electron pusher

disambiguation of "pencil pusher" a person with a clerical job involving a lot of tedious and repetitive computer work

J: "Hey team, I just moved all our work projects into JIRA!"

Q: "Jeff, you are such an electron pusher"

by RBaron June 21, 2022

Relativistic Electronics

Circuitry and components specifically designed to function predictably when moving at relativistic velocities or in strong gravitational gradients. The problem is that at high speeds, lengths contract and magnetic fields transform, which could cause standard circuits to fail. These systems would need to account for the relativistically-induced electric fields from moving magnets, use time-symmetric logic gates, or be built from materials whose properties are invariant under Lorentz transformation. It's electrical engineering where Maxwell's equations are fully merged with Special Relativity.

Example: "The probe's sensors didn't work until they upgraded to relativistic electronics. At 0.9c, the Hall effect sensors were reading garbage because the moving magnetic fields created huge unexpected voltages. The new circuits treat spacetime as a single, warped component of the system." Relativistic Electronics

by Dumuabzu January 29, 2026

Quantum Electronics

The next revolution after silicon, where information is processed not by the flow of classical electrons, but by manipulating the quantum states of particles—like electron spin, photon polarization, or superconducting qubits. This enables quantum computers, but also quantum sensors of insane sensitivity, ultra-secure communication via quantum key distribution, and transistors that switch via quantum tunneling. It's electronics that embraces superposition and entanglement as core features, not as annoying quantum bugs to be designed away.

Example: "My new health monitor uses quantum electronics. It has a nitrogen-vacancy center diamond sensor that detects the faint magnetic fields of individual neurons firing. It doesn't track my heart rate; it critiques my daydreams at the quantum level." Quantum Electronics

by Dumuabzu January 29, 2026