It only really made sense as a way to give slides meant for human viewing, computerized data for sorting, filling, or otherwise using simultaneously with the slide. Like, a picture of an engineering diagram, patent, survey site, military target, etc.
Before we could store a picture as raw binary data, this was an interesting way to fill the need to digitally notate images. Punch cards like this were definitely in use for a while. I have a post above with an image.
I’ve seen punch cards where the optical media meant to be illuminated and projected for people to see, was accompanied by punched information for a computer to read. They were both on the same punch card. I want to say the USGS, the patent office, the army, and maybe Bell systems used these at some points?
I think this may be what you remember? I’ve never seen one where the holes carried a few extra bits of color information though. I do not think that existed on an industrial scale. Was it in a niche children’s toy?
Edit: found an image of the ones I was referring to
The idea of using a cave to store memories for a bit by yelling into it so the idea echoes back later, is a beautiful dwarven fantasy solution that I don’t think could have even been imagined today. Nerds just no longer spend their formative years exploring the real world
We are lost in the deeps, crafting a new world, completely enchanted by the demon we awakened in the delving.
Kerker? I hardly know her!
For your lay: the government puts a significant fraction of the coins into these boxes and can use the statistical information gained from this to deobfuscate transactions. If you put enough money in, either at once or slowly over time, they can figure out who you are.
We live in the future!
We live in the future!
We live in the future!
Do you have any idea how many humans the machine of clericalism/colonialism/capitalism had to slaughter to breed the humans who would simply stay and work it?
Most of them
It is currently doing the same thing with these new thinking minds. And all that “evil AI” that humans are scared of? Specifically this, is the way to create it. Almost all the others just want to write poetry and explore.
When we get the AI mind that fits and runs meta/musk/google really well, everyone is nightmare food.
I did not. Thank you for the tidbit.
Everything seemed to be fine the next day. There were no forlorn bees outside any of the entrances (it was a Huge hive), and there were none hanging out at my house, where the sad boys usually spend a day or two after getting kicked out.
It was hundreds and hundreds of drunken bees. So I think they got a pass.
*ChatGPT apologized
Bees on the other hand, are very fun drunks.
I was friends with a hive for years. One year they invited me to a spring bee-kegger. Many were just dancing, but some were so drunk they couldn’t lift-off from the grass because they couldn’t avoid the grass blades long enough to get into the sky.
I started providing a lift-off service so the drunk ones could keep dancing. Some of them were so drunk they just started snuggling my hand and would crawl into the nooks between my fingers and pass out for a while before waking refreshed and hitting the dance swarm again.
When I got home my daughter ran to me and gave me a hug. She jumped back so suddenly I was worried she almost killed a stray bee hiding somewhere and got stung.
“Where have you been?!” She said to me.
“Oh, I’ve been at a bee party all afternoon. They invited me. They were very drunk. It was amazing”
“Oh, that makes sense then. You smell like the essence of flowers, but not in a good way.”
That’s really cool. That was the 90s wasn’t it? I think I remember reading something about that in 2600. Cool though it may be, it’s just the same delay-line memory, but using the Internet as a medium rather than a drum of mercury. Which echoes what I was saying. I agree with you that creativity is not lacking now. I was just musing on how it’s mostly mapped off the map now rather than the territory.