Are the Pfhor still engaged at Tau Ceti? Is there a bus route to Wolf 359? I have so many questions.
Project Hail Mary – Stellar Navigation Chart
211–220 of 255 posts
Re: Project Hail Mary – Stellar Navigation Chart
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
If I counted things correctly, 53,836. I wanted to hook into the THREE object and explore the scene, but I wasn't able to figure out how to bring it back into scope after it's been optimized out of the js context, so instead I searched through the bundle to find where it unpacks the data and did that manually.
It just boggles the mind how you can simply write a 3D program with a ready-made library today, instantiate tens of thousands of objects in 3D space, and the whole thing will render in real time on a phone without you ever having to worry about how that incredible performance is possible. The power of computers comes at least partly from the fact that for many practical problems, they let you effectively pretend that…
It does, it helps to stop and smell the roses occasionally and remember how far we’ve come.
My first proper computer (defined by programming on it) was a 3.5MHz single core processor with 48KB of RAM.
My current one is 16C/32T that can boost to 5.7GHz and has 64GB of RAM.
Considerably more than a million times the RAM and about a million times the processing power (if you factor clock speeds, core count, OOE, branch prediction, memory width and depending on workload etc).
I have more RAM in my house than every ZX Spectrum ever sold (about 5 million which comes out to ~240GB).
Adjusted for inflation a million spectrums (175 at 1982 prices) comes out to about 640 million quid.
My PC cost ~4000 in late 2022.
A million times faster for 0.000625% of the price, it’s been a hell of a ride.
Re: Project Hail Mary – Stellar Navigation Chart
#213Re: Project Hail Mary – Stellar Navigation Chart
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's been a long time since I played, but I don't recall the motion of the planets mattering much. Supercruise lets you move fast enough that planets and moons that move enough to be noticeable are very easy to get to regardless.
It watching the starscape change around me as I jumped from system to system, actually seeing formations and nebulae in the distance and being able to move toward, around, into them, which made it feel alive to me. I agree the planets moving doesn't really matter on a gameplay timescale. I was completely immersed - it was a good way to spend a few days during lockdowns :)
Ah yeah, the starscape changing was very cool, being able to actually go to the Pleiades or to various nebulae also caused me to better understand where different things are relative to each other in the night sky.
Re: Project Hail Mary – Stellar Navigation Chart
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Expanse also was (for me) the first to introduce the concept of a braking burn. Star Wars ships just stop without turning around - can’t unsee it. I think the way X-wing fighters “fly” also wouldn’t work at all, I don’t see any reaction mass coming out the sides.
Biggest thing they all still get wrong for reasons of drama is showing humans wrestling with controls and flying like a fighter pilot. Real spaceships do not and will not have humans in the control loop except to specify a destination or target.
Yes, even today it’s rare. Docking with the ISS or initiating the trans lunar burn on the most recent mission were all completely automated. The pilot arms the engine and authorizes it to proceed. I can imagine it being possible to grab the controls but it’s only done in exceptional or unusual cases.
Of course astronauts are trained for it in simulators in case computers fail.
If there are ever real space battles, that’s actually the most ridiculous time to have humans flying. Human reflexes and ability to mentally model 3D space under microgravity and orbital mechanics are just categorically inferior to what any machine can do. We are too slow and too imprecise.
If there are pilots at all it’ll be at a higher level, like the piloting equivalent of a programmer commanding AI bots. The computer will present the pilot with a digested real time tactical and strategic abstraction and the pilot would make decisions at that level.
A computer or avionics failure in a space battle would probably just be fatal. Which would mean EMP weapons against computers might factor in heavily.
Re: Project Hail Mary – Stellar Navigation Chart
#216Hi there! This is Val, I made the star chart. There's a little "about" blurb you can open in a modal on the site, but I wanted to mention that this demo uses the amazing GAIA DR3 dataset from ESA. I have a Python script that renders all 1.8+ billion stars into custom images, which is what I used for the skybox. The star positions and colors all use the GAIA data (save for a few bright stars not in the set). The data…
I'm writing a novella about a trip to Gliese 581 and I'd love to do a similar visualization -- any advice?
Re: Project Hail Mary – Stellar Navigation Chart
#217Hi there! This is Val, I made the star chart. There's a little "about" blurb you can open in a modal on the site, but I wanted to mention that this demo uses the amazing GAIA DR3 dataset from ESA. I have a Python script that renders all 1.8+ billion stars into custom images, which is what I used for the skybox. The star positions and colors all use the GAIA data (save for a few bright stars not in the set). The data…
Altair looks closer than Alpha-Centauri on this map, although it's actually 4 times as far (probably Z axis squashing).
Re: Project Hail Mary – Stellar Navigation Chart
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
> But it also fell apart immediately. Like, they only sent 3 people, 2 whom died on this UBER CRITICAL SAVE THE PLANET idea? (I didn't downvote, you have a right to dislike a popular movie or book) They explain why only 3 people (it's a bit contrived, but there's genetics involved), and why no more ships. It's an emergency, a resource and time-constrained mission on which a few things go wrong even before they depart…
I thought the portrayal of scientists was a lot more true to life than most media. Millennial and older Zoomers are old enough to be in these positions now, they aren't going to talk or dress like boomers.
Yes, I think it's a bit annoying (to me, because I dislike meme-speak) but it's not unrealistic for the character.
But, to be frank, I think it's also Andy Weir's style, because memes and pop culture references pop up even when it's not the character's PoV.
Re: Project Hail Mary – Stellar Navigation Chart
#219I can also recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FT-oz9aZU4 Time Dilation Visualized (by The Overview Effekt). It talks about the distances and times involved and how time compression and astrophage infection rates work out. As a fan of the book and the movie it was nice to see the actual 3D star chart of everything. (warning: there may be spoilers there)
The time dilation aspect of it is cool, but doesn’t discuss how far we are from a propulsion system that could credibly pull this off. Even if we solved fusion it wouldn’t get us remotely close. Maybe if you could somehow produce 50 tonnes of antimatter you could do it. But we have no idea how to produce antimatter efficiently or at scale, and even if we could do it with 100% efficiency, it would take many years of h…
Definitely, the amounts of energy needed are is beyond anything realistic today or anytime soon. It’s still clarified the principle for me that we could in theory at least reach those points in a human lifetime.
Re: Project Hail Mary – Stellar Navigation Chart
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