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Old 11-05-2012, 01:13 PM   #1
vicky_molokh
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Default [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Software

Greetings, all!

Okay, I have a reasonably formed picture of what computers are like in my current setting, but I guess it never hurts to ask the hive mind for more ideas. Also, probably no harm if this topic is expanded to all sorts of non-Homeline computers and software. I'll just integrate any ideas that would fit ÆS, while anybody else can pick up posted ideas for alternate histories / aliens / whatever. Oh, and the list of does NOT necessarily imply that they are used together. So, here goes:

Exponential increase in Complexity from linear increase in size. This option is used in Æthereal Sun.

Dedicated, largely hardcoded, but robust, reliable and bug-free computers. (Traveller.)

More architectural diversity: a world with a dozen (or more) lazily competing architectures, each with different advantages and different software. On one hand, standardisation is dead on arrival; on the other, stuff is made to be a lot more tolerant of accepting new protocols and the like (to quote Unix Hater's Handbook, 'you’ll discover ways of rewiring sendmail’s insides so that “@#$@$^%<<<@#) at @$%#^!” is a valid e-mail address'). (This is partially true in ÆS.)

'University' instead of 'corporate' approach to software copyrights (which may or may not match the 'early UNIX' approach): most software is written by a guild's local computer experts for the guild's dominant architecture, financed by the guild based on current needs; piracy exists (where people get both access to and uses for said software), but is not seen as a big deal as in our world (bothering to enforce software copyrights is more trouble than the potential gains due to several factors in such a setting). (This is somewhat true in ÆS.)

Partially interconnected social networks and messengers: in our world, various government and phone companies, both stationary and mobile, managed to interconnect that we can call anyone anywhere. In this setting, there's a roughly 80% chance that any two social networks or instant messenger services have a direct interconnectivity, allowing their users to chat with minimal limitations (e.g. possible inability to send files directly). (This is the case in ÆS, and I have no idea why not in our world.)

Awaiting your ideas.
Thanks in advance!
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Old 11-12-2012, 06:43 AM   #2
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Default Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft

Read up on Analog computers. This was quickly neglected in favor of digital computer in our history but who to say what would happen in some alternate tech progression including hybrids.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_computer
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Old 11-13-2012, 11:34 AM   #3
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Default Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft

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Originally Posted by robertsconley View Post
Read up on Analog computers. This was quickly neglected in favor of digital computer in our history but who to say what would happen in some alternate tech progression including hybrids.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_computer
It's also worth noting that vacuum tubes don't need to be tall - it's the width that matters. So you can miniaturize vacuum tube computers quite a bit. 1mm tall slices, but 1cm wide and 0.5-1cm long. Can make for practical vacuum tube mainframes in a few cubic meters.

And vacuum tube computers can be analogue, digital, or composite!
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Old 11-13-2012, 07:00 PM   #4
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Default Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft

Read the section on TIMMs (Thermoionic Integrated MicroModule) at http://www.radiomuseum.org/forum/usa...tinkertoy.html . Tubes built using washers and plates so they are tougher then normal and the whole package is sealed and heated so no glass tubes or fragile heater wires.
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Old 12-07-2012, 10:02 AM   #5
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Default Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft

If you look at some Neal Stephenson novels, he comes up with a few different types of computer.

IIRC, in Diamond Age there's a Turing complete machine based on gears and chains, and ...
Spoiler:  


Another type of computer that I read about some time ago has logic gates based on rods that rotate and push back and forward, aligned at right angles to each other. Rotating exposes a hole in the rod, allowing a perpendicular rod to poke through it, thus giving various logical inputs and outputs. It could be built at a macro scale, but I think the idea was it would be the basis for nano-scale computing, avoiding some of the problems that electronic computers have at that scale.

There's also DNA computing, which could be used for solving large-number factorisations and thus breaking encryption. The key is programmed on one strand of DNA, and it is mixed with many possible solutions, one pair of which will bond with it and reveal the two factors (or something like that).

There are also logic gates based on chemicals in solution, which can phase change between different colours, or based on lasers which pass through filters whose polarisation is changed by another input beam.

For retro, logic gates could be constructed in hydrodynamic or pneumatic systems, with gates, valves and balloons that open or close on various inputs. They could be built as a room full of copper piping, or perhaps the even canals on Mars worked as a planet-sized logic machine.
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Old 12-07-2012, 10:05 AM   #6
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Default Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft

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Originally Posted by robertsconley View Post
Read up on Analog computers. This was quickly neglected in favor of digital computer in our history but who to say what would happen in some alternate tech progression including hybrids.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_computer
I saw a WWII fire-control computer training film that I think someone posted on these forums a couple of months back. It was fascinating what could be done with rotating cams cut to different mathematical curves.

ETA: I should've read the link before posting.
Here's a fluid-logic computer- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MONIAC_Computer.
And here's one 1953 training film- http://youtu.be/s1i-dnAH9Y4.
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Old 12-07-2012, 11:17 AM   #7
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Default Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft

For a setting with analog computers, you're going to want some doubletalk dealing with problems in error control and propagation. (If you're the sort to worry about such things, that is; otherwise, just blast off and show the Overlord of Jupiter a thing or two.) All of the input to an analog computer is valid, and produces variations in the output. One of the virtues-from-necessity of digital logic is that it tolerances a lot of variance in the input, as ultimately it has to be a "0" or "1". There's no such thing as a 0.001 or 0.01 to worry about.

Another advantage was of course simply miniaturization, transistors to ICs. We happened to figure out how to make tiny digital logic circuits cheaply, so they could be employed in massive numbers. We still don't know how to make tiny gears and cams. The alternate tech setting could either settle for less complexity in the computers, or some more handwavium.

The third advantage that comes to mind is ease of reprogrammability. This doesn't matter for computers dedicated to one job, like fire control on WWII battleships. But it's vital if you have general-purpose computers so "there's an app for that". Sculpting custom cams for each equation in every problem won't scale well. So you might invent something programmable, or have massive computers with lots of special execution units, or perhaps some T-1000 liquid metal will come in handy.
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Old 12-07-2012, 12:26 PM   #8
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Default Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft

Keep in mind there were (and are) chip-based analog computers so it's not just gears and cams and vacuum tubes. The F-16A and F-14A had chip-based analog computers (both mated with digital computers) and the SID chip (sound chip) on the Commodore 64 included analog circuits. All analog really means in that the input and processing is based on a curved waveform rather than on-off.

For that matter "fuzzy logic" is an attempt to bring to digital computing some of the abilities of analog computers. Varying levels of "maybe" are useful in lots of places.
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Old 12-07-2012, 12:34 PM   #9
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Default Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft

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Keep in mind there were (and are) chip-based analog computers.
Yes. Nothing like the density of digital circuits, and there are some issues with precision of the component values (capacitance, resistance, etc) as well as range. But it's possible to have integrated analog circuits. It's also common to have a few analog components on a chip with mostly digital logic.

For another example, radar systems often used analog memories to store incoming waveforms at radar frequencies and play those back (to jam the original signal, for instance, or control something else related to that signal). Only relatively recently have digital electronics been fast enough and large enough to capture signals at the multi-gigahertz frequencies needed for ECM.
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Old 12-07-2012, 01:32 PM   #10
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Default Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft

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Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
Yes. Nothing like the density of digital circuits, and there are some issues with precision of the component values (capacitance, resistance, etc) as well as range. But it's possible to have integrated analog circuits. It's also common to have a few analog components on a chip with mostly digital logic.

For another example, radar systems often used analog memories to store incoming waveforms at radar frequencies and play those back (to jam the original signal, for instance, or control something else related to that signal). Only relatively recently have digital electronics been fast enough and large enough to capture signals at the multi-gigahertz frequencies needed for ECM.
Heck, as of the early 2000s TV broadcasters still used vacuum tubes (at least one) at the actual broadcast antenna because solid-state components couldn't handle the power required. I think it was simply to step-up the power of signals already processed digitally, but still.
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