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Originally Posted by Paul
Look again; both Kromm and I have said, very clearly, that the final name hasn't been decided. "Low-Tech," "Fantasy-Tech," "Fantastic-Tech," and "Stoddard's House of Grass Clippings" are all in the running.
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Disclaimer: I'm just now getting back into GURPS after about a decade away, so I may be way off-base now that G4e is in the mix....
The three major divisions - to me - have always seemed like muscle-power, gunpowder, and fusion power. (Hey, I had to make it rhyme somehow.) It always seemed intuitive to me that Low-Tech would handle things that a person or a small community could make with the classic "simple machines" and muscle power, High-Tech handles things once we get into other sources of power (Industrial Revolution) through the modern day, and Ultra-Tech handles theoretical concepts that we're just now making the tools to make the tools to work with - from stardrives and fusion to neural maps and molycircs. Or, to put it in lay terms - D&D is Group I, Steampunk is Group II, and Cyberpunk is Group III.
As for how that maps in G4e tech level terms, I gather Group I goes through about TL4, Group II takes us to TL8, and Group III is "anything after that."
As far as the names of the books go, I certainly see strong traditional reasons for maintaining the Low/High/Ultra-Tech branding. It's intuitive for newcomers and doesn't confuse the issue with upgraders. All the same, I certainly agree that TL5 isn't what I'd expect out of "High-Tech" - that name seems more modern-day to me. Perhaps an "Age" scheme could work well: the Iron Age, the Mechanical Age, and the Nanotech Age?