[geeks] Wishful thinking... Discussion primer

[Edward Mitchell]

> How much technological change could you bring about by taking a shipping
> container full of 2016-era computers (and full copy of wikipedia) to 1975?

Interesting.  I wonder if you might slow things down by offering to negate 
40 years of progress and effort.  In other words, people were working on 
set {A} of problems, ideas, theories, etc. on $day-1.  On $day+1, they 
have the option of not undertaking any of that work or research.  Yes, 
they would have the results of that work available, but they would not 
have experienced and passed on the creative aspects which produced the 
outcome in 2016.

The other problem I see is that while they have access to this new tech, 
they don't have the means to replicate it.  No fab plants, no complete 
body of R&D results (proprietary stuff), no materials data/know-how.

Those problems aside, I'm sure there would be brains at places like Bell 
Labs, Intel, and IBM that would solve some vexing (for 1975) problems in 
short order.  Data management software might evolve differently, and it 
would be interesting to see their reactions to various consumer and 
non-consumer operating systems of 2016.

> Presume the shipping container has enough equipment to set up a couple of 
> small
> datacenters along with numerous desktop workstations, and all required
> networking gear, switches, routers, and spare parts. 
> Also included: Installable copies of all major operating systems (especially
> free/open source ones with full source code), along with stuff like simh for
> emulation of 1975-current hardware on the faster gear. 
> What else would you be sure to include??

Lots of those goofy grounded (3-prong) to "you're gonna fry" (2-prong) 
adapters.  Just, you know, in case.  Not in jest, I would stuff as much 
high end audio gear into the container as I could manage.  Mostly because 
tubes.

> Alternate discussion: 
> Given the same shipping container full of stuff, what year would you take it
> back to, to have maximum impact? 
> The transistor was invented in 1947...

That depends.  Would the Soviets get to play?  That sort of technology 
could really alter the Cold War, possibly with disastrous consequences, 
i.e. "But the super-fast magic computer keeps spitting out the same answer 
- we CAN win.  Launch!!"

> Assuming that you've got the entire container of gear for reference
> information, what timeframe would the receiving society be able to start
> replicating (on a smaller/less intricate scale) stuff like early ICs?

For the barebones basics, post-1947 - 5 years.  There were lots of smart, 
smart people around back then all over the place.  They were more 
hamstrung by materials and tooling, than by a lack of vision.  In fact I'd 
argue 1947-1960 produced some of the greatest visionaries of the 20th 
century.

Sadly, some government(s) would step in and blackbox the whole thing.  And 
all we'd get out of it is Velcro(tm) and Post-it notes. ;)