Artificial Intelligence Spots 303 New Nazca Geoglyphs
September 25, 2024 2:00 PM Subscribe
First, this is amazing.
Second, this was slightly unsettling in light of the current orca fad for sinking yachts:
“On some pottery from the Nazca period, there are scenes depicting orcas with knives cutting off human heads,” Sakai tells New Scientist. “So we can position orcas as beings that carry out human sacrifice.”
posted by EvaDestruction at 2:10 PM on September 25 [12 favorites]
Second, this was slightly unsettling in light of the current orca fad for sinking yachts:
“On some pottery from the Nazca period, there are scenes depicting orcas with knives cutting off human heads,” Sakai tells New Scientist. “So we can position orcas as beings that carry out human sacrifice.”
posted by EvaDestruction at 2:10 PM on September 25 [12 favorites]
That cat is awesome!
posted by InfidelZombie at 2:19 PM on September 25 [4 favorites]
posted by InfidelZombie at 2:19 PM on September 25 [4 favorites]
If someone comes across images without the artificial white lines added, please post here!
The original journal article shows only one of them, as an example of their process.
posted by intermod at 2:30 PM on September 25 [3 favorites]
The original journal article shows only one of them, as an example of their process.
posted by intermod at 2:30 PM on September 25 [3 favorites]
Well this is the best use of AI I,ve heard of. These are really amazing!
Machine learning approaches can work really well for recognizing things. Distinguishing cancerous cell cultures from healthy ones, for example.
It is so called "generative AI", that attempts to assemble a mass of scraped content into something original that generally sucks, both ethically and technically.
The geoglyphs look cool. It will be interesting to see what other researchers make of the identifications.
posted by pattern juggler at 2:40 PM on September 25 [16 favorites]
Machine learning approaches can work really well for recognizing things. Distinguishing cancerous cell cultures from healthy ones, for example.
It is so called "generative AI", that attempts to assemble a mass of scraped content into something original that generally sucks, both ethically and technically.
The geoglyphs look cool. It will be interesting to see what other researchers make of the identifications.
posted by pattern juggler at 2:40 PM on September 25 [16 favorites]
If I'm seeing the correct petroglyph that claims to show orcas as beings that carry out human sacrifice, it also seems to contain an arm with an elbow, so I think this is a deliberate attempt by a human to discredit the obviously superior orcan race. Or maybe the orca just ate somebody that was threatening it with a knife.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 2:43 PM on September 25
posted by halfbuckaroo at 2:43 PM on September 25
It is so called "generative AI", that attempts to assemble a mass of scraped content into something original that generally sucks, both ethically and technically.
There are lots of ethical and technically sound applications of generative AI. I recently saw a talk where a diffusion model was being used to generate new drug candidates for instance. Of course that's where the ethics lay: the researchers aren't blindly injecting the output of the model into patients, rather, they're using it as a starting point for research on the new candidate molecules.
posted by mr_roboto at 2:49 PM on September 25 [6 favorites]
There are lots of ethical and technically sound applications of generative AI. I recently saw a talk where a diffusion model was being used to generate new drug candidates for instance. Of course that's where the ethics lay: the researchers aren't blindly injecting the output of the model into patients, rather, they're using it as a starting point for research on the new candidate molecules.
posted by mr_roboto at 2:49 PM on September 25 [6 favorites]
Can AI figure out the meaning of what was being communicated? I can’t imagine they put all this work into just having a good time. We can imagine what they were trying to say and to whom, but that isn’t very informative.
posted by waving at 2:59 PM on September 25
posted by waving at 2:59 PM on September 25
I think this is cool, but can't help also imagining aliens with lasers-- teen aliens, maybe-- giggling and doodling whilst a lecturer drones on about believed human intelligence, societies, the need to observe, etc. "Now do an orca! Ha!"
posted by winesong at 3:13 PM on September 25 [1 favorite]
posted by winesong at 3:13 PM on September 25 [1 favorite]
Doing what not-AI is good at, pattern recognition.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 3:21 PM on September 25 [2 favorites]
posted by GallonOfAlan at 3:21 PM on September 25 [2 favorites]
intermod: The original journal article shows only one of them, as an example of their process.
There are more images in the supplementary file (pdf download)
posted by dhruva at 3:31 PM on September 25 [4 favorites]
There are more images in the supplementary file (pdf download)
posted by dhruva at 3:31 PM on September 25 [4 favorites]
> If someone comes across images without the artificial white lines added, please post here!The authors wrote that "[d]ata created by [the authors] on the geoglyph" can be requested from the authors provided that the Peruvian Ministry of Culture permits it.
The original journal article shows only one of them, as an example of their process.
posted by runcifex at 5:42 PM on September 25 [1 favorite]
For orcas, see: Nazca ceramic rampant orca with human heads painted on its body (inside its tummy?), in Larco Museum, Lima.
posted by runcifex at 6:13 PM on September 25 [6 favorites]
posted by runcifex at 6:13 PM on September 25 [6 favorites]
MetaFilter: I can’t imagine they put all this work into just having a good time.
posted by biogeo at 7:03 PM on September 25 [2 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 7:03 PM on September 25 [2 favorites]
I must admit, I was fairly dubious about this from seeing only the outlines-added images in the article, because it's pretty easy to convince people that there's patterns in randomness just by drawing careful lines. But the unaltered images in the supplement that dhruva linked are pretty convincing that these are real lines and not just spurious patterns detected by their algorithm from noisy data.
Some of them really do seem like they may just be someone(s) having a bit of fun, though I'm sure there's more serious explanations. Still, it's fun to imagine the people that made these getting the giggles about it: "No, no, give him crazy hair! And a tiny mouth!"
posted by biogeo at 7:16 PM on September 25 [4 favorites]
Some of them really do seem like they may just be someone(s) having a bit of fun, though I'm sure there's more serious explanations. Still, it's fun to imagine the people that made these getting the giggles about it: "No, no, give him crazy hair! And a tiny mouth!"
posted by biogeo at 7:16 PM on September 25 [4 favorites]
biogeo: I'm sure there's more serious explanations
Australian writer Lynne Kelly has argued in her book The memory code that these structures were basically ritualistic aids to memory, that information was encoded using the physical space. So the more dramatic/eccentric the shape, the easier it is to remember its features and then to transfer that to some other piece of information that people may need to remember.
posted by dhruva at 8:49 PM on September 25 [2 favorites]
Australian writer Lynne Kelly has argued in her book The memory code that these structures were basically ritualistic aids to memory, that information was encoded using the physical space. So the more dramatic/eccentric the shape, the easier it is to remember its features and then to transfer that to some other piece of information that people may need to remember.
posted by dhruva at 8:49 PM on September 25 [2 favorites]
A computer program identifies 303 candidate Nazca geoglyphs.
posted by hypnogogue at 8:54 AM on September 26 [1 favorite]
posted by hypnogogue at 8:54 AM on September 26 [1 favorite]
wtf I love AI now
posted by L.P. Hatecraft at 6:32 PM on September 26
posted by L.P. Hatecraft at 6:32 PM on September 26
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posted by supermedusa at 2:05 PM on September 25 [5 favorites]