RE: Antigrav but no volts

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)