[ExI] Oil will never run out

[Bryan Bishop]

On Wednesday 02 July 2008, Jordan Hazen wrote:
> Without some vestige of modern civilization, or access to advanced
> nanotech, how would you hope to fabricate even the simplest
> integrated circuit (or discrete transistor, for that matter) ?

http://heybryan.org/alternate_transistors.html
http://heybryan.org/graphene.html
http://heybryan.org/instrumentation/instru.html

There's a few options worth exploring:
* vacuum tubes
* graphene nanotransistors via AFM setups
* LiquiFETs
* Pneumatic/hydrolic systems
* and a few others that I am forgetting

> btw, cellular sites usually don't have any local autonomy for
> handling calls if they're cut off from their central-office switching
> system (MTSO; basically a specialized computer; one per carrier in
> each city controls many towers).  So, with a conventional design one
> must add that, and the fiber-optic lines, muxes, etc. in between to
> the list of necessary infrastructure, which is more fragile than most
> people realize.

I'm pretty sure that I remember hearing of analog switching stations. As 
for the fiber optic lines, just last night I was reading about the 
synthesis of GI POF fiber optics that does near 20 Gb/sec. It's 
basically synthesized via a polymerization reaction in a centrifuge 
running at 3k rpm @ 90 deg C for 7h. Not bad, in comparison to building 
glasseous fiber optics. 

But this is getting way, way too specific. Let's get a little bit more 
extropic.

- Bryan
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