Hacker News Reader

Comment by omneity | Hacker News Reader

CollapseOS provides the computation substrate, but is anyone thinking about the kind of computations post apocalyptic communities / individuals might be needing to run?

I imagine things like ledgers, basic simulations, farming yield prediction...

I couldn't find design documents besides the technical constraints it is willing to be compatible with.

View on HN

We will need to calculate ballistics tables for our trebuchets in order to lay siege to neighboring towns.

Are there any works of fiction like this? A broadly competent medieval society that has scarce supplies of recovered present day technology.

There is no end to post apocalyptic fiction but usually it's set fairly soon after the collapse, or the technology uncovered is mysterious and futuristic.

Good chance I'm outing myself as an infrequent reader of science fiction asking this!

The criminally underwatched "See" is one such fiction. It might be somewhat cheesy but I loved the worldbuilding.

Check out /A Canticle for Leibowitz/. Each time CollapseOS comes up, I picture a team of monks cycling alternators around the clock to keep a system powered while another compares parchment to a vacuum-tube display.

I think for its chosen niche, the key qualities are (1) low power draw and (2) the ability to boot and be usable with no on-disk storage. The z80 system has that, but you could build something much more powerful. Burn the OS into a rom, have it copy into ram at boot.

It's not quite a medieval society, but The Windup Girl https://www.goodreads.com/cs/book/show/6597651-the-windup-gi... feature a post-climate change world where most energy comes from beasts of burden, but there are still a few rare computers and staggeringly expensive carbon-fuelled vehicles.

His Shipbreaker series is really good too. other authors: The world made by hand, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1689657.World_Made_by_Ha...

Eternity Road, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/128533.Eternity_Road

Perhaps worth mentioning that Ship Breaker is YA fiction, and it shows IMHO.

I found Souls in the Great Machine by Sean McMullen to be an interesting take on this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Connecticut_Yankee_in_King_A... isn't quite that but is a fun take on the time traveller, by Mark Twain.

You might want to check out Eric Flint’s 1632 series. A small Virginia mining town is sent back in time and translocated to 1631 Germany, the series goes into how they try to build up a more technologically advanced civilization. S. M. Stirling‘s Nantucket series is somewhat similar. Nantucket is sent back in time to 1250 BC and they try to build a society there. David Weber’s Safehold series has a different premise, it’s set in the far future on a planet with medieval level technology. A lot of it is about the protagonists trying to build up their tech level.

It's an interesting domain to think about. The big one would be re-establishing communication networks, being able to coordinate with groups across a large area is obviously the first thing any group with power (or looking to establish power) will do after ensuring food, water and shelter. It's pretty much a necessity if you want to maintain any power.

I could see embedded style sensors and technology being very practical, tools for measuring temperature/humidity etc and logging it constantly, sensors to measure water levels in rain tanks, basic inventory systems for food, basic automations for things like farming (automatic watering systems/collection systems even?)

Security is another one to think of: Sensors to detect people entering/leaving an area, trail cams for hunting, alarms etc.

Most of the machinery both industrial and in home are now computer controlled. Things like furnaces, CNC machining centers and lathes.

I'm looking around at all my home "machinery," and I don't see anything essential that is computer controlled. I have an ordinary gas furnace heating it; a plain old gas stove for cooking; a refrigerator that's got a plain analog temperature control; a boring, mechanical toilet based on technology that's hundreds of years old; and simple, mechanical valves that control the flow of water through my pipes.

The things I see that are computer controlled are luxury items, at best: TV, camera equipment, security camera, microwave, blender, laptops, tablet, NAS server, air purifier. This does leave out my car, but I don't expect cars are going to be playing a big part in any realistic post-apocalyptic future, anyway.

Most of that stuff could also be replaced by lower tech versions without much loss of functionality: analog TV, film camera, mechanical blender. I think even the microwave could be replaced by a lower tech version of itself without much loss of functionality. You could even have an actual, wireless remote for the TV.

I would miss my DSLR, laptops, tablet, and air purifiers, but I'd gladly give them all up if it would actually be a meaningful thing to do. As it is, getting rid of all the DSLRs and laptops in the world isn't going to save us. Very few individuals in this world have any real power to do anything about the most likely collapse scenario (climate change), and most of those people have a vested interest in not doing anything to help (American energy company CEOs).

Edit: a word

Your thermostat uses a microcontroller to run your furnace.

https://youtu.be/ZZC0SP02PqY

Nope. I’ve got one of the old, mechanical thermostats with an analog dial and a bimetallic strip that completes a circuit to run the heater. My apartment building is about 50 years old, and I’m pretty sure it’s still the original equipment. They’re so simple they just don’t wear out.

Actually, manual lathes and mills tend to keep their value. You can often find century old machines in reasonable condition.

You can find them in unreasonable condition in the middle of woods, etc... and those can be brought back as well.

Organizing information and things around in general will be a nightmare without the proper tools. Doing it using paper is hard enough, then count in that most likely paper will suddenly be considered a luxury for not being an easy replenished commodity. Any social structure over a certain size will greatly benefit from computing, even if only for things like keeping secured inventories and accounting. Data is expensive to handle outside the digital realm (think of making an electronic copy vs. making a copy using other media, probably by hand too). Although computing won't be for sure on the base of Maslow's pyramid for individual hierarchy of needs, it will be a great enabler for the social groups that will have managed to reach stability.

I think on of the main goals of CollapseOS is to keep the ability to program micro-controllers, which could be at least be useful for sensor networks and automation

Reply on news.ycombinator.com