[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!

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

Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft
 

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!

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.

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 ...


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.

Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft
 

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.

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.

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.

Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft
 

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.

Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft
 

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.

Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft
 

We're making real progress on that. Making the parts is fairly easy with mask-and-etch techniques derives from integrated circuit fabrication. I get the impression that assembling them into large systems may be harder.

Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft
 

Mathseer

A Mathseer is an analogue of computers for a magical setting of some sort. It is an enchanted device that, as the name implies, precognitive in the mathematical field. Here's how it works:

The operator sits behind a mathseer and visualises a mathematical problem that needs solving. The problem can be extremely complex, taking centuries to solve; however, the operator must be capable of solving it, even if it would require an abacus and enormous amounts of ink and paper.

As the operator visualises the first steps of a solution, the mathseer forges a temporary bond with the operator's spirit. Through this link, it provides insights into the answers to the next step. There is a positive feedback loop, and the longer the operator works on a problem, the further into the future the mathseer can look, and the faster it can provide the next step - even many times faster than normal people can think.

Game mechanically, a mathseer gives its use Intuitive Mathematician, as well as a limited form of Enhanced Time Sense that can only be used for interfacing purposes.

Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft
 

Don't vacuum tubes burn out and need to be replaced?

I had an idea some time ago, for one of the tech paradigms in my space opera setting, to involve boards of miniaturized vacuum tubes (each a bit smaller than rice grains) that are externally mounted on the computer, e.g. a hacker's cyberdeck, and maybe with a little built-in fault tolerance so that if any one single tube burns out, the board still works fine (each computer or deck has many such boards, from several to hundreds), and if 2-4 tubes burn out that board still works but at increasingly reduced efficiency. Indicator LEDs turn on to indicate the severity of need for replacement, and someone them manually has to watch and replace as needed, e.g. the hacker's assistent.

Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft
 

Yes, but this mostly happens at power-on. Powering off and on is hard on electronics in general, but the effect is much larger for vacuum tubes. They also use a lot more power, mostly for the heaters that allow them to work, and these two things together make portable equipment hard.

Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft
 

Powering off and on in what sense, exactly?

Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft
 

The "turn the power supply off so the machine is not operating" sense, either because "we are not using it overnight" or for a drastic reset.

Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft
 

Okay, thanks. I just wasn't sure if it was that, or if it was when electric current was sent into each individual tube.

So my scheme with urgent real-time replacement of micro-tubes isn't legit? (Not that that matters a lot - in my space opera setting, sentient computers usually insist that people speak Latin to them, instead of normal languages like Anglish, because "Latin is a precise langauge with a simple and structured grammar." I've been told that's not legit, but I'm inclined to go with it anyway.)

Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft
 

Howzabout a Crystal Computer. It looks like an old vacuum tube d Eniac but instead of tubes they are quartz crystals and they absorb the psychic energy of ambient psi's. they then can create psionic programs used for a variety of effects.

Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft
 

You seemed to be talking about having built-in redundancy, so that single failures could be tolerated? The problem is heat. A computer that has redundancy to handle such things contains more than twice as many components, so there's more to go wrong, and you're generating more heat. Heat is always bad for the life of a machine, especially one that's soldered together.

You say this is "space opera", but really, it is more "science fantasy". Try being less specific, it creates fewer disbelief-triggers.

Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft
 

Speaking of which, I think I'll eventually come up with several types of mnemocrystals. Some would be like electronics in this sense, others would require subzero temperature (but wouldn't overheat on their own as much), and the third would require high temperature for functioning (but wouldn't suffer from overheating). Though I think adding even more types is best.

Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft
 

Harmonic Oscillation Ordinator

This is a colossal scale difference engine contained in a hexagonal prism of transparent neutronium. When simple harmonic motion is applied, passing gravity waves are trapped and reflected between the upper and lower hexagons where they can be used to expand the interior into virtual spaces when the neutron flow is halted and reversed.

These reflections would be identical and thus redundant except for the further application of lateral rotation whose frame dragging and prevents the six vertical sides from forming a regular enclosed Euclidean path. The discrepancy allows the virtual space to be populated with non-identical component gears and cams of virtual matter, providing computing power limited only by the gravity wave energy previously collected.

To best exploit this property, HOOs are often used to direct relative dimension controllers to safely contain gravitational collapse apertures within transcendental architectures, though this typically results in an effective wave-gathering size of 1%. This does allow for use on personal vehicles which can then be periodically re-energized at suitable collapsing venues.

Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft
 

That sentence applies a definite smack upside the head at its last word!
In a different space-opera technology system, I found the Dimensional Formatter had a nicely understated menacing tone.

Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft
 

It's worth noting that, for commercial tube amplifiers for performance halls, it's cheaper to leave them on for 12hours unused than to turn them off and restart them. Large tubes can draw 10-20 times their operational power during warmup, and for large tube amps, warm up can take well over an hour before finally leveling off at working temp. My tiny 3-tube Fender takes 30 minutes to warm up. 45 if it's been in the car. (But nothing sounds quite like the distortion of a tube amp and an electric guitar.)

Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft
 

This blog entry has some discussion of the possibilities of a divergent internet-
http://shkspr.mobi/blog/2013/01/why-...-the-internet/

Re: [Worldbuilding] Divergent, retro and other 'not of this world' Computers and Soft
 

How about a TL4 computer which is an entire building, full of clerks and mathematicians. This in turn is linked via a semaphore network to other cities, and their computational centres.
Read it in an obscure Australian Sci Fi book. Peddle powered trains, librarians dueling with matchlock pistols, AND a scaled up 'computer'.