Civilization101Blueprint

Electronics and computing

Amplification and switching, semiconductors, computers and networks.

Computing Levels 6 4 steps written
6
Level 6 · Logic · 1 of 1 in this track

Electronics, semiconductors, computers and networks

t6-electronics Guide ×4Sheet

Electronics: amplification and switching

Control a large current with a small one.

Needs first: Radio, Glass (Materials), Polymers (Materials), Instruments and measurement (Knowledge)

t6-network Guide

Networks

Let every store of knowledge reach every person.

Needs first: Computing, Radio, Telegraph

  • Guide Computer science
  • Build none yet
  • Read Wikipedia, offline (Kiwix ZIM); LibreTexts; Hawkins Electrical Guide, Vol. 1
Unlocks Jets, helicopters and air traffic control · TransportVertical farms and controlled environments · FoodAudit, statistics and the published number · SocietyEnergy without the carbon bill · EnergyModern aviation and drones · TransportBiology as engineering · HealthSustainable intensification · FoodThe compact, connected, resilient city · SettlementsInstitutions that outlive people · Society

Everything in this track

Every guide, build, reference sheet and book reached from the steps above.

Field guides

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 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 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

Other tracks in Communication & Computing

Signals