JohnnyCanuck
@JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca
- Comment on Talk like an 👽 4 days ago:
I confess, I was kind of baiting with the “decode the transmission” part. As someone else mentioned, the way we send the info doesn’t have to be as complicated as what you’re thinking. Many books and movies have been made about the subject… Contact and Project Hail Mary come to mind immediately. SETI is dedicated to being on the receiving end and makes assumptions about what ET would be sending based on assumptions about what we would send (filtering for repeating patterns and mathematical structures on narrow frequency bands).
In any case, how we transmit and what we transmit are two different things. What we transmit will likely be math and/or cosmos related, things we have in common with our galactic cousins (we assume). How we transmit… There are a million ways, so we narrow it down to what we think is the most likely to reach the target and be something they’re listening for. And cross our fingers.
- Comment on Talk like an 👽 4 days ago:
Like we could work from first principles and just build a system of communication based on math?
Not necessarily based on math, but math gives us a common ground to start from.
Like if you meet someone almost anywhere on earth, you can show them an apple and say “apple” and then they can say whatever they call an apple. This gives you a starting point to start communicating.
Aliens may not know what an apple is, but we’re pretty sure they know what 1+1=2 is… given context so they can understand the symbols. You can also communicate math over long distances… as long as they can decide the transmission.
Gotta say I have my doubts. I have no idea what alien cognition would be like.
Yes, this is pretty much the basis of using math vs trying to talk directly with language. If we can’t communicate basic mathematical concepts to eachother we’re kind of hooped.
- Comment on Why do people call Michael's house from GTA 5 a mansion? 2 weeks ago:
Wasn’t this exact question posted somewhere on Lemmy last week?
- Comment on My brother has or had now a drinking problem. Now he is asking for the worst tasting crap that he can take a cap full like an airplance bottle so his body whenever he thinks about it will remember 3 weeks ago:
This is a bad idea. He will just acquire a taste for whatever “tastes bad”. This isn’t going to be some magic trick that nobody has ever thought of.
I was lucky enough to be able to quit without any programs, but in my worst, I was choosing things that were “harder to drink” because of their taste (like the most bitter beers I could find) so that I would “drink slower”. All it did was make me acquire a taste for really bitter beer and I drank as fast as ever.
- Comment on Choose your fighter 3 weeks ago:
Planet came back no issues.
Ahem. Trilobites would like a word with you, thanks.
- Comment on As a Chinese American, if I wanna travel internationally, is it better to just say I'm American, or pretend to be a Chinese National (to hide from Anti-American sentinments)? 3 weeks ago:
My opinion is don’t do it. Just be yourself. For many situations, you’re only going to see the person for a couple of minutes, at most, so who cares what they think? If the conversation goes beyond that, you might find you want to make a connection, and now you’ve started the whole thing with a lie. Not a good look, and also you won’t feel good about it.
My perspective is as a white guy who travels extensively (almost 40 countries now, 6 continents).
As others have mentioned, people don’t judge you immediately based on where you come from. In my experience, they will most likely already have judged you based on your looks. The reaction will entirely depend on where you go, and to a smaller extent how you act.
For example, in (East) Africa, you probably won’t get treated as nicely as white people do, from what I’ve heard. And white people get stared and pointed at a lot (unless you’re in the full immigrant/expat part of a big city), harassed for money, and called mzuungu constantly. Generally this is all “in a nice way” for white people (but I got tired of it and didn’t like it), but talking to other travellers, if you’re “Asian”, it isn’t so “nice.”
In southeast Asia it will be a mixed bag depending on what you look like. You’ll probably fly under the radar, and have to deal more with people being shocked at your lack of speaking the local language. I saw this happen to Asian-American people a few times.
In Central and South America, excluding Peru and Brazil, be prepared for outright racism. Peru and Brazil have relatively large Chinese and Japanese descendant populations, but in the rest, I believe there is a lot of anti-Asian prejudice. They’ll call you “chino”, make eye/hand gestures, etc. Not all of this is in a hostile way, but I imagine it can get tiring or worse. Some will outright ignore you in stores and restaurants or even give you scowls. I saw all of this happen to other travellers, and heard even more stories.
I don’t know if I can talk about Europe or Australia. I don’t stand out there and I haven’t really talked to anyone who does. I imagine it really varies by country and maybe even neighbourhood.
One thing to remember is that in places where English is a second language, they can’t tell where you’re from based on accent as much. You could say you’re from Australia with your American accent and they’ll full on believe you.
Oh and another one, since you were talking about using Mandarin or Cantonese with an accent… There are very few places outside of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan where people will speak any Chinese, let alone recognize the accent. Maybe Malaysia and Singapore? English is the de facto language of travel pretty much everywhere. Acting like you don’t know it won’t get you anywhere. You’d have to do a fake Chinese accent while talking English. Practice your best Uncle Roger I guess.
Final Bonus Pro Tip: the best thing you can do for yourself when travelling to countries that aren’t primarily English, is learn how to say hello and thank you in the local language. If you initiate a conversation (e.g. respond to a stare) with a local language “hello”, you will get a smile and hello back and tension will ease. The rarer the language, the bigger the smile.
- Comment on Am I right to be afraid of germs / is my family disgusting or am I overreacting and this is germaphobia? (read post) 3 weeks ago:
Your immune system is not a perfect machine, but it’s evolved for thousands [sic] of years to be able to defend us against the bad germs we are exposed to.
Millions of years. Not thousands.
People also used to get sick a lot more and die a lot younger before we understood germs. The immune system isn’t magic, it helps protect us but if you get the wrong bug or too much of a bad bug, it can fail. Also, it evolved when we were living in caves and trees, not in cities and houses.
The ramifications of getting sick can go well beyond the acute symptoms you see (cold, cough, headache, vomiting, diarrhea, etc.) There can be long term, chronic, hidden affects you don’t realize, like heart or other organ problems.
Also, our immune system is not particularly good at fighting off parasites, and they can do real damage.
You shouldn’t walk around in a hazmat suit, but practicing basic hygiene and avoiding extreme exposure are important to short term and long term health.
And, washing your hands after you use the bathroom isn’t just for your own health, it’s also for the health of others. Not washing your hands is disrespectful to everyone else.
Thousands [sic] of years of evolution may not be perfect, but I trust it more than I trust these fucking corporate fucks, that’s for sure.
Right, it’s just corporate fucks and lobbying. Best to trust a comedian over the last 150+ years of fucking science. George Carlin was great, but come on. Spouting off his anecdotal feelings about health theory as fact? Yeesh.
- Comment on [deleted] 4 weeks ago:
I think Facebook groups are the main competitor from Big Tech. I know people who use FB Groups for similar things that I used to use Reddit for.
- Comment on [deleted] 4 weeks ago:
I think they mean something like Facebook groups. I.e. a big tech company that has forums similar to Reddit’s, at the scale Reddit has.
- Comment on [deleted] 5 weeks ago:
I get an error when I go to that link.
- Comment on Why does it seem like teenagers killing people is way more commonplace in the UK now? 5 weeks ago:
Username checks out 😅
- Comment on Dear Faith VII 5 weeks ago:
60000 KES (Kenyan Shillings) is about US$465
- Comment on [deleted] 1 month ago:
I understand that these people should, of course, be held accountable
Right, so who? And with what evidence?
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Oh yeah, that info is (probably) in the Epstein Files.
- Comment on Downvoting your ass 1 month ago:
Lay on your back and take my… Upvote
- Comment on Where do I find cool stickers? 2 months ago:
Skate shops. Skateboard companies make a lot of cool stickers.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 months ago:
In my opinion, no, don’t do it. It doesn’t add anything. But I’m old and crotchety.
- Comment on Why is sharpedo blocked in image searches on DuckDuckGo and Bing, but not Google? 3 months ago:
- Comment on Is it a bad idea to learn Russian because of everything? 3 months ago:
Learn Mandarin, Spanish, and maybe Hindi, if you’re planning for the future.
- Comment on [deleted] 3 months ago:
Fake ass shit youtube.com/shorts/fx9SLthRtSo
- Comment on [deleted] 3 months ago:
Pretty sure this is fake. There are very similar but less believable versions out there (exact same set up, but a flying hyena, for example).
- Comment on Does anyone know of a plug-in or extension that will make your web browser convert all websites into what they would look like in 1999? 3 months ago:
Sometimes you see almost that when css hasn’t loaded. Maybe you can turn off css in browser settings, site settings, or dev tools in the browser.
- Comment on Chasing the Elephant 4 months ago:
If vaccines were given in Pop-Tart form there wouldn’t be an antivax movement.
- Comment on Where is heart?! 4 months ago:
From XKCD: xkcd.com/2975
- Comment on Is lemmy dying? 4 months ago:
Interesting, I can’t seem to find highsignal when I search in Voyager.
- Comment on Can I make a Bluetooth button to skip YouTube ads on the computer? 4 months ago:
Maybe look at Zigbee instead of Bluetooth. It’s meant for home automation stuff, but I think it might be easier to set up to perform an action on an input from a button.
Or you can look at Bluetooth remotes but I feel like you’d have to create custom software to take the input and perform an action.
That said, you can use ChatGPT or Claude to help you get started. It’s one of the things an LLM is good at. Tell it you’re a beginner and what you’re trying to do and it can help you through the steps of setting up and writing the basic app. Be warned, the LLM will eventually lose its way and stop making code that makes sense.
- Comment on Can I make a Bluetooth button to skip YouTube ads on the computer? 4 months ago:
You mentioned you were still interested in a button.
How are your programming skills, and what’s your current setup? Are you using a PC? Is there a specific reason you want a bluetooth button instead of, say, a USB one? Or even just using a keyboard shortcut?
- Comment on What's the main device to hammer in a nail? 5 months ago:
But there’s only one 50. What if you pick 0?
- Comment on what is the best fruit to leave in a fridge? 5 months ago:
Interesting, they never seem to ripen for me, but maybe I’m too impatient
- Comment on what is the best fruit to leave in a fridge? 5 months ago:
If and only if they’re ripe.
- Comment on The Outer Worlds 2 is a great RPG that exceeded my expectations 5 months ago:
Glad to hear this. Years ago I worked with Obsidian engineers (who may or may not still be there, I have no idea) and I absolutely loved the systems they had built for their games. They were able to create games with a massive amount of content with a relatively small team of engineers, so I’ve always rooted for them.
I liked (didn’t love) and completed the first Outer Worlds but I thoroughly enjoyed Grounded - even though I never played through to the end game. I’ll definitely give this one a go.
