If you went back in time to 1900 with your fully functional laptop (no internet of course) and handed it over to the government, would history be drastically altered due to reverse engineering, or would they be unable to work anything out?
Presuming the laptop battery could be charged, that is.
>>884500
>they would be unable to work anything out.
This, Quantum physics, pretty the theories that let us use computers today, weren't even known then.
Einstein wouldn't have calculated his theory of relativity for another decade at that point.
>>884500
They might manage to figure out semiconductors, but the adequate silicon refinement technology wouldn't be available for like seven more decades.
>>884500
they'd understand how to use it maybe, but recreating it would be virtually impossible.
They might see the contents and just decide a mass genocide of everyone. but I doubt they'd be able to reverse engineer that easily.
>>884500
I would just tell them you use it to watch hentai
>>884531
You don't need to know quantum physics to learn how a laptop computer works.
It probably wouldn't be understood to any real degree for decades.I'm sure it would drastically change the evolution of technology though. If some geniuses like Turing got to examine it, then things in our in their 2016 would be very different.
they'd probably start worshiping it as a god or something
![2Intel_Xeon_chip_II[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/wgsJRa0.jpg "2Intel_Xeon_chip_II[1].jpg")
>>884531
This. Their strongest microscopes wouldn't even be able to see the smallest parts in your CPU. Shit's down to nearly individual atoms these days.
>>884500
If I brought MY laptop and gave it to the US government they'd find a lot of modern firearms schematics and military history books, so maybe. I doubt the physical laptop itself would mean anything.
>>884874
>you'll never show this to JMB in 1900 and lead the US to dominate WW1
>thousands of math, physics, cs and EE ebooks on my hardrive
I think that would change a lot.
>>884500
The wouldn't be able to reverse engineer the sub-micrometre IC's, and they lacked technology to make them as well.
It would be used for scientific calculations though.
>>884531
Quantum physics doesn't have big influence on digital circuits.
They didn't had graph theory as developed as we have now, and their electronics were just starting back then with lamps and shit. People like Nyquist etc. were either not born or still in school, so basically everything had to be discovered from the scratch since I doubt the hypothetical "you" knows this shit.
>>884500
They wouldn't be able to work anything out.
Now, build an analytical engine and give that to them and you might be on to something.
Anime
>>884500
Yes. Quantum mechanics will be jump started and accelerated
>tfw got shittonne of research papers saved on my harddrive
>>884531
In terms of analyzing the hardware of the laptop they wouldn't know shit, but they'd still be able to use it.
>>884919
>what are semiconductors
>what are transistors
Quantum mechanics makes these things small enough to be packed into your laptop.
>>884961
Except in digital electronics knowledge about transistors past "if there's current on base collector-emitter becomes conductive"(bipolar) and "if there's voltage on gate, drain-source becomes conductive" cargo-cult understanding is usually useless.
In designing those transistors themselves the parameters that interest us(which are related to their switching speed) are mostly logical and related to the thickness of semiconductor layers, which can be checked experimentally and understood in the same abstract way by knowing the characteristics of the transistors.
When it comes to designing analogue or power circuits it becomes important, but in case of digital circuits it's an excess.
>>884978
Also semiconductor is fundamentally a quantum phenomenon. Again, you don't need to understand to use it, but that's how it is.
The technology required to efficiently produce microchips, or even microchips at all for that matter, wouldn't exist for like 5 more decades so the only thing it would help them with is distributing dank memes to the past.
>>884752
>Shit's down to nearly individual atoms these days.
Not even close.
