Sandbox Discussions

[Unbitwise]

I wouldn't even have the first idea about what to make logic gates from other than the silicon way. Vacuum tubes exist, but, like, you have to create a vacuum? And then something electronic goes in it probably?

The upside of vacuum tubes is that you don't need nearly as pure and carefully processed materials to make them. Semiconductor doping has to be a very precise process, and then you need to make the junctions.

Vacuum tubes in five minutes:

1. First, recall electrostatics: positive and negative charges are things that exist, they attract each other, ordinary matter is made up of lots of protons (positive) and electrons (negative).
2. If you heat up a piece of metal, electrons can “boil” off it. (This is the “cathode”. If it's heated by running a current through it, it's also the “filament”. The filament can also be separate if that's more convenient.)
3. If you put that metal in a vacuum, you avoid burning out the filament and let the electrons fly through the vacuum without hitting anything.
4. If you put another (cold) piece of metal in the tube (the “anode” or “plate”), so that outside of the tube it makes up some sort of electric circuit with the cathode, then electrons can fly from the cathode to the anode, allowing a current to flow in the circuit. This is a “diode”, the simplest possible tube. Like a semiconductor diode, it allows current to flow only in one direction. It's not very useful for logic by itself.
5. The reason the electrons move the way they do is the electrostatic field created by the power supply in the circuit outside the tube: the free electrons are repelled by the negative charge on the cathode and attracted by the positive charge on the plate. But in addition to responding to the field, they're also particles that have momentum. You can use this to vary the behavior of the tube.
6. Specifically, put a third electrode, made out of wire mesh, between the other two. If it has a positive charge, i.e. a positive voltage, relative to the cathode, then it also attracts electrons — which usually miss the mesh wires and hit the anode instead (increasing current to the anode). Thus, varying the voltage on the grid varies the current to the anode, allowing amplification.
7. And logic gates are made by driving an amplifier to hit its low or high limits, so there you go.

There are chemical details related to making the cathode more effective, and making the filament (which may be the same thing) have a long life (keyword “getter”), but they're not essential to building tubes adequate to demonstrate the technology.

[Kappa]

Watching Hank deal with Tayane, my brain is just like, "A Connecticut Yankee in Thedas?"

[Bluelantern]

Watching Hank deal with Tayane, my brain is just like, "A Connecticut Yankee in Thedas?"

That Connecticut Yakee really gets around.

Question about Tayane: What sort of prejudices and discrimination embroideried people face? Would Piper be recognized as a person?

[DanielH]

My guess is that embroidered people like the Hank Morgan are treated as people, but it varies a lot more for sleeved individuals like Piper.

Would Piper count as sleeved, or am I confused about the terminology? I only remember it being used once.

[Bluelantern]

My guess is that embroidered people like the Hank Morgan are treated as people, but it varies a lot more for sleeved individuals like Piper.

Would Piper count as sleeved, or am I confused about the terminology? I only remember it being used once.

that post is ambiguous, but I thought "sleeved" would mean "effectively dead"?

[Alicorn]

The origin of the term "sleeved" is like you're wearing a shirt and then your sleeves are sewed to the rest of your clothes so you can't move your arms. Exactly what things are inconvenient enough to be sleeving rather than embroidery is unclear; Piper is definitely sleeved, but she's clearly retained her mind. Then again the culture of Tayane is not the most bestest at treating all things with minds like people even when they are ordinary human beings.

[Bluelantern]

The teller explains the procedures, which are not too onerous and were definitely invented over the course of more than two minutes' thought by someone with background in taxation schemes.

XD

[DanielH]

I’m also anxious for the next full moon, because I’m afraid the law will have already been changed (like in Incandescence). This would not make much sense narratively, but I’m still a bit worried.

I also have a question about first-generation slaves. What sort of crimes is it used as a punishment for? Is the punishment slavery for life, for a certain amount of time, until you’ve done enough work to pay your debts, or what?

[Alicorn]

Slavery is always for life until manumitted voluntarily by your owner. I don't have a complete account of what will get you sentenced to it and it may have a lot to do with judge discretion.

[Bluelantern]

Slavery is always for life until manumitted voluntarily by your owner. I don't have a complete account of what will get you sentenced to it and it may have a lot to do with judge discretion.

Is there any kind of central registry of manumitted slaves or people that lose their papers have to go on the run? The places without slavery just accept fugivite slaves?