A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
I find it fascinating how we're so willing to ascribe thoughts, feelings, and motivations to inanimate objects or forces of nature and on the other hand we're so quick to remove all of those attributes from other groups of humans to justify horrible acts done to them.
We're hella cute. But pareidolia is seriously gonna be the end of us when the AI takes over π
It's already responsible for religion and all the nonsense it's spawned.
Even ascribing consciousness into others or ourselves is actually pretty stupid if you think about it.
Stemming from religion there's this idea that human "souls" are somehow special and exist on a plane outside reality. But that's not the case.
We are just semi-rigid blobs of mostly water that grew into weird shapes.
Woah woah there, who you calling a weird shape?
Because our collective we is composed of many different people. You have brilliant scientific minds and genius artistic people and everyone in between. At the same time you have very empathetic people and others who would not hesitate to hurt someone for their gain.
Diversity is both a blessing and a curse.
That is true, but people are capable of holding both views at the same time. Soldiers on the battlefield go out and do horrific things to enemy soldiers and civilians, and come home and are loving fathers and husbands who wouldn't hurt anyone. Or how many times have people been caught for horrible crimes and all their friends and neighbours say it isn't possible because they're the kindest and most helpful people they know.
This isn't a matter of "some people are capable and some are not". It's a case of "most people seem to be able to set aside someone else's humanity to do horrible things"
Or that everyone everywhere pictures a little robot the size of like Wall-e, when curiosity is really 10 feet long, 7 feet high, and 2,000 pounds.
That's exactly what @[email protected] was talking about. They cut off the feet of like 5 humans, just to measure the size of a damn robot.
Oh come on, humans aren't that unnecessarily cruel! We just cut the feet off several thousand peasants back in the day to determine the average length of human feet and then made a bunch of sticks that length so we don't have to be so cruel each time we wanted to measure something. We just had to do it that one time.
"Why cut their feet off instead of just measuring them?"
It was necessary for scientific rigor, so that others could go back and verify the final result. It's very important to be accurate using a measurement that is completely relatable to the average human. Funny enough, we later realized that about 300 randomly selected feet would generally get within 5% of the true average, so that makes it even better that we did do that because how else would we have discovered something like that?
"Wouldn't that just give an average for peasant feet in that region? For average human foot size, wouldn't you need to take feet from people who aren't peasants, like nobles, clergy, and scientists?"
Well, you see... Hmm. I guess to be completely accurate... That does sound right. Hmm.
You know, I've been hearing great things about the metric system! I mean, who really thinks in terms of how big their feet are anyways?
Probably the biggest and most important question in the world.
I dropped my phone the other day and started apologising to it for dropping it again.
Beautifully (tragically?) put. Well done. It's worth pondering...
I think maybe it's because when something lacks human qualities, we're more able to project our wishes onto it, whether that's its "personality" or "story" or "feelings", whatever. Maybe in a way it makes it feel predictable and "safer", like we know it somehow. It will behave the way it behaves regardless of the little projections we put on it that can sometimes be a remnant of our own egos.
...People, on the other hand, are much less predictable, and tend to highly dislike being projected upon. Maybe removing relatable qualities and generalizing groups of them is a selfish way of turning them into an "object" that "feels more predictable" and the one projecting feels like it satisfies their need for control, even though it dehumanizes others who are, in actuality, just like themselves.
I feel like it's a maladaptive way to simplify the complicated. The brain loves to simplify.
Empathy tends to be such a prevention AND a cure...
As the user experience designer, this βsingingβ of electronics, and other such devices has been prevalent for the last decade or so. Itβs an attempt to humanize the electronic devices we interact with every day. I question its effectiveness or validity, but, nonetheless, it has become extremely popular in both the medical device field and the field of home appliances. Buying an LG or a Samsung appliance, and it will, very annoyingly, play little songs when itβs done doing whatever it does.
I find this a particularly interesting emergent cultural application of anthropomorphism to everyday objects. I wonder how it will progress over the next decade or so.
Uh I love the songs my dryer and dishwasher play when they're done. Its much better than just BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTT
When it's done? Fine.
Every time I turn it on, or off, or open the door, or think about using it for a second? No thank you. I don't need a tune for every action. I can very clearly see that you're on because the display is on. I know you're open because I'm standing right the fuck here.
I just need a singing rice cooker so I can go "Ganbatte Mr Rice Cooker San!" when he starts cooking and "Arigato Mr Rice Cooker San" when he is done.
OK well I have never seen one play a whole song every time you touch it. Mine just does a simple jingle when the cycle is over.
You're gonna miss the tune for when the display dies but the controller still works. It's actually there for user input feedback. It could've been anything else, but if it has to be there, it might as well be something pleasant. Picture an appliance that screamed every time you pushed a button.
Like Hitchhiker's Guide's sighing doors. :D
I prefer a simple signal, too. Maybe the whole βplay a song when the laundry is doneβ is a cultural thing.
For reference, it's a whole genre. Not to be confused with appliances that have speakers and bzzt or beep or play jingles or whatever, or for that matter also musical tesla coils, those are much more like speakers.
It's been a part of computer culture since pretty much forever, now kinda dying out because nothing is mechanical any more.
I had a 1541 that played Daisy Daisy
I said, I'd let you engineer "Happy Birthday" AFTER you finish your thermal dynamics research and designing the servo placement.
-and the engineers happily built shit while arguing about it all
It seems a better expenditure than flinging cars into outer space, but that's just me. π€·
If Elon Musk wanted to use his company to be a dipshit and fling his car into space, why not?
The EPA and other regulators could control them better, but whatever ventures they choose to make are their own dumb choices. The only ways their dumb PR project intersects with anything NASA related is theyre both doing space things and NASA happens to give them contracts (which is how they're able to afford to launch a car into space as a PR stunt).
The only ways their dumb PR project intersects with anything NASA related...
I mean we're all nail-bitingly hoping Musk-and-friends' increasing amount of space trash doesn't intersect with NASA equipment as much as it already intersects our line of sight to the cosmos. :( lol
I wonder if they pitch-corrected it so it plays correctly in the Martian atmosphere....
If that's not both sad and happy, then why am I reading this through tears?
If you like this and haven't seen "Good Night, Oppy" you should go do that right now.
A documentary, sounds boring.
Incoming copyright lawsuit in 3, 2, 1...
Maybe itβs not enforceable on other planets?
It was broadcast to Earth!
No free fun allowed!
Thanks, needed that.
Curiosity isnβt a little robot.
Itβs the size of a small carβ¦
There are different scales for big and small. In comparison to everything Curiosity was associated with (rockets, planets) it was tiny
That's what you took from this?
Itβs annoying me because that commenter is using a diminutive to try and anthropomorphise a robot.
You can anthropomorphise it but at least have a basic understanding of the dimensions of the thing youβre trying to make cute.
Your mom is the size of a small car, but I still think she's cute.
This from the "we" who called Higgs-Boson the blasphemous gd particle but make the joke more popular as the misunderstood "god particle" that eventually became most conceptualized as "the God particle?
I mean, on the cosmic scale that's the context for the story, both cars and robots are tiny ;) I'm sure the black hole will think they're cute before gobbling them up.