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Notes -
How a probable or improbable is it that humans had invented electronic devices before this modern era?
How far back?
I could see a good argument for Newton or his contemporaries getting a decent theory of electric potential 50-100 years ahead of schedule. Most of the early discoveries in electricity got their potential from voltaic piles rather than spinning generators. That means steam engines aren't a prerequisite. I'm less sure if the chemical and metallurgical developments of the Industrial Revolution were a bottleneck. Zinc wasn't readily available in Europe until the mid-1700s; that would make voltaic piles less likely. My understanding of battery chemistry is way too weak to tell what could be done without plentiful zinc.
Anyway, early-1700s Europe might have managed it. Maybe. What about going earlier? Take a look at the state of metallurgy in 1556. They are able to assay and extract a variety of elements, but not zinc or magnesium. There is not yet a functional theory of chemistry; just processes developed over decades. I don't think the Europeans of this era have much chance of developing electric potential, and without voltage, they won't discover electronic devices.
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