On Tue, 2 Aug 2011, David Scheidt wrote:
And that's the thing that really bugs me about traveller. There's lots of
tech that's very clearly the wrong way to do things, even given a set of
limitations of technolgies and materials once you know better. (go look at
patents for automated cardboard box making in the first drcade of the 20th
centyry rjousands of patents, incremental umprovents on each other, and all
obsolete in a decade, without major advances in fundamental
Tech, just trial and error. ) And that makes it possible to make tl 7 (3e
tl) stuff with a tl5 industrial base. If you allow that there are really
plans, you can do better. (with my desktop computer I can do the design work
for a much better engine for the model t, which ford could have built from
the start. ).
I always interpreted Traveller TLs description in the form of "era from
earth history" as rough approximation rather then exatly like that era.
They may not build Model Ts, with Model T engines, but they might build
cars with similiar performance then a Model T, where most of the high TL
know how went into making it dependent only on low Tech maintanace and
spare parts.
The Taveller universe is rather thinly populated, and communication has
long timelags. The average Traveller world has a population similar to a
small town. For a lot of equipment such a world might not have a repair
specialist, but some interested amateur, or some general mechanic.
If an amateur or generalist can't repair it with the help of the manual
and local spareparts, you have weeks or months long waitung periods, plus
the costs of space travel.
So a lot of products will be built intentionally simple and fixable with
ducttape. And likely many of thoose products will give a low tech look and
feel.
There are some points where i disagree with Traveller canon equipment
however. For instance i do believe internal combustion engines will be the exception
rather then the norm for low and middle tech vehicles, and electric
engines, with high tech power cells be the norm. Power cells are not
extremly bulky, easy to store and transport, need practically no
maintance, replacing them once they are broken is easy and the demand is
easy to calculate.
Fuel for internal combustion engines requires quite some effort to
create/find and refine.
One mans groundfloor is an other mans earthmissle
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Johannes Trimmel
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