If time travel to the past were possible and I brought a PATA hard drive with me, would the scientists and engineers of 1966 get it to work? Assuming I told them nothing would they figure out the principles behind it? If so, how long would it take? How would they do it?
There were already hard drives around in 1966, so in all likelihood, yes, they'd be able to figure it out. Not necessarily the exact specs of the PATA interface, but I think they would pretty readily be able to figure out the recording technique used and read and write data the disc. They'd probably even be clever enough -- if the drive already had a bunch of files on it -- to figure out much of the file system's structure.
By reading the label they'd realize it contained much, much more storage than they were used to and I suspect they'd initially concentrate on figuring out what techniques were being used to gain such high densities.
I'm sure it'd take some years before it was fully "figured out"... hard to say.
Nearly all the theory we use now was developed a long time back. For example, spread spectrum was invented in the 1960s I think, phase- locked loops in the 1920s etc. The only thing we have done is make things smaller and faster than before. We have improved software with OO programming (some would disagree!). MPEG I suppose is fairly new - esp MP I level 3 for sound. Nice exercise to think of 'new' ideas and see how old they are. Digital signals were around in the late 1960s. The BBC invented NICAM stereo for example. Digital signal processing originates from the 1950s and even earlier in theory. The op-amp was
1968 I think but that was just a collection of transistors and that was invented some time earlier. LCDs were not invented to around 1971 I seem to remember and they weren't that good at the time - they didnt last.Hardy
Reminds me of the Star Trek TOS episode "A Piece of the Action" where a crewman leaves behind his communicator on a tech-inferior planet with good copy-caters.
You might not be around long enough to see the results anyway. Someone might murder you to monopolize the tech. (A digital camera that was left behind, several years into the past, was a plot point in a recent episode of "Journeyman".)
I don't remember anything like that happening in 1966. Surely it would have made national headlines.
That's because it hasn't would have not happened yet. Or something like that, I can't get the hang of the past present never perfect tense.
Guy gets off a plane in the Boston airport. Catches a taxi. Decides he wants to sample the local cuisine, so he asks the cabdriver, "Hey, you know where I can get scrod?" Cabdriver takes the cigar out of his mouth, turns his head and says, "Buddy, I've heard that question a million times, but never in the past pluperfect!"
Time travel to the past is not possible. If it is, where are all the people from the future?
In them days they had a lot more practical knowledge because every true engineer had lots of hobby projects under the belt and knew the basics of analog. They'd probably not even bother with the format, interface and all that but tap into the head with a diff-amp, run the positioner from some vernier conconction, and run the motor a bit slower, then try to get the data off. If they deem the data worthwhile to retrieve, that is ...
As to using the drive I guess they wouldn't understand why you need umpteen gigabytes to store digital stuff anyhow. Things were a lot more efficient back then.
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/
I'm having a hard time stopping my laughing. Thanks for the joke.
You have to have lived in Boston to really appreciate that joke ;-)
...Jim Thompson
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gigabytes to store digital stuff anyhow. Things were a
In fact, even if they could read it, where would they copy it? Entire world capacity or drives would not suffice back than.
M
There was a time travellers convention in New Your 3 years ago:
Nobody came forward to admit he was from the future, although one can never be sure :)
M
Time travel to the past is not possible. If it is, where are all the people from the future?
The future hasn't happened yet.
gigabytes to store digital stuff anyhow. Things were a
They wouldn't. After reading 2-3 tracks of "content", some bloated web page or whatever, they'd throw it all back in the box and head to the pub for a brewsky :-)
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Modern hard disks depend on "giant magneto-resistance" in the reading head to be able to read the magnetic field of the disk surface.
It wasn't discovered until 1988
You'd probably need ion-beam milling to identify the different metallic layers in the reading head that give you the giant magneto- resistance, and that only hit my radar in the late 1980's.
At the time it would probably have been an example of the sufficiently advanced technology that was indistinguishable from magic.
Doesn't anybody around here know their technology?
-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen
But the OP said he'd give them the whole hard drive. So if they don't accidentally supply it with the wrong voltage ...
-- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/
Right, but they could have figured it out eventually. I think. I mean it's electrical, not magical. GMR may be only two decades old, but the old, non-giant MR effect isn't. I sometimes wonder what would happen if modern dance music were played in a 60s disco. Especially stuff like euphoric trance with a melodic line that just blows you away. Too much bass probably, destroy the speakers of the time.
Going off topic if that's ok.. Got some artists to list?
D from BC
I think they'd have a hard time. In 1966 you had a lot of discrete components on everything and you have to remember that even then transistor were just starting to get into the marketplace on a large scale and they too were discrete components.
The concept of an integrated circuit wasn't well known yet.
However if you sent it back with full schematics and data sheets for the IC's they might be able to understand it.
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