GeekNights Monday - Technology and Sports

MrPeriod

Tonight on GeekNights, we talk about technology in sports, the technology of sports, sports technology, and technical aspects of sport. Eventually, it will all be humans controlled by machines, or else just machines themselves anyway, but what will happen (and has happened) in the more recent term? In other news, Twitch.tv is the #4 consumer of bandwidth in the US (thanks to gamers streaming their games), and the NYPD is looking into using Google Glass.

• Gettysburg Address in Yeshivish
• Air Hockey Robot

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Ikatono

The comments on the Slashdot article reminded me why I shouldn't read comments.

Matt

DAMN YOU RYM. DAMN YOU AND THE MUSCAHOUND YOU RODE IN ON.

Josh Bytes

(Der, durham, der, durham)
They cross their hearts and pray
(Der, durham, der, durham)
They cross their swords night and day
(Der, durham, der, durham)
They drink their beer and swear they're faithful to their King

Rym

Matt said:

DAMN YOU RYM. DAMN YOU AND THE MUSCAHOUND YOU RODE IN ON.

Did you like how it fades out like I'm done, and then suddenly comes back in with gusto?

Matt

Rym said:

Matt said:

DAMN YOU RYM. DAMN YOU AND THE MUSCAHOUND YOU RODE IN ON.

Did you like how it fades out like I'm done, and then suddenly comes back in with gusto?

YES. I mean... NO.

MATATAT

Those dance parties sound like shitty high school kids that want to get weird with girls but they can't at their dumb school dances because there's teachers monitoring their activities.

MATATAT

MATATAT said:

Those dance parties sound like shitty high school kids that want to get weird with girls but they can't at their dumb school dances because there's teachers monitoring their activities.

Actually this was supposed to be on the other thread, didn't realize.

"He was using the dick grip"

Dazzle369

sK0pe

MrPeriod said:

Twitch.tv is the #4 consumer of bandwidth in the US (thanks to gamers streaming their games)

This has nothing to do with PS4 and Xbone streaming, the top 4 or 5 games are almost always PC games on this site. Sony and Microsoft have just realised that since they are now effectively marketing low power PCs under the moniker of consoles, that they can make it easier to stream console gaming.

It's got more to do with Esports in my opinion.

Viethra

I want a sport like IGPX or Pokemon where the engineers control the potential of the team, but realization of that potential is based on an athlete/pilot and their skill interacting with the machine. You would put in a lot of random and or unpredictable elements that make it necessary to take chances and make decisions that cannot be trivially optimized. That way, hardware performance isn't the only factor, and human participation is important. Also, because the machine can pretty much do anything the human might think of, it is pure strategy and skill. As long as the communication/control interface is seamless, the human's input would be purely skill rather than physical inheritance.

AI's would add another element, as you could give them the ability to trust or arbitrate. Then it would become almost like a narrative, the human trying to convince the machine to trust their input, and the machine weighing acceptable risks and reasonable apprehension. A bad pilot and a good AI wouldn't do well, and vice versa. Only with both could your team succeed. You could give the AI a core ground-up learning scheme, and make changes through some sort of instinct, or anxiety system. They would have free will, but you could change their tolerance for extremes or at least push them to need a lot of certainty to go against their "instincts". I'm sure some anime has done this kind of concept, but I can't think of one that's exactly like this.

Matt

sK0pe said:

MrPeriod said:

Twitch.tv is the #4 consumer of bandwidth in the US (thanks to gamers streaming their games)

This has nothing to do with PS4 and Xbone streaming, the top 4 or 5 games are almost always PC games on this site. Sony and Microsoft have just realised that since they are now effectively marketing low power PCs under the moniker of consoles, that they can make it easier to stream console gaming.

It's got more to do with Esports in my opinion.

The Xbone also does not have Twitch streaming yet! It was touted as a big feature, but pushed until ~6 months after launch. The last I saw was an early January quote where MS said Twitch was still "a few months away." Streamers are a small community, but they have a big voice. Sony figured their shit out before launch, which has been part of how they have continued their console comeback.

sK0pe

On the genetics issue, I have no issue with breeding for a specific trait, as Scott said, it's done in horses. However it would have to be acceptable by society and that would be the greatest hurdle as the majority can't even understand the concept of prostitution being a legitimate job.

Maybe it would require test tube babies.

However it would lead down the path of genetic engineering / designer babies.

I think it would be great if coaches had as much information as possible, becoming an integral part of the team in terms of strategy.

One way we could have a look at Formula 1, is to have 2 events occur - 1 is purely engineering in the way that was described in the podcast, like a fastest possible egg and spoon race.

To get the positions however, you could have a placement race where you would have one type of safe car that can't be altered the drivers would use their skill to get the best position for the egg and spoon race the next day.

lalanl

Rym said:

Did you like how it fades out like I'm done, and then suddenly comes back in with gusto?

I miss Whopper and a Forty and Arschersetzer. They didn't resemble my idea of hell even a little bit.


As for genetics, this sounds nightmarish to me. If I had been bred for what my parents wanted for me, I think I would have been extremely unhappy.

Apreche

lalanl said:

Rym said:

Did you like how it fades out like I'm done, and then suddenly comes back in with gusto?

As for genetics, this sounds nightmarish to me. If I had been bred for what my parents wanted for me, I think I would have been extremely unhappy.

You're thinking of taking just one futuristic aspect and applying it to our current backwards society. Imagine that your parent is a computer, and you live in The Culture.

lalanl

Apreche said:

You're thinking of taking just one futuristic aspect and applying it to our current backwards society. Imagine that your parent is a computer, and you live in The Culture.

The Culture nullifies all my personal objections.

Josh Bytes

Geneticly modifying the human race to compete in sports seems like a thing only the very wealthy will be able to do. I'm fine with that. So long as there is an avenue for everyone else to have affordable access to it for stuff like making sure you child won't be blind or have diabetes.

Rym

Already only the wealthy (or very lucky) can receive the advanced training necessary to be competitive in most of these sports.

Apreche

Rym said:

Already only the wealthy (or very lucky) can receive the advanced training necessary to be competitive in most of these sports.

Actually, many Olympic athletes who can't get money from endorsements and such are simply poor. They get 15 minutes of fame at most once every four years, 0-5 times in their life. Think of all the people who trained hard for say, the hammer throw, but didn't even make the Olympic team. They were either rich to begin with, or are hella poor. That also applies to those who made the team. Maybe they get one endorsement deal to get short term influx of cash. Then back to poor again.

Rym

For over a decade, I've felt that the Olympics are net harmful to the athletes and nations involved...

Apreche

Rym said:

For over a decade, I've felt that the Olympics are net harmful to the athletes and nations involved...

The Olympics used to only allow amateur athletes. That meant that all the athletes had some other kind of job. Now that it allows professionals, competitors are people who do nothing but compete in their sport. The problem is that most of those sports are not anything you can actually make money from when there isn't an Olympics presently occurring.

I think one solution is to simply remove all the sports that aren't actually professional sports. Hockey is fine. These are all NHL/KHL/AHL players who make money from Hockey without an Olympics. The few college athletes are going to be in a professional league in the near future. It's these other sports that do not have professional opportunities outside of the Olympics that create bad situations for the Olympians who participate in them.

Rym

Or, how about professionals are only allowed in the events that have a real professional sport outside of the Olympics?

So, NHL players can compete in Olympic Hockey, but only amateurs compete in the hammer throw.

Apreche

Rym said:

Or, how about professionals are only allowed in the events that have a real professional sport outside of the Olympics?

So, NHL players can compete in Olympic Hockey, but only amateurs compete in the hammer throw.

Mixing amateurs and professionals under the same roof is always trouble. See: NCAA.

Cremlian

Except if it was just things with professional sports I'd have zero interest in the Olympics, I only care about the crazy stuff.

Apreche

Cremlian said:

Except if it was just things with professional sports I'd have zero interest in the Olympics, I only care about the crazy stuff.

If you see the lives of the people doing the crazy stuff, you will like it a lot less.

Starfox

Nobody is forcing the athletes in the crazy sports to do it. Maybe they just do it for love of the game, and because Olympic medals are fuckin' sweet.

Apreche

Starfox said:

Nobody is forcing the athletes in the crazy sports to do it. Maybe they just do it for love of the game, and because Olympic medals are fuckin' sweet.

But when major broadcasting companies and advertisers all over the world are making billions off of your hard work, you deserve much greater compensation.

Churba

I know a lass who is a gold medalist swimmer, Melanie Schlanger. She basically does it for the love of it, as far as I know. I'm pretty sure it's given her a tidy little nest egg, but it's never made her crazy rich.

Dazzle369

sK0pe

Dazzle369 said:

Timo Boll vs. KUKA

OMG the hype.

Will it end in Timo Boll replacing his right arm with KUKA?

chaosof99

I think one thing you could have mentioned during the discussion about technology due to safety concerns is also about how technology has inadvertently lead to sports becoming more dangerous, e.g. drugs, or hockey players putting a curve on the toe of the stick which allowed them to shoot the puck harder and faster.