3 ms·
They did weather forecasting before computers (that was literally my grandpa's job during WWII).
by palmotea 2y ago
They did weather forecasting before computers (that was literally my grandpa's job during WWII).
- ziddoap 2y agoDid your grandpa do it at the same scale, speed, and with the same accuracy as modern day weather forecasting?
- palmotea 2y ago> Did your grandpa do it at the same scale, speed, and with the same accuracy as modern day weather forecasting? No. But if you're in a "post collapse" situation, building 8-bit computers from scavenged parts to run FORTH, you aren't either.
- ziddoap 2y agoI think the goal is that on the scale of grandpa <-> super computer, you end up somewhere in the middle, rather than back to grandpa. Even if it is at the speed, scale, and accuracy of grandpa, offloading the labor is valuable.
- kragen 2y agoWeather forecasting before computers already relied on rapid telecommunications of low-bandwidth digital data (temperature, pressure, humidity, wind speed and direction, and precipitation) from a network of weather stations. Digital telecommunications is something that computers and radios can provide at enormously lower cost than networks of telegraph cables. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43484415 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43484415 for details.