[Infinite Worlds] 1966

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

For example, I would want to primarily manufacture electronics, so I would set up to produce: the Apple IIgs (In this case, rather than standing for graphics and sound, it's marketed under the name Granny Smith) with enhanced 256k memory, 3.5" disc drives (up to 4), a good dot matrix printer, an optional NLQ printer, a 1024 x 512 scanner, a decent modem, and a mouse/tracball

This is not impossible, but it's hard. The VLSI chip fabrication needed for microprocessors did not exist in 1966, nor did the memory chips, and all the other electronics parts that Apple bought in for the Apple II series. You're going to have to import all that technology and set up factories to make it: it's all possible, but it will take longer and cost more. It's also going to be significantly easier to make plain Apple II machines than the IIgs. The IIgs is a mid-eighties design with a processor that needs about 22,000 transistors, rather than the 3,500 transistors of the basic 6502 in the Apple II from the mid-seventies.

In doing this, you become the world's leading micro-electronics manufacturer, and making components for mainframes and minicomputers is probably more profitable and influential than selling overly advanced machines into a market where personal computers are a very new idea, and there isn't the infrastructure of computer shops, small software companies, and so on that grew up in the seventies. Also, given how much you had to invest to build the factories to make the parts for your Apples, you probably can't sell them as cheap as they were in the seventies, at least at first.

The same problem applies to the disc drives, printers, scanner, and the rest of the machine. It can all be done, but the things you want to make are only economically viable if they can be produced in large quantities, and it's necessary to set up factories beyond the current state of the art. Electronics advanced really fast in the late sixties and hasn't slowed since.

[Flyndaran]

I, and probably Homeline, would prefer to play the long game. Amass some money by selling inventions as most here suggest, then invest in technologies that will be developed in the 70s by locals. That keeps it from looking too suspicious if anyone digs too deeply.
Some smart shrewd guy investing well wouldn't jump out to crosstimers, government agents, etc.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by johndallman

...
The same problem applies to the disc drives, printers, scanner, and the rest of the machine. It can all be done, but the things you want to make are only economically viable if they can be produced in large quantities, and it's necessary to set up factories beyond the current state of the art. Electronics advanced really fast in the late sixties and hasn't slowed since.

This and other ideas here make me think of an old Twilight Zone episode:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Lat..._Cliffordville
Partial Synopsis: Old evil businessman makes a deal with the devil to travel back to his youth with little money. He knows where oil will be discovered, so he'll be mega rich this time around, right? But he doesn't take into account practical matters like drilling technology making his site impossible at that time. Etc.
It's hard to stay barely ahead of the game, but even with outside knowledge, going too far ahead of the game has its own semi-hidden pitfalls.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Dr. Beckenstein

But do you have to bring stuff to make money?

IMO it would be better to invest in the financial markets. Shares and bonds are not usually not very exiting, but are the things that really can enhance your wealth.
If it is a close parallel, you know where to put your money for the next years. Found brokerage firms at the major stock exchanges world wide and shell companies in tax oases to wash your profits.
And to spice things up, let some armed goons crash the companies christmas party.

It's a close parallel, but not that close. While the large and well-established pre-World War II companies are almost all the same, the companies founded after World War II tend to be ones that never existed in Homeline's history and there is a lot more of an aggressively hostile corporate takeover culture, as if the 80s came 20 years early. You can't predict the winners and losers based on history. And yeah, that will cause trouble for the hapless Homeliners because it means they'll be fending off guys who want in on their action and will be trying to research and spy on them.

OK, so right now I'm thinking they set up shop in London or maybe Tokyo, and import LSI computer chips (five years ahead of the curve), synthetic diamonds, a "new" antibiotic and an insect repellent like DEET or something better. The profits they earn, especially from the diamonds would go into building a factory that would build lower end computer components to go with the chips. Meanwhile they pay the bills by shipping back gold, germanium and master tapes from old BBC series that they weren't going to take proper care of.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Meanwhile they pay the bills by shipping back gold, germanium and master tapes from old BBC series that they weren't going to take proper care of.

Oooh, I would love to have seen some of the old First and Second Doctors from Doctor Who. ;)

[(E)]

Genetics and mathematics

How many patentable formulas and pieces of software have been developed in the last 50 years?

How much money have various stud animals gone for?

Get in on Monsanto's action, seed genetics.

Chemicals for industrial use and the processes to make them.

[Ashtagon]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

For example, I would want to primarily manufacture electronics, so I would set up to produce: the Apple IIgs (In this case, rather than standing for graphics and sound, it's marketed under the name Granny Smith) with enhanced 256k memory, 3.5" disc drives (up to 4), a good dot matrix printer, an optional NLQ printer, a 1024 x 512 scanner, a decent modem, and a mouse/tracball; a CRT colour television with a black matrix mask (Magnavox made the first one in the early 1970s and it made a huge difference by eliminating colour bleeding) with stereo speakers (stereo TV was actually a 1980s thing but it could have been done earlier); 8-track & 2-track cassette player recorders with Dolby noise reduction and Betamax VCRs.

This would all have been amazing technology in 1966 but none of it would have been implausible, as it only advances the tech by not quite a decade.

It might only be advancing tech by a decade, but introducing modems in 1966 is liable to get you disappeared by the military, as arpanet was a top-secret technology at the time, and you've basically just revealed military secrets to the world.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Ashtagon

It might only be advancing tech by a decade, but introducing modems in 1966 is liable to get you disappeared by the military, as arpanet was a top-secret technology at the time, and you've basically just revealed military secrets to the world.

Modems were publically available several years earlier. The key idea of ARPANET was packet-switching. Rather than there being a direct link between a terminal and a computer, the link is between the terminal and a router, which can pass messages in packets on to any other computer or router in the network. Yes, this is how the modern Internet works.

[fchase8]

Import GURPS itself, or other role-playing games. It might not be the best money-maker (though hippies would like D&D), but would be the most fun - and very low overhead (and Infinity wouldn't be looking for it...).


What about importing VCRs and videotapes? There might still be a ton lying around Homeline that could be bought for a song. Plus the equipment that can make VCRs & videotapes.

Indeed, any tech that would be advanced for 1966, but passe on Homeline - especially if products are still around on Homeline. Like film photography, even Polaroids. And this can include the machinery used to make such out-of-date products.


One could export cultural treasures from places that were going to be wrecked by war & revolution. For instance cultural treasures of China that were going to be destroyed by the Cultural Revolution.