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I would rather see my kid risk a burn taking lasers and motors apart, versus her risking depression and body dysmorphic disorder from passively following toxic

by crmd 5y ago

I would rather see my kid risk a burn taking lasers and motors apart, versus her risking depression and body dysmorphic disorder from passively following toxic video game streamers and Instagram influencers. The amount of gatekeeping-cum-concern trolling in the tech community is as abundant as it is timeless. I hope more of the next generation of young scientists get their start from nilered, photonicinduction, styropyro, etc.

avianlyric 5y ago
I’m all for kids doing dumb shit, getting hurt, and learning valuable skills and life lessons. It can be very educational and fun for all parties involved. Where I get concerned is when people are playing with tech can a easily move from “skin burn that heals in a week” to “partial / complete loss of sight in one eye” with little obvious indication that you’ve crossed that boundary. Lasers in particular can be very nasty in this space. An simple 1mW green laser will look basically identical to a 1mW IR laser. But the IR laser has a real risk of causing partial sight loss because it not visible, so you don’t blink or look away when it shone in your eyes. Instead the first indication of a problem will either be pain or partial loss of sight, at which point the damage is done and can’t be repaired. To further complicate things damage to eye can also depend on if the laser is pulsing or running continuously. So laser that seems “safe” when operated continuously can become extremely dangerous when pulsed. Finally if you’ve got a laser that burn your skin. Then it’ll annihilate your eyes in a instant. The optics in your eyes have a focal magnification of about 100,000x so 1mW/cm2 becomes 100W/cm2 once it hits your retina. Which itself is not the most robust organ in the body. In short things like lasers create a difficult to control hazard that pretty much targets on of the most sensitive, important and difficult to repair parts of the body, the eyes. People live perfectly normal lives missing fingers and toes, with 3rd degree burns and horrific scars. But permanent sight loss is a totally different ball game, it’s high impact, life long, and we have pretty much no technology that can reverse it. So please, encourage your children to mess around with technology, take stuff apart. Burn fingers, break bones and slice up hands. But for the love of god, protect them permanent sight or hearing loss. Let them lose that stuff at music festivals or too old age. And doing that mean making sure they really understand how dangerous lasers can be, and how something a simple as taking your goggles of at the wrong moment can have huge life altering ramifications, before they start playing within anything more powerful than a DVD player.
- crmd 5y ago
  With respect, I feel like you have some phobias relating to electricity and magnetism and accidental blindness. I understand your recommendation and hope you find relief and stay safe.
  - gaze 5y ago
    No, that’s a completely healthy level of respect. Maybe you just don’t value your eyes or understand lasers. I’m sorry to tell you that you have to live in a world where other people do value their eyes.
  - avianlyric 5y ago
    It’s not a phobia when it’s informed by the lived experience of others. I’ve messed with lasers before, I still have my eye sight, but it was a little horrifying to discover how innocent and non-descript a laser capable of blinding is. If we were talking about working with extremely strong acids, or radioactive sources, I doubt you would consider being worried about severe chemical burns, or radiation poisoning from accidental ingestion a phobia. For some reason people think lasers aren’t dangerous, or need be high power CO2 lasers for metal cutting to be dangerous. I suspect it’s because the majority of lasers that people encounter (such as DVD players) have scary warning on them, and yet staring into them is hardly dangerous. But eyes are extremely delicate and easy to damage. Our blink reflex provides all the protection you need for pretty much every normal day-to-day scenario you’re gonna encounter. But lasers are not a normal risk, and the blink reflex frequently isn’t enough to save you. I guess you also believe that safety glasses when using a saw is a waste of time as well. And there’s no point wearing a mask while welding either.

by crmd 5y ago

avianlyric 5y ago

I’m all for kids doing dumb shit, getting hurt, and learning valuable skills and life lessons. It can be very educational and fun for all parties involved. Where I get concerned is when people are playing with tech can a easily move from “skin burn that heals in a week” to “partial / complete loss of sight in one eye” with little obvious indication that you’ve crossed that boundary. Lasers in particular can be very nasty in this space. An simple 1mW green laser will look basically identical to a 1mW IR laser. But the IR laser has a real risk of causing partial sight loss because it not visible, so you don’t blink or look away when it shone in your eyes. Instead the first indication of a problem will either be pain or partial loss of sight, at which point the damage is done and can’t be repaired. To further complicate things damage to eye can also depend on if the laser is pulsing or running continuously. So laser that seems “safe” when operated continuously can become extremely dangerous when pulsed. Finally if you’ve got a laser that burn your skin. Then it’ll annihilate your eyes in a instant. The optics in your eyes have a focal magnification of about 100,000x so 1mW/cm2 becomes 100W/cm2 once it hits your retina. Which itself is not the most robust organ in the body. In short things like lasers create a difficult to control hazard that pretty much targets on of the most sensitive, important and difficult to repair parts of the body, the eyes. People live perfectly normal lives missing fingers and toes, with 3rd degree burns and horrific scars. But permanent sight loss is a totally different ball game, it’s high impact, life long, and we have pretty much no technology that can reverse it. So please, encourage your children to mess around with technology, take stuff apart. Burn fingers, break bones and slice up hands. But for the love of god, protect them permanent sight or hearing loss. Let them lose that stuff at music festivals or too old age. And doing that mean making sure they really understand how dangerous lasers can be, and how something a simple as taking your goggles of at the wrong moment can have huge life altering ramifications, before they start playing within anything more powerful than a DVD player.

crmd 5y ago
With respect, I feel like you have some phobias relating to electricity and magnetism and accidental blindness. I understand your recommendation and hope you find relief and stay safe.
- gaze 5y ago
  No, that’s a completely healthy level of respect. Maybe you just don’t value your eyes or understand lasers. I’m sorry to tell you that you have to live in a world where other people do value their eyes.
- avianlyric 5y ago
  It’s not a phobia when it’s informed by the lived experience of others. I’ve messed with lasers before, I still have my eye sight, but it was a little horrifying to discover how innocent and non-descript a laser capable of blinding is. If we were talking about working with extremely strong acids, or radioactive sources, I doubt you would consider being worried about severe chemical burns, or radiation poisoning from accidental ingestion a phobia. For some reason people think lasers aren’t dangerous, or need be high power CO2 lasers for metal cutting to be dangerous. I suspect it’s because the majority of lasers that people encounter (such as DVD players) have scary warning on them, and yet staring into them is hardly dangerous. But eyes are extremely delicate and easy to damage. Our blink reflex provides all the protection you need for pretty much every normal day-to-day scenario you’re gonna encounter. But lasers are not a normal risk, and the blink reflex frequently isn’t enough to save you. I guess you also believe that safety glasses when using a saw is a waste of time as well. And there’s no point wearing a mask while welding either.