Average Age of Retirement by TL

[Condottiere]

W

What make and model smart phone do you have? Do you connect your laptops to the internet, do you try to run modern software on them?

My brother donated his (very and old) Sony and Huawei to me, since I've been rather dubious of the relative value of any smartphone; I'm sort of wading around until I find a suitable six and a half plus incher that I can use as video player, ever since I saw someone attaching/hanging one to the serving tray on a plane; I've regretted buying tablets, they're too heavy, and the only real use is as PDF readers, subsidiary video players on the go.

So, I installed Windows/Eleven on the old laptops, took forever to synchronize Youtube playback, even after I had increased Random Access Memory; would have reinstalled Linux, but decided just to poach some newer laptops as being less stressful.

If you want my opinion on smartphones, triple/fold will replace tablets, and triple/flip smartphones is the future, since you can have them pager size, and have the full, presumable sevenish inch, screen.

In the meantime, I'll just chug along on free/cheapish smartphone(s), and modernish laptops with organic keyboards.

 

[Arkathan]

And then there's Universal Basic Income.

Health care in that system only benefits people who do not need health care. The system is set up to deny or delay services to people with expensive problems, as a recent Bill Gates tour demonstrated.

 

[Arkathan]

Why do you need pensions?

Pensions are meant as financial support when your body is too old to work.

The question most governments, since you assume they bear responsibility for financing it, will allow access to it, and to what degree.

In a post scarcity civilization, it probably won't matter.

And in ours, the average number of years that the system can finance a pensioner, before their expected expiration date.

Companies used to offer pensions, and public service still does, or did until recently. Some are switching over to a 401k model instead.
I was fortunate to retire at 55 with no debt.

 

[Condottiere]

That would depend on a number of factors, socioeconomic political.

I think malicious compliance would be at work here; when it was proposed here, I knew it wouldn't pass, if only because it works if every region or nation state had it, and as a compromise, the bureaucracy that that acted as a social safety net would be abolished.

 

[Condottiere]

Companies used to offer pensions, and public service still does, or did until recently. Some are switching over to a 401k model instead.
I was fortunate to retire at 55 with no debt.

There's a complexity to the issue of pensions, that can't be resolved, as well as a sort of inherent contradiction in terms of corporate, I think, duty and responsibility.

It's not an accident that I was trying to eliminate pensions from the CAVALRY mustering out benefits.

 

[AndrewW]

My brother donated his (very and old) Sony and Huawei to me, since I've been rather dubious of the relative value of any smartphone; I'm sort of wading around until I find a suitable six and a half plus incher that I can use as video player, ever since I saw someone attaching/hanging one to the serving tray on a plane; I've regretted buying tablets, they're too heavy, and the only real use is as PDF readers, subsidiary video players on the go.

No reason not to as long as it works for you. My smartphone model came out in January 2021, only got that one when the old one was going out. Don't use it much anyways.

I was perfectly fine with the desktop until things went out and ended up replacing the CPU/motherboard/memory about a year ago. Laptop was replaced a bit before that when the old one stopped working.

 

[MasterGwydion]

It's a reason why I decided to list the stuff I'd want in if I lived in the Chartered Space.

You can split technological levels, as to what you'd be comfortable with.

I'd say another perspective is, what the consumer has access to in terms of technological level.

I went cheap and bought two over decade old four core laptops in a rather large flea market for about one hundred ninety bux, hated the performance, and bought four (returned) last year model six core Lenovos (I don't need four, but they were a third to half off, probably because they were English International, and I stalked the site until the prices dropped) from my preferred retailer chain.

I'd say computer technology has plateaued, and anything that is a couple of years old is more than enough for eighty to ninety five percent of the stuff most people would want to use them for.

Ummm... You do realize you just said that you won't buy TL-7 computers because computers haven't changed much since TL-7, when We are in TL-7. A computer 20 years old is still TL-7. You may want to reconsider your assumptions on this.

So, voluntarily, you won't find across the board technological level fifteen residents with cutting edge gadgets at home.

See above.

 

[Condottiere]

I bought tablets because I didn't want to pay a large amount for laptops.

Sometime, during lockdown, I discovered that laptop performance had improved immeasurably, and the price had dropped drastically, and I could replace the Fifty Six Hundred Gees with something more portable; Seventy Five Hundred Thirty laptops processors don't have the same amount of horsepower, but a little pony was enough since it had wings, magical performance, and was user friendly.

It's not that I used old technology, it's more that Moore's Law came to fruition, at the price I was willing to pay.

 

[Sigtrygg]

So how do you access the internet on your tablets and old laptops? Dial up modems? Or is it via wireless and exchanges that do use the latest technology.
Your interface may be a few upgrade cycles behind the times, but the infrastructure they use is not 3G anymore...

 

[Condottiere]

DOWNLOAD Mbps
27.05
UPLOAD Mbps
7.24
Ping ms 7 98 576

I've requested an upgrade, but we're pretty low priority for fibre glass.

 

[Condottiere]

Anyway, the populace of a high technology world has access to to these technologies, they may choose not to use them.

One reason could be opportunity cost.

The other could be that they don't need that performance.

 

[MasterGwydion]

Anyway, the populace of a high technology world has access to to these technologies, they may choose not to use them.

One reason could be opportunity cost.

The other could be that they don't need that performance.

Okay. I will try and explain computers in Traveller. You live in a TL-15 society. You only need Computer/1. Baseline Computer/1 is TL-8. You can spend 250Cr on a TL-8 Computer/1 and it weighs 2kg... or you can buy a TL-15 Computer/1 and it will cost 2Cr and weigh 15.3 grams. Why would someone pay more for something clunkier with the same performance and the ability to run TL-15 (or lower) software?

Edit: Also, you will have to import that TL-8 Computer from elsewhere, increasing the price further.

 

[MasterGwydion]

No. If the whole purpose was money then the Imperium would intervene in world affairs to increase TL and population.

Perhaps you have never heard of Cleon I? Or him sending "makers" to worlds to increase their TL and entice them into joining the Third Imperium?

 

[Limpin Legin]

Your interface may be a few upgrade cycles behind the times, but the infrastructure they use is not 3G anymore.

Wouldn't say that is entirely true. Even with a 5G phone + 5G SIM, I still haven't discovered any 5G networks in my area over the last three years. However, I can get Internet service with HSPA+, 3G and 4G where ever I travel.

Okay. I will try and explain computers in Traveller. You live in a TL-15 society. You only need Computer/1. Baseline Computer/1 is TL-8. You can spend 250Cr on a TL-8 Computer/1 and it weighs 2kg... or you can buy a TL-15 Computer/1 and it will cost 2Cr and weigh 15.3 grams. Why would someone pay more for something clunkier with the same performance and the ability to run TL-15 (or lower) software?

That would be a good argument. However, if someone offered you a Computer/5 and you only needed a Computer/1, then you may not consider that agreeable, whatever the TL level.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Perhaps you have never heard of Cleon I? Or him sending "makers" to worlds to increase their TL and entice them into joining the Third Imperium?

I'm pretty sure I am the one who told you about it (Agent of the Imperium)... and some of those worlds are 10 years away at jump 5

but it does beg the question why the Third Imperium doesn't raise the populations and TLs of worlds to generate more wealth. It is what capitalists would do.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Wouldn't say that is entirely true. Even with a 5G phone + 5G SIM, I still haven't discovered any 5G networks in my area over the last three years. However, I can get Internet service with HSPA+, 3G and 4G where ever I travel.

That would be a good argument. However, if someone offered you a Computer/5 and you only needed a Computer/1, then you may not consider that agreeable, whatever the TL level.

4G is way above 3G, and all the exchanges have up to date kit.

Where do you think the $42 billion has gone to provide interweb service for rural America.

 

[MasterGwydion]

I'm pretty sure I am the one who told you about it (Agent of the Imperium)... and some of those worlds are 10 years away at jump 5

but it does beg the question why the Third Imperium doesn't raise the populations and TLs of worlds to generate more wealth. It is what capitalists would do.

Yes, you are. lolz! Cleon's whole method of empire-building was based on the model of raising the TLs of it's new member worlds. Why they stopped would be a better question.

 

[MasterGwydion]

That would be a good argument. However, if someone offered you a Computer/5 and you only needed a Computer/1, then you may not consider that agreeable, whatever the TL level.

As long as the price, cost, and size were the same, since you are ignoring TLs, why wouldn't you take it? "Oh no! I have too much capability! The horror!" lol

 

[Limpin Legin]

As long as the price, cost, and size were the same, since you are ignoring TLs, why wouldn't you take it? "Oh no! I have too much capability! The horror!" lol

In such circumstances, there would be no consumer choice. The retailer simply wouldn't stock the older model of the same concept and, knowing this, the manufacture would likely decommission or otherwise depreciate the old tech.
If you could obtain fine wine for the same price as vinegar , then you'd choose fine wine. However, for the same price, you might not necessarily choose sparkling wine for every occasion.

 

[Condottiere]

Six Gee looks very promising, and as I understand it, increases bandwidth, by using a wider bandwidth.

Five Gee is more expensive to operate than Four Gee.

Energy cost usually isn't an issue in Traveller, but probably the cost of the equipment and installation.

How sophisticated a washing machine do you really need?