Re: Economics & Technology

At 09:10 AM 6/16/98 -0900, you wrote:
>Notice the difference between Traveller type background and 2300 AD
>style background - in one, we have vastly differing tech next to each
>other (TL 15 and TL 3....) and in the other, the tech tend to degrade
>somewhat uniformly from the homeworld out to the rim, but even the
>rim has some of the highest tech stuff. Two different models of how
>worlds would develop....

I think for the "official" FT background the 2300 AD model for colonial
development and technological disemination is closer to the mark.  In
both
cases you have a relatively homogenous pool of technology, good planets
are
hard(er) to find, most of the area is populated by humans and both
follow
the "nationalism in space" model.

The Classic Traveller model works better in some ways for backgrounds in
which 
habitable planets are relatively more common, and several different
cultures and species with overlapping spheres of influence exist.

Jeff