alternatehistory.com

So, I've heard of this POD quite a few times before. Or rather, this idea. From what I've read around here, vacuum tubes are considered a wasteful sidetrack on technological innovation, and that if we could skip over them and straight to integrated circuits things would've been fine and dandy. (Actually, the second part has never been debated upon, a side point for this thread.)

So I ask AH.commers to debate this subject in full:
Plausibility Check: Is it possible to skip the development of vacuum tubes and to the development of some types of circuits?
What sort of advancements would have to be made before a circuit could be successfully created?
Who would be the best early 20th century scientist to design such a thing?
Or would a no-name cardboard cut-out character suffice better?
What would be the estimated period in which the first circuit would be finished?
What about mass-produced?
How would this affect the world as a whole?
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