Machu Picchu is an Inca settlement located in the High Andes of Peru in the Urubamba Valley, north of Cuzco. The site, perched high above the Urubamba river, has been variously described as a fortress, imperial retreat and ceremonial precinct. It was founded by Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui in c. 1450 CE, had capacity for around 1,000 residents at its peak, and ranked amongst the most sacred of all sites for the Inca. Following the collapse of the Inca empire, Machu Picchu was abandoned and forgotten, only to be rediscovered in 1911 CE by the explorer Hiram Bingham. Machu Picchu is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
Purpose
Machu Picchu (meaning 'old hill') was an imperial estate founded by and belonging to Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, the Inca ruler, in the mid-15th century CE. The ownership of the site was later passed to Pachacuti's successors. On its rediscovery by the explorer Hiram Bingham in 1911 CE (although local residents in the valley had always known of the site's existence) it was claimed as the last capital of the Incas. However, this proved to be untrue when the actual final capital was discovered at Vilcabamba, further downstream in the Urubamba Valley.
Another hypothesis concerning the site posed by early historians was that Machu Picchu was a fortress and the strong walls, large towers, and dry moats were cited in support of this theory. The need for fortification perhaps sprang from a series of severe droughts which made the competition for resources fierce. This would also explain why the site was not occupied for very long as when the water situation improved the necessity for such citadel sites declined.
Once again though, further study has revealed that most of the architecture was designed for religious purposes and the fortifications may well have been put in place to ensure only a select few could enter this sacred site. In further support of this interpretation, a road was discovered which linked the site to several residential settlements dotted along the valley. The most likely purpose of Machu Picchu, then, was as a sacred site, probably to the sun god Inti and with the additional purpose of reminding the recently conquered local population of the power and might of Pachacuti and the Inca empire centred at its capital Cuzco.
The site was abandoned by the Inca shortly before Pizarro and the Spanish conquistadors arrived. The invaders never reached Machu Picchu, though, and the site would remain unknown to the wider world for 400 years.
Full Article by Mark Cartwright https://www.worldhistory.org/Machu_Picchu/
From UNESCO https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/274/
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Today I learned that most self-checkouts have cameras that flag suspicious behavior. Remind me why people arenβt going to cashiers by default when available?
They have two cameras minumum, usually.
The first is the front-facing camera to capture/scan your face while you checkout.
The second is on an arm suspended above the checkout with a birds eye view of the prep, scan and bagging area. It works to make sure that all items that were placed in the prep area are scanned and placed into the bagging area to identify 'skip scan' (people deliberately or accidentally failing to scan an item).
The third camera is in the roof above a set of checkouts, which is connected to the customer tracking and movement system. When you enter the store, it will brand your head with a session ID, that it will use to track you and the aisles you walk through/items you interact with, until you proceed through checkout, after which it ends the session as you exit the store.
Some stores implement physical barrier gates that prevent you from leaving if you haven't made a transaction (camera 3).
This is what I know from what the stores tell customers/what's publically available about these systems.
What I do not know is
All of this information is provided for reference only
I always go to a human cashier. In my mind it's good for my social anxiety to force myself to interact with another human being, even if it's purely transactional.
I told this to a therapist once hoping they would tell me it's unnecessary and I can just use self checkout, but instead they told me it's a really good idea and I should keep doing it