As someone born, raised, and currently living in the UK, this is the first time I've heard of this. It's literally never come up or been an issue anywhere in the past 50 years I've been alive, and I've lived all over these isles. A bizarre OP.
It's humbling to think about all the things people have gone through over the past couple hundred thousand years. Somewhere around 117 billion humans have ever lived...? It makes it seem kind of small when we think only 50 or 100 years out when thinking of what the future would be.
I agree with you. I clicked into this hoping to hear what new things we could learn or discover with the new observatories. Commenting on the more positive and informative side would be a better use of time and energy I think :)
Ha, you made me think of casually referring to xkcd's by number just as we did with RFC's back in the day. "I don't know, the socket states seem to follow RFC 793, but remember it's a 1918 address on the southside of the NAT."
I gonna keep a look out for doing this with xkcd's now :)
There are a few that pop out but the one that has managed to stick (aside from 1053 that just came up), is 927 for standards, which you can remember as 3^2 for 9 and 3^3 for 27. Or Yoda's age + the 27 club.
Can you share some details? Do you disconnect while in your hometown going about your daily routine, or do you have this down time in a different environment? I'm kind of looking for inspiration. I have grown kids and friends that I text with so I'm also wondering how my relationship with them would fit into this. Has that played a role for you?
I notice when its left hand came down there was a squirt of water from probably crushing water bottle. That makes me wonder how much force these robots can exert, and if they can accidentally hurt people.
> That makes me wonder how much force these robots can exert, and if they can accidentally hurt people.
Definitely. This thing weighs 60kg. You don't want it to fall on you.
(This is actually one of a number of things that makes me suspect that this isn't a real product or even intended to be a real product. It's too heavy and hard; it would simply not be safe for humans to be around. There are a couple of companies who seem to be gearing up to actually have some sort of limited public release of humanoid robots (generally on a "actually remote operated when doing stuff" basis); they're generally a good bit lighter and with soft coverings (though they still have disclaimers not to let them near kids).)
Oh they definitely can. A friend of mine working with humanoid robots told me that kids running around their demo booths and wanting to hug their robots were a major stress factor on doing the demos. That, plus knowing it's your code what's running there.
Probably from deconstructing the solar system's asteroids and planets. I imagine a Dyson sphere would be less structurally sound and harder to get right – due to gravitational forces on the material – than a Dyson swarm or matryoshka brain. The latter made of independent satellites orbiting the sun and collecting light from concentric orbits at various distances.
Early as in we may have developed before any other civilizations? That's interesting. We're speculating of course, but what would explain us being the first after so much time – 13.8 billion years?
The universe was very hot in the beginning. It took a while for stars to form. Even longer for planets to form. Even longer for planets to cool down. The early universe was a violent place. Full of destruction. After the protoplanetary disk finally coalesces to planets and when planets finally stopped getting bombarded by meteorites, they could start cooling. In the earlier days of the universe there might have been intelligent life supporting planets wiped out by the chaos of the early universe. We might not be the first. But we might be one of the first. We might be early. The universe might have a bright future ahead of itself in terms of intelligent life. This is all speculation of course.
Now you could still say that surely there have been enough time for some advanced civilizations to form. And I would argue that we don't know that. At least we have not detected them, either due our instruments or unwillingness of the intelligent life to communicate to us.
There are of course many other explanations of the Fermi Paradox. But since its all unknown, its basically pick and choose. I choose to pick the nice option. There are however other nice options :)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox#Hypothetical_exp...
Maybe we aren't the first living things to exist in the universe, but the first intelligent ones, and intelligent here meaning creatures with ability to ask these questions and make space probes to explore the universe.
Maybe intelligence isn't always a product of evolution. Even here on Earth, in the, what, 4 billion years history of the planet, humans are the only evolved creatures with intelligence as defined here. Maybe intelligence doesn't always occur.
A lengthy tangentially related post on my blog if you care -
> Even here on Earth, in the, what, 4 billion years history of the planet, humans are the only evolved creatures with intelligence as defined here. Maybe intelligence doesn't always occur.
It is unlikely that other beings becoming intelligent enough to rival us and deny us the supremacy over the planet would ever be allowed. Homo sapiens are believed to have "contributed to" the extinction of several other modern-human-like species (one of them being the Neanderthals). How many other times before could something similar have happened, perhaps far earlier in the evolutionary timeline?
The only way we would allow sufficiently highly intelligent life to develop and flourish is if it is completely subservient to us.
The more entertaining answer from a scifi book. Aliens that developed earlier decided to become isolationist and wanted to stop young civilizations from blasting radio waves at them, so once a civilization became semi-industrialized, they chucked a planet killing rock at them.
Something that has really helped with inflammation and improved my diet is a Spirulina and Chlorella algae supplement. I take it with Metamucil to help with absorption in the intestines as well. If you use the powder version, Metamucil covers up the umami taste, but the tablets are tasteless.
This is from some research that shows spirulina can absorb toxins, and then when I take Metamucil, it helps to slow my body's processing of the supplement.
What I have noticed is that the increase in nutrients will go through me super fast since I have a lower fiber diet, but when I have taken it with Metamucil, the fiber increase really slows down my bodily function. I figured if the algae is moving more slowly, it should also be able to have a higher absorption rate since it stays in my body longer.
Spirulina had a moment, and I took it, in the UK in the 90s. I'm struggling to remember exactly why I took it or stopped taking it, but, as a veggie, it did seem to offer everything else I might be lacking in my diet.
As I've aged my digestion is no longer as robust as it was, so I'm keen to give spirulina another go, plus the husks (metamucil is especially good, you think?) for a few months and see if I feel any different.
The removal of heavy metals is a plus, though I also am a little skeptical of how essential removal is, or of the genuine serious long term damage caused. I need to read up more.
I stopped eating desserts and sweets, stopped overeating, stopped eating after 7pm, switched to eating more veggies and unprocessed foods. I started taking supplements (ag1 powder, fish oil, turmeric). Once inflammation started to reduce I started to exercise more. It wasn’t just pain in my elbow, it was also in my foot and my shoulder, for many years: all better now.
+1 To add to the experience of connecting to people, I can also imagine our family members taking a photograph together while in VR of the family living room – a memento we can take away. That would work if our VR avatars are realistic representations of ourselves, which I think Meta can do (?)
This sounds like an absolute nightmare. Technology disconnected us over decades, then gave us "solutions" to stay in touch 24/7, people are lonelier than ever but we keep pushing for more of this shit. You can already call and video call your family, basically for free, what does VR bring to the table ?
"Hey John, grandpa will expire soon can you quickly jump in your headset and upload yourself to his VR cabin in the wood, the one we rent from MetaSpital for $99 a day, to take a selfie with him before he dies alone in a cold hospital room"
That's an extreme take, venting off some inner fears and frustrations?
There are many use cases where this can add value. People these days live far from their families, what's wrong with connecting in a better/different way if desired?
Not everybody wants or can stay with their families for whole life and that's fine, something about personal freedom and right to self-determination, desire for massive personal growth that exposure to different cultures invariably brings in, adventures and so on.
I used to think this. But as I’ve aged and grown wiser, I think perhaps everyone should consider the large negative impacts of moving so far away from family. Technology can’t solve all the problems.
If it's dangerous to stay in home country or there are almost no work opportunities, a lot of people choose to leave. Surely they'd appreciate seeing family and friends through a more rich medium than flat video. I'd certainly do.
My parents immigrated from India to the US for those reasons. I understand what you're talking about and agree. That's not the type of reason I meant to allude to.
> something about personal freedom and right to self-determination
This has to be satire, god emperor Zuck and his megacorp Meta fighting for our personal freedoms and right to self-determination. You're already living in an alternate universe apparently
It's just another way to record a time and place. No more different to a video than a video is to a photo. Just slightly more fidelity.
It's a good thing. It's a nice thing. Chill.
I get that there's reasons to be angry at big tech but this isn't one of them. Accurate and easy 3d scanning, high fidelity rendering and a way to view in 6dof stereoscopic is just a great use case entirely separate from the machinations of our evil overlords.
> And how does a 3d rendered world that doesn't exist anywhere other than in a computer has more fidelity than real life ?
It's not always posible to meet up with people in real life. A lot of my friends moved overseas and I have neither the time nor inclination to be flying to sweden/the USA constantly.
> That's your opinion, the fact that VR tanked hard seems to indicate most people don't agree
This in no way changes the reality of their situation, in fact frankly, its irrelevant. Something being "nice" or "good" does not require it also have mass market appeal.
>> I have neither the time nor inclination to be flying
Everybody struggles with that trade-off; it would be nice if the pro virtual connected crowd acknowledged that a big part of the value of these relationships is that they aren't easy or casual. The infrequency and cost/effort involved is part of what inherently makes them special. I seem to be in the minority that would trade 100 cursory relationships for 1 deeply meaningful relationship.
> The infrequency and cost/effort involved is part of what inherently makes them special
That may be true for you, but it’s not universal. Only being able to see some of my cloest friends every few years beyond a phone call or text doesn’t make the relationship any more “special”, it just makes it feel distant.
VR doesn’t replace the real thing, but it does let me maintain closeness with people who aren’t geographically close anymore. I still fly out and see them, but between those moments, shared time in VR keeps the connection alive and meaningful.
> I seem to be in the minority that would trade 100 cursory relationships for 1 deeply meaningful relationship.
You’re not in the minority for wanting depth, but may be in a minority for assuming that depth can only come through scarcity and physical presence. Meaningful relationships are built on shared experience, and VR has given my friend group new ways to have those together despite no longer in fact, being together.
Once a month, I hang out in VR with friends scattered across the world. We drink, laugh, gesture, watch movies and even move. We attended a virtual dance party a while back and it was a fantastic time. It’s presence, not proximity, that matters for us in the end and we have found VR quite useful for that.
Pedantic: "nice" or "good" does actually imply there's mass market agreement because otherwise what is the effective definition of the word "nice" or "good"?
If this continues the trend of technology discouraging in-person, physical connectedness then it's not an all-good, all-nice thing. It could actually be a very dangerous, very bad thing.
If you get used to living in your little pod generating heat to act as a small power supply while living a fulfilled live in your little VR world, then it is a good thing...for the machines. Could I interest you in this little blue pill? You seem to be resisting your programming.
This doesn't make sense. It's the baby out with the bath water.
Yes! actually cars did have a plausibly negative effect on connection. in the before times you couldn't travel far so you didn't. and you saw your family ever day of your life. It's not all it's cracked up to be sure, but we're talking logistics.
Now with cars you can go wherever! And people move continents away and are told to make the family trip once a year at thanksgiving to do the family thing. Can you believe that with more optionality comes paradoxically fewer "chosen" options. See Netflix.
I agree with the general sentiment. I also think we forgot how to enjoy quality time together and these “solutions” will make matters worse. But in some scenarios, like what I described, which is just spending time together, it can help
