Technology

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Teaos
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Technology

Post by Teaos »

I enjoy Star Wars, but mostly the movies and a few games, I have been meanign to read some books but never got round to it yet, maybe next contract.

Is there an in unvierse reason, why technology is almost at a standstill for at leat 4000 years, from the KOTOR era, where they are said to still use some tech from 5000 years before that, to the "modern" Star Wars era where the tech doesnt seem much better, at most just BIGGER.

So is there any reason for this, apart from obviously better story telling, if the tech got much better you would be dealing with god like powers.
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Re: Technology

Post by Captain Seafort »

Because they've hit the point of diminishing returns in terms of what technology can do, and have got to the stage of simply refining existing kit. There obviously is progress, as you pointed out, and quite substantial progress at that, because simply being able to build bigger stuff that a) can move and b) doesn't fall apart under the stress of acceleration on its greater mass inherently means that their technology is better, but that progress is both slow and incremental.
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Re: Technology

Post by RK_Striker_JK_5 »

IIRC, there were also 'dark ages' during massive wars where civilization got really damaged. It's in some of the old 'Essential Guides', but I don't have them on me at the moment. Sorry.
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Re: Technology

Post by Teaos »

It just seems somewhat odd. That armor or weapons from literally thousands of years ago are still really good.
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Re: Technology

Post by Mikey »

Think about it this way: after the fall of Western Rome, there was no warrior on any battlefield that had the staying ability or toughness of the Roman cataphract until perhaps the transitional plate-and-mail/basinet suit of the early 15th century noble vassal warrior, and more realistically until Maximilian armor of the early 16th century. Forget about lack of progress - things went so far backward in between that it's almost laughable. What does that mean? Simply put, that the cataphract was the peak of armorial technology in such a way that there was nowhere to go aside from baby steps - the Milanese pleat that became so fashionable in Maximilian armor, or the high carbon content of Nuremberg steel, etc. There was no major advancement (save advancing back up to the baseline level) in the same way as you describe in the SW milieu, simply because there was nowhere to go.
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Re: Technology

Post by Teaos »

In Europe.

Asia and the MIddle East were hitting high point after high point during that period.

Which is kinda my point, this is a massive galaxy. With Hundreds of species, thousands of world and pentillions of people.

Even if one falls back a bit, it would be almost inconciveable for the whole universe, every species and planet to fall. The advances would be kept by a few then spread out again and imporved upon.
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Re: Technology

Post by McAvoy »

I vaguely remember that even thousands of years ago the SW universe had backpack laser guns or that is what the Essential Guides said.

The thing is with hand held weapons like a pistol or even rifle hoe advanced with how many options can you have before it is just ridiculous?

I think with shipboard weapons and heavy artillery you would see that sort of advancement.

Unless the limiting factor is energy production.
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Re: Technology

Post by Captain Seafort »

Teaos wrote:Which is kinda my point, this is a massive galaxy. With Hundreds of species, thousands of world and pentillions of people.

Even if one falls back a bit, it would be almost inconciveable for the whole universe, every species and planet to fall. The advances would be kept by a few then spread out again and imporved upon.
Billions of worlds, but one civilisation. With hyperdrive, they can get from the core to the outer rim as easily as we can go from London to Sidney. The only way any one of them can fall is if they all do.
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Re: Technology

Post by Mikey »

Teaos wrote:In Europe.

Asia and the MIddle East were hitting high point after high point during that period.

Which is kinda my point, this is a massive galaxy. With Hundreds of species, thousands of world and pentillions of people.

Even if one falls back a bit, it would be almost inconciveable for the whole universe, every species and planet to fall. The advances would be kept by a few then spread out again and imporved upon.
Cow pucks. As you're saying this to continue my example, armorial technology in Asia was different and beautiful, but in no way more advanced than that of 15th-16th c. Europe; while that of the Middle East was in fact behind that of Europe (in the case of Ottoman Turkey) or almost non-existent (in the case of Arabia, North Africa, and the Crescent.)

To even further the example; Asian armor was different from European armor of the time because of the different types of attacks against which it needed to defend - cutting attacks, for which the lamellar model of Asian armor was suited, versus the European crushing/bludgeoning attack which the spatha-derived sword delivered. If there were the equivalent of hyperdrive - say, a way to travel between Germany and Japan within a day or two - available to unite those medieval cultures the way hyperdrive erased distinctions in the SW galaxy, you would have seen all but the most cosmetic differences between European and Asian armor disappear.
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