3 ms·

A detector of this sensitivity seems like a boon for spying. Rather difficult to relocate, fortunately, but it makes me wonder about the future of the technolog

A detector of this sensitivity seems like a boon for spying. Rather difficult to relocate, fortunately, but it makes me wonder about the future of the technology. No one would have looked at the first computer and envisioned an iPhone.

shmerl 11y ago
> No one would have looked at the first computer and envisioned an iPhone. Not really. Portable computers were envisioned quite a long time ago.
- oldmanjay 11y ago
  Not before they were solid state. Computers had their own buildings and relied on glass tubes for operation. Screens weren't on the radar. Operators were highly educated. But technology did bring us to a point where the vision became more focused, and led to what we have today. There are many possible paths to rebutting my statement, which to be clear is idle morning musing, but your objection doesn't hold water.
  - nitrogen 11y ago
    Is your speculation that the gravity wave detectors would be able to detect the changes in gravity caused by movements of people and things? Submarines already do this to detect other vessels AFAIK.
    - bbcbasic 11y ago
      Surely you are thinking of Sonar?
      - nitrogen 11y ago
        No, this came up on Hacker News recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10810390 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10810390
        matheweis 11y ago
        Gravity for navigation, perhaps ... but I believe they use magnetic fields, not gravitational fields, to detect other subs (and also some rather sophisticated real-time degaussing to prevent said detection): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10979452 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10979452
  - j1vms 11y ago
    I agree that you do make a point. There is really no way for us to know what is to come. Sometimes we think we are looking at a square, but it really is a cube and we are just unable to look beyond are current perspective for whatever reason. I would say one obstacle that stands in the way of "spying" on objects moving on the Earth's surface is that the gravitational wave energy emitted by accelerating objects on Earth would be "too small" for current detectors. Not to mention that there would be the issue of how to filter gravitational wave noise, and/or isolate frequencies. However, if it possible to build an amplifier or filter to resolve these issues, that remains to be seen - or maybe somebody else could chime in. edit: typos, clarity
    - j1vms 11y ago
      ok, here's an idea that someone might either build on or refute: would it be possible to build an amplifier of gravitational waves using some arrangement of microscopic and/or macroscopic objects having a "known" defined 3D physical relationship (say in a lattice), and under known interactional forces (including EM). You would have to take into account the uncertainty principle in system parameter measurement, though the propagating gravitational wave should have a deterministic effect on the potential well and thus the quantum wave(s) of the system(s). Thus, amplification through propagation in the space-time of the system might be feasible. This is of course all hand-waving, and very rough.
  - abecedarius 11y ago
    There were handheld calculators doing advanced math, clearly some kind of computer, in Asimov's Foundation around 1940.
  - mc808 11y ago
    > Screens weren't on the radar. Funny choice of words. Screens were "on the radar" systems which prompted the development of one of the earliest forms of computer memory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay_line_memory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay_line_memory (I don't know if anyone envisioned shrinking those vats of mercury down to pocket size, however.)

shmerl 11y ago

> No one would have looked at the first computer and envisioned an iPhone. Not really. Portable computers were envisioned quite a long time ago.

oldmanjay 11y ago
Not before they were solid state. Computers had their own buildings and relied on glass tubes for operation. Screens weren't on the radar. Operators were highly educated. But technology did bring us to a point where the vision became more focused, and led to what we have today. There are many possible paths to rebutting my statement, which to be clear is idle morning musing, but your objection doesn't hold water.
- nitrogen 11y ago
  Is your speculation that the gravity wave detectors would be able to detect the changes in gravity caused by movements of people and things? Submarines already do this to detect other vessels AFAIK.
  - bbcbasic 11y ago
    Surely you are thinking of Sonar?
    - nitrogen 11y ago
      No, this came up on Hacker News recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10810390 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10810390
      - matheweis 11y ago
        Gravity for navigation, perhaps ... but I believe they use magnetic fields, not gravitational fields, to detect other subs (and also some rather sophisticated real-time degaussing to prevent said detection): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10979452 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10979452
- j1vms 11y ago
  I agree that you do make a point. There is really no way for us to know what is to come. Sometimes we think we are looking at a square, but it really is a cube and we are just unable to look beyond are current perspective for whatever reason. I would say one obstacle that stands in the way of "spying" on objects moving on the Earth's surface is that the gravitational wave energy emitted by accelerating objects on Earth would be "too small" for current detectors. Not to mention that there would be the issue of how to filter gravitational wave noise, and/or isolate frequencies. However, if it possible to build an amplifier or filter to resolve these issues, that remains to be seen - or maybe somebody else could chime in. edit: typos, clarity
  - j1vms 11y ago
    ok, here's an idea that someone might either build on or refute: would it be possible to build an amplifier of gravitational waves using some arrangement of microscopic and/or macroscopic objects having a "known" defined 3D physical relationship (say in a lattice), and under known interactional forces (including EM). You would have to take into account the uncertainty principle in system parameter measurement, though the propagating gravitational wave should have a deterministic effect on the potential well and thus the quantum wave(s) of the system(s). Thus, amplification through propagation in the space-time of the system might be feasible. This is of course all hand-waving, and very rough.
- abecedarius 11y ago
  There were handheld calculators doing advanced math, clearly some kind of computer, in Asimov's Foundation around 1940.
- mc808 11y ago
  > Screens weren't on the radar. Funny choice of words. Screens were "on the radar" systems which prompted the development of one of the earliest forms of computer memory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay_line_memory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay_line_memory (I don't know if anyone envisioned shrinking those vats of mercury down to pocket size, however.)