly, silently and invisibly. That's supernatural stuff, and the realm of the holy or the uncanny. You can't go back very far in time without talking about that stuff getting you accused of heresy / talking to the devil.

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#38

Post by mistermann »

77pt77 wrote: post #15
snapcaster wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I kind of think the opposite, that people will basically end up at whatever social status they would be regardless of system so he would just have modern day elite views (instead of mainstream modern day elite views of his time). Just like people today who think they would have resisted the nazis in 1930s Germany but hold all mainstream opinions in the modern day

> that people will basically end up at whatever social status they would be regardless of system So what determines that intrinsic and inevitable social status?

Culture.

Terence McKenna's take on it, fwiw:

https://ehsto.com/blogs/undertone-journal/terence-mckenna-cu...

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#39

Post by nico »

ertgbnm wrote: post #23

More than anything else, I think the modern American super market would blow the minds of anyone born before 1900 more than any other marvel that exists. You have blueberries for sale in January??? A variety box of tea from 7 different countries? A wall of spices? Pineapples? Packaging made from aluminum that is just thrown away? The bread isn't full of sand and grit? And it's sliced!!! All relatively affordable and…

This is still mind blowing and a huge luxury for most of the world

“The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed” - William Gibson

Re: It’s an age of marvels

#40

Post by AnimalMuppet »

77pt77 wrote: post #33
empath-nirvana wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The letters you're referring to were written in 1753 and 1755, and has he got older, his views on race softened to the point that he was an outright abolitionist by the end of his life. In 1763 he wrote the following in a letter: This is chiefly to acquaint you, that I have visited the Negro School here in Company with the Revd. Mr. Sturgeon and some others; and had the Children thoroughly examin’d. They appear’d all…

> he thought _Germans_ weren't sufficiently white for america in his 50s 50s! I repeat, 50s! This was no teen edgelord. This was a man in his 50s in a time when most people he grew up with didn't get any more life experience than that.

OK, but that's also a person who changed his mind in his 50s, and would not defend his previous position. Don't minimize that.
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