Sometimes adding an extra piece of information makes everything click.

· Bits and Bobs 4/27/26
  • Sometimes adding an extra piece of information makes everything click.
    • Before, everything felt increasingly uncertain as you added more information to the pile.
    • Then you add one specific piece and suddenly everything clicks into brilliant clarity.
    • Paradigm-shifting observations have this characteristic.
      • "Wait, what if the earth orbits the sun?"[d][e]
    • Another example is when you discover the hidden dimension that makes all of the previous incoherence suddenly be explainable.
    • The world of SLAM gives a nice mental model with loop closing.[f]
      • SLAM means Simultaneous Localization and Mapping.
        • It's at the heart of any Augmented Reality flow.
      • As you get more observations from the camera, you update your estimate of both the device's position in space, and the configuration of the environment.
      • Naturally, drift happens and as you go for longer and your dead reckoning gets increasingly tenuous.
      • Then, you notice that two spots are the same location, and you "loop close."
      • Now, all of the intermediate observations can be snapped into the precise place, all at once.[g]

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