Live data from Hacker News

Voyager 1 runs on 69 KB of memory and an 8-track tape recorder

techfixated.com

211–220 of 276 posts

Re: Voyager 1 runs on 69 KB of memory and an 8-track tape recorder

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Earth's "radio bubble" is well over 100 light years across now. If there are aliens out there, they are probably already on their way to ask us in person why Ross, the largest Friend, doesn't simply eat the others.

After the transition to digital TV our broadcasted signals mostly look like noise, though. Maybe an outside observer would assume that our civilization ended sometime in 2010.

You can still see from far away that our planet's atmosphere has a very unusual chemical composition that's far out of equilibrium.

We are already using spectroscopy to gain insights into the chemical composition of exo-planets, and we have barely begun doing this kind of research. In even just a few decades we'll be massively better at this.

Re: Voyager 1 runs on 69 KB of memory and an 8-track tape recorder

#213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think Apollo was very interesting or useful beyond cold war propaganda. Yes, we're capable of amazing things—but putting a man on the moon pales in comparison to basic healthcare funding. Why must we insist on wasting billions on histrionic braggadocio when we can't perform the basics of a modern society? https://youtu.be/otwkXZ0SmTs?si=DqEyklYpEbUO69HL

There's better things to dump instead of Apollo if you want a basically functioning society. Pick your couple of least favorite wars of choice in America's recent history. Apollo at least gave the country hope and showed that we could accomplish big ideas.

But—we clearly can't accomplish basic things. That's my point

Re: Voyager 1 runs on 69 KB of memory and an 8-track tape recorder

#217
I wonder if we can build a series of probes sent one after the other, which can communicate with relay network. Im sure we can reduce the power requirements for radio for each probe.

I have a feeling this feat is all about the budget requirements rather than technical feasibility.

Re: Voyager 1 runs on 69 KB of memory and an 8-track tape recorder

#218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dark forest hypothesis assumes that it's easy to travel between stars, so interstellar conquests are possible. But it doesn't seem to be the case. There are no material goods that can justify the material and energetic expense of any interstellar travel. You'd be far better off just using a particle accelerator to forge any chemical element and then assemble them into molecules using nano-replicators. The best yo…

> The dark forest hypothesis assumes that it's easy to travel between stars, so interstellar conquests are possible. But it doesn't seem to be the case. Wrong. Dark Forest isn't about conquest , it's about preemptive strikes . The Dark Forest hypothesis assumes that travel between stars is hard - more importantly, that even communications at those distances is hard - specifically, that it takes a long time, which pre…

The ability to strike itself assumes easy interstellar travel. After all, if you can _destroy_ whole planets and stars, why not just send colonists immediately?

Or maybe pre-emptively sterilize everything to make sure your eventual expansion encounters no issues.

Moreover, if your first instinct is to strike while hiding, then your equilibrium state would be a civilization that is the most successful at wiping out everything around it, spread all over the habitable universe. Dark Forest just doesn't work from the game-theoretical perspective.

Re: Voyager 1 runs on 69 KB of memory and an 8-track tape recorder

#219
post #8

Good they launched Voyager 1 before invention of Docker, Electron and NPM projects with thousands of padLefts.

As long as it doesn't auto-update it should be fine right? Just don't let those Aliens see that source code

One alien sysop to another: so, you're telling me we got hacked by some other civilization because of a supply chain attack?

Re: Voyager 1 runs on 69 KB of memory and an 8-track tape recorder

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>There are no material goods that can justify the material and energetic expense of any interstellar travel. Material, no. but we know with absolute certainty that Earth will stop being habitable for humans at some point. So assuming any intelligent race, human descendent or otherwise, still exists on this planet, it will have to eventually move. It's just pure luck that we evolved when we did. But there are valid r…

It's a catch 22. If you want to preserve the Earth's biosphere or even biological humans, then you would need to move at least a ship the size of a small planetoid. That will support life for millenia that will be required for interstellar travel. And if you can do that, then why bother with the interstellar travel? Just move to a higher orbit to survive the red giant stage. And then move closer to the stellar remnan…

I think moving a small planetoid and moving a planet are not really comparable technical challenges, are they? Even a small moon like Deimos you could probably move by attaching giant rockets to a side and pushing(absolutely absurd, but let's go with it). How would you move the earth with its atmosphere still intact? Is your rocket stretching out the entire way from the surface to the edge of space?
Post reply on HN