Show HN: IoT device to warn you of a supernova hours before Earth is destroyed | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: IoT device to warn you of a supernova hours before Earth is destroyed

exaluminal.com

145 pointswanderingjew119 comments

The neutrino signal from this (mostly harmless) event

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_1987A

was clear as day. Astronomers run an email list you can subscribe to to know about the next core collapse in or near our galaxy. They are hoping to get a heads up so they can point their telescopes at it as soon as possible.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s42254-020-0221-5

Obligatory death by neutrinos.

https://what-if.xkcd.com/73/

As usual from XKCD, an interesting an entertaining read.

And now I am reading the what-if's from 1... thanks!

I always thought the physics on that one was a little shaky. We know how EM radiation of various frequencies and intensities affects biology but neutrinos are not EM radiation. The paper Munroe cites mentions that it ignores the expected supernova neutrino spectrum and its consequences with regards to biological interaction specifically because the dose is so low at the distance with which the paper is concerned, 1 parsec. In a scenario where one's objective is to calculate the lethal distance, that spectrum is important and may wildly change the results.

It's a fun read but it's bad science.

While what you said is true, I don’t think anyone has done any research on neutrino’s spectrum impact on human tissue? Partly due to this being nearly impossible to experiment on.

Here's a question to give you a sense of scale: Which of the following would be brighter, in terms of the amount of energy delivered to your retina:

1. A supernova, seen from as far away as the Sun is from the Earth, or

2. The detonation of a hydrogen bomb pressed against your eyeball?

Applying the physicist rule of thumb suggests that the supernova is brighter. And indeed, it is ... by nine orders of magnitude.

...Sounds like I should buy one of these IoT alarms so that I know to stay away from the window :-)

One of my favorite quotes that makes you realize just how insane space can get.

You turn your back to it with your eyes closed, and wonder if you'll have enough time to experience seeing from inside before your head vaporizes.

Spoiler: you won't.

In the distant future when high frequency traders build giant neutrino beams to beat the round-the-world time and they misaim their beam at your house... you'll have a bad day.

This is hilarious: "Integration with cloud services allows Exaluminal to control other home IoT devices. Yes, Exaluminal will tell your Alexa to play It's The End Of The World As We Know It."

Let’s honest they probably never even implemented the code for that feature. What are people gonna do? Sue them in the last hour?

How would one even test a feature like that?

Docker container.

Yes hard to test when their whole product is getting mocked on HN.

the whole thing could be fake. If it actually works to spec, the world presumably ends in 1 hr, so there's no time to get your money back. :)

I don't agree with this using a dedicated single-purpose IoT device. Who wants ever more shit on their network? Just send an alert to existing emergency alert systems. My phone is already able to tell me when old people go missing or a child is kidnapped, so the infrastructure seems to be in place already to do this.

But that would create a mass panic, while this device lets the owner quietly proceed to their private shelter without alerting the neighbors.

There would be no way to shelter from a nearby gamma ray burst. You would die and there would be nothing you or anybody else could do about it, except maybe commit suicide to avoid the coming trauma.

Well you could get lucky and be on the other side of the world from the source. It's just then that you have to figure out how to shelter yourself from years of acid rain.

In that sense an asteroid strike is worse, apparently it sends up shards of glass that hit at a density of more than one per square meter, all around the world.

Such an intense burst would likely pass through the whole earth and exterminate all life everywhere on it.

1) Why can't they send a push notification to my phone?

2) How do they get Alexa to play a song? AFAIK Alexa can't do anything unless you trigger it by a voice command.

I don't know how good the API is, but you can certainly "drop in" on your Alexa smart speaker (and turn it into an intercom) from the app. It's been useful to tell people to check their messages.

Two scenarios:

False event:

  1. short the market
  2. hack in a false signal
  3. profit

Real event:

  1. always stay short
  2. receive true signal
  3. profit on paper
  4. ?

Three scenarios:

1. I build these 2. Sell them 3. Trigger it randomly, for the lulz

The perfect gift for someone you don't love.

The end of the world is imminent and some people spend the final hours trading shares?

This sounds about right.

To be fair, hedging against the event might lend one a sense of control over one's circumstances. It might not be an optimal use of the waiting time for most of us but for some people it might be the best alternative.

I imagine settlement would be difficult.

Sure. Playing violins is great, but trading shares hours away from death is frowned upon?

Lol why would I want to know.

If there's a reason you'd want to know, take care of that reason now

...and go to prison? Nah, I'll wait until imminent apocalypse to take care of it.

They have one of these in the Charles Stross novel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Sunrise

Imagine a million people buy these and take them seriously. One day they all have a false positive, how many crimes are committed?

When an "Incoming nuclear ICBM attack" alarm went off in Hawaii, there was no public hysteria and no crimes were committed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Hawaii_false_missile_aler...

Edit: Remove "Nobody panicked" as that does seem very unlikely.

> nobody panicked

That's definitely false, I know people who panicked. Not sure about the crimes though. But plenty of people genuinely believed they were spending their last moments alive.

There's a genre of Youtube video where somebody goes to visit relatives and pops a USB stick into into the TV with a fake Emergency Broadcast System message.

Could you imagine thinking it's your last few minutes on Earth, and deciding to spend them committing a crime?

I don't understand why people always imagine other people would do this.

Because we've all seen TV

For some, the only thing stopping them from committing crimes is the threat of punishment. In a situation like that, that element no longer exists. I don't imagine it'll be many, though.

Not that hard to imagine. Some kid dreams about his dream car, finds out it's all ending and decides he's going out in a Ferrari happy.

In a world ending event none of us really knows how we'd react. We only know how we'd like to think we'd handle it.

Yea, every body has a plan until they get punched in the face..

Some people don't commit crimes because they fear punishment, and end-of-the-world scenario would free them of consequences.

I'm over 50, so I would try to receive the end in peace with as much of my family as possible, but 30 years ago I might have taken the car and race on the highway because it's a fun way to go.

You're right. I was thinking "public riots / hysteria" but typing "nobody panicked" foolishly.

The article you linked contains the literal quote "fear and panic quickly spread through the residents of Hawaii", so I'm not sure why you linked it in support of the statement "nobody panicked".

man, you're not supposed to read the links. that's totally playing unfairly

Appropriately chided! I edited OP.

Nobody panicked? I panicked just reading the freaking article!

I believe the crime part but even your linked article describes the panic!

> Fear and panic quickly spread through the residents of Hawaii.

I lived in West Germany for about 10 years back in the 19[78]0s as a British Army brat. Even back then, far more people died in RTAs or of smoking fags than ever were associated with exploding thingies.

My dad was in EOD - RAOC 321 Coy (lol and bang!) before he did rather large logistics for the entire UK military, eventually as a full Col. His jumper had a flaming grenade on one sleeve and the other had a para jump badge on it. My hero.

Oh, ICBM etc: We had bomb threats roughly weekly. At age six or seven, I knew how to frisk a car for bombs. Now I'm 52.

I suppose that's because the deadline is too soon. If they knew the world was going to end in a week, some people would lose any incentive to behave since the consequences would be the same for everyone. Even if the world didn't end, who is going to prosecute thousands of rioters?

A slightly more useful alert subscription for Space Weather (e.g. Carrington Event): https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/content/subscription-services

Get to the grocery store a few minutes before the crush :)

I need a “Why did we make this” section to explain why on earth it needs to be standalone wall-plugged hardware. Why not pocketable, wearable, or just an app/widget? Gen 2 maybe.

PoC, baby.

MVP?

According to a white paper by Gartner, the app market is saturated, and depending on FAANG platforms presents serious risk to your business.

However, (also according to Gartner), developing your own platform will position your firm optimally to reap the benefits of a fast exploding IoT market.

Today this device warns of impending supernovae. In the future they'll grow to include rogue black hole alerts, warnings of comets on 30,000 year cycles, maybe even an impending asteroid strike (for Pro subscribers only).

Simpli-Safe better watch their 6.

Gartner. Now there's a name I've not heard in a long, long time.

I’ll wait for the gray goo proximity sensor.

"sorry guys, that was just a test" - can you imagine?

“Yes.” -residents of Hawaii five or however many years ago the false missile alert was

Was it already that long ago? Oof.

Shades of the original radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds"?

Wait this is the guy who built that super dope cyber deck concept I wanted.

Curse you and your lack of selling me things!

::shakes fist at impending supernova::

Ask HN: If you know all life on Earth was going to end in 1 hour via this device, what would you spend the last hour doing?

Debugging the device to make sure it’s working correctly.

Regret everything soon after.

I was going to post this same question. It also leads to introspective questions about whether or not you are doing what you want to do with your life, given that we are all mortal.

Perhaps that was the reason for this project in the first place.

Throw a block party and get shit-faced is the only valid answer to this question.

And when all of your neighbors that don't have that device just think you're being a nutter so they call the police causing you to spend the rest of the rest of your time dealing with coppers

For the love of God, if you are interested in SuperNova Alerts, subscribe to this mailing list: https://snews.bnl.gov/alert.html

It's for free and faster.

I wonder what the chances are that this will give a false positive, vs accurately warning you that the earth will soon be destroyed?

https://xkcd.com/1132/

Zero. It doesn't actually have to do anything.

Maybe I'm dumb, but what's the benefit? Would the risk of false alerts be worse, assuming people would do things they would only find acceptable during the end of the world?

That’s the joke

Board your Space X intercontinental to go to the dark side.

Oh, if it happens to the other side of Earth, you can mock them on social networks before hey die... until it turns around.

Imagine not catching your Space X Earth-to-Geostationary Dark Side from the new place ;)

Buying a device like this is basically a hedge that the same information won’t make it out via the emergency alert system.

Very cool. Unfortunately this is something that can’t really be tested outside of production.

Imagine missing a notification from this device! haha

Site is down for me. Big “uh oh!”

Sweet! Need one of these

But will it scale?

solar powered, hopefully?

Perhaps should pivot to monitoring for radioactivity levels, in the more likely event Putin goes supernova on all of us.

Oh great. A product that will let me spend my last moments on Earth debugging an IoT device because surely it’s a false posi——-AUGHHH

site doesn't contain any information about a return policy in the event you're unsatisfied with the performance

The only reason I came here was to make cheap puns like this, and you beat me to it.

Don't worry, they have stellar reviews.

a lot of 0 star reviews tho :(

Hahahaha I see what you did there

No you need a star of 6-10 solar masses to make a supernova.

https://xkcd.com/937/

Makes me think of the intellectual elbow grease that it takes to interpret ratings of photography equipment. There is always the guy who tells us this inkjet printer is a piece of crap and he shows pictures he took of the prints he made that look just like the prints I make when I put the photo paper in upside down.

Some fraction of the bad reviews come from people who are getting bad results who don't know what they're doing, but there are some lenses like Sigma lenses for Canon bodies circa 2010 that seem to be bad 10% of the time and you want to catch that. (Reminds me that Sigma makes some really good lenses for Sony bodies these days and I could use something to replace my long lens)

Hours? I need only a few minutes to find a paper bag to put over my head and lay down.

On a more serious note, I would not mind having a device that could tell me hours in advance of a large gamma ray burst if that were even possible. If one can get into deep enough of a tunnel there is a small chance of survival. I am not sure what I would do afterwards short of becoming a gatherer. Hunting would be over. No idea if the plants would survive.

If u survive in deep enough cave. That mean you would survive on opposite side of earth right? So probably as one of the few alive your goal should be to live from remains of canned food and try to get on opposite side of earth which was not hit by the death ray.

That is a good idea. A part of me would want to stay here and live off my freeze dried foods and see if I can get seeds to grow. It would be so quiet, at least maybe for a while. I better store away some fertilizer and bacteria someplace safe. Maybe barrels of fetid swamp water.

Very quiet places are within reach of most HN crowd, if so they desire. Don't procrastinate waiting for a gamma ray burst :)

It's mostly quiet here most of the time. I am in a very rural area but not far from a highway. I only hear the trucks with straight pipes + JakeBrakes in J2 or J3. Maybe those will be less of a thing soon.

Almost how remaining people are living in Mariupol right now. No food, no water, no medicine, broken sewer, destroyed buildings with bodies still under the rubble in the summer heat, cholera is starting... That is how end of the world looks up-close.

“This is how the world will end”, from Ministry of Defense by PJ Harvey …

The problem here is that the Earth rotates.

For reference, see Inconstant Moon:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inconstant_Moon#"Inconstant_Mo...

Or the TV version:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0667911/

You have been warned.

The TV show “Into the Night” played with this idea too.

In Stellvia, the GRB hits near the South Pole, which is kind of a best case scenario (sorry global south). But then they have several years to prepare for the matter ejected from the supernova, which is only traveling at a large fraction of c.

A GRB wouldn’t cause much immediate death. The burst itself lasts from seconds to a minute and would be sufficiently blocked by the atmosphere that whatever reached the surface would not be dangerous.

The danger to life comes later. The burst interacts with the oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere in a way that would greatly reduce the ozone layer and produce a photochemical smog.

This would give us years of dangerous UV levels, a global cooling effect that might not be too bad but could be very bad if we happen to be a time of climate instability, and acid rain.

Well described in 'Diaspora' by Greg Egan

This [1] is the theoretical one I would factor into my preps. Like anything on the History channel it is probably greatly exaggerated but I see it as a fun exercise or hobby to plan for such things.

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv531fVJ02g

>Hours? I need only a few minutes to find a paper bag to put over my head and lay down.

I wish. I just took a look around my place, and no paper bags anywhere to be found. I'm gonna need to stock up. Maybe pop up a kiosk on the sidewalk and make a killing right up to the bitter end

A premium level trolling 10/10: https://twitter.com/kscottz/status/1537264655621427200

Please incorporate a snooze feature

What if my electric wall outlet fails?

Am I going to miss the earth destroyed event? This is unacceptable and worrisome!

They will monetize by offering a triple-redundant warning option.

And free view-anytime replays.

From their website it seems like it relies on a remote server, which worries me a bit. Imagine missing the end of the world because of an AWS outage

I don't get it. Wouldn't it take years for a far supernova to be detected? How is it only hours?

There's a flash of neutrinos as the supernova core collapses and it precedes the light by a bit. One reason being the neutrinos don't really care there's a whole supernova in the way but EM radiation does.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova_neutrinos

Supernovas emit lots of different kinds of particles and radiation.

Neutrinos depart & arrive before any other radiation. The gap is on the order of hours. So neutrinos can function as an early warning system.

Do Neutrinos travel faster than the speed of light?

There's a "How It Works" page on their (very small, minimal) site:

https://www.exaluminal.com/#work

I really need the "Why did we make this" section. Somebody needs to explain to me how your dead corpse is going to care if you wasted the last hour of your life or not.

How is your dead corpse going to care about any of the hours of your life?

Right

Pretty sure it's art. Its creator: https://twitter.com/violenceworks

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