Civilization101Blueprint

Communication & Computing

Signals over distance begin with the telegraph at level 4, which needs batteries, acids and machine-made wire, and radio follows at level 5. Semiconductors are where the ladder stops being climbable by a determined group: the physics can be taught in an afternoon, but the purity and cleanliness they demand cannot be met by a small one.
6 steps 6 field guides 0 builds 1 reference sheet 23 books and archives

Tracks

Each track is one line of development climbing the eight levels. A cell holds the step written at that level; cross-listed steps have their home in another sector and are shown here because this subject depends on them. Dashed cells are planned and not yet written; blank ones have nothing planned.

Signals

Telegraph and radio.

L0 Triage
L1 Foothold
L2 Forge
L3 Mill
L4 Engine
L5 Current
L6 Logic
L7 Frontier
Level 0: nothing planned
Level 1: nothing planned
Level 2: nothing planned
Level 3: nothing planned
t4-telegraph Telegraph Guide ×3Sheet
t5-radio Radio Guide ×4Sheet
Level 6: nothing planned
Level 7: nothing planned
Open the track, level by level →

Electronics and computing

Amplification and switching, semiconductors, computers and networks.

L0 Triage
L1 Foothold
L2 Forge
L3 Mill
L4 Engine
L5 Current
L6 Logic
L7 Frontier
Level 0: nothing planned
Level 1: nothing planned
Level 2: nothing planned
Level 3: nothing planned
Level 4: nothing planned
Level 5: nothing planned
t6-electronics Electronics: amplification and switching Guide ×4Sheet t6-semiconductor Semiconductors Guide t6-computing Computing Guide ×4 t6-network Networks Guide
Level 7: nothing planned
Open the track, level by level →

Everything in Communication & Computing

Gathered from the steps above: the guides and builds that serve them, the reference sheets those carry, and every book the steps, guides and builds cite.

Field guides

Level 5
The electromagnetic spectrum

Radio, heat, light, ultraviolet and X-rays are one thing at different wavelengths: what each band does, and the radio bands by name.

 Level 6
Computer science

What can be computed and how fast, how signals carry information without error, how secrets are kept, and how machines learn from data: each result with what it lets you do and who first found it.

 Level 6
Electronics and computer hardware

From a relay to a stored-program computer: what makes a switch compute, diodes and transistors, logic, memory, the processor, and how chips are made, each with the numbers that decide it.

 Level 3
Physics

Force, energy, heat, light, electricity, relativity and the atom: the laws every engine, wire and lens obeys, each with what it lets you do and who first found it.

 Level 3
The sciences

Fourteen branches, each with the handful of results a civilization cannot rebuild without, and where to learn the rest.

 Level 3
Mathematics

The results every other science and machine is built on, in the order each needs the last: the formula, what it states, what it lets you do, and who first found it.

Reference sheets

Drawn overview sheets, each with its corrections printed under it. They orient; they are never the thing you identify from.

The principle and a worked example (an echo after 10 µs means 1.5 km), the four measurements (range, bearing, speed, size), how aircraft, drones, birds, rain, ships, vehicles, terrain and trees reflect, four kinds of radar, a Raspberry Pi build around a 24 or 10.5 GHz Doppler module, an example screen, uses, ways to improve range, and limits and safety.
Radar: what it detects, and a simple Doppler build On: The electromagnetic spectrum: Radio bands

Books and archives

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