Shall Not Perish 6 - Sword Worlds

David Johnson writes:
>Subject: Shall Not Perish 6 - Sword Worlds
>
>>From Sunday night, Roger Sanger [email removed] asks:
>
>> How far can a society improve technologically in 70 years?
>
>This is a very good point.  I was looking at the Sword Worlds this weekend
>with the intention of bringing them `up to date' to TNE.  In 1120 most of
>the Sword Worlds were at tech level 10 or 11 with the exception of Sacnoth
>which was at tech level 12.

The answer is: possibly a lot but propably not at all. Never forget (as is
so easy to do given our background as 20th Century Earthlings) that the
TLs in Traveller are _economic_ (or sometimes social) indicators. Any
planet that is in contact with a high-tech planet has all the high-tech
_knowledge_ they want (ignoring for this argument the question of techno-
logical secrets and blockades  -  surely TL 15 knowledge is widespread
enough Behind the Claw to be available _somewhere_). The problem is wether
they have the economic underpining to implement the technology. The
Sword Worlds were TL 11 1500 years ago. They've been knocked down a bit
once or twice during their history by wars  -  once below TL 9  -  but
they've been TL 9+ for centuries. Why should a 70 year period of crisis
management (I'm referring to the Quarantine) be conductive to economic
growth? Or perhaps it is  -  one might argue that a pseudo-wartime economy
would stimulate technological improvements. But then, the Sword Worlds
have frequently been on war footing throughout their history, and they
were still only TL 10-12 in 1120. And never forget that wartime economies
are not sustainable in the long run. Perhaps the Sword Worlds goes through
a regular cycle of booms and recessions with acompanying TL increases and
decreases?

>The only class A starport (if my memory serves
>me - my materials aren't at hand) was at Gram.  It seems to me that by
>TNE most of the worlds in a `feudal technocracy' ought to have advanced
>at least *one* tech level if not more and that additional class A starports
>ought to exist - prime candidates being *at least* Anduril and Sacnoth.

On the starport improvements I agree completely. The concept of B starports
(as defined by the ability to construct starships) on TL 9+ worlds has
never made much sense to me. Presumably they are the result of economic
factors too.


      Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
     [email removed]
- ------------
        "This gives a possible range of 56 to 178 starships
         total  in the three Terran starport facilities,  a
         believable quantity for such a star system."

        "We have a maximum of 178 ships in port, and (as it
         is a busy star system)  we will say that there are
         70 docking berths at the Phoenix facility."

                        ---Journal of the Traveller's
                           Aid Society # 18

Gentlesophonts:

From Wednesday night, Hans Rancke [email removed] writes:

> David Johnson writes:
> >the Sword Worlds were at tech level 10 or 11 with the exception of Sacnoth
> >which was at tech level 12.
>
> Sword Worlds were TL 11 1500 years ago. They've been knocked down a bit
> once or twice during their history by wars  -  once below TL 9  -  but
> they've been TL 9+ for centuries. Why should a 70 year period of crisis
> management (I'm referring to the Quarantine) be conductive to economic
> growth?

I had recognized your point that variance in tech levels suggests some
sort of sociological reason - as opposed to technological - behind the
tech levels but I hadn't considered the fact that Sword Worlds technology
had been relatively stagnant and yet still varied from world to world.
This does tend to suggest that an increase might not occur in the 80 years
to TNE.

> Or perhaps it is  -  one might argue that a pseudo-wartime economy
> would stimulate technological improvements. But then, the Sword Worlds
> have frequently been on war footing throughout their history, and they
> were still only TL 10-12 in 1120. And never forget that wartime economies
> are not sustainable in the long run.

I agree with this point as well.  If the Frontier Wars haven't induced
technological advance one doubts Virus will - especially since the Sword
Worlds aren't on the front line.

> Perhaps the Sword Worlds goes through
> a regular cycle of booms and recessions with acompanying TL increases and
> decreases?

Well, maybe, but that still doesn't explain the *variance* in tech levels
from world to world within the Confederation - especially since it was
suggested in the *JTAS* "Contact" article on the Sword Worlds that they
were very homogenous - at least to outsiders.  One would expect then some
similarity in technological achievement.  Without it, one wonders why
Sacnoth, at tech level 12, hasn't come to dominate the Sword Worlds long
ago.

(I suspect that this is once again merely a matter of the world generation
rules intruding into the background but any rationales - not just opinions -
to the contrary are appreciated.)

Happy Travelling,

David Johnson
Houston, Texas, USA