Crystals contd.
Okay, and since crystals are solar powered, any area of the realm that is rainy or continuously gloomy will probably not be technologically saavy because there is no sun to sustain it.
It would also apply to rainy/snowy/cloudy seasons like winter.
Crystals and computers
According to this :
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Information Crystals...Many crystals can hold varying amounts of data so these are used instead of memory chips and discs. The act of transmitting information can degrade the crystals after only one or two scans, depending on the crystal's original quality, but they can be made to last longer by having them re-cut. Good-quality crystals usually last longer, and can store a great deal of information.
Computers become impractical and possibly even impossible. But at the very least, very, very expensive. I'll show you why.
Remember, I don't mean to pick on you - I'm a computer scientist so this is what I do. And, computers were specifically designed so that the average person doesn't have to think about this, or even realize it exists.
Consider an extremely simple program that calculates all the prime numbers from 0 to 15. Remember, this is simple. Cryptography (eg, secure data like passwords) is much, much harder. (Also, a "register" is simply a storage "slot" in memory - hey, computers gotta put stuff somewhere, it can't just float around in mid-air) In MIPS ( a low level computer language), the program looks like this:
(Find all primes from 0 to 15)
READS WRITES INSTRUCTION
1 1 ADDI R2 R0 15 (read register 0 and add 15 to it and store it in register 2)
1 1 ADDI R1 R0 1 (read register 0 and add 1 to it and store it in register 1)
0 0 loop1: ( just a label, eg, bookmark or placeholder)
1 1 ADDI R1 R1 1 (read register 1 and add 1 to it and store it in register 1)
2 1 ADD R3 R1 R0 (read register 1 and register 0 and store it in register 0 )
0 0 loop2: ( just a label, eg, bookmark or placeholder)
2 1 ADD R3 R3 R1 (read register 3 and register 1 and store it in register 3 )
2 1 SLT R4 R2 R3 (read register 2 and if it is less than reigster 3, store 1 in register 4, otherwise store 0 in register 4 )
2 0 BNE R4 R0 done (read register 0 and register 4 and jump to 'done' if they aren't equal )
2 1 SLL R5 R3 2 (shift register 3's value by 2 and place it in register 5. What's shift? A nasty binary, eg 0s and 1s, mathematical operation you don't want to ever deal with. )
0 0 J loop2 (jump to loop 2)
1 1 SW R0 0(R5) (store register 5's address in register 0 )
0 0 done: (just a label, eg, bookmark or placeholder)
2 0 BNE R4 R0 done (read register 0 and register 4 and jump to 'done' if they aren't equal )
2 0 BNE R1 R2 loop1 (read register 1 and register 2 and jump to 'loop 1' if they aren't equal )
0 0 NOP (don't do anything, delay)
0 0 BREAK (stop the program)
0 0 NOP (don't do anything)
Okay? So what?
Well, that program has 26 reads and writes in it - not counting the looping it will do!
Not counting the reads and writes it takes to store the program and then read each instruction to itself.
Not counting stack pushes and pops (eg, remembering what it was doing before it jumped to something else)
And with the loops estimated in, we're at probably 200 reads and writes.
You can bet your butt that doing things like storing phone numbers, searching for a phone number will take a lot of operations. Hundreds, for a tiny address book and millions for a large contact address book. And for holograms? To calculate and hold all that information? TRILLIANS. Graphics is extremely math intensive, which means a lot of numbers being calculated, stored, and then displayed. In fact, I think quadrillions is a better estimate.
My point is, that I think you've underpowered your memory crystals (aka, you're trying to run Crysis on an Atari memory card). As they stand now, a simple adding calculator that adds numbers would cost an entire dynasty's fortune - simply because of the bottle neck of memory crystals that can only be read/written X number of times.
Computers have become impractical, if not impossible.
Using these information crystals as disks, like floppy disks or a USB flash thumb drive is just fine.
Using it as a computer memory chip? You're going to be spending exorbitant amounts of money for menial tasks, eg, your computers are basically all far, far less advanced than the
Eniac (the very first computer that took up an ENTIRE ROOM). Displaying holograms with this kind of computer memory? I think not.
Sewage: health hazard inaccuracy
Also, I ran across this and found it alarming, I think if you added "the contents can be
processed and used (as fertilizer again)", it would be okay.
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Rural areas are another story, of course. Here, there are no tunnels so sewage is usually handled on a house-by-house basis where it's normally dumped into an underground storage tank from the main pipes. When the tank is full, the contents can be used (as fertiliser again)
This kind of fertilization is called
Night Soil (aka humanure) and makes for an extremely low average population age - it's risky, very risky. A woman died 48 hours after eating some dirt in a garden fertilized this way.
Anyways, my point is that raw feeces and urine can be used- but never raw,
they need to be processed (more about humanure in agriculture) .
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... to illustrate the need to compost humanure, rather than to try to use it raw for agricultural purposes. When the composting process is side-stepped and pathogenic waste is issued into the environment, various diseases and worms can infect the population living in the contaminated area. This fact has been widely documented.
Question: What's the process for getting Wiki pages up?
Should one ask for medals and then they pages are approved? Wait for you to see them? Contact you after each submission.... ?
Long post is long
I'm sure I wore you out but I kind of like to really immerse myself in this world, it has a lot of depth. Please don't feel like I'm saying "NO, I WANT TO HAVE LAZER-SHOOTING-PLANET-EATING-FLYING-SPACE-SHARKS RIGHT NOW!" .... but I wanted to point out a tragic flaw in the sewage system and computing area. They're easily fixable things, too. : P