A thread of 2 messages, 11 January 1993 to 13 January 1993, in the order they were sent.
Can anybody give me some information on Traveller State-of-the-Medical-Art?
What technology is common, uncommon, perfected, experimental? For example,
Bishop was injected with nanocytes after his death, in an attempt to
rebuild the structure of his nervous system. What things are nanocytes
capable of in traveller? What other tools are available?
Steven J. Owens
[email removed]> I originally developed this for "traveller done right". It's a
> reasonable foundation for a discussion of how medicine will evolve
> along the established Traveller TL lines. It certainly doesn't
> have any official sanction from GDW, on the other hand, IMO,
> it is the most reasoned application of what we know and what
> we can expect.
You're making the same mistake GDW has been doing all along. You're
confusing discovery TL with application TL. For example, you propably
need a good microscope to develop the germ theory of disease, which
would be TL 2-3 (I qualify this because there is a small possibility
that some pre-historic genius could come up with the truth just from
observation of effects). But once you _have_ discovered germs, all you
need to _apply_ it is the ability to boil water. Similarily, anyone
who knows enough to sterilize his instruments will be able to pull
surgery into the practical category (I'm not saying that a TL 1
surgeon won't have more of his appendectomies die on him than a
TL 5 surgeon, but he will have a lot more successes than Earth's TL 1
surgeons had).
The theory category is thus inapplicable in all but the most extreme
circumstances (Interdicted worlds etc.). As for the rest:
> TL Diagnostics Treatment
> 0 none- no Binding of wounds,
> basis for assess- simple (unproven)
> ment of patient herbal remedies
Observation, taking pulse, Sterile bandages.
feeling temperature. You Proven herbal remedies.
can get some way with just (Unless you mean
that. Ancient Chinese doctors something by 'proven'
did. that I don't realize).
> 1 History taking, Trephination,
> Some physical leeching,
> assessment without Battlefield surgery
> standards
By 'history taking' do you Reasonable surgery,
mean medical records? If so, Antisceptics (at
agreed. Standards are well- least I think that
established. is what I mean).
> 2 Physical assess- Improved surgery,
> ment, assessment of some pharmaceuticals,
> body fluids, e.g. e.g.digitalis from
> urine foxglove, leeching,
> preventative medicine
> based on empirisism
All this is already possible at TL 1. Microscopes should be possible
by now (The art of lens-grinding was known in Ancient Rome. It just
wasn't used for telescopes and microscopes).
> 3 Stethoscope allows Early vaccination,
> listening to organs cataloging of pharma-
> copoeia
An ear trumpet should be possible already at TL 1. A real stethoscope?
I dunno. What TL is rubber tubes? That would depend on the local flora,
wouldn't it? Early vaccination involves infecting animals and draining
serum from them, right? Possible at TL 1.
> 4 Heart arrhythmias, Anesthesia, antisepsis,
> lung sounds defined public sanitation,
> Volume replacement
> using blood products
Isn't it possible to derive anesthetic substances from herbs? Public
sanitation is not only possible at TL 2, it was used (by the Romans).
Blood typing can be done the moment you know.
> 5 X-ray, early EKGs, Mass vaccinations,
> Blood work, Pharmacology based
> organ system response,
> crystalloid volume
> expanders
X-rays, now, they need a fairly high TL. But remember that electrical
apparatus can be made at a lower TL than we actually discovered it. I
don't know if that would allow X-rays at an earlier TL too. Mass
vaccination is a social question and nothing to do with TL, unless
you're thinking of the problem of bulk production of vaccine.
> 6 EKGs,Viral and Primitive Prostheses,
> Bacterial labwork, Open heart surgery,
How primitive prostheses are you talking about? A wooden leg is TL 0,
an iron hook is TL 1. What makes open heart surgery more hazardous than
other operations? (I know that it is more hazardous, but I don't know
precisely why. What equipment/technique allows open heart surgery, and
are you sure it can't be produced/applied at a lower TL?)
From now on you get into stuff that I can't judge too well. But try
going through it yourself and ask yourself if it can't be applied
at a lower TL once you have the knowledge.
Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
[email removed]
- ------------
"A subsector official pompously states that the
subsector armed forces have four Kinunir class
ships in service, each with enough troop strength
to put down any military operations that threathen
the peace of the Imperium."
---Adventure 1, The Kinunir