3 ms·
Seen that way, the Voyager probes are also very impressive but also a derivative idea. After all they were really Mariner 11 and 12[1], if not in name, not eve
by magicalhippo 3y ago
Seen that way, the Voyager probes are also very impressive but also a derivative idea.
After all they were really Mariner 11 and 12[1], if not in name, not even the first interplanetary probes.
Rather I think it's more interesting to view engineering as finding solutions to a problem given a set of constraints.
In that sense I think both the Voyager probes as well as lot of modern engineering is quite remarkable.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_program#Mariner_Jupiter-Saturn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_program#Mariner_Jupite...
- detourdog 3y agoI would respond that Voyager is still going compared to Mariner. The Voyager project may be derivative but it has out performed all others. I would also lump all those early inertial guidance efforts of early computing together with Voyager as the high water mark.
- detourdog 3y agoI think what I'm holding in such high regard is the meager resources and lack of experience caused the development to stick very close to first principles. I think that most of the layers of technology today are actual intermediately related to the problem at hand. I want modern computing to a svelte as possible with a direct UI that maps to the human tasks and hardware that is tightly coupled to the physical world. Maybe someday I will have an example of what I think is good. I think I'm getting really close to what I see as 100 year computer aesthetic.