[FRIAM] Antikythera

[Marcus Daniels]

DRAM rates are remarkably low, even without error correction.   Like 1 in a trillion per hour.  
https://tezzaron.com/media/soft_errors_1_1_secure.pdf
At some point the analog device becomes a good-enough digital device.
-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of Steve Smith
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2021 9:08 AM
To: friam at redfish.com
Subject: [FRIAM] Antikythera

Is the antikythera anything "more than" a highly elaborated Orrery  ? I suppose the most egregious conflation for me is between map/model and "computer" in the sense of a device capable of universal computation. Orreries are elaborate maps (in the cartographic sense) of the grosser features of the solar system.   The mechanical-engineering aspects of the antikythera is certainly impressive but to call it a "computer" or even "calculator" misses the point I think. 

Analog(ue) vs Digital is it's own abuse of terms of course.   The former alludes to the one-to-one-correspondence nature of the elements of the model and a reduced description/apprehension of the parts of the system it models... an "analogy".   The latter is grounded in "counting on your fingers (and toes?)" which is abstracted in things like an abacus which "models" the components and aspects of a system as whole numbers (or fancier things like real or complex or even hypercomplex) numbers. IMO, until we started using "digital" computers to model abstract mathematical concepts beyond (possibly quite complex) arithmetic, they were nothing more than really fast, really complicated abacii?  

I suppose the term "computer" doesn't connote this form well, and I suppose there is a more apt term of art that people who philosophize more regularly about "computing" than I might use?

On 3/12/21 9:48 AM, uǝlƃ ↙↙↙ wrote:
> Fantastic rundown! Thanks. I had intended to post a rant on the abuse of the word "analog" in contrast to "digital", given the news about the antikythera <https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/mar/12/scientists-move-closer-to-solving-mystery-of-antikythera-mechanism>. Now I feel that rant would be way too lame and couldn't follow this.
>
> EricC suggested I watch "Leaving Neverland", which was interesting. But I also watched the Oprah interview afterward. Up to that point, I hadn't realized what a self-aggrandizing know-it-all she is. I'm now glad I haven't spent much time watching her shows or consuming her products. I suspect, however, she's evolved, like all of us ... like Michael Jackson, even. Maybe at one point, her contribution was of a higher quality. I won't know one way or another.
>
> On 3/12/21 8:18 AM, Prof David West wrote:
>> Nothing serious, just something that reminded me of topics in threads 
>> and, I think, glen's acerbic comments about "great men / geniuses."  
>> Jessica Wildfire's list (not so ironically making herself exactly 
>> what she is decrying - absent billions of dollars of personal wealth)
>>
>> 5 most overated persons:
>>
>> Steve Jobs:
>>     Steve Jobs didn’t invent the computer. Steve Wozniak did. He also didn’t invent smartphones or touch screens. These technologies already existed. In fact, Jobs almost stopped Apple from releasing the first iPhone. A covert team developed it in complete secrecy from him, in order to avoid his caustic skepticism. So you might say the iPhone happened despite Jobs, not because of him.
>>
>> Elon Musk:
>>    Elon Musk has been promising us an affordable electric car for over a decade now. He’s used that promise to win billions of dollars in tax breaks and seed money, while actively undermining any green projects he sees as a threat to his own enterprise. Basically, he’s the biggest example of corporate freeloading you could imagine. What the world admires about Elon Musk isn’t his intelligence, or his environmental conscience. It’s his ego, plain and simple.
>>
>> Jeff Bezos
>>    Bezos conducts a masterful public relations campaign that allows customers to believe Amazon isn’t completely destroying the environment, or working its employees literally to death. In fact, it is. Despite Amazon’s recent pledges to save the world, its carbon footprint has grown 15 percent since the pandemic began. At best, the billions that Bezos spends will partly undo the damage he’s caused. If that weren’t enough, Bezos and his company use every underhanded tactic known to civilization in order to cheapen its labor costs and avoid taxes. They’ve literally been caught stealing tips. Bezos himself pays almost nothing in state income tax, while the rest of us are forced to make up the difference. He cuts health insurance from his employees, then has the audacity to say in public that he has no idea how to spend his immense wealth, other than moving to Mars or cloning himself.
>>
>> Oprah Winfrey
>>    Oprah isn’t a hard-hitting journalist. She isn’t profound. She caters to the lowest common denominator, the suburban housewives of America, who need to feel special and important because nobody else treats them with any respect. Oprah figured this out early on in her career. They’ve been her core audience from the start. Oprah rode to fame on satanic panics and woo-woo spirituality. She’s a chief architect of the magical thinking that now fuels QAnon-style conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine movements. Oprah has spent a lifetime coddling intellectual fragility, while manufacturing controversy and outrage for profit. 
>>
>> Tony Robbins
>>    The more you learn about Tony Robbins, the more you find out his real secret. He only knows how to succeed if you’re a big, good-looking white guy like him. Otherwise, his advice doesn’t work. Of course, the worst thing about Tony Robbins is that he apparently spent most of his career telling people to stand up for themselves, while preying on women and bullying them.
>>
>> What these people have in common:
>>    So, apparently these are the five most successful people in the world. They have the most money. They have the most influence. They’re kind of awful. If we’re honest with ourselves, we can see how we’ve created a mythology around these individuals. We tell stories about them that never really happened. We ascribe pithy quotes to them they didn’t really say. We turn them into mirrors of our own personal desires. In case you missed the last few thousand years of western civilization, the most powerful people in the world aren’t nice. They’re not fair. They don’t play by the rules. They’re brutal. They cheat. Often, they’re simply in the right place at the right time — and they exploit that to their advantage, often at everyone’s expense.
>>
>> for entertainment purposes only.
>>
>> davew

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