What computer and display technologies are most reliable and maintainable in a rugged space future? [closed]

Question

It’s the distant future; humanity is scattered among the stars, far-flung, sparsely populated. It’s frontier living. Individuals and communities are often cut off from major industrial centers; access to advanced production is limited, and people often have to fend for themselves, get scrappy, get creative. Technology can’t get too advanced, because regular people need to keep it running with the tools they have. “Farmer ingenuity”, as my boss calls it. You slap something together that’ll work for now, and figure out ways to make a machine with a 10 year lifespan last 20.

This kind of setup is sort of implicit in crunchy, 70’s-80’s retrofuture technological aesthetics like you’d find in Star Wars or Alien. CRTs, lots of physical buttons and switches, scan lines, bad audio, the works.

But realistically, what computer and display technologies are actually maintainable long-term in a setting like this? You’re a farmer on an alien planet, or a trained-on-the-job technician on a rustbucket spaceship. Your computers and screens and other “modern” equivalent technologies have been designed by people who know their machines are going to work hard, last long, and be replaced with what’s commonly on hand.

What does low-high-tech look like in this universe? What modern day computer and display technologies are lowest-common-denominator rugged and repairable? Are CRTs actually feasible long-term? What does circuitry look like when your microchips realistically can’t get that micro? Is magnetic tape actually a good idea?

Answer 1

access to advanced production is limited

That is the key. Limited is not the same as not available at all.

The key is integrated circuits. New semiconductor fabrication plants are billion dollar (sometimes multi-billion) facilities. And the supply chain is pretty big too. Your far-flung planet with a million settlers just isn't going to build a modern chip factory. But as long as you have limited access to that advanced production, things are going to be OK.

A lot of parts are easier to make - resistors, capacitors, cables, etc. A periodic shipment of chips will take care of the really hard-to-make stuff. Another key is that a lot of today's chips are multifunction - the same microprocessor can run a traffic signal or a home or office computer. And an FPGA can replace almost anything up to a certain level of complexity.

The other key is that modern electronics are very rugged. They won't last forever, but a typical LCD screen can handle a lot more abuse than a typical CRT and a typical SSD can handle a lot more abuse than a typical spinning hard drive.

And finally, keep in mind that you don't need Ghz CPU speeds and Gigabytes of RAM and Terabytes of storage to get real work done. Mhz CPUs with Megabytes of RAM (often Kilobytes of RAM) and Megabytes of storage can run just about anything you really need to do, as long as need isn't defined as "instant access to cat videos".

Answer 2

Nothing, or trading spare parts

To quote John F Kennedy: "We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard"

Space is hard. Impossibly hard. Staying with a small group planet bound won't help you much either though. You'll lack the manpower and collective know how to set up the complex chains required for producing basically any modern equivalent. It isn't always about manpowerm you could maybe start mining, refining and casting iron. You will miss people working on thatbon other tasks though. Even if it's 'part time'. If you go out into small frontiers, your technology level sinks to an abyssal low.

Except it doesn't have to be. All you need is some semi-regular trading. Your outposts are visited once in a while by some merchants that either require something from the outpost, or are subsidised to supply the outposts for cheap/free. The kicker is that you can have a range of how scrappy your people are. You can go from the 'we can barely scrounge a wooden bucket to transport water' to your technician detatching the old palm sized supercomputer and replacing it with a new one. Because to be fair, maintaining a CRT or a microled display will go about the same if all you have to repair it is a wrench. You'll quickly need advanced tools, or simply trade the good stuff from traders. How else to get a CRT in the first place?