As the title suggests, in this world there are only three metals available in any meaningful amount: copper, gold and silver. How advanced could computers get in this world? Could things like the microchip or even integrated circuits develop?
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
6
-
1$\begingroup$ Are there restrictions on nonmetals and/or metalloids? $\endgroup$– BMFCommented Oct 31, 2023 at 0:58
-
1$\begingroup$ Please clarify exactly what metals are and are not available? Does this limitation only affect the what the computers can be constructed from? Do we need to consider how every supporting technology, and biological process will be impacted with a greatly reduced periodic table? $\endgroup$– sphenningsCommented Oct 31, 2023 at 3:02
-
2$\begingroup$ Commented on an answer, but also worth noting that without sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and iron available in substantial quantities, life as we know it wouldn't develop to the point where it could develop microchips. $\endgroup$– jdunlopCommented Oct 31, 2023 at 18:40
-
3$\begingroup$ Without other metals, you're severely limited in terms of glasses, ceramics, minerals, etc. For example, no aluminum means no mica, which was heavily used in vacuum tube manufacture. No sodium, calcium, magnesium? No soda-lime glass, no refractory ceramics, etc. Forget integrated circuits, you'd have a hard time just smelting copper. $\endgroup$– Christopher James HuffCommented Nov 1, 2023 at 0:23
-
2$\begingroup$ I think you drastically underestimate the impact of what you're proposing. There's only 15 stable non-metal elements you can do real chemistry with. Assuming the relative abundances of those are similar to those on Earth (except discarding the excess oxygen to avoid a ridiculously lethal oxygen world), you've got a planet basically entirely composed of quartz with some water, sulfur, phosphorus, and carbon oxides, probably combined with the water in the form of various acids. $\endgroup$– Christopher James HuffCommented Nov 1, 2023 at 16:45
|
Show 1 more comment
2 Answers
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
2
The history of computers starts with mechanical devices. In early history, the Greeks had some mechanical computing devices. Many early devices were for figuring out phases of the moon or seasons. These could be made from copper alloys. https://www.britannica.com/technology/computer/The-first-computer
There were a number of mechanical computing devices used throughout the centuries including the slide rule. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_computer
Electronic computing started with vacuum tube and relay technology. This can be done with copper.
So, yes, computing can be done with just those metals.
As far as transistors and integrated circuits, those are based on silicon (not a metal) with various doping agents added to the silicon to change how it operates. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doping_(semiconductor) Gold is often used for wiring.
Now, the problem will be the rest of the world. On earth, aluminum is a common metal combined into various compounds. For example, clay is an aluminum compound (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay). So, your planet can't have pottery. The ocean floor and mantle are mostly basalt which has a lot of magnesium and iron. The earth core is mostly iron and nickel. Your whole planet will be very different from earth and is likely not to have a magnetic field protecting it from solar wind.
-
2$\begingroup$ Also, without sodium, calcium, potassium, magnesium, and iron, life is going to be very different than what we're used to, in terms of its building blocks. $\endgroup$– jdunlopCommented Oct 31, 2023 at 18:38
-
$\begingroup$ "those are based on silicon (not a metal) with various doping agents added to the silicon to change how it operates." But those dopants are metals (or metalloids -- not clear what we're actually forbidden from here). Developing group IV semiconductors without group III and group V dopants is going to be... a challenge. Which is to say we don't have an existence proof of its feasibility. $\endgroup$– addaonCommented May 2 at 22:34
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
2
Absolutely! But first a little history:
While today we use a specific style of silicon chips called "CMOS" (where all the 'switches' come in complementary pairs, one to pull up towards a "1" and one to pull down towards "0"), this was not always the case. Some of the earliest used something called Diode Logic which actually needed no transistors at all - why is this important you ask? Well...
Copper oxide can be used to make diodes and the only other thing diode logic needs is a resistor, which is literally just anything that can't conduct a lot of current so a fine metal wire (or a lump of charcoal) works just fine. Combine your copper oxide diodes and your coper wire resistors and bam! You now have digital logic. Now don't get me wrong, you can't build very complex, fast or efficient logic with this (we settled on CMOS for a reason) but it IS made only from copper (and oxygen) and it IS digital logic and what is a computer but a bunch of digital logic?
So, can you make a computer solely out of gold, silver and copper? Absolutely!
New info: You can even make a camera from copper oxide semiconductors, as the great BreakingTaps Youtube Channel shows here
-
$\begingroup$ Diode logic isn't functionally complete, it is limited to AND and OR gates. You won't be building any computers without some way to compute logical NOT, and a way to amplify signals. Vacuum tubes can do the job and don't really need more than copper...though the limitations in other materials might be an issue. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 1, 2023 at 0:12
-
$\begingroup$ "Vacuum tubes can do the job and don't really need more than copper" Vacuum tubes need an envelope (traditionally glass), and even if using a conductive (copper?) envelope, need an insulating and airtight seal between the envelope and the leads. It's not impossible this could be done with epoxies or other resins, but in our historical experience glass is the sole material used for this, and engineering glasses require metals, usually at least calcium or boron. $\endgroup$– addaonCommented May 2 at 22:38