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Influenced by Science Fiction

Wow! I saw this episode once when I was a kid. Never imagined I'd see it again...from the net! I suspect this episode contributed to my interest in electronics.

Starlost episode 'Circuit of Death' aired in 1973

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This is episode 7. It was recently posted in alt.binaries.multimedia. (Much better video quality.)

Side notes:

1) Twister debuted in 1966. 2) It's Dave Bowman! 3) The technobabble is actually pretty good. "I want to insert a NAND gate into the lines to permanently inhibit the self destruct system."

D from BC myrealaddress(at)comic(dot)com British Columbia Canada

Reply to
D from BC
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Thanks, was funny :-) Of course, not very plausible. Why do they need to walk on a breadboard like circuit with big DIP chips? Would be more realistic today with small BGA parts and walking under the chip :-)

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Frank Buss, fb@frank-buss.de
http://www.frank-buss.de, http://www.it4-systems.de
Reply to
Frank Buss

As they say in the script: "It's a VR simulation in the cyberspace representation of the networked microprocessor GPS system PCB." Or something.

--
Dirk

http://www.transcendence.me.uk/ - Transcendence UK
http://www.theconsensus.org/ - A UK political party
http://www.onetribe.me.uk/wordpress/?cat=5 - Our podcasts on weird stuff
Reply to
Dirk Bruere at NeoPax

And why do they throw some wires in the box, first, which they use later? Would be much easier to use a tweezer and make the connections from outside. This has the advantage that the 12 V (see part 5 of the movie) is not very dangerous any more :-)

--
Frank Buss, fb@frank-buss.de
http://www.frank-buss.de, http://www.it4-systems.de
Reply to
Frank Buss

Er... Nanotechnology

--
Dirk

http://www.transcendence.me.uk/ - Transcendence UK
http://www.theconsensus.org/ - A UK political party
http://www.onetribe.me.uk/wordpress/?cat=5 - Our podcasts on weird stuff
Reply to
Dirk Bruere at NeoPax

If that Starlost ep. is ever remade...it should depict modern electronics. That'll be great eye candy for electronics designers. 'Lookout! Lookout! Don't fail into the micro throughhole!' (In case anyone is searching usenet for movie ideas, please make a movie based on this episode.)

Consider... The biologists got Fantastic Voyage.. The computer programmers got Tron.

AFAIK..Starlost Ep 7 was the only sci-fi show where people got miniaturized to repair electronics.

D from BC myrealaddress(at)comic(dot)com British Columbia Canada

Reply to
D from BC

It would look as ludicrous in 35 years time as the above. Moore's Law plus 35 years - processing power of the average PC around

10^18 FLOPS 
--
Dirk

http://www.transcendence.me.uk/ - Transcendence UK
http://www.theconsensus.org/ - A UK political party
http://www.onetribe.me.uk/wordpress/?cat=5 - Our podcasts on weird stuff
Reply to
Dirk Bruere at NeoPax

True.. Once someone makes millions on a movie, who cares if it gets laughable in 35 years.

If I guess electronics in the far future and use the same Alice in Wonderland story, they might have to be minified to move atoms around to make circuit changes. But crap, there would be no recognizable electronics and the movie would make physicists laugh the most. Would be nice if there's some recognizable electronics. Ultimately, too much crystal ball makes everything unrecognizable.

However...little people making repairs in a quantum computer might make for a good sci fi movie.

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D from BC myrealaddress(at)comic(dot)com British Columbia Canada

Reply to
D from BC

..but only if they look at themselves so that they are inonly ONE place...

Reply to
Robert Baer

they mention -12v supply in this part, so negative logic.

all of of the chips are marked 7401 which (in TTL) is a quad nand gate but it sounded at the start like the guy said 'an and gate'

Reply to
Jasen Betts

I thought I spotted an 'F' on those chips. 'F' for Fairchild?

D from BC myrealaddress(at)comic(dot)com British Columbia Canada

Reply to
D from BC

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