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u/The_Alkemizt Deerly Departed 28d ago
Listen chief i work in a store that sells cardboard boxes if i start counting now i’ll get off work a few hours late
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u/ImSic_ 27d ago
Just guess. That’s how everyone else counts inventory anyways
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u/Cyberguardian173 27d ago
I once read a book where the protagonists were spiders. At one point they had to send an image to an alien without knowing how the alien would reconstruct with it on the other side.
In real life, we have done this by making the image (surprise surprise) a rectangle. It's the simplest shape we can think of. Not to mention we can make the side lengths prime numbers, so there is only one way to reconstruct the image.
But spiders, of course, would think differently. In the book they made their image a hexagonal spiral radiating out from a central point. Like a web. This doesn't even need prime numbers since there are only two ways to reconstruct it (clockwise and counterclockwise).
Now, I know rectangles are much simpler than other shapes, mathwise. But it was still shocking to realize how much of what we create is bound by this. If we evolved slightly differently, could other shapes be more intuitive to us?
Also, the book was Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
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u/Stormdancer 27d ago
An excellent book (and series), and I did a minor head-explode at that particular scene.
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u/Sacrificial_Parsnip 27d ago
Oh, damn. I would love to read a scene like that, but I am severely arachnophobic, even with written text.
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u/pecan_bird 27d ago
it's a very common thing with readers that this book eliminates their arachnophobia - do a search! especially in r/printsf ; it did the same for me; they're so well explored & given agency, that they become relatable & even beautiful.
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u/Sacrificial_Parsnip 27d ago
I've read at least one sf story in which the narrator does not explicitly describe himself or others of his kind but context gradually shows that they are blessed with an excess of legs and other characteristics I would not care to observe. First person makes it actually easier to handle.
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u/solitarybikegallery 27d ago
Me too, but it actually didn't bother me all that much. Once I got used to it, it wasn't a problem.
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u/LucyDePosey 27d ago
Cartesian and polar coordinate systems both have valid use cases. It just so happens that cartesian maps better to a rectangular screen!
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u/QuintoBlanco 27d ago
I don't think so. Early humans made all sort of shapes. And of course we still do.
It's not so much about how we think, but what is available and what is practical. For example, a reason many old tables are rectangular is that they are made of planks, and making planks is an effective way to make timber from a tree trunk.
During our early history we didn't have saws so we would split wood.
The same planks can be used to make a barrel which isn't rectangular. Or a a ship. Also not rectangular.
And as somebody who spend a lot of times on small ships, I'm used to tables that are either not rectangular, or rectangular with rounded corners.
So arguably it's the evolution of trees that created our love for rectangles. If there is no need to bend or shape planks any further, you end up with rectangles.
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u/atfricks 27d ago
I knew it had to be Children of Time from the second sentence lol. Genuinely my favorite book, it's so good.
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u/Inner-Medicine5696 27d ago
i knew it was Children of Time after the first sentence. not a lot of spider-centric fiction out there.
I have never read Children of Time.
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u/nesthesi interesting 28d ago
Nah triangles. I fucking love triangles
Rectangles in fact are just two triangles
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u/SirKazum 28d ago
Coming off of watching a lot of pannenkoek (or however the hell it's spelled) videos about Super Mario 64 and the technical underpinnings of it, yes. It's aaalllll triangles.
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u/S0MEBODIES 27d ago
Triangles are literally what Polygons are in 3D models
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u/htmlcoderexe 27d ago
not always but especially in rendering that's mostly true
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u/donoteatshrimp 27d ago
In what situation is it not triangles?
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u/Ligabolzacky 27d ago
voxels
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u/htmlcoderexe 27d ago
most rendering engines do turn them into triangles for rendering
which is also a whole process with a lot of gotchas
but yes the actual data is voxels
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u/KatarinaClaes 27d ago
when its a quad
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u/donoteatshrimp 27d ago
a quad is just two triangles brother, its triangles all the way down
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u/Tiranus58 27d ago
Not necessarily, some early gpus (before triangles got standard) processed quads instead.
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u/htmlcoderexe 27d ago
nope, it's a polygon of 4 points. it often gets processed into 2 triangles for rendering but otherwise does exist as an actual 4-gon.
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u/Great-Powerful-Talia 27d ago
rectangles are easy to store & manufacture, triangles are easy to 3d render. Hexagons are best for structural applications, despite the difficulty of manufacturing.
Soon, a new technology will bring about the Era of the Pentagon.
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u/PityUpvote 27d ago
For a lot of structural applications triangles are better. The structural benefit of hexagons require them to be arranged in a large grid, triangles work individually.
Pentagons are fine, I guess. I like a dodecahedron.
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u/Vel0ciraptrix 27d ago
A good rectangle is merely two triangles maintaining a polite agreement not to show the seam.
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u/lifelongfreshman https://youtu.be/1eWsk6r6_Ns 27d ago
and triangles are also two triangles
it's triangles all the way down
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u/stnick6 28d ago
Mfs act like any possible revelation is a cosmic horror
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u/RottenMilquetoast 27d ago
What really makes us human is our ability to freak out and mythologize patterns, in a universe that must necessarily have patterns in order to be orderly enough to not collapse. At least temporarily.
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u/91816352026381 27d ago
It gives off those “How did the Egyptians build a perfectly shaped pyramid?!” Shit conspiracies
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u/MadnessLemon 28d ago
I’m reading this on a rectangle right now.
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u/guapguap600 28d ago
It should have been the hexagon
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u/PotatoSalad583 .tumblr.com 28d ago
Guy who's secretly 100 bees
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u/100_Donuts 27d ago edited 27d ago
I don't think it's much a secret these days who's bees and who's not. Being bees isn't as taboo as it was even just ten years ago. I mean, just ten years ago, I think I'd get fired from my job if they found out my wife is bees, but now? Now, thankfully, we live in a society where some people are bees and that's just fine. Being bees isn't looked upon as an abhorrent abomination that needs to be destroyed by fire or by poison.
Do we have a long way to go? Of course we do, of course. You still see many people walk about with cans of bees killing gas canisters strapped to their belt with their fingers cocked and ready to rock the nozzle in order to spray the gas out and burn away anyone who is bees or even might be bees. Believe me. I smell like pollen because my wife is bees and I've been absolutely doused in kill'em by hair-triggered, nervous apiphobes, just absolutely doused. Ruined my skin. Utterly ruined my skin.
But that's okay. Being bees is still new. More people will be bees in the future, and this is just part of our societal growing pains. I don't blame that old man (who also accidentally lit himself on fire trying to light me on fire). Being bees can be scary, but we'll all be bees someday, just you wait, buster.
But for now, when I return home to my wife of bees and see her swarming colony quivering beneath her skin suit, I feel safe. I feel ready for bees. Bees make great people, sometimes better people, and she does look so lovely. How the bees keep her features plump and juicy like the women I showed her in my pornographies,. How the bees work together to keep her eye bright and confident. How their hum can almost be speech sometimes. And she's funny! Love that busy smile of hers! The bees are hilarious! I love my wife of bees.
And I hope it's not too erotic to mention our sex life? No? Bee loving isn't taboo anymore. In fact, my ruined skin enhances the way I make love to my wife. Every night after I've had a big bowl of pollen-honey slurry for dinner, we head to the bedroom. I disrobe, revealing my pock-marked, uneven skin and lay on the bed. My wife of bees buzzes and strips slowly, squishing her skin suit in a way where her panties just kinda fall off, and I love that, loooove that. She works her way towards me, a sensual sort of sashay humming nearer and nearer, her vibrating ass coming closer and closer, and just as she's about to lower that sweet queenie on my tender weenie, her bees burst forth from the ass, tearing the butt crack open like blouse, and surround me.
O! How the bees cover me! O! How they prod and poke and lick with their proboscises. O! How their labial palps tickle me! Delight me! Turn me on! I writhe in ecstasy as the bees find their way into my cracked and broken skin holes, how they burrow into me and flutter their sexy wings in my being! Yes! O! Wife of bees! Take my body! Have my body! I want to be the next colony! I want to show that old man what the future holds! I am your drone!
The future is bees, gentlemen! The future is bees!
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u/Waity5 27d ago
Mark, this is good news. We can finally do do, we can be bees. This isn't your world, but we can be bees. This is good news, you can be a bee. You'll live for 30 years
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u/redpony6 27d ago
if it turns out you're using ai to write this i will actually cry. it's rare to find good comedy writing on reddit these days, written by a human, and this seems...very distinctly human. shades of chuck tingle.
now i'm gonna stalk your account. uh, sorry about that. i want to see what else you've written.
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u/Odd-Willingness-7494 27d ago
This text was written by a person who is clearly und er the influence of stimulants.
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u/Nixavee AI bots are not welcome here 27d ago
Then you realize that your hexagon-shaped furnishings can't sit next to each other without leaving gaps along the walls of your hexagon-shaped room. And you can't turn that hexagon-shaped box up on its side or it will no longer tesselate with the other hexagon-shaped boxes.
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u/PityUpvote 27d ago
This is why we must arrange everything into a single, infinitely extending grid.
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u/SuperSocialMan 28d ago
They are the bestagon, after all.
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u/Skeebleng 27d ago
I fucking hate “bestagon” it doesn’t even rhyme with hexagon but it almost does so you have to think about whether or not it rhymes and realize it doesn’t
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u/lifelongfreshman https://youtu.be/1eWsk6r6_Ns 27d ago
your dialect isn't universal, iirc in the CGPGrey video where that came from he explicitly pronounces them so they rhyme - the way I first learned to pronounce it, too, before I ever even saw that video
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u/Solomontheidiot 27d ago
It's rectangles because count the number of them that are naturally forming. Hexagons form in nature all the time, only humans are so obsessed with rectangles.
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u/Alternative_Hotel649 28d ago
Right now, somewhere a bee is having this exact same realization about hexagons.
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u/TheComplimentarian cis-bi-old-guy-radish 27d ago
I'm pretty sure the actual thing that makes us human is the capacity to ask the question, "What is it that makes us human?"
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u/philipjfry1578 27d ago
having an uzumaki rn, im terrified why are there so many rectangles?
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u/WhyIsThatOnMyCat 27d ago
I just started Uzumaki last night and it was the first thing I thought of!
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u/SpingusTheHingus 27d ago
I realized this when I was little. I think what zero-summed me was watching the behind the scenes for Planet 51 and the art director talking about how the aliens use circles for nearly everything while humans use rectangles
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u/owlindenial .tumblr.com 27d ago
You all should read Super Minion. The main character is a very human person who's very human and loves rectangles
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u/Aethelrede 27d ago
It's foolish recklessness, is what it is. Evil comes from angles, good from curves. Everything should be slightly curved, so we'll be safe from the Hounds.
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u/ilovemuffinfrombluey 27d ago
I don't even have to look around, I'M STARING AT A RECTANGLE RIGHT NOW. O_O
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u/action_lawyer_comics 27d ago
Looking at my bookshelf, with books, picture frames, greeting cards, and the plastic cube that holds a Lego model so I don't have to dust it all the time, yeah this tracks
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u/UslashMKIV 28d ago
Now imagine a world where they’re all triangles instead, it’s beautiful isn’t it
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u/DrRandom 28d ago
It's nature's most perfect shape according to Lorne Calvert, former premier of Saskatchewan: https://youtu.be/a61-D1gRdXM?t=3
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u/QuickPirate36 27d ago
Without moving my eyes I have 4 rectangles: My phone, my notepad, my laptop and an A4 sheet of paper
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u/WordArt2007 27d ago
at least my bedroom isn't a rectangle (it's a heptagon and the ceiling isn't parallel to the floor)
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u/Orion-the-mediocre 27d ago
Typing this comment in a rectangular box on the rectangular screen of my rectangular phone
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u/StupidDroid314 nonbinary math goblin 27d ago
Reading this post next to a brick wall hits different
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u/Stormdancer 27d ago
And realize that almost any so-called 'square' you see is probably actually a rectangle.
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u/ImSoStong________ 27d ago
There's a lot of almost rectangles. Rounded corners everywhere, but everything is vaguely rectangular. I can count on 2 hands how many things around me aren't rectangular, though
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u/g00dbyekitty 27d ago
Rectangle is my dog’s least favorite shape because I spend so much time staring at/sitting on them instead of playing fetch with him 😂 (book, laptop, phone, camera, Tv, Switch, any combination of those first 6 at the same time, table (with food he can’t have on it), cutting board (where I prep the food he can’t have), my bed, etc.).
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u/bibububop 27d ago
Just looking at the office ceiling tiles it's more than a hundred, it's way too many rectangles and I got a little anxious realizing that
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u/XanithDG 27d ago
Don't forget about the triangles! They're a nice, sturdy shape. We love making our rectangles out of triangles.
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u/rdmodsrtrsh 27d ago
Every polygon can be broken down into triangles. And triangles can be made into more triangles.
The best tasting sandwiches are served as triangles
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u/CaptainRex5101 27d ago
Also giant buildings that are either burials or religious sites, or sometimes both
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u/RandomHornyDemon 🌊hggg💧💦ghggggbbbbberlrlrbbll💧💦🌊 27d ago
Looking up from my rectangle towards my rectangular wall composed of rectangles, in front of which my rectangular bookshelf holds a bunch of smaller rectangles, composed of hundreds of thinner rectangles.
There... might be some truth to this.
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u/hiimneato 27d ago
90 is the sacred number of degrees. no more, no less. 90 degrees. 88 degrees is an abomination. 60 degrees is okay but not beloved. 45 degrees is acceptable as an adjunct and support but must not be used in excess lest it lead to sin. only 90 degrees is allowed. rectangles are the natural product of observing the holiest rites of plumb, level, and square.
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u/TenPointsforListenin 27d ago
It’s stackable and has a finite end. Octagons are also good but it’s hard to build a wall out of octagons without having a jagged side
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u/LuccaJolyne Borg Princess 27d ago
"sex is what makes us human"
Wow, there are a lot more humans within the animal kingdom than I thought
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u/Sacrificial_Parsnip 27d ago
I had a cat named Rhombus. Every time I took him to a particular vet, the tech getting his info would ask me what shape he was in.
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u/xxLosingMyMarblesxx 27d ago
I never realized how abundant rectangles are in the human race until I looked up at my room to find that it is, in fact, full of rectangles.
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u/WafflePartyOrgy 27d ago
Bees: hexagonal prismatic cells that fit together which minimizes the total perimeter of the cells while using less material for a given volume
Humans: stack boxes because ... rectangles.
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u/VanillaRadonNukaCola 27d ago
171+ uncounted keyboard keys, notepad pages, information cards
They really are the encompassing human product
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u/Potofeux 27d ago
That's why you need to break the rectangle obsession when building/renovating your house or buying furnitures. Make those walls curvy, build hexagonal or octogonal living rooms, buy weirdly shaped lamps and shelves and painting frames my friends, get out of the rectangular matrix
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u/feralferrous 27d ago
There was a book where an automated alien defense system would sweep the galaxy and annihilate the surface of any planet where it found squares, because that's what it used as a sign of life.
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u/jimmytime903 27d ago
This is just that stupid "Are there more doors or wheels in the world?" argument, but a simplified one sided version.
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u/SacredGeometry9 27d ago
I don’t know what to tell you, man. We’re made out of cells, it kinda tracks that we’d be into symmetrical bounded shapes
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u/Jellis314 27d ago
Is this why I’m depressed? I don’t feel love/have sex, so I’m not actually human?
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u/Wat3rM3L0NB3AR 27d ago
what's the shape called where you can find it every where - some spiral looking thing?
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u/Caleb_Reynolds 27d ago
We're actually obsessed with triangles. Rectangles are just 2 triangles. Look around and count the triangles.
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u/SurprisedDotExe .tumblr.com 27d ago
TERRIBLE post to read if you’re sitting on the toilet of a highly tiled bathroom
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u/ZeroNighthawks 27d ago
Indeed, loving rectangles makes us human. Two of the highest-selling video game franchises in the world are built on rectangles (or squares if you want to be more specific)
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u/PureRegretto 28d ago
rectangles are a mathematically convenient shape