What TL is Traveller?

[Infojunky]

Consider this why is Western Europe's and Japan's "Native" population declining?

As usual with cultures and societies, there are many factors involved, but
I am convinced that the development of the medical technology is a very
important one - just think of the consequences of the introduction of easy
to use contraceptives (clearly to be seen in pregnancy statistics).

I'm not discounting Medical Tech, it's just not the panacea that you seem to think.

To put it bluntly could your parents afford to raise more children?

Did their economic viability depend on the number children produced?

Does their religion dictate the spacing and number of children?

Do they live in a urban or rural environment? What is the overall population density?

What is/was their overall quality of life?

These are all considerations that have significant weight.

The only reason I am hitting these issues is that these are system by system questions, In terms of the entire Imperium there are no standards just medians.

In most ways a technical. cultural and economic assessments need to exist along side each other for any place. Any one thing is only a part of the whole picture. Something like the HDI is probably a good place to start.

But really we have devolved to arguing specifics instead of generalities.

 

[rust]

I'm not discounting Medical Tech, it's just not the panacea that you seem to think.

This would be a misunderstanding. As I wrote, I see it as a very important
factor among many other factors - not more, not less.

 

[alex_greene]

Tell me about it.

 

[Ishmael]

in the end, regardless of tech level, people just want to eat, sleep, goof off, and have sex. Advances in tech levels allow more time to be spent doing those things ( or doing those things better ), instead of spending time obtaining those things, or preparing to do those things,

Even money and power are just for obtaining and/or making doing those things easier.

Cultural characteristics are the manners in which doing those things are controlled, usually for the benefit of those in power. ..... and how changes in how those things are done due to technological advancement are regulated. Those manners, if they remain in place for an extended period of time, become customs. According to Mark Twain, " Laws are set in sand, but customs is set in stone ". This benefits those in power ( and their ability to obtain and eat, sleep, goof off, and have sex ) by maintaining the status quo where those in power can remain in power ( and eat, sleep, goof off, and have sex. )
Cultural attitudes towards doing those things are set long before tech advances come into play.

And with aliens, cultural differences are more important than biological differences except where it affects the aliens' ability to eat , sleep, goof off, and have sex.
Aliens as humans in rubber suits don't bother me so long as the alien culture is different from what I'm accustomed to within my own culture.

about medical tech..
it allows us to goof off more and have more sex over a longer life span. Better sex too through increased vigor. It allows us to eat better tasting foods with the assurance of escaping bad eating habits and clogged arteries. And even has stuff for helping us sleep more/better, too. Fixes us up after getting beat/shot quicker, with less loss of function so we can get back to eating, sleeping, goofing off and having sex.

 

[rust]

Ah ... while I understand most of it and agree with it ... what does "goof off" mean ? :?

 

[DCAnsell]

Ah ... while I understand most of it and agree with it ... what does "goof off" mean ? :?

Leisure activities might be a less colloquial term, even if that activity is just sitting around doing not much of anything.

You know, like trolling on boards about a science fiction roleplaying game, just to see what people have to say.

 

[rust]

Thank you very much - my dictionary left me in the dark in this case.

 

[Ishmael]

sorry rust
I guess I tend to type using the same words I'd say if speaking
Leisure activities like RPG's and movies and model railroading

 

[klingsor]

I was wondering about part of this yesterday. With higher TL medical technology women may not want the fuss of pregnancy - babies might often be carried to term in an artificial womb - indeed even conceived artificially, if not involving outright genetic engineering which the Imperium does not seem to approve of then at least screening for anything unpleasant - so birth defects will be nearly non-existent on high TL worlds. This could put a very different spin on child kidnapping.

I believe there is some fuss with some deaf people not wanting their children to be screened to preserve 'deaf culture' so one could extrapolate from this. There will be always be religious or other groups which see things differently. Weirdly I am reminded of the old Dr. Who story The Invasion of Time (1978) where outside of the Gallifrey, probably the most high TL planet in the universe, there were hunter gatherers who had rejected the high TL society.

Elizabeth Moon has touched on some of these questions in her Familias Regnant/Serrano Legacy and Vatta's War series. Good stores, entertaining and worth stealing from. Good settings as well (hint, hint Mongoose). David Weber and other writers have as well in some of the spin off stories from his Honor Harrington series - particularly the consequences of genetic engineering combined with high TL slavery.

Fierarms damage. You only need to kill a man once so once guns became good enough to do that there was not much point in further increasing their power (except for more specialist purposes) so other things improved instead - mass, accuracy, reliability but this is tricky and confusing. One could argue convincingly that a late 19th century bolt-action rifle is more powerful, more accurate, more reliable and longer ranged than a modern assault rifle. Armour complicates things, so penetrating it becomes the new goal.

PCs seem to operate on the fringe, where high TL meets low. They visit the high TL worlds but the adventures take place on the frontier. I think this is pretty easy to explain, high TL worlds are less exciting and doing the sort of things PCs usually, in fact inevitably, do suddenly leads to an adventure in prison or a mental hospital - which if it is a high TL facility is not going to be a good game.