Sword World technology

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