From Sunday Roger Sanger [email removed] asked:
> How far can a society improve technologically in 70 years?
And David Johnson [email removed] gave a nice answer regarding
the Sword Worlds.
Another thought, more for pocket empires and even the Reformation Coalition,
is based on the last (chronologically) Pern book by Anne McCafery. _All The
Weyrs of Pern_ is about the Dragonriders (a neutral, more or less, defence
organization) finding an advanced, solar powered computer, buried in ash from
when Pern was originally colonized. The conditions on Pern where rough enough
that they had lost all high technology and memory of it. At the start, they
were only TL-1. With the computers help they were able to advance up to a
firm TL-2 with some TL-3 besides having the use of some advanced Relic
technology. By the Megatraveller Tech chart in the Referee's companion this
computer was TL-16.
The timeline for this TL change was only 10 years or so. Some important
consideration were: A willing population. The Dragonriders wanted to advance,
as did some of the craft halls. Some were opposed but they were the minority.
The skills to make use of the knowledge: For example one crafthall was already
working on developing paper. The computer just gave them a better formulation.
*** SPOILER ALERT *** Ending of All the Weyrs of Pern Revealed
Don't read if you want to enjoy the book
Read the book for the details. It is well written, and the author gives credit
to those who helped with the tech details and even gives a disclaimer for the
short timespan for advancement. The computer does not survive the book as it
had only one mission. That was to save the planet at any cost. This
directive was given to the computer a few thousand years previously by the
commander of the colony. The computer was only using the people and the
dragons as a resource to achieve this end. If they learned something from it,
then good, but it also did not want to alter the social and technical growth
of the colony. So when it's end was achieved, it shut itself off, although
the inhabitants were left with working desktop computers plus the storage
devices.
So there it is... a popular science fiction example that pertains to parts of
our discussion.
John Bucsek
[email removed]