# Computer Back in Time **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 14, 2019, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-back-in-time/843410 "2019-11-14T13:43:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2019, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-back-in-time/843410/41 "2019-11-18T18:54:21Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > It would cost them more than that. The $4 billion cost of a fab is only possible since you can buy a lot of equipment from vendors. Try to invent that by yourself and the price tag would go way up. Good point. So definitely at least a 1 order of magnitude increase. Probably at least 2 orders. 3 orders is not implausible. ---
**Author:** ![edwardcoast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cab0a1/32.png) [@edwardcoast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwardcoast)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2019, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-back-in-time/843410/42 "2019-11-18T23:28:55Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Reverse engineering it would be immensely more valuable than trying to use it for something. Give MIT a few months and they might be able to replicate it, or something close to it (maybe something with the same capability but much bigger). You are talking science fiction here. The tools didn’t exist in 1955 to produce any of the parts of a modern computer. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2019, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-back-in-time/843410/43 "2019-11-18T23:38:44Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > They wouldn’t know how fast the thing went, unless there were convenient pdfs of articles on the machine. If you’re going to send a computer back in time, you might as well load it up with electronic copies of textbooks in computer science, electrical and materials engineering and other related fields. Of course without sending a person back with the computer, they’re never going to figure out how to access the literature. But you could include quite a lot of information, particularly if you stick to text files. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-back-in-time/843410/44 "2019-11-19T09:41:49Z")
> [@edwardcoast](#): > > You are talking science fiction here. The tools didn’t exist in 1955 to produce any of the parts of a modern computer. As for the “maybe something with the same capability but much bigger” part, some very rough figures–I don’t know what size vacuum tubes would be used in a 1955 computer but let’s say that you can fit 4 per square inch. And you have an unremarkable 2 billion transistor CPU in the laptop. That results in a reproduction CPU that covers a minimum of 80 acres. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-back-in-time/843410/45 "2019-11-19T10:07:13Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > As for the “maybe something with the same capability but much bigger” part, some very rough figures–I don’t know what size vacuum tubes would be used in a 1955 computer but let’s say that you can fit 4 per square inch. And you have an unremarkable 2 billion transistor CPU in the laptop. That results in a reproduction CPU that covers a minimum of 80 acres. Four per square inch? I trust you’ve never even seen a vacuum tube. Plus vacuum tubes are a lot less reliable than transistors. That thing would never stay up long enough to finish a calculation. Rumor had it that vacuum tubes on Iliac 2 were spring loaded and they had grad students with baskets walking around catching them when they failed. Prop time from one end of that thing to another could be measured with a calendar. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-back-in-time/843410/46 "2019-11-19T10:10:58Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > If you’re going to send a computer back in time, you might as well load it up with electronic copies of textbooks in computer science, electrical and materials engineering and other related fields. Of course without sending a person back with the computer, they’re never going to figure out how to access the literature. But you could include quite a lot of information, particularly if you stick to text files. If you had to figure out that you needed Acrobat reader to open a pdf, sure, but they would figure out to click on the file name and it will open itself. However the computer would have to be shipped back in a configuration to help the recipients understand it. Most of help these days goes right to the web, not too useful in 1955. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-back-in-time/843410/47 "2019-11-19T10:17:33Z")
Sit back and wait for Napster. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-back-in-time/843410/48 "2019-11-19T11:24:47Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Four per square inch? I trust you’ve never even seen a vacuum tube. Yes, I have.As a kid, I took apart a number of old tube-based TVs and drug stores still had [these](https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Ffarm9.staticflickr.com%2F8350%2F8191391801_f890dd05a1.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fantiqueradios.com%2Fforums%2Fviewtopic.php%3Ff%3D8%26t%3D209020&docid=i71Ws-VmG5Ui_M&tbnid=Q5eMc17haRv5HM%3A&vet=10ahUKEwjkgYD-k_blAhUGbq0KHe7WAuYQMwiRASgWMBY..i&w=437&h=500&client=firefox-b-1-d&bih=703&biw=1408&q=vacuum%20tube%20tester%20drug%20store&ved=0ahUKEwjkgYD-k_blAhUGbq0KHe7WAuYQMwiRASgWMBY&iact=mrc&uact=8). The tubes came in lots of different sizes. According to [this site](https://edisontechcenter.org/VacuumTubes.html), “They range in appearance from tiny ceramic parts the size of a corn kernel, to 1+ meter tall solid steel klystron tubes used in broadcast television or radar installations.” So what–exactly–did I say that was wrong? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-back-in-time/843410/49 "2019-11-19T12:14:22Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > If you had to figure out that you needed Acrobat reader to open a pdf, sure, but they would figure out to click on the file name and it will open itself… You’re assuming they would know how to “click”, in the first place. This is a decade before the first GUIs. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-back-in-time/843410/50 "2019-11-19T16:22:22Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > You’re assuming they would know how to “click”, in the first place. This is a decade before the first GUIs. Well, GUIs were invented to be intuitive, and I am sure that some engineers from 1955 would soon figure out how a touchpad/mouse and the GUI interact and work just by fiddling around a bit. Heck, there isn’t much more to figure out than that the mouse pointer follows moving the mouse and that something happens when you click one of the two buttons, which is to be expected from buttons. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-back-in-time/843410/51 "2019-11-19T18:34:42Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Four per square inch? I trust you’ve never even seen a vacuum tube. The tubes used in the later tube computers were quite small. Around the size of a pencil in thickness. One _could_ put 4 into about a square inch put the real issues then are the difficulties in moving the waste heat away and changing the burned out tubes. Remember that one only needs a simple on/off triode. The classic radio tubes of the era were bigger since they usually needed more elements, handle more power and/or perform a more complex job. ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-back-in-time/843410/52 "2019-11-19T19:46:10Z")
Given the mention of Excel, I assume this laptop has MS Office installed? Office comes with VBA, so they would have that programming environment at least. I don’t know if any of the documentation is locally stored offline though. Hopefully the time traveler was thoughtful enough to download a “beginners guide to VBA” pdf before they left. If they can resist the temptation to take it apart, they would have the most powerful supercomputer in the world on their hands. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-back-in-time/843410/53 "2019-11-19T20:15:59Z")
Are there any text files in Win10 which contain any kind of powershell, VBA, or other script-based programming language? A Linux system will have lots of programs which are just text files written in shell, python, perl, etc. which scientists could use to learn the language without documentation. Are there any similar text files on Win10 that scientists could look at to learn how to program? I’m sure the time traveller in the OP would have enough knowledge to show the scientists how to use Word or Notepad to view a file on the system. Once the scientists saw that, they would look at every file on the system to learn as much as they could. If they came across a file that was filled with code, I’m sure they’d be able to extrapolate how to write their own programs. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-back-in-time/843410/54 "2019-11-19T21:06:38Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > Are there any text files in Win10 which contain any kind of powershell, VBA, or other script-based programming language? A Linux system will have lots of programs which are just text files written in shell, python, perl, etc. which scientists could use to learn the language without documentation. Are there any similar text files on Win10 that scientists could look at to learn how to program? I’m sure the time traveller in the OP would have enough knowledge to show the scientists how to use Word or Notepad to view a file on the system. Once the scientists saw that, they would look at every file on the system to learn as much as they could. If they came across a file that was filled with code, I’m sure they’d be able to extrapolate how to write their own programs. I just checked my Windows folder and yes, there are a number of powershell script files. And some vintage batch files. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-back-in-time/843410.md?page=2)