• SARGEx117@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’ll take F1 over Nascar any day.

      Disclaimer: I’ve never sat down to watch either, but if the choices are “turn left” or “winding, twisting course” I think I’m going with the one that has more variety.

      • frank@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        Massive F1 fan here.

        It’s more of an engineering sport than a driving sport. Don’t get me wrong– the drivers are absolutely top notch and do an incredible job and it’s entertaining to watch. But since it’s sooooo engineering and development based, you cars that perform different on different tracks (cuz of elevation, temperature, track design, surface).

        It’s pretty neat; worth a watch sometime!

        • Rodeo@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          This is like the argument that football is exciting because it’s a highly strategic sport: the most interesting and exciting things about it are happening on the sidelines in the coaches’ heads while 40% of the time nothing is happening on the field.

          So if the most exciting part of the race is the engineering that went into the car, then what’s the point of watching the race? You’d be probably be more interested watching Bill Nye.

          • frank@sopuli.xyz
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            1 year ago

            I’m not sure what you’re referring to but not at all! It’s the inverse of a “spec series” (which still benefit greatly from engineering) where you get handed parts to use. Teams can design the vast majority of parts themselves and do

            • uis@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I’m not sure which one, but I think it is F1 where making car too good is banned.

              • CapeWearingAeroplane@sopuli.xyz
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                1 year ago

                There are a bunch of restrictions in F1, which largely make it harder to make fast cars. But think of it the other way around: Those restrictions make the engineering harder, and all teams have the same restrictions. That means you have to optimise even more within the limitations you have, because you’re not allowed to make some of the “easy” optimisations like cutting weight by removing the roll cage.

        • SARGEx117@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I know I don’t have the skills to drive one (at least not yet lol) but those things are engineering marvels.

          I’ve always wanted to see one invert at speed to see if their downforce really is enough.

          I can’t imagine all the materials sciences that go on behind the scenes.

          • frank@sopuli.xyz
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            1 year ago

            So much cool matsci!

            The exhaust is no longer titanium (it’s inconel) because they 3D print the complicated bits of it now instead of traditional forming techniques

      • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It’s the difference between a marathon and an obstacle course.

        Nascar has some really crazy shit, like building a twisted car to turn left, canting the engines to perform better in turns, making the car as flat as possible on the right to get better aero when up against the wall. They do some wild stuff with the cars, and stretching the rules or “cheating” was, and probably is, a huge part of the sport.

        When it comes to the racing itself, the track layout is usually designed with top sustained speed in mind, which means that a lot of the driver’s finishing position is determined by their ability to battle it out with the other drivers, instead of their ability to optimize the course. Not to mention, that simple “left turn” is deceptively complex. Drivers account for track conditions, like foreign debris, rubber “marbles”, bank angle, and temperature, atmospheric conditions like air density, car conditions like damage, fuel, tire wear and tire temp, and race conditions like remaining laps, position and proximity to other drivers, when they make that “simple left”. Throw in make-or-break pitstops, where the car gets fuel, tires and repairs in less than 10 seconds, and the fact that almost all of this is happening at 170+ MPH, and you realize that oval racing isn’t just a bunch of hilljacks turning left, but a modern gladiator-style chariot race.

          • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            No hard feelings. I’m not a big Nascar guy either, but I went to ~10 Brickyard 400s when I was younger. Totally agree with your sentiment about mild left turn and car shuffling. If that was all I could see, it would be pretty boring. I have the same feeling about horse racing. Just zero appreciation for the Kentucky derby. Just a bunch of multi-millionaires’ horses running around with some other dude on their backs in my opinion. I’m sure there is a complexity that I’m missing, but I’m happy just not knowing.

  • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    Guess I’m post-racism because my first thought was “mosquitoes”.

  • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    If I had to choose a race to be eliminated to get the alien tech, I’d go with potato sack. Some people might miss it, but I feel like it’s time to let that one go.

    • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      I agree. The three legged race is too much of a classic. The feeling of flow state when you and your partner get moving quick is too good. Sack races never feel fun. Just painful.

    • BluesF@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      Agree 100% I embarrassed myself thoroughly in the sack race as a child and would like all future examples banned.

  • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Yeah I am not voting.

    If they were really a benevolent species, they wouldn’t play this mind game to begin with.

      • Meowoem@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Well it might make perfect sense from their perspective, there might be a million alien species on the galactic council who all agree they don’t want to deal with a species that won’t purge at least one race.

        It’s unlikely but possible, we have literally no way of knowing or really guessing anything about how an alien race or empire might think. They might be shocked and confused we don’t kill our enemies children, bemused that we ended slavery, disgusted that we don’t torture criminals for sport…

        An even scarier thought is that we might agree with them in a hundred or thousand years, it seems impossible to imagine but to me it seems impossible to imagine slavery was ever a thing or that they put criminals heads on pikes for everyone to see.

    • hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Wouldn’t they?

      Maybe shit like that is the kind of wake up call our species would need to finally get us on the path to a post-race society.

      Maybe they know we need a bit of a nudge and they decided they’d be the one to give it to us.

      • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Look if Covid-19 wasn’t an effective enough wake up call, I don’t think anything will be.

        Pretty sure this is just going to start off a race war

        • phx@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          There’d be a 180° and people would start claiming that the political leaders were controlling the aliens rather than the other way around

    • teuast@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      how about the Abu Dhabi Tour? A week-long stage race on the least interesting terrain on the planet. The first stage frequently has a finishing straight that’s 60k long.

  • stepanzak@iusearchlinux.fyi
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    1 year ago

    Reminds me of that Black Mirror episode when people could post names of people they wanted to be killed and every day the most posted person were killed. After some time, the man behind that killed all of the people who voted for anybody.

    • pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      So in that killer’s mind, wanting someone killed was the morally indefensible crime but actually killing ludicrous numbers of people is not? And he nor anyone else questioned that? 🤔

      • MasterPraetorian@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Bit of context and spoilers - He was making a statement about social media threats/harassment

        The first part - using social media - whoever people vote to be killed, gets killed. Trying to show these actions have consequences. The people voting feel immune to these consequences. They just voted, they didn’t kill anybody.
        He goes through 5 rounds of voting, with more votes every time. After each round, the most voted for is killed.

        Up to this point he’s exposing people trying to use social media to try and harm people Eventually he turns it around, and kills everyone who voted

        The whole thing kicked off because his friend/romantic interest tried to commit suicide from cyber bullying. He’s pushing that these actions have consequences, even if you hide behind a screen.

        The killer himself is a psycho, so the morals aren’t exactly impactful to him. As for anyone else questioning, the definitely do.

        Disclaimer - been a while since I watched the episode. It’s pretty good, definitely need some suspension of disbelief (but that’s most episodes)

        • pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I get that what he’s trying to do, it’s just his actions are self-defeating. The only reason the behavior on social media has violent consequences is because he’s imposing them; no one else in that story is killing people based on meaningless Facebook polls. They only matter because he makes them matter. He causes the problems he thinks he is solving.

          Also he assumes his actions will make people reconsider their choices and change, which they won’t because people for the most part aren’t capable of change. Most people don’t have the ability to do so. Those who do deliberately refuse to because they’re happy the way they are regardless of their true nature’s consequences to other people.

          It’s just a stupid gimmicky show pretending to be deep to get views. That’s all.

          • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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            1 year ago

            This is how every episode of Black Mirror is. Just little interesting “what if” scenarios that make you think. In the same way that fairy tales are contrived and unrealistic these are too.

              • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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                1 year ago

                The fact that there’s some discussion going on about it is evidence of that. It’s similar to the “would you press a button for a million dollars but a random person on earth dies” type of question. “Does voting to kill someone mean your responsible for the murder if they’re going to kill someone anyways?”

                • Nobsi@feddit.de
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                  1 year ago

                  I’m sorry i was just being mean to be mean. I think blackmirror is as thought provoking or interesting as the big bang theory

          • stepanzak@iusearchlinux.fyi
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            1 year ago

            Behavior on social media can definitely have consequences in real life, even violent. Many shooters vere radicalized by social media groups, for example.

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            1 year ago

            “What if technology was…(wait for it)…bad sometimes.”

            So thought provoking. I stand by my opinion that the only good episode of Black Mirror is the gay one.

            • jarfil@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              “What if technology was… (wait for it)… just technology, you ape with a gun”

              Technology is neither good nor bad, it’s how you use it. The intent of Black Mirror is to make you think about how you use technology… but of course if you blame technology for your own actions, it doesn’t work.

              • rwhitisissle@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                The intent of Black Mirror is to make you think about how you use technology

                This is the intent of the vast majority of most science fiction. It doesn’t make Black Mirror’s execution good or insightful. Much of Black Mirror focuses on people “surrendering control” to technology in ways that prove self-destructive or just generally destructive. At their best, many of the stories aren’t really about technology. Technology serves as an aesthetic component, but you could still make the stories work without them. The Orville actually has a better version of Black Mirror’s Season 3, Episode 1 episode “Nosedive.” It actually engages with the underlying themes and ideological basis of a world that operates like that and suggests that the technology isn’t really the problem: it’s how people elect to perceive and judge one another and the ease with which we condemn one another from a distance. It’s not a technological problem, fundamentally, but a cultural one. Technology can facilitate bad behavior or exacerbate negative societal tendencies, but it doesn’t sit at the functional center of them. Because, functionally, it’s just a Salem Witch Trial story with additional technological flavoring on top. This is something that Black Mirror never seems to “get.”

                Which is why, and I will stand by this, the best Black Mirror episode is the gay one.

                • daltotron@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  Why the gay one? Are you sure your favorite isn’t the one where miley cirus gets trapped in one of those apple robot dogs from the 2000’s or whatever?

  • CosmoNova@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    Aliens would be really disappointed to find out we already have blue checkmarks invented and people don‘t care nearly enough about it.

  • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Chinese would probably vote Japanese

    China’s neighbours would for China

    Majority white and black would vote for each other

    And nothing we didn’t already know would be revealed

    Also when an advanced race capable of killing the entire species says “you must” do something then I don’t think it’s racist to vote and I don’t think saying “none” is allowed because it defeats the purpose of the experiment

    • GiveMemes@jlai.lu
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      You really think the majority wouldn’t vote for “none”, given it’s an option?

      Even if one were to think practically about it (if we all vote none, they won’t share the tech or whatever, for the sake of they hypothetical), wouldn’t most people just choose a super small ethnic group?

      Like sorry Inuits, hate to say it but y’all shoulda tried imperialism lmao

      • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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        I’m saying none wasn’t given as an option so it should be assumed to not be

        People have to be aware of the small ethnicity so it’s going to vary by person

      • SmoothIsFast@citizensgaming.com
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        1 year ago

        Based on the way the meme plays off, the only practical way to get the tech would show you value life over technology, hence the option for none, if it’s not a consensus for none how could you expect that species to act responsible with the tech and hence the tattooing and leaving.

      • ChexMax@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Right, that’s what I was thinking : just try to pick the smallest race. I’m guessing the majority would try to do the same thing. Obviously you have people who hate other races, but I’m hoping that even if 30% have the same idea, maybe it limits casualties… unless we’re all allowed to Google though, I’m guessing most of us have different guesses as to what the smallest race is

        • jarfil@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          The smallest race is “human”.

          If the aliens were to go through with actually eliminating the most voted “race”, they’d wipe out everyone.

        • Meowoem@sh.itjust.works
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          I feel like sensible votes wouldn’t matter there are two many racists, it comes down to who the biggest population blocks are most racist against - and what counts as a race, like if it’s from a list of like five or six races then it’ll be different to having French and German rather than just European

    • FUBAR@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Neither Chinese nor Japanese are a race. They’re the same race with different nationality

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        1 year ago

        I feel like a lot of us (myself included) would vote for things that aren’t races because we don’t understand the difference

          • jarfil@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Inconceivable! Have you never seen a Chihuahua and a Doberman, or an American and… uh… bigfoot? fairies?.. yeah, that, tooth fairies! 🙈

          • kase@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Good point. And aliens would probably come up with different “groups” anyway lol

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        There are a lot of people that treat it as such but if we tell them all SEA people are the same then I guess they would vote black

    • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      Well, if “none” wins then no one is killed and you get no technology. That’s my interpretation at least.

      • SmoothIsFast@citizensgaming.com
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        Based on the fact they tattoo your answer afterwards, the only way you would have gotten technology is by voting none in a consensus showing you value life over technology, therefore your more likely to be responsible with it, vote on anything other than none and you have voided your ability to be responsible hence no technology. The fact this is not a more common interpretation is honestly disheartening.

        • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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          By interpretation I just mean if I was there and I was assuming the aliens weren’t lying about their intentions that’s how I would take “none”.

          • SmoothIsFast@citizensgaming.com
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            And I’m saying how that being such a common interpretation is disheartening. It should be more apt to apply that any sufficiently advanced being is going to value harmony not disorder which would lead to instability and eventual collapse, hence why it would be an apt litmus test to see if a society would be capable of responsibly utilizing any of their technology. The fact so many are just like “well I like tech” and someone’s gonna say a group so I should say a small minority is extremely sad to see being a common take. I would hope more would recognize the implications behind such an ask, but I guess in this small sample size that’s not the case.

            • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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              1 year ago

              Idk dude, I was raised Christian. I’m used to sufficiently advanced beings having totally arbitrary and often cruel intentions under the guise of being good.

              • SmoothIsFast@citizensgaming.com
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                I mean I had to deal with all the bs indoctrination of Christianity when I was growing up, but I definetly wouldn’t assign those barbaric constraints as the motive behind a highly advanced alien species, religion was a blight from power hungry authoritarian people in the past. As I’ve stated I don’t believe a society which has not mastered harmony with its own species and planet as capable to be that advanced. A greedy authoritarian society will tear itself apart before it ever reaches a “highly advanced” society. You could commit genocide and given enough time different races will be born again, bringing you into a repeating cycle of chaos. Look at how unstable any extremely religious area is on earth, you think that’s going to create advanced societies? I sure as hell don’t nor would I attribute such nonsense to a being capable of traversing the universe, one who understands the principles of physics and can unify them with the quantum mechanics is not going to assign unkowns to a god, they would investigate the mechanisms behind them and try to define them. That’s a step above what we have rationally discovered and I don’t attribute religion to rational beings, it’s completely at odds.

                • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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                  1 year ago

                  But why would you not just take something someone tells you at face value? Besides, believing that interstellar beings are perfect and therefore lying about doing a thing you believe is bad is classic religious thinking.