Fallout Electronics Theory.

[Muff]

Fallout Electronics Theory.

This is just a theory I came up with whilst talking to a friend about the Robot's in FO and the use of Vacuum tubes in domestic electronics.

The robots and other high end tech in Fallout would require processors akin to that in a modern computer but because of the resource wars production was limited and what was produced was used nearly totally for Military production with a small number given to RobCo and Vault-Tech as part payment for building equipment for the US war effort this is why a small number of robots / other high technology is found around the wastes albeit in concentrated areas.

This forced domestic appliance builders to take a step back and use vacuum tube technology that wasn't either as regulated or in demand for war production that is why the TV's and Radios all use that technology, while it might not at first have been a popular move by some the Retro look and feel of said Appliances lead to a all over fashion / cultural change that caused 50's style's to come back.

This is only a kinda rough idea at the moment and I would like to flesh it out more so your thoughts and ideas are more than welcome.

 

[Dalex]

You see robots in Fallout use different technology then our robots.
For example robobrains are using human or chimp brain.
The eyebots like ED-E are more like an automatons then robots.
Securitrons are in fact using some kind of integrated circuits or maybe something even more advanced (neurocomputational matrix?).
BTW producing a chip is far more easier (in some ways) and cheaper then producing a vacuum tube/s of similar performance.

 

[Hassknecht]

In the Fallout universe, the transistor has not been invented but shortly before the Great War.
Thus, most electronics are vacuum tube based, but these tubes are much more advanced than the tubes we know.
These tubes are to be seen as an extrapolation of the subminiature tube that has been around shortly.
They also probably had advanced integrated circuits using vacuum tubes, a technique that has not been developed much in our world as the transistor made it obsolete.
In Fallout, they never had the need to invent more energy-saving processing power as energy is cheap and plentiful thanks to nuclear fission and fusion.

That is all because Fallout is more or less based on the "World of Tomorrow" concept, how the people of the 50's thought the future would be. With lots of nuclear power and massive, room-filling, tube-based computers.

The Lil' Pipboy from Van Buren was supposed to be transistor-based, though, so we know that there were transistors shortly before the war, but the technology didn't catch on before the bombs fell.

 

[Dalex]

In Fallout, they never had the need to invent more energy-saving processing power as energy is cheap and plentiful thanks to nuclear fission and fusion.

Unfortunately madness of Greenpeace and similar eco-fanatics took that kind of future away from us.
Now we have to use coal and imported oil as our major fuel and poison our environment n mass.
Thanks to anti-atomist.

 

[DarthBartus]

In the Fallout universe, the transistor has not been invented but shortly before the Great War.

That is not necessarily the case. Corvega ad from Fallout intro says, that it's "all analog". Fallout is mostly based on 50's, and nuclear war paranoia of that times. Nuclear blast creates electromagnetic pulse that destroys transistors, and vaccum tubes are resistant to that. Therefore, it is logical that they're used in Fallout technology.

 

[Hassknecht]

In the Fallout universe, the transistor has not been invented but shortly before the Great War.

That is not necessarily the case. Corvega ad from Fallout intro says, that it's "all analog". Fallout is mostly based on 50's, and nuclear war paranoia of that times. Nuclear blast creates electromagnetic pulse that destroys transistors, and vaccum tubes are resistant to that. Therefore, it is logical that they're used in Fallout technology.

"Digital" does not mean "transistor". You can build a digital computer with tubes, too, but it's simply much bigger than integrated circuits.
I think the Corvega ad is more about the Corvega being a "simplistic" car without any unnecessary electronics onboard providing a classic feeling when driving.

 

[Tagaziel]

In Fallout, they never had the need to invent more energy-saving processing power as energy is cheap and plentiful thanks to nuclear fission and fusion.

What? That's wrong. The entire premise of Fallout is that World War III erupted due to an energy crisis. It wasn't plentiful, quite to the contrary.

I know where you got that thought, though. The description of the fuel cell controller only concerns owners of the extremely expensive battery powered cars - for them, since they could afford a car, energy was cheap and plentiful.

But not for everyone else.

 

[Hassknecht]

In Fallout, they never had the need to invent more energy-saving processing power as energy is cheap and plentiful thanks to nuclear fission and fusion.

What? That's wrong. The entire premise of Fallout is that World War III erupted due to an energy crisis. It wasn't plentiful, quite to the contrary.

I know where you got that thought, though. The description of the fuel cell controller only concerns owners of the extremely expensive battery powered cars - for them, since they could afford a car, energy was cheap and plentiful.

But not for everyone else.

Ah, yes, I worded that wrong. The advent of miniature fusion reactors and overall small scale nuclear reactors provided enough energy to power rather inefficient tube-based computers. By the time uranium, coal and oil ran out, there probably were some advances in making more efficient computers using transistors and integrated circuits, but they came too late.
I guess the continued use of inefficient computers despite knowing that they can't be used forever is another reflection on the 50's mindset: that rationalizing is communism and therefore the devil in an un-american small package.

 

[Wintermind]

I got the impression that the war started over oil; even though we had plentiful regular power, other nations didn't, and China invaded alaska for the oil there. I'm not really sure how technologically advanced our cars were; the highway man ran on MFC's/SEC's, but every car in FO3 exploded like a tiny fat man so I dunno.

 

[Tagaziel]

Ah, yes, I worded that wrong. The advent of miniature fusion reactors and overall small scale nuclear reactors provided enough energy to power rather inefficient tube-based computers. By the time uranium, coal and oil ran out, there probably were some advances in making more efficient computers using transistors and integrated circuits, but they came too late.
I guess the continued use of inefficient computers despite knowing that they can't be used forever is another reflection on the 50's mindset: that rationalizing is communism and therefore the devil in an un-american small package.

Or maybe that's because it's a fact that they didn't create compact computers. It doesn't need rationalizing - it's a pre-estabilished fact about the world.

On the subject of energy - consult the timeline on the Wiki. The energy crisis hit the United States just as hard as the rest of the world. However, the US managed to get fledgling cold fusion technology implemented in 2066, giving it an edge against the Chinese and the rest of the world - and saving its economy from total collapse.

I got the impression that the war started over oil; even though we had plentiful regular power, other nations didn't, and China invaded alaska for the oil there. I'm not really sure how technologically advanced our cars were; the highway man ran on MFC's/SEC's, but every car in FO3 exploded like a tiny fat man so I dunno.

Read the Wiki, specifically [Timeline] and [Resource Wars].

 

[Dalex]

Well from what I know the Uranium is far very far from runing out i thing we have about 500 years now and I'm not even talking about plutonium and mox fuels so iI think it was more about oil then about anything else.
You see oil is still major car fuel so it kind of makes sense.

 

[Tagaziel]

You first need to mine and refine both uranium and oil. It isn't a question of the amount, it's a question of availability.

 

[Hassknecht]

Ah, yes, I worded that wrong. The advent of miniature fusion reactors and overall small scale nuclear reactors provided enough energy to power rather inefficient tube-based computers. By the time uranium, coal and oil ran out, there probably were some advances in making more efficient computers using transistors and integrated circuits, but they came too late.
I guess the continued use of inefficient computers despite knowing that they can't be used forever is another reflection on the 50's mindset: that rationalizing is communism and therefore the devil in an un-american small package.

Or maybe that's because it's a fact that they didn't create compact computers. It doesn't need rationalizing - it's a pre-estabilished fact about the world.

Of course they had compact computers. What about the Pipboy?
There must have been a miniaturization of tube-based circuitry including some form of integrated circuitry (something that happened in our universe, too, but the advent of transistors made them obsolete).

 

[Dalex]

Of course they had compact computers. What about the Pipboy?
There must have been a miniaturization of tube-based circuitry including some form of integrated circuitry (something that happened in our universe, too, but the advent of transistors made them obsolete).

Well I would love to see the internal workings Pip-boy or in fact any other Fallout computer.

You first need to mine and refine both uranium and oil. It isn't a question of the amount, it's a question of availability.

Well uranium is very available and if you don't have enough natural uranium you can quite easily make some in thorium reactor or you can extract it from some other stuff: coal or even sea water (I know it sounds crazy but we've seen some even crazier stuff in Fo).

 

[Tagaziel]

Well uranium is very available and if you don't have enough natural uranium you can quite easily make some in thorium reactor or you can extract it from some other stuff: coal or even sea water (I know it sounds crazy but we've seen some even crazier stuff in Fo).

All of the above require energy. Which part of "global energy crisis" is confusing?

 

[Wintermind]

The core concept, obviously.

Just kidding, I couldn't resist. But really, once you have a sufficient amount of usable uranium/plutonium, aren't you good for a while? Don't reactors generally run a long time a small amount of fuel?

 

[Dalex]

The core concept, obviously.

Just kidding, I couldn't resist. But really, once you have a sufficient amount of usable uranium/plutonium, aren't you good for a while? Don't reactors generally run a long time a small amount of fuel?

Yes they do.

 

[valcik]

Yes they do.

Well, it's relative.
There is approximately 42 tons of the uranium fuel rods used in one of the present reactors. Also, it's not a pure uranium, but an enriched. You need to dig up some ore first, refine it and then enriched; that's pretty complicated process. Tagaziel is right, without an energy, it's almost impossible to produce the fuel rods.

 

[Dalex]

Yes they do.

Well, it's relative.
There is approximately 42 tons of the uranium fuel rods used in one of the present reactors. Also, it's not a pure uranium, but an enriched. You need to dig up some ore first, refine it and then enriched; that's pretty complicated process. Tagaziel is right, without an energy, it's almost impossible to produce the fuel rods.

But the already existing fuel can produce enough energy for that and if that's not enough then you can use coal as fuel for that time of course that doesn't solve the transition problem but at least it can provide energy for industry, trains and other centralized means of transportation