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Hypothetical, /sci/.
You're stuck on a deserted planet. There's shit for metal resources and coincidentally you don't start with any electronics.
Conveniently, you know how to survive and build things. You know how to make wooden tools, you know how to make bricks and mortar, and you know how to smelt metals.. that you can find.
Problem, though. The deserted planet is shit for metals. Like, if you want conductive metals in any real concentration, you're shit out of luck. You can get adequate nutrition from the soil with plants and farm animals there, but mining would be incredibly inefficient. You need something other than copper, iron, mercury or silver/gold for wires.
You need to build devices, no matter how crude or analog.
How do you make electronics with a shortage of metal? Remember, you can make anything. You just lack metals. You can make stuff out of glass or brick. What would you use?
There's precious stones, but shit for copper
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>>8459113
Carbon is highly conductive too. I'd just do all the circuits from carbon welding.
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>>8459122
Fascinating.
Do you think you could figure out a way to bridge the tool gap lacking metals?
If not, that's okay. It's just a hypothetical.
I'd been thinking of carbon engineering/smithing, but wasn't sure if that only comes after developing metal tools. In theory, you'd already have a perfect understanding of the science to do it yourself.
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Doped semiconductors will do the job. Also some polymers are cunductive, just not fast enough for RF applications.
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>>8459113
You can't have a planed without metals.
Hell, even gas giants have a metallic core.
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>>8459171
You know, I'd heard the word polymer before, but never realized what it was.
So what sort of electronics could a culture with shit for access to metals make? Could they make transistors? Could they make anything approaching an Apple II or Commodore 64 computer?
Any sort of radio for communication without a satellite?
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I think conductors would be the least of your worries. Without iron and steel (or any materials with similar properties) you're not going to be able to build more than basic tools. You don't even have anything with the toughness of steel, let alone all its other useful properties. Modern heavy industry could probably exist without electronics but definitely not without steel.
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>>8459179
Sure, mine to the core to get your metals
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>>8461082
Stone
Diamond ?
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>>8461253
Stone will crumble under sustained vibration and is very heavy. What would you make a steam turbine out of without metals? What about driveshafts and bearings?
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>>8459113
Huh.
You weren't asking this question on /tg/, were you?
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>plants
>life of any kind
>no metallic elements
does not compute
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