Funny TL's (was: Carbon 60)

> From: Hans Rancke-Madsen [email removed]
> Subject: (3263) Carbon 60
>
> Furthermore the equipment they use to make it could have been built 50
> years ago. That means that we now know of a Tech 6 room-temperature
> superconductor. Neat, huh? Whatever will they think of next...

  There is a lot of inventions that theoretically could have been done much
earlier in retrospect. When something appears seems to hinge on the society
and culture.

  [Roleplaying games for example could have been done as soon as paper, pencil
and dice were invented:) ]

  This had very interesting consequenses for Traveller with its combination of
high and low tech world. For one thing it means that the TL tables are wrong;
A planet who, if they get the information that it exists, can produce jump-
drives or antigrav from TL9 might not invent either jump or antigrav until
TL 11 or higher if they had to discover it on their own.

  Sure, *some* planets might discover jump at TL 9, just as some might invent
roleplaying at TL 1 (Odysseus the RPG! Travel the Greek Islands in the Golden
Age! Smash hit everywhere in Rome!  'Nice Game' says Scipio Africanus!), and
in the contect of Traveller, those planets will pass this information on to
their neightbours and everyone else. Even the knowledge that something is
possible to do means that more than half the work is done.

  So the Traveller TL tables are only really usable within the Imperium. The
WBH achivement TL's are a step in the right direction but no enough.

>       Hans Rancke

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