5 Nov
2002
5 Nov
'02
1:16 p.m.
Ethan Dicks reminisced:
My one and only experierience with analog computing was
a dedicated
device (no patch panel) that calculated energy reserves for the
planet. It had an LED counter for the year and numerous dials for
amount of driving, heating, electricity usage, etc. Physically,
I remember this! Someone brought it to our high school, circa 1979 or 1980.
It was designed to crater the planet within a limited time span, assuming
limited resources of fossil fuels would eventually expire. (Well, it had to
end eventually...). Everyone in the class played with it for a while, with
5 input consoles active at a time (so one sector might be using fossil
fuels at a horrendous rate while another was relying on nuclear...). Then
me and 4 of my friends took over at the end of the class (fortunately also
the end of the day), and coordinated our actions completely. We all slammed
tech research to the max immediately, max'd out solar, and started
carefully playing nuclear to maintain the environment at a bad but not
disastrous level while we minimized the use of fossil fuels. We lasted
about 5 times longer than anyone else had.
Yeah, if you find a url, post it! I'd like to see that booger again.
- Mark