CotI Project: Technologies

[hunter]

OK got a project I'd love some help with. I'm working on Tech Levels and technologies for SciFi20. Below is a TL chart from 0 to 20, broken into various historical eras. What I need is any rather significant technological discovery that was made during that era or the era in which it became a significant aspect of our civilization. Preferably one or two word suggestions like: plastics, antibiotics, greek fire, the internal combustion engine, etc...

Thanks in advance, and I'll compile the suggestions and make it available as a free download when we are done!

TL Equivalent Eras and Technologies on Earth
0 No Technology: Either no sentient life or early, non-advanced sentient life. Ends with the discovery of fire.

1 Stone Age (up to -4000): Early settlements, agriculture, writing, animal domestication. Wheel, lever, pulley.

2 Metal Age (-4000 to -1000): Small cities, copper and bronze working, early iron working. Early astronomy, paper, maps, bows

3 Age of Inquiry (-1000 to 1400): First advances in scientific theory, advanced engineering techniques, large cities, improved literacy, small empires, heliograph, the screw

4 Age of Exploration (1400-1600): Advances beyond immediate cultural territories, exploring and eventually expanding across the world. Printing press, gunpowder weapons

5 Industrial Age (1700-1899): Significant advances in agriculture, manufacturing, and transportation. Steam power, early machines, cottage factories, telegraph, electricity, rubber, hot air balloon, major advances in chemistry and biology. Discovery of bacteria, vaccinations, antiseptics

6 Machine Age (1900-1940): beginning of large scale manufacturing, development of flight, early pharmaceuticals, automobile, advances in sanitation, radio, film, cameras, plastics, airships, antibiotics, man-made textiles.

7 Atomic Age (1940-1960): The development of atomic power, hydrogen bombs, advances in medical treatments, rocketry, armor, helicopter, computer, television, telephone, aluminum, lasers.

8 Space Age (1960-1980): Advanced rocketry, early computers, pollution, satellites, transistor, electronics. Transplant surgery, early artificial organs (dialysis, iron lung), joint replacements, heart valve replacements

9 Information Age (1980-1999): advanced computers, networking, mobile phones, hand computers, cable television, electric cars, early fuel cells, advanced composite materials. Improved radiography (MRI, CT scan), cloning.

10 Age of Robots (2000-2040) Robots of all manner and function become commonplace. Advanced prosthetics, early cybernetics, scramjets

11 Fusion Age (2040-2070) Discovery of reliable and economical fusion power systems.

12 Solar Era (2070-2097) Expansion into the local planetary system.

13 Diaspora or Colonial Era (2098+) The discovery of the means to reach extra-solar planets within the lifetime of the crew begins an exodus of the race from their homeworld out into the vast galaxy itself.

14 Interstellar Era: The race is firmly established on multiple extra-solar planets and has developed a viable form of cooperation, trade and governance between these worlds.

15 Age of Empires: Local space is dominated by large empires and alliances spanning thousands of worlds and star systems.

16 Antimatter Age: The discovery of controllable and affordable antimatter reaction chambers as primary power sources.

17 Age of Transformation: The discovery of widescale and viable planetary terraforming.

18 Singularity Era: The discovery of the ability to create and harness the power of quantum scale black holes.

19 Teleportation Age: The discovery of the matter transporter across planetary distances.


20 Galactic Age

21 Universal Age

22 I have no clue…

 

[Border Reiver]

I'm about to make a few medical suggestions but I've noticed a 900 year gap between TL3 & TL4.

 

[Border Reiver]

Anyhow TL3 early applied medicine and surgery.

 

[Border Reiver]

Except the Indians, Egyptians and others were practicing surgery and dentistry with texts on it in 3000 BCE.

 

[Border Reiver]

Ok TL5 Advances in Chemistry, Biology. Discovery of Bacteria (resulting in new theories of epidemiology). Hygeine (antiseptics). Vaccinations.

TL6 Antibiotics, Man-made textiles (as a consequence of plastics),

TL8 Transplant Surgery (started in 1954 but did not come in to its own until the sixties). Early artificial organs (dialysis, iron lung, hip joints, valve replacement)

TL9 Improved Radiography (CT scan, MRI). Artificial organs. Cloning

TL10 Advanced prosthetics. Early cybernetic technology. Scramjets. Early Nanotech. Biotech advances.

 

[Icosahedron]

A few more ideas:

TL 0 Ends with creation of fire?

TL1 the wheel, the lever, the pulley

TL2 Early astronomy, paper and mapmaking, bow & arrow

TL3 heliograph, the screw

TL 3.5 (500 - 1400) printing press, gunpowder, cannon

TL4 personal firearms

TL 4.5 (1600 - 1700) hot air balloon

TL5 airships

TL8 lasers

TL11 Anti-grav, the Hydrogen economy, viable extra-terrestrial habitats, non-rocket spacecraft

TL22 Transcendance?

 

[hunter]

I'm about to make a few medical suggestions but I've noticed a 900 year gap between TL3 & TL4.

Oops yeah, left out the dark and middle ages because I couldn't come up with a better term for the period. The terms dark and middle age work for humans but not necessarily other civilizations.

 

[far-trader]

Oops yeah, left out the dark and middle ages because I couldn't come up with a better term for the period. The terms dark and middle age work for humans but not necessarily other civilizations.

Age of Superstition?

I dunno, just a shot in the dark

Seriously though you might just leave it unspoken (fill in the years to either... oh, you already did, never mind ), it (the Dark Ages) wasn't really a period of development so much as a non-event. More of a political invention by those who followed.

 

[hunter]

Age of Superstition?

I dunno, just a shot in the dark

Seriously though you might just leave it unspoken (fill in the years to either... oh, you already did, never mind ), it wasn't really a period of development so much as a non-event. More of a political invention by those who followed.

Yup, that was the problem I was running into. Not really a period of development, more one of stagnation and maybe even regression.

But Age of Superstition is not bad

 

[Border Reiver]

I suppose from a Western European viewpoint it was a bit stagnant but there was plenty going on in the rest of the world....kind of makes referencing tech levels to dates difficult but it's the best reference we have.

sciencetimeline.net is just the first resource I've found that may make this task a little easier. I'm just googling randomly so I'm sure I'll find more.

 

[hunter]

Ok, I got most of those suggestions added and updated in the original post. Thanks for the input so far!

I'm avoiding Traveller specific discoveries at the moment and trying to stick with reasonably hard-tech based on our own history and knowledge. Now that doesn't mean I'm not going to add the Traveller type stuff and other sci-fi tech, it's just not what I am looking for right now.

 

[DaveChase]

Psi

7 Atomic Age (1940-1960): The development of atomic power, hydrogen bombs, advances in medical treatments, rocketry, armor, helicopter, computer, television, telephone, aluminum, lasers.

8 Space Age (1960-1980): Advanced rocketry, early computers, pollution, satellites, transistor, electronics. Transplant surgery, early artificial organs (dialysis, iron lung), joint replacements, heart valve replacements

9 Information Age (1980-1999): advanced computers, networking, mobile phones, hand computers, cable television, electric cars, early fuel cells, advanced composite materials. Improved radiography (MRI, CT scan), cloning.

…

Maybe not the easiest to place since it is not considered a true science (yet).

Lot of scientists try to prove or disapprove PSI and the like. May the theroy of PSI and the like start during this time.
(Magic could also be proved or disapproved during this time.)

Dave Chase

 

[JAFARR]

Maybe I missed it, but how about glass making? not sure just where it fits in this time line. The trouble is a lots of these things overlap depending on just who discovers them. Lots of things in human history were discovered multiple times by independent researchers in different cultures/civilization lines.

 

[Icosahedron]

Lots of things in human history were discovered multiple times by independent researchers in different cultures/civilization lines.

Yeah, and many things could have been discovered long before they actually were - AFAIK nothing to prevent Roman steam engines, batteries and hot air balloons, for example.

Also, with outside help from an Imperium eager for trade, these Earth timelines would get really messed about.

Maybe Traveller needs a timeline indicating the minimum level of development at which a technology could be introduced, rather than the level at which it arbitrarily happened to be discovered on Earth.

But then would it still be Traveller?

 

[pendragonman]

Yeah, and many things could have been discovered long before they actually were - AFAIK nothing to prevent Roman steam engines, batteries and hot air balloons, for example.

Also, with outside help from an Imperium eager for trade, these Earth timelines would get really messed about.

Maybe Traveller needs a timeline indicating the minimum level of development at which a technology could be introduced, rather than the level at which it arbitrarily happened to be discovered on Earth.

But then would it still be Traveller?

Hero of Alexandria had the first steam engine around 50 A.D.

Batteries can be dated back to around 200 B.C. (see Baghdad Battery)

So, when you say things could have been discovered before they were, do you really mean the Romans, or do you mean to go back even farther?

 

[robject]

Yup, that was the problem I was running into. Not really a period of development, more one of stagnation and maybe even regression.

But Age of Superstition is not bad

The Age of Natural Science, believe it or not:

The Horse Collar
The Stirrup
The Windmill
Genetic Theory (Gregor Mendel)
The Printing Press?

All of these are relatively simple ideas with wide-ranging implications.

 

[Icosahedron]

I thought Mendel was c1700? I could be wrong - it wouldn't be the first time.

 

[Plankowner]

Looking at the higher end of the Tech Table:

TL6: Machine Age: This is also where Quantum Theory, Relativity etc was first developed, to be used at TL7.

TL13 is SUBLIGHT Speed interstellar travel. (Think Ursula K. LeGuin's stuff). Also, Grand Theory of Everything initially developed here, but refined over the next 2 TLs.

TL 14 is FTL travel in whatever form is decided. Artificial Gravity on a practical (ship) scale?

TL 16 Antimatter Age: Nanite manufacturing eliminates the need for conflict over resources and "money"

TL 17 Transformation Era: Terraforming due to Nanite development. True Artificial Intelligence?

TL 19 Singularity Era: True Unified Theory developed allowing for the possibility of Dimensional and Time Travel.

TL 20 Galactic Era: Trans-Dimensional Travel is possible

TL 21 Universal Era: Time Travel is possible.

TL 22 Transcendance: Evolve into Energy Beings/Higher Plane of existence. (think Q from ST or the Ancients from Stargate SG1).

 

[Icosahedron]

Hero of Alexandria had the first steam engine around 50 A.D.

Batteries can be dated back to around 200 B.C. (see Baghdad Battery)

So, when you say things could have been discovered before they were, do you really mean the Romans, or do you mean to go back even farther?

I was aware of these earlier discoveries, Pendragonman.
I agree, most of the inventions of Leonardo could equally have been devised by Archimedes, and yet few of them were put into production until the 20th century!

I picked on the Romans as a 'world government' who could have used these devices on an industrial level.

The Greek sphere of influence was not so wide IIRC, and was based on Bronze, I believe.

The Romans were skilled in the use of iron. This would have made their machines much more capable - comparable perhaps with those of the 1700s.

The Greeks (and possibly Assyrians) could have used these devices as curiosities, but probably not put them to wide enough use to define a TL by them. The Romans just might.

I therefore suggest the Roman culture as the earliest at which a Steam Power TL could be sustained.

By comparison, AD1700 is just arbitrary. The Steam Engine could have been developed (better word than 'discovered') any time in the previous 1500 years.

 

[robject]

I thought Mendel was c1700? I could be wrong - it wouldn't be the first time.

Thanks for the correction (late 1800s actually).