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Geekbits Podcast - What if technology had stalled in 1982? (Patreon)

Published:
2021-11-15 17:46:44
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

In this podcast we chat about what today might be like if computer chips had never progressed beyond the technology of 1982.

Sorry for the double-post.  I accidentally posted this as a video the first time around instead of a link.  It wouldn't let me change it without making a new post.

Files

Previews only

What if Technology had Stalled in the 80s? - GeekBits Podcast Episode 7

The 7th episode of The GeekBits Podcast is here! In this episode we perform a thought experiment where we question how the world might be different if technology had stopped advancing in 1982. We asked ourselves "What if technology had stalled in the 80s?" "How would the world be different today?"

Comments

Anonymous

I enjoyed it. I started typing a (hopefully amusing) comment at the very beginning about how the pod cast would be different if modern tech wasn't available just to have them start talking about that topic as I submitted the comment!

Per Hedetun

The podcast would be a programme on community radio KPOD-AM.

Dabishop

Great discussion! In the mid-80's, I was an avid user of a service called Quantum Link, or Q-Link, which sounds a lot like the "hybrid" services you're talking about. You'd use a dial-up modem to connect to a mainframe for the communications and interactivity, but the graphics and sound were disk-based on the Commodore 64. This service eventually evolved into America Online, which became more and more Internet-connected, but even before that, there was a very rich online world that was available just on an 8-bit 80's computer and analog phone line.

8BitGuy1
>>71867639

I guess you stopped to type too soon.. We talked about Q-Link and showed some screenshots later in the podcast.

Dabishop

Sorry, I had to stop watching due to my lunch break ending. :-) I'll be sure to watch the rest!

Asaf Sagi

Great episode! Regarding the choice of processors that get to go to Mars and such - I believe it also has to do with being more resilient to cosmic rays, thus avoiding bit flips. I heard that somewhere before.

Per Hedetun
>>71913453

Space hardware is custom made, where microchips use specially hardened silicon substrates. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_hardening#Digital_damage%3A_SEE Listened to a lecture by a scientist working on this — forgotten his name — in the early 00s. Quite a challenge then, and must have only gotten worse since. When they use regular DSLR cams for footage aboard the ISS, there are always tons of dead pixels in the picture. The camera's sensor is being fried.

CubicleNate

I love this so much. What a great episode, maybe my favorite so far. The discussion at the end about updates and such that Microsoft or Apple do has frustrated me so long ago that I don't use their products anymore. As probably evident by my little Patreon avatar thingy, I am a huge Linux advocate because I own my hardware. I just feel way better about my hardware when I KNOW what my software is doing on top of it. Not for everyone, I know, but I just thought I'd comment on that bit. Thanks again!

Dabishop

Thanks again for covering Q-Link - I was a big fan, and it functioned for me in high school much like social media does for teenagers today. The discussion of interactive TV made me think of a couple 70's/80's technologies that could have gotten bigger if the Internet hadn't gotten popular: - the Warner Cable Qube system, which was one of the first analog two-way TV products for consumers; Houston was one of the last markets to get it, not long before it was discontinued - the Teletext information system, which piggybacked on analog broadcast TV signals; it was most popular in Europe, and had kind of a soft launch in the US but didn't take off here, mostly due to a lack of a unifying standard Both were only slightly interactive, but worked well with 8-bit analog tech. It's interesting to think of what might have been (and Teletext still exists in some places, I think).

Per Hedetun
>>72015071

Teletext is still around in (most of) Europe, and popular for newsflashes and TV listings. Three digital technologies that were invented four decades ago, and are still used today: Teletext Compact Disc ...and...IPv4! 😳 That's probably about it, though. 🤔

DoktorNo

Dont forget Minitel, the French online services, that were retired in 2000's. The Eastern Europe, because of Cold War and technological embargo, was in "long 8-bit era" up to early 1990's.

Marc Grondin

This was the first episode I listened to and now I'm listening to all the older ones. Good job to all

Kaz Redclaw

Interesting discussion, though there is another interesting bit about what was available in 1982. Most of the home computers had 6502's at the time, but 68000 and 68010 were also available at that time, as well as the 8088, 8086, 80186, and 80286. The EGA card didn't exist then, but the chip that it was based on, the 6845, is from 1977. The AY-3-8910 sound chip is from the 70's as well, and is similar to what was used in the Atari ST. Unless we determine a transistor cap, and a lithography maximum and allow any chips under that cap to still be built, a lot of chips are just out. A 286 was on 1.5 micrometer and had over 100k transistors. The VGA cards were from 1987 and weren't based on an existing chip. The 65c816 misses the cut, but is also low transistor count. The ARM chips miss the cut, but several of them are under 100k. The ST custom chips and Amiga OCS chips are out as well, and I don't know their transistor counts. The 1.5 micrometer lithography is from 1981. Apparently, the AGA chips were made on 1.5 micrometer lithography, so we can guess that they probably didn't have that many more transistors than a 286. So, without extending forward the same transistor/lithography, 68010 or 80286 with EGA, hercules, or VIC-2 graphics? Seems like something still pretty usable with the right software. The bigger problem is probably memory density. Most of the home computers had less than 32 chips worth of ram, and the ram is the really big enabler of much of the features of newer hardware. The state of the art memory chips in 1982 were 64 kbit chips from NEC on the 1.5 micrometer process. 8 of those is 64kbyte, 32 of those is 256kbyte. Higher memory capacities than that would get expensive. Ben Eater showed how you can build a VGA card out of just jellybean logic chips, so the ram is the limiting factor there more than anything else.