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"if it wasn't for the invention of X we wouldn't have Y"
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jonpaul:
Bonjour à tous

Every advance in technology builds on previous knowledge, invention and discovery

Each Pioneering advance built on and was an improvement on all the preceding.
Every patent application cites all the prior art.
Often the  invention is discovered almost simultaneously by different inventors like the telephone

A timeline  for semiconductor and computers   1800s..2000 could be


Babbage engine, Jacquard loom, Crystal detector, vacuum tube, transistors, FETs, ICs, CPUs, quantum computer


For telecommunications

Sémaphores, Chappe système, Telegraph, multiplexing télégraphe, téléphone, undersea cables, satellites, internet, mobile phones...

Bon courage

Jon
jmelson:

--- Quote from: Ed.Kloonk on August 20, 2022, 07:42:40 am ---Just watched Curious Droids' latest vid on the history of Bell Labs. No shade on Paul, but I have often wondered just how true the statement "if it wasn't for the invention of X we wouldn't have Y" really is.

In this case the invention of the Mosfet, we wouldn't have computers we have today.

--- End quote ---
Computers were made with bipolar junction transistors for at least a decade before MOSFETs were ready.  IBM made the 370 line of machines with small ICs using mostly NPN transistors in the ECL logic family, back starting in 1970 or so.  Yes, clearly, MOSFETs are now the first choice inlogic circuits, and CMOS has developed into a very successful way to build fast, low-power logic on a huge scale.
It does seem that somebody developed a MOSFET back in the 1930's, trying to make a "solid state" tube, but he was not able to get very reproducible (or long-lasting) results.
Jon
daqq:
The thing is, progression from one idea/invention/discovery/application is insanely non-linear and difficult to predict. You can trace the origins of a sex lubricant formulation* to the US space program, which was greatly helped by the invention of teflon, which was the side product of commercial research into refrigerators. Odds are that these discoveries would have come eventually, but not necessarily as fast or in the same form. Or something completely different would have come, since the people who wanted a material with the parameters of teflon would have not been satisfied due to the lack of teflon and they'd do a lot of research and got something completely different.

* - [NSFW?] https://astroglide.com/blog/our-roots-in-rocket-science-out-of-this-world-pleasure-endless-possibilities
jpanhalt:

--- Quote from: daqq on August 20, 2022, 05:41:17 pm --- You can trace the origins of a sex lubricant formulation* to the US space program
* - [NSFW?] https://astroglide.com/blog/our-roots-in-rocket-science-out-of-this-world-pleasure-endless-possibilities

--- End quote ---

Although K-Y Jelly was first marketed in 1917 long after the Chinese invented rockets, it was not a product of the US space program.
https://www.k-y.ca/pages/frequently-asked-questions#faq-1  Wikipedia gives an even earlier date (1904).  Maybe the Wright brothers used it to lubricate their control cables?  I'm satisfied with 1917.
SiliconWizard:

--- Quote from: Ed.Kloonk on August 20, 2022, 07:42:40 am ---Just watched Curious Droids' latest vid on the history of Bell Labs. No shade on Paul, but I have often wondered just how true the statement "if it wasn't for the invention of X we wouldn't have Y" really is.

--- End quote ---

While inventions obviously trigger other inventions in cascade, the problem with the above statement is its absolute nature: as if there was only one possible path for anything that we do. That is clearly bullshit and sounds more like magic thinking than anything else.
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