Bootstrapping Technology from Scratch

I was just talking to another developer about this, except we took it one step fruther: If all man made objects disappeared in an instant, how long would it take us to build a modern computer? The best we could come up with was: a really long time. Anyone have any input or recommended reads that pertain to this?

I wonder if there’s any resource that shows how to build all these tools from scratch. What would it take to bootstrap manufacturing?

Yes, my marvel usually points to the stuff most of us couldn't do. Like "lets say we put this 100 people from this park (not around the MIT..) in an island, could we build a [1] in a decade? Probably not. What about 100 years? Still don't think so..."But weren't most things invented and built in a similar period? And a group of randos that knows the basics of each invention can't replicate the steps?[1] -> sheet of white paper, simple light bulb, cat

Hypothetical question: if all the knowledge in the world was available to you, how long would it take to build a modern electronic device from raw materials and without using any existing machine in the build process? I mean the actual time spent building something, excluding any mental work.

One thing that most of these items have in common is that you could reasonably recreate them from scratch if the modern manufacturing base disappeared:- Axe: The pole is made out of wood, and the blade out of metal that can be smelted from ore or scrap with some effort.- The stove: Same, or build one out of stone.- The camera: that one's more difficult, but optics or chemistry aren't that new. You may need specialised equipment to manufacture this, but it's still possible

It would be interesting to see someone use basic hand tools to build up the evolutionary steps towards high end machining or manufacturing machines of all kinds. Sort of a playbook to restart civilization.

I think, in the best case (the right people are all together, and the right raw materials are readily available), you could probably get a modern computer built in 10 years, and a relatively basic microprocessor built in a few years less. If we don't have to reinvent a global communications system to get experts talking to each other, build mines and refineries to produce chip-grade silicon or rebuild airplanes to get materials from around the world, this task is a lot simpler.The biggest pro

It's true that they're not working full-time, but I think it's somewhat indicative of how the knowledge and supply chains are spread out. If you were to try to recreate a modern computing infrastructure on a desert island, you'd have to assemble a lot of those people, from the people who know how to smelt ore, to the people who can figure out how to build capacitors, etc.A wild card that I'm not sure has been tested is how much you could get away with recreating solely from published m

I mean you can (and I have) etch your own circuit boards, but that's obviously not at the scale you need for anything other than primitive processing (70s 8-bit at MHz scale), and even then you're just looking at the next layer down (how to make your own chemical wash and get copper onto a board) as a barrier if we're truly talking about 'from scratch'.We really depend on three things - knowledge (stored collectively and in various media eg books), materials (tools an

How would you go about building your own means of production for creating modern computers?