Jeff Zeitlin ([email removed]) writes:
> ::>> >I read a book a long time ago (oh no I hear you say ... suffer!) where
> ::>> >technology took a different path. There was a simple law of physics t
> ::>> >if seen would lead on to anti-grav and space flight but precluded all
> ::>> >electrical type technology as we know it today.
> This could be interesting! Posit this: During the Collapse, a
> system which had made TL13 under Imperial rule is blown back to
> about TL2 or 3, and they have to rebuild their tech with no notes
> (i.e., they have to reinvent it). Now, they've somehow managed
> to get on this tech path instead of the other one, that the
> Imperial UWP was based on. So, we've got a culture with space
> flight and antigrav (which according to the standard scale means
> TL10), but which doesn't have internal combustion or computers
> (well, possibly computers, of the Difference Engine/Analytical
> Engine type) or laser weapons or radio or..., which, ignoring the
> existance of the space flight and antigrav, puts them at TL6 or
> lower. How do we write a UWP for this world? Do we have to go
> to DGP's extended generation, and use the tech profile? Or do we
> just dump this world into an interuniversal warp and let the
> Space:1889 folks play with it?
Hmmm... I'd pose a slightly different scenario. TL blow-back to 5 or 6,
say, but the technologies that are emphasised during the re-growth period
are those that have immediate military value. Given the relative cheapness
of life in the "Wilds", medical technology isn't quite up-to-par with weapons
and transport technology, etc.
Something else to consider: post-VIRUS worlds won't have _as_ hard a time
finding rare raw materials for _fill_in_the_blank_ since a good chunk of what
they need can be recovered from artifacts. (So, _how_ difficult _is_ Lanthanum
to find, without a ready supply of blown-out starships?)
Just thoughts,
- --
[email removed] (SPG6)