Free RPG Forum
  • Home
  • Free RPGs
  • 24 Hour RPGs
  • Game Chef
  • Submissions


  • Board index
  • Search
  • FAQ
  • Login
  • Register
  • Board index ‹ General Discussion Forums ‹ General
  • Change font size
  • Print view
  • FAQ
  • Register
  • Login

Here I go again...

General forum for what's going on, site news, rants, raves, whatever. Let everyone know a little about yourself and what you do.
Post a reply
12 posts • Page 2 of 2 • 1, 2
  • Reply with quote

Re: Here I go again...

Postby Chainsaw Aardvark » Tue Jan 24, 2012 8:52 pm

There was an article not too long ago about IBM making the smallest world's magnetic computer memory bit - twelve atoms. Smaller than that, and quantum effects messed up its ability to store data. Of course, it required a tunneling microscope, and heating/transfer rates mean its probably not practical.

We could probably make electronic computers without quantum mechanics. We could probably even step past vacuum tubes to transistors, even on to microchips - but probably not with the same sort of Moore's law doubling. That is just my guess, however. It may be quite possible that all radio wave transmitters - even the spark gap transmitter (the tube's predecessor) relies on a quantum effect, just never described as such.

Of course, a world without microchips is an interesting one indeed, even without the retro Victorian veneer. Microchips are what made unmanned satellites smaller and cheaper, and thus a better alternative to manned space missions - computers killed the need for space stations. Advanced computers (and modeling made with them) and miniaturized components shrunk the size of nuclear weapons - making ICBMs possible, as wells as most guided weapons. No microchips, and modern air raids would look like something out of WWII, just with faster aircraft.
Games of imagination are never truly done. Yet tomorrow we shall start another one.

my new RPG blog.
User avatar
Chainsaw Aardvark
Mod Ape
 
Posts: 963
Joined: Fri Sep 08, 2006 4:04 pm
Location: Buffalo Grove IL
Top

  • Reply with quote

Re: Here I go again...

Postby Onix » Wed Jan 25, 2012 3:05 pm

Transistors rely on quantum mechanics to function. Put another way, they could not be explained by science until quantum mechanics were more fully understood. Of course the same is still true of the brain.
User avatar
Onix
Mod Ape
 
Posts: 1644
Joined: Sun Dec 19, 2010 4:00 pm
Location: North(ish)
  • Website
Top

Previous

Post a reply
12 posts • Page 2 of 2 • 1, 2

Return to General

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests

  • Board index
  • The team • Delete all board cookies • All times are UTC - 6 hours