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The Stone Age Electronic Calculator

D

deadlymuskox

Joined
Apr 16, 2009
Messages
1
I was hoping that someone could help with a design for a knife that is easily built in a wilderness situation with no tools. This is for a larger project we are working on which of coarse people are welcome to participate in other areas.

I am trying to make a manual how to redesign the electronic calculator to become sustainable in a hunting and gathering lifestyle. Which means that all things must be made in the wilderness from scratch and be transportable since hunter and gathers were nomadic. This may include smelting ore, building tools, soldering, make copper wire, creating magnets, building generators, building semiconductors etc. Of coarse some of these things might not be needed in the new design but the only way to find out is for those who are willing to collaborate to make it happen. The possibility of designing a working model will not be known unless someone else has weighed out all the possibilities involved in remaking an electronic calculator in this environment, so please don't turn this into a discussion about whether or not it is possible. Although I am sure there were always be an unqualified response like "its impossible". Questions and comments about the feasibility of the project will just slow down the process of the project. It is just a matter of enough people contributing their knowledge to the project. If you really feel like you need to vent about this issue go here.http://stonecalculate.com/tiki-view_forum.php?forumId=12 I promise someone will answer you.

The other question is why should this be done and my answer is because always pursuing a path based on immediate necessity can only provide us with limited knowledge. If we question long term solutions for larger problems there will be new knowledge in it. It is exactly the improbable places and situations that provide real new knowledge.

Do not assume! That hunter gather refers to a time frame it is a way of life. The functionality comes as a secondary to the purpose of creating the manual with an alluring narrative. But somehow we cannot have one without the other.


p.s. an abacus is not electrical, and a mechanical computer is not either, if you are going to suggest a vacum tube then how to we get it small enough to transport?
 
Ok...I'll admit, this is more than a little weird, but then again, so am I :)

Look into mechanical adders, etc for ideas on mechanisms. You can use a very few basic logic gates to make a calculator. For some more specific suggestions, try looking up information on Charles Babbage's Difference Engine, or take a look at the 10000 year clock.

-d
 
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When I was a kid ,in Chinatown, I saw them use at great speed the abacus. I have one in case of emergencies !!!
Remember that men in the old days had great skills and didn't need computers or even drawings to make fine things. The Viking ships and the Venetian gondolas were designed and built that way !
 
Ummmmm if you're going off the grid with a hunter gatherer society then why build something as useless as a calculator? Get some slipsticks and learn to use them. They built the moon lander using that technology. The pyramids were built with string. You're burdening yourself down with the unecessary trappings of modern society.

I would also recommend that you search for "primal fires" and the neo-tribal bladesmiths. These fine gentlebeings are travellers on the same path you seem to want to step on.

I'm thinking that you're a student that wants us to do a large percentage of some project you're working on.
 
Hello Friend,

The most significant, and without a doubt, absolutely the most important electronic calculator that exists, ever existed and ever will exist is a bio-electric wet-cell system know as the human brain. It is completely transportable. It does take some years to grow and develop it though. Its potential is infinitely vast! Every human being has the necessary resources to nurture its being, although fellow co-creators are an imperative prerequisite in order to conceive, gestate, birth and cultivate it. Deeply sincere compassion and earnest application are the best tools (aka LOVE) for the job!

Good luck with your project. Check out the Wilderness & Survival Skills forum, http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=692, for more folks who might want to play.

All the best, Phil
 
Wow Phil, that's cool - and dead on. Gold star day. :cool:

Slide rule is the way to go if your biology is like mine, and doesn't take to calculation very accurately! :D

I'm forwarding this thread to my son, who will want to be involved if he can segregate the time at all. Interesting project.
 
The SR71 was designed and built inside a human brain not a computer. Everything you need in the way of calculations for that lifestyle is easily inside of one if you learn how to use it.
 
:rolleyes: If conditions were such that I were forced into a hunter/gatherer lifestyle, the least of my concerns would be whether or not I had a portable electronic calculator.

I can imagine going through my gear at the beginning of the day:

Guns and ammo? Check
Food and water? Check
Comfortable shelter? Check
Adequate clothing? Check
Fire making? Check

Electronic calculator?
 
That's one of the things we often think about - civilization crashes and we have to figure out how to live. Maybe I've read too much apocalyptic science fiction. :D One thing that occurred to me a couple of weeks ago was that all the medical thermometers today are digital. Try finding an old-fashioned mercury thermometer some time! I haven't even found one on ebay yet. We are very dependent on our industrial infrastructure. It'd be nasty if it went away.

Speaking of which, have you tried buying ammo lately? Even the makings for it? Bad news.
 
Speaking of mercury thermometers, I bought several when it looked like they weren't going to be produced anymore. You never know when you're going to need something that works without batteries. As for the calculator, I can see some uses for one, even in a primitive society, especially in my case as I am mathematically challenged. Trig functions could be useful. For instance determining the height of a tree that you want to cut down. So, stock up a couple of solar calculators. I think people overlook a lot of things when they are thinking survival, like pencils and paper. A lot of items that I think I might need if the power went out or if there were shortages or something I buy two and put one away for emergency use.

This may be a little off topic but there are also ways of obtaining emergency items for future use at no cost now. I use a lighter to light cigs but I always take the free matches when I buy cigs. At the drive thru they always give me more napkins than I need but I don't throw the surplus napkins out. They go in my emergency stock. Just my 2% of a
dollar.

NSticker, I can't believe you didn't include a knife in your check list. :) ;) My list includes tequila.
 
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