Fabio ManganielloJul 30, 2023

The engineers who designed the #Voyager probes half a century ago even thought of the possibility that a wrong sequence of commands may point the antenna dish away from earth (like someone did a couple of days ago).

And they implemented a self-adjusting mechanism that a few times a year scans the positions of a few known stars to infer the position of the earth, and point back the antenna in the right direction.

50 years later, these wonderful machines are still working, tens of billions of km away from earth, with only 69 KB of RAM, and even a wrong sequence of commands won't put them out of use, while nowadays 4 GB of RAM aren't even enough to start VsCode or IntelliJ.

The more I understand how they were designed, the more I feel like an early Medieval engineer looking at the Pantheon or other marvels of Roman architecture. Some amazing skills, knowledge and attention to details have been lost from that generation to ours.

Show threadThreadbaneJul 30, 2023
@blacklight
Great toot! The Voyager was truly an amazing feat!
And not to be picky, but the Pantheon is Ancient Greek. 8^)
Show threadAngry CentristJul 30, 2023
@Threadbane @blacklight The Parthenon (Athens) vs the Pantheon (Rome.) While the facade of the Pantheon does exhibit the usual Roman thievery of Greek visual elements, its engineering and construction is distinctly Roman with a domed concrete(!) roof the ancient Greeks lacked the technology to produce.
Show threadFirehorseart Lives!

@dkbgeek @Threadbane @blacklight

I'm glad I visited the Parthenon while I had the chance. That was a large part of what I wanted to see on my one and only visit to Greece.

Having read about the temples on the Acropolis in my art history classes, it was good to see the site in real life. That also helped me understand why the Greeks want the Elgin Marbles back. The site has a museum ready to display them in.

Oct 5, 2023 at 11:10amWeb
Show threadThreadbaneOct 5, 2023
@srfirehorseart @dkbgeek @blacklight
I lived in Italy for a year when I was 13 and saw all the "standard" Roman ruins in Rome, lived in Naples and saw Pompeii and Herculaneum, but never made it to Greece. I'm envious! Would have liked to see the Acropolis.
Show threadFirehorseart Lives!Oct 5, 2023

@Threadbane @dkbgeek @blacklight

Italy was next on my list to visit, partly to see classical Roman art and architecture (also in my art history studies).

Mainly, I was hoping to visit the Venice Biennale for contemporary art, but I was also hoping to see some museums and galleries.

You're still one country ahead of me and I have never lived in continental Europe, only the UK. Starting to wish I had now, but Brexit and COVID has put the brakes on that.