7 ms·
Chip design & manufacturing is probably the closest thing we have to witchcraft as a species.
by sbstp 2y ago
Chip design & manufacturing is probably the closest thing we have to witchcraft as a species.
- SkyMarshal 2y agoThat or cryptography.
- wzp 2y agohaha yea
- TechDebtDevin 2y agoEUV lithography might as well have been invented at Hogwarts as far as I'm concerned.
- nevdka 2y agoWe use invisible light to draw patterns on crystals to control the power of lightning. Definitely magic.
- timschmidt 2y agoDon't forget the cavernous structures which people are forbidden to enter, buzzing with the activity of objects controlled by those enchanted crystals, like the magic brooms in Fantasia, performing myriad arcane rituals with rare and exotic materials to make more enchanted crystals.
- 6510 2y agoAnd the high priests guarding the knowledge.
- timschmidt 2y agoAh yes, the sandbenders. [0] 0: http://catb.org/jargon/html/S/sandbender.html http://catb.org/jargon/html/S/sandbender.html
- nevdka 2y agoThey perform elaborate cleansing rituals on any item brought into the crystal-writing room. When they enter, they wear special clothing, lest the impurities of the outside world taint the crystals.
- wmertens 2y agoAnd the scribes designing the incantations using magical tools, ever more complex, eagerly working towards stronger and faster magic crystals
- timschmidt 2y agoThose magical tools being self-referential incantations written in the weird and decidedly non-human language of the crystals themselves, containing deep magic [0] derived from the secrets of life itself [1] exploited to solve problems of intractable complexity in creating the next set of incantations. Disturbingly, using the magical tool twice on the same incantation never produces exactly the same result. 0: https://www.catb.org/jargon/html/D/deep-magic.html https://www.catb.org/jargon/html/D/deep-magic.html 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_algorithm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_algorithm
- gumby 2y agoThose EUV lasers are themselves insanely crazy, and unlike the semiconductors they are part of producing, the EUV gear has lots of expensive short-lived consumables — like mirrors!
- TechDebtDevin 2y agoYeah Zeiss makes a lot more than eyeglass lenses!
- gumby 2y agoI think of Zeiss as a lens company but indeed, EUV lasers can’t use lenses but instead mirrors which only last a couple of weeks
- LVB 2y agoYep. One thought experiment I like is how well I’d be able to carry forward human technological progress to some primitive group, given any descriptions or samples of said tech that I’d want. Microprocessors are always the choke point, where I’d be hard pressed to reproduce one, and they form the basis for so much else.
- ars 2y agoMicroprocessors with tiny features are a chokepoint, but I suspect you could make a primitive one if you really worked at it, i.e. go back to 1960's technology, such as the AL1 or 4004. Even going to 1925 and teaching how to make a MOSFET would help.
- fragmede 2y agonandgame and nand2tetris are important works of teaching for this reason. On the off chance I get thrown back in time to the exact right time for it to be useful, I'll be prepared!
- Tade0 2y agoOr disregard silicon entirely and use vacuum tubes combined with relays. Not particularly micro, but a processor nonetheless.
- 6510 2y agoBatteries from wooden crates with newspapers, metal rods and is enough to do telegraph. That it is slightly harder ensures serious use. If the drinking water is far away at the top of a mountain it isn't so convenient to throw your garbage in it, take a dump in it or float the dead in it.
- datavirtue 2y agoI saw someone build a 4004 on a piece of plywood about ten years ago.
- raverbashing 2y ago
- steve1977 2y agoI know what you mean, but it’s probably quite the opposite. It’s engineering and science at its best, not invoking some esoteric spirits. It might look like witchcraft though to the uninitiated.
- claritise 2y agoWe are practically machine elves.. we enchant, transmute and bind mystical inscriptions onto crystals that are charged through an invisible and intangible energy to perform actions we could never do with our biological bodies. All of this is produced succinctly through an empirically pragmatic yet slightly esoteric process of a form of gnostic meditation we call the scientific method...
- vladms 2y agoWhat is mystical to follow a procedure? And even breaking a big nut with a stone is an "action that we could never do with our biological bodies". Currently it is more esoteric on how a baby (human but not only) is formed than how we build a microprocessor. So if anything I would say we are statistical acrobats, existing despite the numerous approximations in biology. Compared to us humans, microprocessors are predictable and boring.
- lazide 2y agoThe tech stack is possible because each individual part is (relatively) predictable and boring (when used within parameters).
- apantel 2y ago> What is mystical to follow a procedure? This is how science destroys wonder instead of inspiring it. What is mystical is the fact that you exist in the first place, plus everything else. It’s all far out and enchanting.
- steve1977 2y agoYou think so? For me personally, there's few things that are more inspiring than understanding something and being able to reproduce it. This for me is the wonder of science.
- goodcanadian 2y agoAny sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. - Arthur C. Clarke
- jiggawatts 2y agoThe corollary is that any technology that is distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
- speed_spread 2y agoFunnily, I'm not sure living in a world of magic is a goal to be pursued. We should strive to make tech foundations understandable or stop using it.
- ben_w 2y agoHow much are you willing to simplify? Because if you need to explain GPS at the level of the impact of general relativity, my understanding is that by itself is already a topic normally introduced in the final year of a physics degree. If you're OK with simplifying to "time passes at a different rate for the satellites, here's the equation, I will not explain why it works just roll with it", why insist on ceasing to use it if the foundation isn't understandable?
- jiggawatts 2y agoTrying to explains generative AI to a lay person already feels like a wizard trying to explain a magic spell. “There’s a lot more going on than just saying a sentence and then things happen!”
- rustcleaner 2y agoI like to refer them to Taylor polynomials as an analogue to what's happening.
- 6510 2y ago
- bitwize 2y agoIt's like I keep saying: We etch runes into stones, and make the stones come alive and do our bidding by channelling lightning through the runes. And you say computers aren't magic?!
- jimnotgym 2y agoIn that the knowledge is locked up in secret societies?
- Xen9 2y agoFrom Monster Manual by Gary Gygaxale and David Ångströmson (TSR Inc., 1978), p. 61, in the section on etches: "An etch exists because of its own desires and the use of powerful and arcane magic. The etch passes from a state of humanity to a non-human, non-living, and non-conductive existence through force of light. It retains this status by certain conjurations, enchantments, and a reticlefactory. An etch is most often encountered within its hidden chambers, this lair typically being in some dry, deserted area or vast underground lab, and in any case both solidly constructed of stone and very sterile. Through the power which changes this creature from human to etch, the armor class becomes the equivalent of +1 plate armor and +1 shield {armor class 0). Similarly, cast dice are 8-sided, and the etch can be affecied only by magical attack forms or by monsters with magical properties or 6 or more hit dice. Etches were formerly ultra powerful magic-users of magie-user/clerics of not less than 18th level of magic-use. Their touch is so cold as to cause 1-10 points of damage and paralyze opponents who fail to make their saving throw. The mere sight of an etch will cause any creature below 5 nm {or 5 hit dice) to flee in fear of overexposure. All etches are able to use magic appropriately at the level they had attained prior to becoming non-human. An etch can only be permanently destroyed when their reticlefactory is destroyed. Unless the etch's reticlefactory is located and destroyed, the dice will be cast, and the etch will re-adhere in 1d10 days after their apparent defect. The fallowing spells or attack farms have no effect an etches: charm, sleep, enfeeblement, annealing, insanity or death spells/symbols. Description: An etch appears very much as does a wight or mummy, being of skeletal form, eyesockets mere black holes with radiating points of amplificated light, and garments most often rotting (but most rich)."
- lazide 2y agoÅngströmson? Talk about nominative determinism!
- jack_pp 2y agoI'd say the applications are witchcraft as well, as in you can get food from tapping a screen on your phone, instead of mana you use money. Or now with latest LLM and voice recognition you can just utter the words to summon food.
- m463 2y agoI've always thought of chips and the unrelated peter principle ("people rise to the level of their own incompetence"). Except with chips it is shrink instead of rise. Like if a chip works well and is reliable, time to shrink it (or run it faster, or run it hotter, etc) :)
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]