3 ms·
> It would be quite easy for us to forget how to build a nuclear weapon (much less a nuclear reactor) or a microprocessor. Sure you can learn the conceptual fra
by blfr 3y ago
> It would be quite easy for us to forget how to build a nuclear weapon (much less a nuclear reactor) or a microprocessor. Sure you can learn the conceptual framework and think you know how to do it, but when it comes time to actually pull it off, you're going to have to figure out a lot of the secret sauce again
This is simply not true. There is no secret in this sauce any more. Sure, you would need to relearn how to actually do some things, but the recipes are all there, well documented. Not quite youtube tutorials but we have videos.
This is not a hypothetical. We tested this[1] and it matches my expectations (I studied physics).
Esoteric materials, very precise optics, or spare parts to f22, things that are made in one or two places, we may lose that capacity. But fundamental inventions like flight, electricity, radio, fertilization are gonna stay with us as long as there's some version of us around.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nth_Country_Experiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nth_Country_Experiment
- saulpw 3y agoA "credible design" is not a functional nuclear weapon. See again the link to the paper I posted. Any country that tries to create a nuclear weapon takes the same amount of time (~5 years) to figure it out, and no amount of designs or specs or written down information speeds it up. Only embedding actual people who have developed their tacit knowledge will do so. But it sounds like we've both made up our minds, and you believe in the immortality of information, and I can see as evident that knowledge has been lost time and time again. We only have to wait awhile to see how it actually turns out.