Tech Levels in Fictional Worlds

[Kymage]

I was pondering tech levels the other day and I was wondering what tech levels to assign various fictional worlds. I thought I would throw it out to the forum to see what they all thought.

Some fictional worlds and my thoughts on their tech levels

Man in the High Castle- TL7 with some elements of TL8 as to space travel (Mars and the like)
Star Trek- TL12^
Firefly- TL9^
Babylon 5- TL9^
The Big Bang Theory- TL8^ (I know, it's probably just a vanilla TL 8, but come on Sheldon is bound to do something that fits the description of Super Science.)

Discuss these and let me know your ideas as to other Fictional Worlds

[Ragitsu]

Perfect Dark - TL9
Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magick Obscura - TL5 with magic (obviously)
Gattaca - early TL9 with lots of TL8 technology
Stargate Atlantis - TL 11+, at least concerning the Ancients
Iron Man (the movie) - TL8^
Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade - TL6

[Maz]

If this is going to be more than just some namedropping with random numbers I think you should take the time and set down TL by categories. An overall tech level is both misleading and wrong in most cases.

Gattaca for instance would be TL:8 but with TL:9 bio-tech. Most of the rest of the tech is just late TL:8 or tech we got today applied differently.

Ironman as such is TL:8 the supertech is limited to "superheroes and supervillain" it's not implemented in the world.

Firefly is actually pretty realistic. IS there any supertech at all (is Tam's brainstuff superscience)? I can't even remember if they have any form of FTL travel? Also it would be more meaningful to distinguish between the Alliance and the worlds and people you see in the series.


Ok I don't know all the settings but, I just think it should be more detailed if it should be of help to anyone. Good idea though :)

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Maz

Gattaca for instance would be TL:8 but with TL:9 bio-tech. Most of the rest of the tech is just late TL:8 or tech we got today applied differently.

Firefly is actually pretty realistic. IS there any supertech at all (is Tam's brainstuff superscience)? I can't even remember if they have any form of FTL travel? Also it would be more meaningful to distinguish between the Alliance and the worlds and people you see in the series.

Gattaca: that instant DNA scan and total health read-out is pretty impressive. Beyond TL8 if it isn't superscience and there was that long range space mission the hero finagled his way into. That's at least TL9 too. The rest of it may not have been gaudy but I would have no problems with a full (hard science)TL9.

Firefly: There's contragravity and artificial gravity all over the place and miraculous terraforming beyond anything in UT. Lots of superscience. The outworlds may be as low as TL7^ but the coreworlds may be as high as TL11^ without a few gaudy things. The laser pistols you see in 2 of the TV episodes were solid TL10 (and one of those was an antique).

[Ragitsu]

Originally Posted by Maz

If this is going to be more than just some namedropping with random numbers I think you should take the time and set down TL by categories. An overall tech level is both misleading and wrong in most cases.

Gattaca for instance would be TL:8 but with TL:9 bio-tech. Most of the rest of the tech is just late TL:8 or tech we got today applied differently.

Ironman as such is TL:8 the supertech is limited to "superheroes and supervillain" it's not implemented in the world.

Firefly is actually pretty realistic. IS there any supertech at all (is Tam's brainstuff superscience)? I can't even remember if they have any form of FTL travel? Also it would be more meaningful to distinguish between the Alliance and the worlds and people you see in the series.


Ok I don't know all the settings but, I just think it should be more detailed if it should be of help to anyone. Good idea though :)

Calm down Maz, i'm just making casual guesses: you are free to expand on them if you wish.

Don't forget the widespread (which also means economically viable) use of electrical cars in Gattaca, which I believe further supports my claim of "early TL9". There's also the space travel technology.

[DAlillama]

Originally Posted by Maz

Firefly is actually pretty realistic. IS there any supertech at all (is Tam's brainstuff superscience)? I can't even remember if they have any form of FTL travel? Also it would be more meaningful to distinguish between the Alliance and the worlds and people you see in the series.

They've got artificial gravity, and I'm pretty sure those aren't chemical rockets they're flying around with; the Alliance also has energy weapons and relatively fast (years to decades, apparently) terraforming. Most of the outer worlds seem to mostly exist at TL 5-6, with a few high tech gimmicks (holographic pool tables, forcefield windows on little frontier saloons etc.).

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by DAlillama

forcefield windows on little frontier saloons etc.

That always made me chuckle.

I felt like I could almost read the "BS&P Approved" label in the corner.

[Vaevictis Asmadi]

I really wish there was more about tech levels in the Basic Set... I can't even find out what level artificial gravity is.

In the B5 universe, there are several tech levels, ranging from races without spacefaring technology who rate TL8 or maybe 9, all the way up to the First Ones who may be TL12. (Lorien doesn't count; he seems to use no technology at all!) Among the younger races, Minbari and technomages seem to be ahead of the (non-technomage) Humans by a level or two.

[TheScrivener]

Artgrav is generally considered TL10 superscience - anything manipulating gravity is generally superscience, including reactionless drives, contragravity propulsion, and tractor beams, since they don't jive with currently understood physics. Your earliest gravtech shows up in TL9, but most of it's TL10, with some stuff like flying belts and grav guns not showing up until TL11.

Ultra-Tech is the greatest!

[David Johnston2]

Naruto: TL 8 computers and communications (although it lacks the infrastructure for much in the way of over-the-horizon communication), TL 5 transportation, TL 4^ weapons and armour, TL 6 power, TL 9^ biotechnology.