The Technology of Broken Roads Pt 1
Episode Stats
Words per minute
125.44628
Summary
In this episode, I answer a question I received about the economics of my novel, "As I Walk Broken Roads" and how technology works in the world of the novel, and why it's not as simple as it appears in the novel.
Transcript
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Now, if there's one thing you should never do, it's ask an author about his writing,
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because he will go on and on and on. So that said, I am going to try and keep this video brief.
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So it's a question I received about how do the economics of my novel, As I Walk Broken Roads,
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how does the technology operate? How does it work? Specifically, the challenge I received was,
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how is it that you can have a place that knows how to brew, you know, a fine ale, which requires
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some fairly advanced modern technology, and yet they have no idea how to fix an internal combustion engine?
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Well, in a way, that's kind of the whole point of the novel. Now, with the science in general,
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I did take some liberties. For one thing, a car like this, she, during a nuclear war,
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would be completely fried. The computer would be nothing but ruin, and she wouldn't move.
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Now, there's a very slim possibility I might be able to figure out how to rebuild that. Very slim.
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But for the people in Broken Roads, which was happening about 100 years after the nuclear war,
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not a chance in hell. Okay? Everything would have been completely fried.
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So what I wind up doing, I'm kind of cheating by going with mainly 1970s tech, before we were so
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thoroughly reliant upon microprocessors in absolutely everything. And this is also part of
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just my preferred design philosophy. I do not like microprocessors. I prefer analog systems,
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because half the time they never break, and when they do break, you can usually figure out how.
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You get computer chips involved, and you're dealing with a whole new layer of problems.
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So for argument's sake, all the vehicles in the novel were built in the 1970s.
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That's why they can still run. And most of the technology that's still around is 1970s tech.
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But how is it that they can do, you know, an advanced brewing process using pressurized containers?
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How is it that racks can get a hold of an acetylene torch, which requires, again,
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very advanced machining techniques to maintain the pressure inside of it?
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And yet they're so primitive that they're dragging plows with oxen.
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I reference in the novel, I reference Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,
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which is an absolutely wonderful book that I strongly recommend.
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And the author, whose name I can't remember offhand,
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he talks about how people want things done right.
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And so he talks about his friend, who had a problem with his motorcycle,
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where one of the handlebars, it was jiggering a little bit.
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And so he took the side of a beer can, you know,
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snipped the little triangle out of it, and put it in as a shim.
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And the aluminium of a beer can is an absolute perfect material to use for that,
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because, well, what happens with aluminium is that it rusts immediately when it's exposed to oxygen,
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but then that protective layer of aluminium oxide,
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and I know that's annoying you Americans when I say that,
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So yeah, absolutely wonderful material, perfect.
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But his friend was offended that he'd put a vulgar piece of beer can in his $20,000 motorcycle.
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You know, I once had a mechanic friend of mine, I was having some battery issues,
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and the clamp was tightened down as much as it could be.
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So he grabbed a spare screw, put it into the divot, the gap,
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Because, you know what, the battery, the battery is replaceable.
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And the nodes, I think they're lead, I'm not quite certain what they're made of,
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So by putting that screw in there, he didn't damage the clamps,
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he just damaged the node on a replaceable item.
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Might not look pretty, but you don't see that part.
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There was absolutely nothing wrong with that repair.
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Took 10 seconds, and no more electrical problems.
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You know, some people would want to spend $500 on a new battery.
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Now some of you are wondering, what does this have to do with the novel?