• Honytawk@lemmy.zip
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    22 days ago

    Wouldn’t technically nuclear power also be considered Steampunk?

    Meaning there is no difference between Steampunk and Atompunk?

    • djsoren19@yiffit.net
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      22 days ago

      Nah, key difference is that in atompunk, the energy is typically converted into electricity.

      A big part of steampunk is the pipes moving steam to the contraptions, compared to wires moving electricity.

      • Malgas@beehaw.org
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        22 days ago

        Hmm. Suppose you were building a nuclear locomotive. (Setting aside, for the moment, whether this is a good idea.) Would nuke→turbine→electricity→motor be more efficient than just using the rotation of the turbine to move the train?

        It can’t be, right?

        • Revan343@lemmy.ca
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          22 days ago

          Diesel engine > generator > motor is frequently used for trains nowadays. Transmissions can be super inefficient, especially with discrete gear ratios

      • Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        That raises the question: are the Voyager probes (or anything with an RTG) considered Atompunk, or do they need random bits of sheet metal welded on to meet the aesthetic first?

  • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    I expect in 120 years, kids will re-invent what they think is 1990’s cyberpunk by gluing CDs and bits of broken DVD players onto their hats.

    • oo1@lemmings.world
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      22 days ago

      In the 1990s all internet data was transported by snails using these things called AOL CD-ROM packets.

      With the TC-AOL-CD-ROM protocol, you had to keep on gluing a copy of the same CD to another snail every day and sending it off to the recipient, until you get one back confirming the reciept.

    • RandomStickman@fedia.io
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      22 days ago

      I speak Tumblr, I can help.

      copywriteddad wrote a post about a character feeling like a fantastical steampunk machine out of coal. Someone reblogged it making fun of them saying a steampunk machine is out of coal (instead of steam, I suppose) in the tags. Imagine quote tweeting but just adding tags. However tags on Tumblr doesn’t readily show up so copywriteddad screenshoted it in order to reply. The other user doubles down, publicly this time, so copywriteddad have to point out coal is needed to boil water in steampunk.

      • Dharma Curious (he/him)@slrpnk.net
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        22 days ago

        Oh Great Tumbling Sage, I have long sought out one of your ilk!

        Tell me, should I, a humble gay, get into tumbler? It seems scary, but also fun. I saw what they did to poor John Green.

        • EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          22 days ago

          Tumblr is one of the gayest places on the internet. You should go for it. The etiquette is arcane and there is no algorithm to guide you, but so long as your shoelaces were stolen from the President and you enjoy getting important news via Supernatural memes, the community will embrace you with open arms.

          Search some hastags that you like, follow some people that post stuff you like, and before long, seeing a 15 year old post cross your dashboard will be like seeing an old friend again.

    • Skua@kbin.earth
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      22 days ago

      Top to bottom. The bit with the white background is a screenshot of tags that other people have attached to the first post

  • brown567@sh.itjust.works
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    22 days ago

    There’s a movie called Steamboy whose premise is the creation of a device that can store steam at nearly infinite pressure

    So with a device like that, you might not need coal for your flying machine =)

    • AdrianTheFrog@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      I feel like storing steam at nearly infinite pressure is easier than getting steam to nearly infinite pressure

      • brown567@sh.itjust.works
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        22 days ago

        That’s actually covered in the movie as well! They needed to find special water to make infinitely-pressurizable steam =)

      • brown567@sh.itjust.works
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        22 days ago

        Coal, but the fantastical flying contraption in this thought exercise uses a container of pre-pressurized steam, so it wouldn’t “run out of coal” like the one in the post. It’d just run out of steam

    • PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S [he/him]@lemmy.sdf.org
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      22 days ago

      I mean…a steam engine is a heat engine that uses steam to transfer heat. So you can make a steam engine by getting basically anything “really hot” and running steam through it. This is the working principle behind solar thermal power plants (but not solar panels!). I.e., you don’t necessarily need coal or even a fossil fuel to build a steam engine.

      • JayDee@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        Yes, but the whole aesthetic of steam punk is fantastical machines that operate on Victorian-era technology, which would be coal-fire steam engines.

      • cuchilloc@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        But if you put mirrors or magnifying glass as the heat source you lean too much towards solarpunk :)

    • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      What, you think stupid people were invented after the stream engine? Humanity got this far despite the fact that half of us are brainless dickheads.

      It’s fine. It beats being just smart enough to know you’re not contributing.