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February 11, 2021 Archives
Thursday, February 11, 2021
TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: Robin Hanson at the Foresight Institute: “A Simple Model of Grabby Aliens”
We've written here twice before about the Grabby Aliens model:
- “Robin Hanson — How Far Away Are Expansionist Aliens?” (2020-12-28)
- “ ‘A Simple Model of Grabby Aliens’ Now on arXiv” (2020-02-03)
CONTEXT: The Modern Miracle of Living Stereo
The the late 1950s, mass-produced stereophonic recordings on vinyl discs were introduced by a variety of record labels, using the Westrex system where the two channels are encoded at 45 degree angles to the vertical. This is an RCA Victor promotional film explaining the technology and showing some of the first stereo phonographs made by the company. Early stereo records contained warnings against playing them on monophonic record players. Stereo cartridges used a smaller stylus and allowed motion in both the vertical and horizontal axes. Playing a stereo record with a mono cartridge would lead it its “ploughing” the groove and destroying the stereo content.