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Old 05-25-2018, 08:14 AM   #1
Astromancer
 
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Default THS 2120!

If we were to relaunch the setting placing in 100 years on, what changes would be most needed? Which would be the most fun?
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Old 05-25-2018, 08:55 AM   #2
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Default Re: THS 2120!

Make HEDM mature, finally?
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Old 05-25-2018, 09:43 AM   #3
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Make HEDM mature, finally?
That would be pretty much a question of how you wanted to guesstimate technological progress of 20 years. There's nothing I know of in the last 20 years that makes the original TS estimate obviously too conservative.
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Old 05-25-2018, 10:54 AM   #4
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Default Re: THS 2120!

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That would be pretty much a question of how you wanted to guesstimate technological progress of 20 years. There's nothing I know of in the last 20 years that makes the original TS estimate obviously too conservative.
I'm pretty sure that THS diverged from our timeline earlier than in the 2000s, since it needed some preconditions for the very rapid space race. But from that divergence point, N+20 years of development offers better tech than N+0.

Plus it's just very annoying that a setting that calls itself Transhuman Space lacks such a basic non-TL^, mere TL9 technology despite being closer to TL10 than 9 in general.
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Old 05-25-2018, 12:26 PM   #5
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Default Re: THS 2120!

Like all interesting fiction, THS takes liberties with physics and sensibility.
As a setting conceit, biology is simpler and more predictable than in reality. So 20 years could easily lead to more "low-grade" superscience.
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Old 05-25-2018, 04:22 PM   #6
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Default Re: THS 2120!

Technological progress is related to economics. A great deal of 20th century technological progress involved putting the real economy ahead of the paper economy. If the financial interests are forced to take a back seat again, as in the 1940-1975 period, then rapid progress would be the norm again.
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Old 05-25-2018, 06:09 PM   #7
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Default Re: THS 2120!

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Originally Posted by Astromancer View Post
If we were to relaunch the setting placing in 100 years on, what changes would be most needed? Which would be the most fun?
I'd redo the whole thing in 2220, building on the scifi themes of today rather than 2000.

But I'd still probably leave that for another ten years.

THS 2230 here we come
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Old 05-25-2018, 06:14 PM   #8
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Originally Posted by vicky_molokh View Post
I'm pretty sure that THS diverged from our timeline earlier than in the 2000s, since it needed some preconditions for the very rapid space race. But from that divergence point, N+20 years of development offers better tech than N+0.

Plus it's just very annoying that a setting that calls itself Transhuman Space lacks such a basic non-TL^, mere TL9 technology despite being closer to TL10 than 9 in general.
HEDM was not a thing in 3e. TL9 or otherwise. Complaints that TS doesn't ft a 4e tech projection are anachronistic.

As for the Real world, the last I heard there may, just _may_ be a sample of stabilized metallic hydrogen in a cryostat awaiting analysis. That was a couple of months ago. We can't et say whether or not this will ever be an important technology.
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Old 05-25-2018, 09:37 PM   #9
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Technological progress is related to economics. A great deal of 20th century technological progress involved putting the real economy ahead of the paper economy. If the financial interests are forced to take a back seat again, as in the 1940-1975 period, then rapid progress would be the norm again.
Yeah, but is that chicken or egg? More likely finance took a back seat in 1940-1975 because technology was progressing rapidly (and the world wars). I say that not to start a debate about today but to make the point that you might need to reverse the relationship for THS 2120 to make sense.

If you want THS 2120 to look seriously different than THS2100, you need one or both of two things: a change in the basic kind of technological advancement, not just a speed-up, and/or a major political/social/cultural upheaval. A major System-wide war would do it, something serious, not just Pacific War II. So would scientific breakthroughs leading to new areas of advancement (and the two could easily come together, one triggering the other).

But if 20 years just means faster computers and so forth, not too much will be different.
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Old 05-26-2018, 12:46 AM   #10
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Default Re: THS 2120!

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Originally Posted by Fred Brackin View Post
HEDM was not a thing in 3e. TL9 or otherwise. Complaints that TS doesn't ft a 4e tech projection are anachronistic.
Touché. And I'll accept non-inclusion of HEDM if THS2120 gives a 'full go' to all the genies that newer (particularly 4e) THS books and articles tried to push back into the bottle (purely optical computing, actually TL9-TL10 memetics, polykeratin etc.).
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