3 ms·

8 years, not 18, and I don't think many people think of Mars rovers the same way as they think of their phone.

waterlesscloud 14y ago
I'm not so sure. There was a lot of griping about the early photos from Curiosity as compared to the iphone camera. That went away when the "real" pictures started coming back, but people definitely expect space technology to move as fast as consumer tech.
- aptwebapps 14y ago
  I'm sorry, but I have to go on a little rant here. Let me state in advance that it's completely out of proportion to the subject matter and that this is more of chance to drag out my soap box than anything else. HN is a place where you shouldn't have to spell everything out or restate the context every step of the way. But here's what just happened: 1) panacea posited the idea, perhaps humorously, that the news of another rover on the horizon would diminish interest in Curiosity much like the announcement of a new phone diminishes interest in the current model. 2) I said I didn't think people thought of the rovers the same was as they thought of their phones. 3) You disagree with that in a completely orthogonal way. Context is everything. If you read panacea's comment and then my comment you should not get the idea that I'm saying there can not be any congruence between rovers and smart phones in the public's thoughts. Obviously, if the pictures were not high res people would complain and the easiest reference point to hand would be a phone camera. That has nothing to do with what I was saying. Again, this a pet peeve, but carrying on a discussion via medium such as this rewards a little carefulness.
  - waterlesscloud 14y ago
    No offense, but yeah, I was intentionally jumping context in order to express what I considered to be an interesting idea. There's no intent to imply what you said is wrong, but to move beyond it to more interesting topics. Comparing the Mars rovers to phones made me think of the ways in which the public does in fact do that. There's interesting conversations to be had in that direction. Perhaps future shock has turned into future expectation. Or blase-ness. Or something. This is personal for me, and I've been around long enough to realize I'm never going to have what I want in this regard, but I do wish conversations were more fluid when there are more interesting directions to pursue beyond the immediate context.
    - aptwebapps 14y ago
      There's no reason you can't change the subject - you just need a segue so we (or maybe just I) know what's going on. ;)

I'm not so sure. There was a lot of griping about the early photos from Curiosity as compared to the iphone camera. That went away when the "real" pictures started coming back, but people definitely expect space technology to move as fast as consumer tech.

aptwebapps 14y ago
I'm sorry, but I have to go on a little rant here. Let me state in advance that it's completely out of proportion to the subject matter and that this is more of chance to drag out my soap box than anything else. HN is a place where you shouldn't have to spell everything out or restate the context every step of the way. But here's what just happened: 1) panacea posited the idea, perhaps humorously, that the news of another rover on the horizon would diminish interest in Curiosity much like the announcement of a new phone diminishes interest in the current model. 2) I said I didn't think people thought of the rovers the same was as they thought of their phones. 3) You disagree with that in a completely orthogonal way. Context is everything. If you read panacea's comment and then my comment you should not get the idea that I'm saying there can not be any congruence between rovers and smart phones in the public's thoughts. Obviously, if the pictures were not high res people would complain and the easiest reference point to hand would be a phone camera. That has nothing to do with what I was saying. Again, this a pet peeve, but carrying on a discussion via medium such as this rewards a little carefulness.
- waterlesscloud 14y ago
  No offense, but yeah, I was intentionally jumping context in order to express what I considered to be an interesting idea. There's no intent to imply what you said is wrong, but to move beyond it to more interesting topics. Comparing the Mars rovers to phones made me think of the ways in which the public does in fact do that. There's interesting conversations to be had in that direction. Perhaps future shock has turned into future expectation. Or blase-ness. Or something. This is personal for me, and I've been around long enough to realize I'm never going to have what I want in this regard, but I do wish conversations were more fluid when there are more interesting directions to pursue beyond the immediate context.
  - aptwebapps 14y ago
    There's no reason you can't change the subject - you just need a segue so we (or maybe just I) know what's going on. ;)