this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2024

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Bronze Age technology could aid switch to clean energy (sustainability.stanford.edu)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/technology

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

One thing that really got my attention when I studied nanotechnology is how many original technologies we still use regularly, just in a refined/modified form (Chemical Vapour Deposition, a technique used heavily in the production of many ordinary products from computer chips to chip bags, is fundamentally the exact same technology first used to smelt ore). It actually wouldn't be hard at all to transition to lower impact technologies in a lot of places if people were okay with not electrifying/connecting everything possible.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago

It actually wouldn't be hard at all to transition to lower impact technologies in a lot of places if people were okay with not electrifying/connecting everything possible.

I would assume the push to connect everything under the sun is driven more by cheap electronics and corporate marketing teams rather than actual consumer demand. Making products "smart" is cheaper and more profitable than making them better quality. Go figure.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

how is smelting similar to CVD, elaborate plz

[+] [email protected] -8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

They're both essentially vaporizing a metal with high heat to deposit upon a substrate above. Early smelting was just looking to purify the metal and remove impurities, and now we've refined that same technique with strictly controlled parameters to deposit exactly what metal we want to have where, to build the microscopic features of modern computer chips.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago

this is neither what smelting is or what CVD is. smelting goes from oxide to metal, and uses carbon monoxide at ~atmospheric pressure for that. early smelting was used for smelting, but early purification method was forging. there's Mond process, but it's not smelting. CVD occurs in vacuum and uses something probably rather reactive on its own that decomposes on target surface, sometimes giving one atomic layer at a time, and it doesn't have to be metal

[–] Entropywins 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I work in a fab and I assure you CVD is not like smelting...you gave me a chuckle though!

[–] Lost_My_Mind 2 points 4 months ago

The internet is a series of tuuuubes!!!

[–] Lost_My_Mind 3 points 4 months ago

But think of the shareholders!!! The poor billionaire shareholders!!!

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 months ago

To wit: Firebricks store heat, cheaply.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago

Primitive Technology on YouTube is waaaay ahead of you.

[–] lemming741 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Glass industry has been doing it since the 1850's with "regenerator" furnaces

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_melting_furnace

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

regenerators of this kind are also used in some types of iron smelting furnaces

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Well hot damn!!!

[–] Lost_My_Mind 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Yes. Hot damn. Thats what the planet is. Hot and damned.

[–] Cocodapuf 1 points 4 months ago

With that attitude it is!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

*becoming hot and damned. There's gonna be a generation in between who's living in a tropical paradise, depending on where they live.

[–] drawerair 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

👍 article. Firebricks may accelerate our transition to sustainable energy.