Wide Resolution Tech Levels

[The Hinterworlds Rambler]

Been thinking that industrialized interstellar trade would cause technical homogenization, especially in more "settled" areas... to this end been thinking of widening the inclusion of tech levels to this:

Low: TL 0-5 (Creation Era)

Medium: TL 6-10 (Interplanetary Era)

High: TL 11-15 (Interstellar Era)

Ultra: TL 16+ (Intergalactic Era)

Produced products tend to follow market trends, outside of tech level. The consumer is drawn to quality and familiarity in these products, sometimes even at the sacrifice of advancement.

 

[Eduardo]

Sometimes 'higher tech' is just overkill, or pointless, or more expensive than it's really worth on many worlds, so I don't always equate 'high tech level' as some pot at the end of the rainbow. We're still using 'old' tech here in the 20th century, which works just fine, especially with improvements in materials science and a little 're-engineering'. Tech 5 IC engines with tech 7 or 8 materials and engineering advancements come to mind as the most obvious. Nuclear power plants are just another way to boil water to power turbines invented in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Resource availability gradually dwindles with mass consumption, also, regardless of technical achievement. And, maybe they've found alternatives, but most of the radio buffs and musicians I know will kill to get their hands on the 'old, low tech level' TV and radio tubes, and tube powered amplifiers, that got replaced by transistors and 'digital'; it's still an anolog universe, after all, and I think the military still uses tubes and big coil magnets and other stuff in some of their key equipment, as there is just no real substitute yet for some of that 'old' stuff when it comes to power output.

Higher tech levels is just more options for the same old stuff that needs doing; it's nice to be able to move across a wider range of options for the same tasks when necessary.

The guts of the Imperium or the Hi Pop worlds. Even the Tech-6 Pop 9 world is far more important in the scheme of things than the Tech 15 Pop 3 world. I center my games around the Hi Pop worlds and clusters; the rest are backwaters, regardless of tech and starport ratings.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Yeah, I thought about this a couple of times a while back in these two links:

Culture Levels

Culture Stages

I forgot I posted the first one and must have reworked my thoughts about it. Hope they help. Maybe they could be TAS codes or something for Travellers.

Dameon

 

[Eduardo]

Yes, those are pretty good threads. Politically we're not very advanced from the first city-states of Ur, and culturally the only major changes are the novelty of broadcasting electronically, and over a greater audience, which is just more jaded and not necessarily more advanced, though not quite as jaded as some of the types of 'theatre' enjoyed by some audiences of the late roman empire, which wnet in for murder, torture and rape on the stage were all the rage under some Emperors, but some of the stuff on the internet certainly has a large audience for that stuff.

I find the cultural aspects and moral philosophies to be the more important aspects of advancement in general, especially the leaders of nations. This is especially true in science and the development of empirical methodology.

Unfortunately, it doesn't translate well into social issues and cultural strength, as the relatively recent Nazi travesties in Europe proved, when ambitious politicians can corrupt, turn and distort science for their own ends.

I'm under little delusion that the 'masses' matter much; the key people in any society are a small and mostly incestuous group, even in the U.S., where only some 9,000 or so people are actually involved in running things and making the important decisions. The 'masses' only become players when order collapses, and they run riot, or form lynch mobs, or similiar activites. By then, it's usually over until another small group takes over. We see this pattern repeated throughout history, in this century the Soveit revolution against the abuses of the Czars and things of that nature. It seems to be a cycle that can't be broken, at least on this planet.

 

[aramis]

Some thoughts on prior comments:

A nuke plant is just a steam boiler (TL4)...
but developing a controlled reaction that doesn't melt down nor explode requires at least TL 5 equipment, and TL6 equipment and materials to make it safe. A TL 4 would could probably BUILD a working nuke plant... but they probably could not DEVELOP one.

A modern TL8 IC engine is a FAR cry from the first TL4-5 ones. It's not just better materials and tighter tolerances, but whole new ways of controlling the inputs and outputs; IC chips rather than regulators and distributors, electric ignition rather than dieseling, electric starters rather than hand-cranks. Yeah, sure, it is the same basic process... but it isn't the same thing.

It is far more likely that TL5 "Barbarians" can make decent TL 6 & 7 weapons (see also afghani AK47 and AK 74 knockoffs) simply by acquiring the needed high tech materials and milling them, but they can't make the high-tech materials themselves. But they can buy those alloy blocks for the 74 and mill them with TL4 milling tools...

There is a RW TL8 composite material made using TL3 kilns and TL4 looms... half the weight of aluminum, twice the strength of steel... and better thermal insulation than the shuttle's tiles. But TL4 could not produce the needed titanium thread nor silicate thread... TL's 7 and 6, respectively.

Lots of stuff can be manufactured below TL if the processed materials are available from the right HT source. It only takes TL3 casting tools to work modern polymer plastics... but making the plastics requires TL 6 gear to produce the plastic itself.

 

[Plankowner]

IMTU, that is how I explain the TL 9 Jump-1 drives.

I say that TL10 is required to develop Jump Drive, but it can be manufactured at TL9.

Using the old LBB2 ship designs and drives, the same arquement can be made for the capacity of the drives. While TL9 can build a Jump-C drive, it can be used on a 100tn ship to achieve Jump6. Not possible at TL9, but built at TL9 using TL15 knowledge and design work.