jd's Journal: Audio processing and implications

Just as a thought experiment, I wondered just how sophisticated a sound engineering system someone like Delia Derbyshire could have had in 1964, and so set out to design one using nothing but the materials, components, and knowledge available at the time. In terms of sound quality, you could have matched anything produced in the early-to-mid 1980s. In terms of processing sophistication, you could have matched anything produced in the early 2000s. (What I came up with would take a large complex, something the size of the National Computing Centre in the UK, purely for sound processing, at least circa 1964, but it could have been done. There was no technological barrier.)

This has led me to an interesting conclusion: The technology we have is limited NOT by what's available, but by a lack of generalists and abysmal communication between the silos of specialists. We have all the technology we need to be 30-40 years ahead of where we actually are, the limitations are purely social constructs and the disdain of the mad scientist/inventor class.

This led me to wonder what we're fully capable of producing today but haven't.