Re: [HBP] Cooling the Cosmic Computer
Jay P Hailey 20 Feb 2026 21:50 UTC
> I hope you're not suggesting that Merlin's calculating circuits were
> built using vacuum tubes?
>
> In /The Cosmic Computer/, Conn speaks of "positronic brains and
> neutrino-circuits".
No, but I'll bet HBP was thinking if the technology of his day. So
Positronic Brains and Neutrino circuits would have been sized such that
a properly trained worker with the right tools could access them,
service and repair them, so inches and fractions of inches, rather than
the insanely small scale we use inside our beige mystery boxes.
> What means HBO? Did you mean HBP— H. Beam Piper?
Yes, sorry. The keyboard and I do not always get along.
>
> I think that's what Piper intended to suggest, yes. We can't justify
> saying the "Merlin plan" resulted in a resurgence of interstellar trade
> leading to that sector of the former Federation avoiding the overall
> economic collapse of the entire Federation, but we *can* justify saying
> that Poictesme itself continued to enjoy prosperity for at least a few
> generations.
