4 ms·

I kinda wish this stuff was saved in a warehouse somewhere in a deep cave. In a post-apocalyptic world, even a z80 microprocessor can put our tech tree 1000 yea

I kinda wish this stuff was saved in a warehouse somewhere in a deep cave. In a post-apocalyptic world, even a z80 microprocessor can put our tech tree 1000 years forward.

vorpalhex 5y ago
There are a few companies using old salt mines for preservation. I am sure they'd be happy to include a tech time capsule if you reached out to them.
Zenst 5y ago
If you showed somebody 1000 years ago a z80 - they would probably think it was jewellery - a broach of some-kind. So how much knowledge would carry forward 1000 years from now, after all the tooling needed to reverse engineer a cpu like the z80 and working out how it is made, is going to be a huge effort. Besides, I'm sure many would argue that a 6502 would push it forward a few years faster.
- umanwizard 5y ago
  Now I want to watch a movie about a post-apocalyptic society where one's social status is based on the size and rarity of one's CPU-jewellery collection.
  - Zenst 5y ago
    Oh I'm sure if Lady Gaga did it once, it would be chaos. I still recall living thru the era of https://blog.heritagepartscentre.com/blog/2016/03/15/remember-being-beastied/ https://blog.heritagepartscentre.com/blog/2016/03/15/remembe...
    - crtasm 5y ago
      Didn't know that bit of history, thanks. "The band made a brief comeback in 2004..." Err, I saw them live in 2007 and their last album was 2011.
- maxerickson 5y ago
  A nice paper book about copper, electricity and discrete components.
  - Zenst 5y ago
    Why not a plastic book, more chance of surviving.
- woofie11 5y ago
  I'm less concerned about someone from a thousand years ago, as I am about me. COVID21 (or nukes or insert your favorite apocalypse) sweeps through and wipes out 90% of mankind. We instantly lose our ability to manufacture ICs, which rely on a complex tech tree and supply chain to feed many-billion-dollar fabs. We'd like to continue to be able to: - Control industrial machinery - Communicate with each other - Balance out bank accounts - Etc. 1996-era computers can do almost everything 2021-era computers can do from the perspective of keeping society running. I won't have 3d games or machine learning, but accounting, word processing, and similar are fine. Most of the changes in the past quarter-century were in how we use computers, more so than fundamentals. Having a cache can mean the difference between being set back 1000 years due to systemic collapse, or being set back 50 years. This isn't a time capsule thing. This is about immediate, operational resilience when the last of my computers breaks without supply chains.

I kinda wish this stuff was saved in a warehouse somewhere in a deep cave. In a post-apocalyptic world, even a z80 microprocessor can put our tech tree 1000 years forward.

vorpalhex 5y ago

There are a few companies using old salt mines for preservation. I am sure they'd be happy to include a tech time capsule if you reached out to them.

Zenst 5y ago

If you showed somebody 1000 years ago a z80 - they would probably think it was jewellery - a broach of some-kind. So how much knowledge would carry forward 1000 years from now, after all the tooling needed to reverse engineer a cpu like the z80 and working out how it is made, is going to be a huge effort. Besides, I'm sure many would argue that a 6502 would push it forward a few years faster.

umanwizard 5y ago
Now I want to watch a movie about a post-apocalyptic society where one's social status is based on the size and rarity of one's CPU-jewellery collection.
- Zenst 5y ago
  Oh I'm sure if Lady Gaga did it once, it would be chaos. I still recall living thru the era of https://blog.heritagepartscentre.com/blog/2016/03/15/remember-being-beastied/ https://blog.heritagepartscentre.com/blog/2016/03/15/remembe...
  - crtasm 5y ago
    Didn't know that bit of history, thanks. "The band made a brief comeback in 2004..." Err, I saw them live in 2007 and their last album was 2011.
maxerickson 5y ago
A nice paper book about copper, electricity and discrete components.
- Zenst 5y ago
  Why not a plastic book, more chance of surviving.
woofie11 5y ago
I'm less concerned about someone from a thousand years ago, as I am about me. COVID21 (or nukes or insert your favorite apocalypse) sweeps through and wipes out 90% of mankind. We instantly lose our ability to manufacture ICs, which rely on a complex tech tree and supply chain to feed many-billion-dollar fabs. We'd like to continue to be able to: - Control industrial machinery - Communicate with each other - Balance out bank accounts - Etc. 1996-era computers can do almost everything 2021-era computers can do from the perspective of keeping society running. I won't have 3d games or machine learning, but accounting, word processing, and similar are fine. Most of the changes in the past quarter-century were in how we use computers, more so than fundamentals. Having a cache can mean the difference between being set back 1000 years due to systemic collapse, or being set back 50 years. This isn't a time capsule thing. This is about immediate, operational resilience when the last of my computers breaks without supply chains.