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Re:Show HN: I built a CNC-machine from scratch, using 40x 3D... by dekhn on Wednesday November 03, 2021 @08:13PM (#29102234)
It's worth reading the various recent articles about the construction of ASML's machines that make next-gen chips. LIGO, and diffraction gratings are two other nice examples.

It's basically the culmination of thousands of years of humans getting better at precision. Things didn't take off until the 1700s, really got amazing around WWII, and has undergone amazing results since then.

Re:Show HN: I built a CNC-machine from scratch, using 40x 3D... by kragen on Thursday November 04, 2021 @03:26AM (#29104326)
There's a long way to go still. Nothing in your house is made to LIGO precision, not even your own body, the spiders, and the bacteria in the toilet, which are all a lot more precise than next-gen chips.
Re:Show HN: I built a CNC-machine from scratch, using 40x 3D... by dekhn on Thursday November 04, 2021 @09:00AM (#29106592)
you're misusing the term precision to apply to size. Precision doesn't mean anything in bacteria.
Re:Show HN: I built a CNC-machine from scratch, using 40x 3D... by kragen on Saturday November 06, 2021 @12:07AM (#29127440)
I meant precision, not size. Bacteria build their proteins with ribosomes, which assemble the proteins with atomic precision (about 100 femtometers). LIGO is built with several orders of magnitude tighter tolerance than that, but none of the parts of your computer are even that precise.