Giving 1920s engineers an advanced semiconductor reverses the usual sequence of technological development. They would have a component first and then need to discover its uses and develop the systems around it. A modern 3D printer offers an analogy: without filament, suitable code, design software, and the means to produce those inputs, the machine alone would be unusable. The historical effect would depend on how people approached those missing requirements. That makes the result difficult to predict from the component's arrival alone.
Notable Point · 3:50:31-3:51:49
A semiconductor solution before its technical problem
Introducing an advanced component first reverses the usual development path and leaves engineers to invent the tools and uses around it.