Happy December Solstice to all who celebrate.
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I like thinking about the fact that the solstice has changed quite significantly in the lifetime of our species.
The direction and angle of our planet's tilt off the ecliptic plane changes on periods of about 26,000 and 41,000 years respectively.
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@MirSobhan that sounds great!
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The direction and angle of our planet's tilt off the ecliptic plane changes on periods of about 26,000 and 41,000 years respectively.
Our earliest megalithic monuments that plausibly indicate observance of the solstice go back about 8000 years.
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Our earliest megalithic monuments that plausibly indicate observance of the solstice go back about 8000 years.
There are plausible representations of astronomical phenomena that date back much further -- like the representation of the Pleiades in the Lascaux cave paintings about 19 kya. That's deep into our axial precession and axial tilt cycles.
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@evan Hell yeah! Also, I appreciate you calling it "December solstice" and not just "winter solstice" for those of us down in the southern hemisphere.
@BathysphereHat ofc! I don't live on half a planet.
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There are plausible representations of astronomical phenomena that date back much further -- like the representation of the Pleiades in the Lascaux cave paintings about 19 kya. That's deep into our axial precession and axial tilt cycles.
The rough consensus on human development is that we became anatomically modern about 200,000 years ago, and that a significant change in our thought processes happened between ~100,000 and ~50,000 years ago. That so-called "cognitive revolution" included a lot of abstract thinking and forming theories about the world without direct evidence. I guess the relationship between how things happen on earth and how celestial bodies moved through the sky was an important subject of Neolithic thought.
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The rough consensus on human development is that we became anatomically modern about 200,000 years ago, and that a significant change in our thought processes happened between ~100,000 and ~50,000 years ago. That so-called "cognitive revolution" included a lot of abstract thinking and forming theories about the world without direct evidence. I guess the relationship between how things happen on earth and how celestial bodies moved through the sky was an important subject of Neolithic thought.
Anyway, people then had different solstices than we do now. That's kind of awesome.
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Anyway, people then had different solstices than we do now. That's kind of awesome.
@evan this feels weird to say lol. They shift in sidereal terms yes, but all of our calendars, now and historically, attempt to approximate the precession, and have been adjusted multiple times to correct errors like that.
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@evan this feels weird to say lol. They shift in sidereal terms yes, but all of our calendars, now and historically, attempt to approximate the precession, and have been adjusted multiple times to correct errors like that.
@modulusshift I'm well aware! But the sidereal terms are all that matter over that time period.
When I say that the solstice was different, I didn't mean it was on a different calendar day.
I meant that there were different constellations that the Sun was in during the solstice (precession) and different day duration and intensity of season changes (tilt).
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@modulusshift I'm well aware! But the sidereal terms are all that matter over that time period.
When I say that the solstice was different, I didn't mean it was on a different calendar day.
I meant that there were different constellations that the Sun was in during the solstice (precession) and different day duration and intensity of season changes (tilt).
@evan I feel like this would be hard to explain to someone several thousand years ago compared to the much more obvious “oh we use Polaris as the North Star now, it works better for us than Deneb does for you”
Assuming the language barrier wasn’t itself a massive problem lmao
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@evan I feel like this would be hard to explain to someone several thousand years ago compared to the much more obvious “oh we use Polaris as the North Star now, it works better for us than Deneb does for you”
Assuming the language barrier wasn’t itself a massive problem lmao
@modulusshift Thanks for sharing your feelings.
Gli ultimi otto messaggi ricevuti dalla Federazione
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@stranobiovolta @attualita dopo la polonia mi sa che ha detto basta alle magliette 😆🤦
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@subnetspider sure!
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@shaedrich @lontrachen @engideer @parismarx
I think in both cases the monetary resources expense is not the problem and that's why I didn't mention them even though I heard about calculations of up to 25% of GDP.
The real difference is human resource requirements and subsidization due to returns given by collected data (or at least that is the claim).
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@fabriziob @lontrachen @engideer @parismarx Doesn't matter if it is 10 years or 100. It was an almost random number. My point was that—unless we have an apocalypse that throws us back decades or centuries—it's not an easy comparison and your point would be better made without. I'm not saying, you're wrong, I'm just pointing out that the comparison isn't helping the case. Not more and not less.
China on the other hand, is exactly that kind of comparison, I was asking for instead 👍🏻
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@shaedrich @lontrachen @engideer @parismarx
1989 is not even 40 years ago and I am sure that we can find way higher expenditure in China today.
Fact is, you pay less because you are at the same time providing training data.
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@fabriziob @lontrachen @engideer @parismarx That's a poor comparison: If you wait 50 years, almost anybody with a little tech and business skills can offer this cheaper (they would vary in how much but they'd be cheaper one way or another). He might be more affordable "inflation-adjusted", but that'd be at least complex to determine
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@Z0t è satira
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L'unica risposta che mi viene da dare è stocaxxo 😁
