Timeline for How long would it take to create a Windows 1.0 capable machine from complete scratch?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
47 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Apr 2, 2019 at 10:54 | answer | added | AnoE | timeline score: 1 | |
| Apr 2, 2019 at 3:03 | comment | added | MicroMachine | Obviously 20 humans can become 40 in a few years | |
| Jun 17, 2018 at 23:54 | comment | added | Malady | Can your superhumans have kids? If so, are those kids superhumans? ... And I'd assume waive all objections against child labor. ... And can your "humans" be used as supplies? ... ... Mega-creepy superhumans using their own bones to make tools? ... Or other tool uses of an immortal human? | |
| Nov 2, 2017 at 23:58 | answer | added | JBH | timeline score: 2 | |
| Nov 2, 2017 at 23:23 | answer | added | A. C. A. C. | timeline score: 3 | |
| Jul 5, 2017 at 7:52 | comment | added | Wossname | Not sure about MS Windows on a desert island, perhaps Palm OS would be more appropriate :P | |
| Mar 21, 2017 at 9:13 | comment | added | MichaelK | By the time The Myserious Island was written, the world's collected knowledge in chemistry could fit in an encyclopedia. By then it was still credible that a group of people could keep sufficient knowledge in their heads to get to such a point where they could manufacture explosives. But to get to the point where you keep enough knowledge to build the components of a computer without any kind of infrastructure or library to help you... no, now you are in the realm of fantastic. | |
| Mar 21, 2017 at 9:09 | comment | added | MichaelK | "No tools or resources". "The group would know exactly how to find and assemble any items involved in the process of creating the machine". So what you have here is a collection of people that know the entire curriculum of MIT by heart and do not need any kind of library to look things up. This would also mean that they know pretty much any physical constant you can think of... like the specific weights of different elements, orbital energies for the entire periodic table... and so on. This is entirely super-human... and not credible in the least. | |
| Sep 14, 2016 at 15:09 | comment | added | R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE | Are you aware that nothing useful ran on Windows 1.0? If people were going to do this, DOS 3.x would be an easier goal that's just as useful. Windows 3.0 was the first version that had any interesting software competitive with the DOS-based offerings of the time. | |
| Sep 14, 2016 at 9:58 | comment | added | user3106 | How I built a toaster from scratch | |
| Sep 14, 2016 at 3:52 | comment | added | user296844 | Hopefully, long enough for any primitive civilization to wipe out any of the mistaken developers and their ill-begotten plan. This question is like asking how long would it take to create a squared wheel from scratch. | |
| Sep 13, 2016 at 22:20 | comment | added | Brian Risk | Let's get the "Primitive Technology" YouTube guy on this. | |
| Sep 13, 2016 at 21:40 | comment | added | Donald Hobson | What if the answer is never because they can't repair or maintain the machinery as fast as it breaks. Even if you started them off at an almost there state, parts would get old faster than they could be replaced. | |
| Sep 13, 2016 at 18:33 | answer | added | Yakk | timeline score: 3 | |
| Sep 13, 2016 at 18:29 | comment | added | BrainSlugs83 | Have you considered targeting Minix instead of Windows? -- It's much more suited to small computer systems. -- Someone here built a Minix system out of 7400 series logic gates; it's a far stretch to go from that to manufacturing your own trasistors (but I mean you could build mechanical ones at the very least with reed switches, you still need a lot of industry for that, but at least your goal is possible -- might need more like 200 people though). -- Additionally it saves you the issue of building a display, you can just have them build a printer. | |
| Sep 13, 2016 at 17:07 | comment | added | jobukkit | Windows is super-inefficient and requires the x86 architecture, so that might be not a good criteria. | |
| Sep 13, 2016 at 11:13 | comment | added | aroth | What are you claiming as "Windows 1.0 capable"? Do you mean any x86-compatible CPU/architecture? Or any architecture of comparable capabilities, even if it's not bitwise-compatible with x86 (and therefore unable to run a 'standard' instance of Windows 1.0)? Are you aiming to exactly replicate the 8086 CPU architecture, or just approximate the performance of a circa 1985 8086 processor using any hypothetical architecture? | |
| Sep 13, 2016 at 8:07 | comment | added | Loupax | I'd love to see a series of tubes, valves and water being used to flip leaves in order to turn "pixels" on and off. With infinite time and space you could do it with pebbles and a single hand :P | |
| Sep 13, 2016 at 0:32 | comment | added | user17915 | what does "all necessary resources" mean? do they have to purify their own silicon and manufacture transistors and chips too? | |
| Sep 12, 2016 at 23:55 | answer | added | Criggie | timeline score: 7 | |
| Sep 12, 2016 at 22:02 | comment | added | Criticizing Israel not allowed | Do they have access to unlimited information? | |
| Sep 12, 2016 at 21:17 | comment | added | ThunderGuppy | Check out the open source ecology project. opensourceecology.org/about-overview These guys are trying to more or less solve this problem. They're creating a list of 50 self replicating machines that can be used to rebuild modern society. | |
| Sep 12, 2016 at 19:26 | comment | added | db48x | Your question reminds me of A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge. | |
| Sep 12, 2016 at 18:54 | comment | added | 8bittree | They should be able to get up and running pretty quickly if crabs hang out on or around the island. And, if they've got mustard and tomato plants, they can even get the awesome Windows 3.1 Hot Dog Stand theme by applying ketchup and mustard to the display crabs' shells. | |
| Sep 12, 2016 at 15:36 | comment | added | TylerH | This is similar to one of my favorite existential questions (tailored to programmers) of all time. Roughly, "if you woke up alone in a forest, with nothing but an axe, and couldn't leave, how long would it take before you could send an e-mail?" | |
| Sep 12, 2016 at 15:05 | comment | added | Benubird | If the humans live forever and never have to worry about survival, then really all you need is 1 person and a bunch of rocks | |
| Sep 12, 2016 at 13:39 | comment | added | pjc50 | The exact knowledge is more of a giveaway than you think. No time required for planning! No need for prototypes or debugging! It's a superpower for engineer. Also, for fiction purposes, the group conflict is usually where the story is .. | |
| Sep 12, 2016 at 13:36 | comment | added | Jon Custer | I remember Windows 1.0 - claiming it ran would be enough to make me laugh... | |
| Sep 12, 2016 at 12:58 | comment | added | MatthewRock | Why windows? Why not other OS? Why run any OS at all, instead of providing a machine with proper speed? We can measure memory or clock speed, you know. That's more reliable than checking whether some arbitrary OS will run at 'usable speed'. | |
| Sep 12, 2016 at 12:47 | comment | added | Zibbobz | It would be entirely impossible - The island does not contain a copy of WIndows 1.0. | |
| S Sep 12, 2016 at 10:39 | history | mod moved comments to chat | |||
| S Sep 12, 2016 at 10:39 | comment | added | Tim B | Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. | |
| Sep 12, 2016 at 8:52 | history | edited | Mano Gilissen | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 214 characters in body
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| Sep 12, 2016 at 8:48 | vote | accept | Mano Gilissen | ||
| Sep 12, 2016 at 6:37 | answer | added | Magic-Mouse | timeline score: 5 | |
| Sep 12, 2016 at 3:57 | answer | added | Black | timeline score: 14 | |
| S Sep 12, 2016 at 2:59 | history | suggested | Chait | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Fixed grammar, Improved formatting
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| Sep 12, 2016 at 2:10 | review | Suggested edits | |||
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| Sep 12, 2016 at 1:30 | answer | added | JDługosz | timeline score: 10 | |
| Sep 12, 2016 at 1:23 | answer | added | Dan Bryant | timeline score: 11 | |
| Sep 11, 2016 at 22:29 | history | edited | Mano Gilissen | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Added additional challenge information
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| Sep 11, 2016 at 21:17 | answer | added | Karl | timeline score: 122 | |
| Sep 11, 2016 at 20:54 | answer | added | MolbOrg | timeline score: 6 | |
| Sep 11, 2016 at 20:30 | history | edited | Mano Gilissen | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 18 characters in body
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| Sep 11, 2016 at 19:43 | answer | added | Cem Kalyoncu | timeline score: 13 | |
| Sep 11, 2016 at 19:32 | review | First posts | |||
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| Sep 11, 2016 at 19:29 | history | asked | Mano Gilissen | CC BY-SA 3.0 |