Oh, you should see my nitro-fueled abacus.
@nyrath @sudnadja Abacus and space travel. Not as widely used as a slide rule. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Comet
Interesting... How about a spacefaring civilization without computers? #WorldBuilding
@nyrath @sudnadja@dice.camp
Very interesting! A good reason to use the slide rule in universes with temporary problems with computers in your spaceships #WorldBuilding
@FredKiesche @sudnadja@dice.camp
@eldadoinquieto @nyrath @sudnadja Or universes where computers aren’t possible. Let’s say hyperspace really screws up integrated circuits. Then you’d need slide rules and those solid-cam “computers” on battleships (and tanks to a certain point).
Mmmm... Perhaps this is the reason of The Great Filter (computers don't work in hyperspace and if you don't think about recovering slide rules or other analogical means for the needed calculations your civilization gets stucked in your home planet).
@nyrath @sudnadja@dice.camp
@eldadoinquieto @FredKiesche @nyrath @sudnadja Joan Vinge did something like this in her "Heaven Chronicles", where one group has lost the ability to replace its electronic computing technology and deals with that by drafting people to act as human computers for numerical orbit calculations (I do not know if Vinge was inspired by real human computers in real space programs or not).
@michael_w_busch @FredKiesche @nyrath @sudnadja@dice.camp
All of this remind me of something taken from the adventures of Roco Vargas.