Cold war spy satellites and AI detect ancient underground aqueducts

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2448049-cold-war-spy-satellites-and-ai-detect-ancient-underground-aqueducts/

by Brajeshwar • 2 years ago

119 20 2 years ago

ggm• 2 years ago

I learned about Qanat reading Desmond Bagley airport thrillers written in the 60s. It's part of a plot line dealing with middle eastern drug trafficking. When I met Persians in Australia 40 years later it was interesting to realise they were still significant in their culture. Keeping on top of the maintenance was a social capital exercise in frustration, endless mañana.

hks0• 2 years ago

I lived in the city where it had the largest number of Qanats. Amazingly, they could still be used today as an efficient means of water transport, but the government has ruined them already, with sewage water, lack of maintenance, etc (what hasn't they ruined...)

jahnu• 2 years ago

Yazd?

Amazing city. Loved it.

rurban• 2 years ago

https://archive.is/20240917041034/https://www.newscientist.c...

082349872349872• 2 years ago

We have similar (above ground, but still labour intensive) aqueducts on the dry side of the Alps, and you can see early beginnings of data processing in the solutions they came up with for the problem of "we want people to take water out of the system in direct proportion to how much labour they contribute to its maintenance" — including medieval one-way functions like broken tallies.

detourdog2• 2 years ago

Would love some links to descriptions of these systems.

squarefoot• 2 years ago

Might be a chance to use AI to refine the search for ancient settlements that has been already done for years using Google Earth.

For example: https://metaldetectingforum.com/index.php?threads/using-goog...

grok22• 2 years ago

This (the comment in the example link) is really an amazing sharing of learned information!

killjoywashere• 2 years ago

What this really tells me is that we have massive unreviewed data. This is imagery from decades ago still yielding fruit. We're getting close to having a replayable copy of history at centimeter resolution from multiple angles and through a broad spectrum.

AyyEye• 2 years ago

We're getting close to having a replayable copy of history at centimeter resolution from multiple angles and through a broad spectrum.

This is absolutely terrifying

kibwen2• 2 years ago

This doesn't deserve to be downvoted.

The primary impediment to the implementation of a panopticon state has been the unrealistically high amount of human labor needed to analyze everyone's movements. With AI analysts, that barrier will be destroyed. Authoritarian governments are salivating at the prospect.

detourdog2• 2 years ago

I think you are correct. The moon landing high resolution content is a great example of this.

fforflo• 2 years ago

What is the go-to place to browse/find catalogued satellite image data?

rabf• 2 years ago

You could try here:

https://www.planet.com/science/#programs

Cold war spy satellites and AI detect ancient underground aqueducts

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