Modern Tech inside an Amish Horse-Drawn Buggy • Hacker News Board

Re: Modern Tech inside an Amish Horse-Drawn Buggy

#111

Post by PeterisP » Wed, Jan 18, 2017, 11:33 AM UTC

int_19h wrote: post #108

TeMPOraL wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In theory yes; in practice, it's beyond our technological capabilities at the moment. A better alternative would be drugs. And honestly, it's our "universal culture" that's more susceptible to this failure mode.

I recall reading about such experiments done on rats, and that was at least a couple decades ago. Is it really beyond our technological capabilities? Note, I'm not talking about electrodes to induce dreams or some such; just a simple direct electric stimulation of the pleasure centers. Presumably, the resulting sensation is that you wouldn't know why you're happy - you're just happy.

Direct electric stimulation of brain (implanting electrodes) is simple only if you don't care if the subject has a risk of fatal infection, and if performing literal brain surgery is cheap and routine, as it is for mice/rats (again, because a risk of death or brain damage is acceptable).

Yes, we can do that, but that would be complicated to do it safely on humans - compared to that, a lifetime supply of drugs is cheap and simple.

Re: Modern Tech inside an Amish Horse-Drawn Buggy

#112

Post by HeyLaughingBoy » Wed, Jan 18, 2017, 9:07 PM UTC

teilo wrote: post #105

oh_sigh wrote: post #11

How do Amish people generally make money? I know there are markets that sell Amish goods to non-Amish, but there must be more to their income than that.

When I was in college, someone hired a team of Amish to build a car stereo shop across the street. It was quite fascinating to watch. They built it using techniques you normally see when building a barn. They sunk a whole series of posts into the ground. They were all different lengths. It made no sense when you looked at it, no apparent rhyme nor reason to it. They poured a slab around the posts (well, the concrete…

Pretty standard pole-building technique. Funny thing is that it is the traditional technique. Stick built walls with plaster board came much later.

Re: Modern Tech inside an Amish Horse-Drawn Buggy

#113

Post by dripton » Thu, Jan 19, 2017, 2:39 AM UTC

gvb wrote: post #57

dripton wrote: post #8

>There was actually an alternator system attempted in the last five years,” he says. “It worked about 60 percent, but it never took off. Generator hubs for bicycles are mature technology at this point. Including capacitors in the taillights so they stay on when the bike is stopped. Buggies could easily adopt them, but I guess it's not worth the bother if batteries mostly work.

Generators or alternators driven off the wheels are not free - the horse is now powering your lights as well as your wagon. The relatively high efficiency of LED lights helps a lot, but your horse still with thank you for using batteries. The article discusses the higher efficiency of steel tires compared to rubber tires and the emphasis on light weight. Tens of Watts of generator load on the horse is probably more t…

They're not tens of watts. More like 3W. See http://www.nabendynamo.de/produkte/son_28_en.html

If it's not enough to bother a human cyclist, it's not enough to bother a horse.