Transistors can be made to use steam instead of electricity.
Steampunk is all about direct steam power. Before the harnessing of electricity confined steam to electric plants.
Electromechanical technology was well developed prior to the invention of the transistor, and remained widely employed through the 1970s, when microcontrollers started replacing it.
Also because steampunk is fiction based primarily on aesthetics with explanation as an afterthought.
The invention of the transistor never happened in the Fallout universe. They didn’t get steampunk, they got nuclear utopia until that led to a massive recession, other stuff, then nuclear war… which is why it’s post apocalyptic.
I’m sure steampunk is also a possibility though.
That’s because in the fallout universe the nuclear war happened after electricity, and computers were a thing. I believe steampunk is an alternate timeline where technology advances without advancement in electrical and digital technologies (aka steam and hydro-mechanical energy). That’s a different setting from the nuclear power age of fallout.
I think the difference is based primarily on the main power source (steam, nuclear, or coal).
P.S. I’m not actually sure whether transistors exist or not in the fallout universe they might have existed but where a new underdeveloped technology.
The invention of the transistor never happened in the Fallout universe.
This makes so much sense. There are computers but they use vacuum tubes!
What is the in-game explanation for how intelligent robots are? Like, Fallout’s robots aren’t brilliant, but they seem more capable than any mass-market robot today!
That, I’m not sure. The big computers did use vacuum tubes. I don’t think the Pip-Boy did, though. Too small.
Robobrains are powered by human brains. The others, I think are far more basic. In Fallout 4 though, Codsworth is not a Robobrain, but a Mr Handy maid robot (based on the Mr Gutsy military robot with three weaponised arms) and it has at least simulated emotion. Then there is Curie, which is another Mr Handy (or whatever the “feminine” version is called… Ms Handy doesn’t sound right) who dreams of human ambition, and can be placed in a synth (i.e. a manufactured human), which gives her the full range of human emotion. And you can flirt with her, which fucks with her hormones, which she can’t control, so she’s easily flustered. You can even hook up with her, which is incredibly disturbing once you learn one of the game’s big secrets. The big secret (CW: SA in some form):
spoiler
It’s revealed that the synths are clones of your character’s son Shawn; ergo, every synth is biologically your son or daughter, at least for their DNA. So by having sex with a clone of your son… well, the best that can be said is “at least the synths are sterile.”
We didn’t have a steampunk society at the time the transistor was invented. We were already post-steam with internal combustion engines dominating the vehicle market, including on rails with diesel-electric locomotives (diesel-powered internal combustion generator that produces electricity to run electric motors in the wheels).
The problem with steam is that it’s highly corrosive. High temperature boilers and steam parts and fittings require a lot of expensive maintenance to repair pinhole leaks that cause loss of steam power and pressure. Internal combustion engines don’t have this problem because they keep the heat contained inside the engine cylinders which are surrounded by a jacket of constantly circulating water-based coolant (that sheds heat through the radiator). The useful power that leaves the engine is purely mechanical, transmitted into the crankshaft and then the transmission and driveshaft. These parts are lubricated with oil and low maintenance due to the low temperatures and low friction of the system.
And if it weren’t for microchips we’d all be living in Fallout.
Why would you think steam power competed with the transistor? If anything steam competed with gasoline/diesel. Steam punk died with the Stanley Steamers.
Intentional typo?
Haha. Nope but that does fit. Edited the title.
