Re: Planetary Infrastructure/Invasion/etc

At 09:10 AM 6/16/98 -0900, Jared E Noble wrote:
SNIP
>>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 this is largely because classic traveller seemed to carry a bit
>more of the Star Trek Altruism with it. The only reason I can think of
that
>a TL 15 empire, a thousand years old, that spans thousands of light
years,
>would have TL 3 planets inside it is that people are intentionally
leaving
>it alone, perhaps allowing the native population to develop
independantly.
>Shades of ST's 'Prime Directive'.

Actually it is because that is the Tech Level of items that can be
locally
produced and are thus much more abundant and likely to be seen.  Plus
some
planets forbid certain technologies among their citizenry for various
regions (religion, politcs, etc).
It has nothing to do with any sort of "Star Trek Altruism" as far as I
can
tell.

>
>Or on a more sinister note, the high-tech imperialists could be keeping
the
>natives primitive so they cannot effectively resists, and may not even
>understand, while they rape their world's resources, but somehow this
>doesn't seem to fit as well.

It fits perfectly.  This is yet another reason for a TL3 next to a TL 15
world.	There is also the fact that some planets don't want to give
their
high tech toys to their neighbors in case their neigbhors turn into some
sort of military technology and use it against them.  This can be seen
today with the U.S. and China regarding satellite technology.

Don't forget that much of the world is a lower tech level than most of
the
western nations and some would argue that Japan is certainly a tech
level
ahead in some technologies and some places are still functionally stone
age.

Later,

Ryan aka Shrike
voivode@io.com

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