I think we're seeing the technology shift to a different level of abstraction, that's all. If the operating principles of a system built from components cannot be understood in structural terms (i.e., from disassembly), then your definition of "component" is what's insufficient. You just need to move up a level and try again.
Even in this rarefied company, few of us truly work from first principles. A veteran RFIC designer may well have forgotten Maxwell's equations and all of their implications. I'm not familiar with the details of RFIC modelling, design, and fabrication, but I understand how the end product is applied at the circuit level. A kid playing with a WiFi card and a Pringles can doesn't know the first thing about how his Wifi card works, but he will, after some experimenting, understand how to use it to talk to his neighbor's access point. To the chip designer, a "component" is probably a subcircuit model that exists only in software. To me, a "component" is the resulting chip, with pins you can solder stuff to. To the kid, the "component" is the monolithic WiFi card. There is little to be gained by assigning relative levels of merit to different abstraction levels, or assuming that society is doomed because people rarely work their way down the abstraction hierarchy without a compelling need. I'm happiest when I'm able to work all the way down the lowest level of abstraction I can actually put my hands on, but that doesn't carry much weight in a global sense. Witness the trouble I run into when I actually _need_ the first principles that I ran away from when I dropped out of college. :-) -- john, KE5FX > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Behalf Of Poul-Henning Kamp > Sent: Monday, January 02, 2006 6:46 AM > To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement > Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Help - Hope? > > > In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Magnus > Danielson writes: > > >But to answer your question, younger people is still attracted > and there is > >still plenty of people having the right mind for these things around. > > A major difference for these younger people is that the technology > of today is reverse engineering resistant. > > There is practically nothing to learn today by taking things apart: > you can't see how they work. > > _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list time-nuts@febo.com https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts