The subject says it all.
Re: tried and true vs. "modern" stuff.
I noticed a post recently discussing the relative merits of new technology
versus "tried and true" technology from 150 (plus or minus) years before.
A novel idea...
Can I have a show of hands, please?
How many of you all still use horse and buggy for transport?
How about those who think the army should use percussion caps? flintlocks?
How many think we should not trust the airplane for at least 60 more years?
Any one still using Pony Express? How about clipper ships? Horse-drawn
plows?
Come on. 150 year old technology looks like the stone age from today. Why
should it look any different to the people of the Imperium?
Besides, the example was ridiculous. If the factory has modularized the 150
year old junk, why shouldn't it modularize the new stuff? Did they forget how
in the last few centuries?
As to the notion of a perfected design, last time I looked, it took longer to
perfect a design than the useful lifespan of the design. The next generation
device comes along long before the last was perfected. Look at AFVs. For
that matter, the only gun design ever "perfected" was the flintlock. The
others were superseded before the bugs were worked out.
Note that the Imperium reached TL15 40 years before the Rebellion. It reached
TL14 100 years earlier. I suspect that most of the bugs of most high tech
devices were about as "perfected" as they will get. After all, the Imperium
is drifting into TL16 now.
BTW, to digress (AGAIN?!?), how many of you have noticed that the history of
the Darrian people, as published in the Darrian module, makes no sense at all?
The assumption that the TL16 starships of the Darrians lasted 2000 years is
ludicrous. There are rules for TL16 ships, and longevity is not mentioned.
Therefore the Darrian TL16 squadrons were built in the present era, and
Darrian has been a FUNCTIONALLY TL16 culture for centuries, at least...
Food for thought...
Steve H.
(and the kibitzer kibitzed on...)