c.1962 technological regression

What is the most severe non-ASB technological regression starting at the high point of techno-optimism?
Two scenarios I can imagine:
1) The old Cuban Missile War standby. But how much would this really be? Australia getting off scott-free. for example, might just change the world's leader into the information age.
2) Pandemic. But unless it was extreme, it would just free up resources for the survivors. Where does a disease become implausible in depopulation power?
Any other thoughts?
Can you keep 2019 at 1962 tech level?
 

Khanzeer

Banned
Interesting

How about massive use of nukes in korean war by USA against north Korea, Indochina and China?
Whole far east becomes a nuclear wasteland
 
Interesting

How about massive use of nukes in korean war by USA against north Korea, Indochina and China?
Whole far east becomes a nuclear wasteland
WWIII in 1954 means that the USA had 2,063 warheads to the USSR's 150 and bringing up the rear, the UK with 5

The French would be annoyed about getting nuked. North Korea had already been reduced to rubble by Conventional bombs.

Just not atomic yield enough to but more than a blip on Western technological progression.
 
The only thing that would actually reverse technology to 1962 or before, instead of just slowing down technological development, would be truly catastrophic nuclear war in the 1970s or later when stockpiles are enough to destroy all countries involved.
 

Khanzeer

Banned
WWIII in 1954 means that the USA had 2,063 warheads to the USSR's 150 and bringing up the rear, the UK with 5

The French would be annoyed about getting nuked. North Korea had already been reduced to rubble by Conventional bombs.

Just not atomic yield enough to but more than a blip on Western technological progression.
Let's say USA uses 100 nukes in asia , what kind of environmental effects it will have ?
 
Let's say USA uses 100 nukes in asia , what kind of environmental effects it will have ?
In WWII, well over that number of large cities were burnt to the ground in Europe and Japan, no measurable effect.

Nuclear Winter was a bit of mythmaking by the antinukes.

that said, the US had around two dozen H-Bombs deployed by the end of 1954. These would generate a good amount of Fallout, but doubtful these would be used, as theywere for targets in the USSR.

If the USSR sits out, the big bombs are held back, and kiloton sized nukes just will have limited environmental effects in China, nothing really global
 
I think what is needed is a different POD than a late fifties, early sixties nuclear war or a pandemic. Unless these were utterly devastating to North America and Europe this won't prevent or delay much the rise of the modern technological world. Which is of course the age of electronics and powerful computers.

The POD could be that for some reason semiconductors are not discovered/invented in the early fifties. Then we are all still stuck in the age of the vacuum tubes. All the other technological innovations in various fields will lag as well due to the massive reduction in computing power compared to OTL.
 
Is such a PoD plausible, Draconis? I always figured Mother Nature is terrible at keeping secrets.
 
The POD could be that for some reason semiconductors are not discovered/invented in the early fifties. Then we are all still stuck in the age of the vacuum tubes. All the other technological innovations in various fields will lag as well due to the massive reduction in computing power compared to OTL.
Though transistors did not become common until the fifties, they were invented in the thirties in Germany, but took time to develop reliability. One issue would be to butterfly away photographically reduced integrated circuits. Not easy. Maybe a Dropshot war breaks up the USSR in the early fifties, eliminates the Cold War and space race, and keeps industry oriented to technology topped by transistors. After all, there was a lot of catching up to do in consumer technology throughout the developed world. Then, awareness over energy and pollution comes along, curtailing much new progress.
 
I think what is needed is a different POD than a late fifties, early sixties nuclear war or a pandemic. Unless these were utterly devastating to North America and Europe this won't prevent or delay much the rise of the modern technological world. Which is of course the age of electronics and powerful computers.

The POD could be that for some reason semiconductors are not discovered/invented in the early fifties. Then we are all still stuck in the age of the vacuum tubes. All the other technological innovations in various fields will lag as well due to the massive reduction in computing power compared to OTL.

Getting sunflowered globally by a dozen 1 megaton yield bombs optimized for EMPs in LEO.

Now figure out the effects.

McP.

P.S. Hint. It won't be pretty when the information systems go down.
 
Though transistors did not become common until the fifties, they were invented in the thirties in Germany, but took time to develop reliability. One issue would be to butterfly away photographically reduced integrated circuits. Not easy. Maybe a Dropshot war breaks up the USSR in the early fifties, eliminates the Cold War and space race, and keeps industry oriented to technology topped by transistors. After all, there was a lot of catching up to do in consumer technology throughout the developed world. Then, awareness over energy and pollution comes along, curtailing much new progress.

I thought that was Bell Labs 1947 specifically; John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley. Sources and inventors please? Always trying to update my education.
 
Cuban missile war escalates into a long, grinding conventional+occasional nuke war. The war ends in the mid 70s due to unrest in both sides forcing an end, after a second large wave of nuclear attacks fails to win the war for the fascist powers*. The world looks like somalia, with local variations due to climate. Tech level is probably back down to pre-WWII in most areas by 2019.

Mad Max(original movie+road warrior) but with elvis style pompodours instead of 80s fashion.

* The war is US/NATO vs USSR/red china, but there's enough political difficulties that neither is recognizable by 1977. The United States of the North Atlantic and the Collective of Eternal Death speak the same languages that the US/USSR/PRC did in 1962 but well, that's 90% of the similarities thanks to wartime pressure.
 
Cuban missile war escalates into a long, grinding conventional+occasional nuke war. The war ends in the mid 70s due to unrest in both sides forcing an end, after a second large wave of nuclear attacks fails to win the war for the fascist powers*. The world looks like somalia, with local variations due to climate. Tech level is probably back down to pre-WWII in most areas

Mutual Assured Destruction wasn't a thing in 1962.
Period. It was very one sided at this time. WWIII at that point would be a total curbstomp on the entire 2nd World, with only Yugoslavia spared.

Why? US had over ten times the warheads than the USSR. Moscow metro area would have received around a gigatons worth. Recall, the whole reason for IRBMs being sneaked into Cuba, was that the USSR had no good ways of hitting many targets in CONUS. Few ICBMs, most on open launch pads, and the US had more fighters(with nuclear AAMs) set in an interceptor role, than the Soviets had bombers capable of getting inside CONUS airspace.
 
I don't regard the inflated numbers of warheads both sides had as anything but completely fictional. I consider dropshot type world war threes to be more realistic tbh.
 
In WWII, well over that number of large cities were burnt to the ground in Europe and Japan, no measurable effect.

There's a huge difference in the kind of firestorms lit by a 1 megaton or greater hydrogen bomb and the firestorms lit by the sorts of munitions available in WW2 (even the two nuclear weapons actually used).

Also, a full nuclear exchange, even in 1962 would flatten several times the cities that were flattened by bombs in WW2.

Nuclear Winter was a bit of mythmaking by the antinukes.

Antinuke types think some silly things, but then so do pronuke types. So far as we can tell without starting nuclear fire storms in 100 cities or so, nuclear winter is indeed a real effect.

Either way, I think we can be fairly confident that a nuclear war will not be like we imagine it is, just like WW2 was like no-one imagined the next big war would be after WW1. Major industrial wars have a long history of being hideously awful in unexpected ways.

Can you keep 2019 at 1962 tech level?

I seriously doubt you can keep 2019 at the level of 1962. It's not like the technology of 1962 was a stable state. There were immature technologies that would, even in a situation where the population was falling, be refined.

Technology after a serious disaster might devolve, or evolve along a parallel route that wasn't useful in our OTL world of plenty, but the idea that it would just remain static just stretches credulity for me.

fasquardon
 
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