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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 6th, 2024

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  • their base numbering system would be different than ours, their symbols for numbers would be different, their entire understanding of math and how to calculate stuff could be wildly different

    The neat thing about math is it’s built upon universal truths that exist independently of how you describe them. 1+1=2 regardless of how you represent those numbers. Even among humans we have plenty of different ways of describing numbers.

    Also, the best thing about science is that physics works the way it does regardless of how you describe it. An atom of hydrogen will always have the same spectral peaks, regardless of what units you describe those peaks in.

    It’s these kinds of things we consider when trying to communicate with aliens. Take a look at:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_plaque

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_Golden_Record

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_message

    These messages will probably never be received, even if there is intelligent life out there. But if something intelligent does find these messages, they will probably determine they are artificial, and hopefully manage to decode some of it.


  • As a general rule the more you spend up front, the less you will spend (in time and money) to fix and maintain the thing.

    3D printers are finicky which is why they often become a whole hobby on their own.

    As part of that, I’d strongly recommend you stick to one of the easier to work with materials (PLA and TPU seem to be popular rn). Those are good enough 99% of the time, and printing more exotic materials is more work. If you really need a better material, prototype in PLA and then buy a professionally printed final piece (I’ve personally used Shapeways a couple times. I wouldn’t call it cheap but for small parts it’s reasonable and the quality of the end result is quite good).

    I personally am using an EnderV3 right now. It’s very customizable, and was one of the cheapest options when I bought it, but it tends to take a lot of debugging every time I want to make something.