Persephone on Nostr: You know how we look back at CRT TVs and go "Really? A fucking particle accelerator ...
You know how we look back at CRT TVs and go "Really? A fucking particle accelerator being guided by a bunch of RF signals to point at different parts of a phosphor screen was the easiest way you could see to display information?"
The modern CPU is even more bonkers. "We took sand, melted it and regrew it into a crystal of pure silicon. We then sliced it into sheets thiner than a human hair and used chemicals so toxic they are not allowed to be kept in normal structures, to poison and etch patterns into them. Those patterns are so fine and delicate that we create them by shining UV light on to the silicon through a mask. We can't use normal light because we are working with sizes less than the wavelength of blue light, and even then we have to do clever tricks with refraction patterns to make the pattern small enough. That we can do this at a scale that averages out to more than one 'chip' in arms reach of every human on the planet is completely bonkers. That any of this works half as well as it does is frankly a miracle. Particle accelerator screens and vacuum tubes make more sense honestly"
The modern CPU is even more bonkers. "We took sand, melted it and regrew it into a crystal of pure silicon. We then sliced it into sheets thiner than a human hair and used chemicals so toxic they are not allowed to be kept in normal structures, to poison and etch patterns into them. Those patterns are so fine and delicate that we create them by shining UV light on to the silicon through a mask. We can't use normal light because we are working with sizes less than the wavelength of blue light, and even then we have to do clever tricks with refraction patterns to make the pattern small enough. That we can do this at a scale that averages out to more than one 'chip' in arms reach of every human on the planet is completely bonkers. That any of this works half as well as it does is frankly a miracle. Particle accelerator screens and vacuum tubes make more sense honestly"