#planetary scale computing

[imgexhaust]

Picture Sky

In this project we create a crowdsourced image of the sky. Multiple observers are positioned at GPS coordinates that form the points of a grid. At  the moment of the satellite flyover, they take photographs looking directly up.  Their images are stitched together to form a single large image, opposite to the one taken by the satellite.

A smartphone app lets the observers self-organize at the times of satellite flyovers in any geolocation, coordinate the action, take the pictures in sync, and see the resulting crowdsourced image and the satellite image.

The human array forms an optical sensor, a large eye of a new socio-technological apparatus.

Picture Sky is a project by Karolina Sobecka and Christopher Baker, with Ken Caldeira.

source: http://www.nephologies.com/PictureSky/updates/

[imgexhaust]

Mapped: A Detailed Map of the Online World in Incredible Detail

This unique map provides an in-depth snapshot of the state of the world wide web, highlighting the most popular websites on the internet.

[imgexhaust]

For the past twenty years, many photographers have been integrating images produced autonomously by machines into their work. We witness a paradigm shift in the process of creating photography: From photographic capture in the strict sense to appropriation, automated and computational practices, which respond to a conception of space that is less and less built on the equivalence between the human eye and the machine.

[imgexhaust]

There is an explicit kinship between plantation slavery, colonial predation and contemporary forms of resource extraction and appropriation. In each of these instances, there is a constitutive denial of the fact that we, the humans, coevolve with the biosphere, depend on it, are defined with and through it and owe each other a debt of responsibility and care. An important difference is the technological escalation that has led to the emergence of computational capitalism in our times. We are no longer in the era of the machine but in the age of the algorithm. Technological escalation, in turn, is threatening to turn us all into artefacts – what I have called elsewhere “the becoming-black-of-the world” – and to make redundant a huge chunk of the muscular power capitalism relied upon for a long time. It follows that today, although its main target remains the human body and earthly matter, domination and exploitation are becoming increasingly abstract and reticular. As a repository of our desires and emotions, dreams, fears and fantasies, our mind and psychic life have become the main raw material which digital capitalism aims at capturing and commodifying.

Achille Mbembe, 2019

Source: https://www.newframe.com/thoughts-on-the-planetary-an-interview-with-achille-mbembe/

[imgexhaust]

The Earth Archive

The Earth Archive is both a program of scanning focused on endangered landscapes and an open-source collection of LiDAR scans accessible to scientists around the world.

Our Mission: 

1. Create a baseline record of the earth as it is today to more effectively mitigate the climate crisis. 2. Build a virtual, open-source planet accessible to all scientists so we can better understand our world. 3. Preserve a record of the Earth for our grandchildren’s grandchildren so they can study & recreate our lost heritage.

This comes with certain obstacles, not the least the price tag: a scan of the Amazon rainforest would take six years and cost $15 million.

Read more:

http://www.openculture.com/2020/03/the-earth-archive-will-3d-scan-the-entire-world.html

https://www.theeartharchive.com

[imgexhaust]

Folding@home (FAH or F@h) is a distributed computing project for simulating protein dynamics, including the process of protein folding and the movements of proteins implicated in a variety of diseases. It brings together citizen scientists who volunteer to run simulations of protein dynamics on their personal computers. Insights from this data are helping scientists to better understand biology, and providing new opportunities for developing therapeutics.

Download Folding@home

Partial opening of the mouth of the COVID-19 Demogorgon (aka spike) captured by our simulations. The three colors are the three proteins that come together to form the spike. Each is made of a linear chain of chemicals called amino acids. The ribbons trace out each chain. The transparent surface is the surface of the COVID-19 Demogorgon. The three proteins that make up the Demogorgon must spread apart to reveal the ACE2 binding site, which initiates infection by attaching to a protein called ACE2 on the surface of human cells. This movie captures part of that opening motion.