Which technologies have been replaced by brand new technologies? By which I mean nased on new physics rather than a new application of what we already know.
The shift from analogue to digital recording, the different mediums used to make those recordings are still based on the physics discovered at the turn of last century.
Similarly the shift from mechanical to electronic to transistor to microchip is based on hundred year old physics.
Where are the modern technologies based on a new physics theory?
We have got better at engineering, improved material science, but all underpinned by classical physics dating back to newton if not earlier to which we added quantum et al.
What are the real breakthroughs that revolutionise society - those are TL boundaries in my mind.
Humanity began is technological journey thinking it was magic, learn by doing, with no understanding of what was actually happening.
We cooked food, we then learned to use heat to decompose rocks, to make lime and metals (well the unrective ones).
As our furnaces improved more metals were discovered and glass making and high grade ceramics became doable.
All with no understanding of the physics and chemistry underpinning them - it was all learn by doing and repetition of what worked, with slowly discovered improvements to the processes.
We learned to selectively cultivate plants, animal husbandry and selective breeding - no genetic knowledge required.
We learned that rubbing materials would generate static, we discovered some rocks to be magnetic (but it would take thousands of years to understand them and link them and discover the electromagnetic spectrum).
Last night I had a thought. Extend the UWP. Starport - size, atmosphere, water - population , government, law lecel - TL, BT, EM, GT
TL - mechanics and material science TL
BT - biotech TL
EM - energy, electronic and ems TL
GT - gravitics TL
I know this needs work, it was just a thought before going to sleep.
If you think about this, there are just 4 periods in human history where technological development really had a massive change on things. Those are:
The Ancient Age. Most basic machines, to even include analog computers like the Antikythera Device, were invented. Inventions were often lost, reinvented, or invented in parallel in different societies. Knowledge was accumulated slowly, erratically, and often lost and rediscovered. 90% of the world's population farms with about 9% of the remainer doing somewhat more technical jobs like skilled trades and such. The nation-state in its basic form arises and empires on a regional level begin to exist. Warfare is either between a small handful of professionals like knights or scratch conscript armies lead by the handful of professionals. Fighting is mostly, but not entirely, similar to a rugby scrum with deadly consequences.
The Rennaissance or Age of Science. This period covers the invention of basic means to standardize, record, widely--at least fairly widely--disseminate knowledge and information. The printing press, scientific method, and early mass production of books and literature occur. The percentage of people needed to farm starts to drop and more persons start doing skilled labor. Political organization consolidates power and nation-states, and regional empires become longer lasting and more stable. In warfare professional armies supported by skilled, technical manpower, like artillerymen and arquebusers, appear for the first time. Firearms using chemical processes appear.
The Industrial Age. Ancient knowledge coupled with now available and standardized scientific knowledge leads to harnessing early man powered machines to new energy sources like coal, oil, or water. The water wheel, windmills, and steam are typical examples. These create the ability to mass produce goods and farm on a scale previously unimaginable. As this age progresses, farmers drop from 90% of the workforce to about 10 or less percent and semi-skilled and skilled labor become close to 70% with another 10% or so being full-time inventors, academics, etc. Global empires, colonization of distant regions, become possible. Warfare is industrialized and mass armies appear for the first time.
The Electronics Age. Science reaches a point where electromagnetism can be harnessed. For the first time in history, night is no longer a barrier to doing almost anything. Factories can work around the clock. Machinery is now able to do more and be more compact. With electronics, be it vacuum tubes or solid state, computing power begins to replace manpower and machines slowly become intelligent.
This is not the "Information Age" as many claim as the information was always there to begin with. The difference is electronics make it possible to store, parse, and share that information on a worldwide scale virtually instantaneously.
Farming continues to fall as an occupation as it becomes automated. Unskilled and semi-skilled work, likewise, becomes automated. Skilled workers, and those in intellectual pursuits add automation and information retrieval to complement their work process making them far more productive. A growing portion of the population become surplus, and humanity starts to see a decline in birth rates where the population begins to shrink.
The nation-state becomes a fixed thing based on previously defined borders. Colonized holdings free themselves of their masters and become self-sustaining nation-states on their own. Internationalism and Globalism appear. In warfare, intelligent weapons (think guided and precision) and remote-control warfare using electronic sensors, control systems, and weapons appear. The previous industrial age mass army becomes obsolete.
I think the next age will be that of Artificial Intelligence. Machines, computers, and data storage reach a point where they are self-sustaining and can replicate themselves. Humanity makes great pets. No longer confined by gravity, need for a very specific set of conditions for life, AI starts looking to find other AI in the universe.
I suppose you could add a pre-Ancient period to this, call it the Stone Age. Sentient, tool making, species harnesses energy (fire) and begins making tools. Intellectual advancement is slow, sporadic, and only organized on a local level.
There is, of course, some overlap between these periods, so when one ends, and one begins isn't easy to define.
Well, at least that's how I see it.
Germ theory, genetics, biochemistry and now quantum biology...
