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Old 02-03-2023, 05:11 AM   #11
johndallman
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Default Re: What is our TL?

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. . . where are we compared to what we were when 4e was released?
The TL boundary is probably only going to be clear in retrospect, from a decade or so later.
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Old 02-03-2023, 01:48 PM   #12
Michael Thayne
 
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Default Re: What is our TL?

In 1999, GURPS defined TL7 as spanning 1951-2000. Then in the year 2000 Kromm published an article noting we'd soon "officially" be at TL8. Then in 2004 we got 4e redefining TL7 as 1940-1980 and TL8 as 1980-present. So you guess that in another 20 years or so TL8 will be redefined as 1980-2020. but for purposes of games set in 2023, I don't think things have changed enough to warrant worrying too much about this. There have been incremental improvements in military technology, many of which were I think covered in a Pyramid volume 3 article somewhere, and the lack of anything like the iPhone in High-Tech 4e is conspicuous (though honestly that's something I would handwave by saying a Good-quality cellphone can have any gadget that's standard for smartphones in the year the campaign takes place, as part of the Good-quality price multiplier). But mostly it doesn't matter.
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Old 02-03-2023, 02:01 PM   #13
Michael Thayne
 
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Default Re: What is our TL?

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The TL boundary is probably only going to be clear in retrospect, from a decade or so later.
I don't think there's such a thing as a clear TL boundary. Really, you just want to contrive to keep TL boundaries away from popular time periods for running games in (a category which includes "the present day", whenever that presently is). So you make the TL6/TL7 boundary either before or after WWII, not in the middle of it. (GURPS 4e does the former, GURPS 3e does the latter.) You put the start of "the current TL" about 30 years in the past. And so on.
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Old 02-03-2023, 02:06 PM   #14
David Johnston2
 
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Default Re: What is our TL?

8. Still solidly 8. Practical fusion power is still 20 years away, same as always. Sure, we have a bit of genetic engineering but nothing close to the stuff Biotech has at TL 9. As for the brain chips, they still haven't figured out how to get it to stop killing test subjects much less do anything useful with them.
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Old 02-03-2023, 03:19 PM   #15
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Default Re: What is our TL?

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Originally Posted by Michael Thayne View Post
In 1999, GURPS defined TL7 as spanning 1951-2000. Then in the year 2000 Kromm published an article noting we'd soon "officially" be at TL8. Then in 2004 we got 4e redefining TL7 as 1940-1980 and TL8 as 1980-present.
The shift in TL boundaries between 3E and 4E was in part influenced by going from 16 TLs to 12.
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Old 02-03-2023, 03:53 PM   #16
David Johnston2
 
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The shift in TL boundaries between 3E and 4E was in part influenced by going from 16 TLs to 12.
And that was influenced by the creation of the superscience categorization.
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Old 02-03-2023, 04:22 PM   #17
Michael Thayne
 
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Default Re: What is our TL?

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The shift in TL boundaries between 3E and 4E was in part influenced by going from 16 TLs to 12.
It was big for Ultra-Tech but it's not what drove the change from "present day is TL7" to "present day is TL8". If anything, reducing the number of tech levels should have pushed TL8 farther off into the future. I think it more reflects the many years of technological advancement—particularly electronics—since the GURPS TL system was first introduced, plus the fact that even before 2000 a lot of GURPS books were having to distinguish between "early TL7" and "late TL7" in a way they tended not to for earlier TLs.
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Old 02-03-2023, 06:49 PM   #18
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We're TL9 in computers & electronics because GURPS Uklratech never took into account how fast the real world would develop computers and communications tech. But everything else is mature TL8.
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Old 02-03-2023, 08:40 PM   #19
David Johnston2
 
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We're TL9 in computers & electronics because GURPS Uklratech never took into account how fast the real world would develop computers and communications tech. But everything else is mature TL8.
Are we? Can we build mainframe computer with human intelligence? Do we have VR suits that can give full tactile feedback? Do we have direct neural interfaces? Do we have fabricators? Do we have computers that can read human expression with a fair degree of reliability? Or any of the TL 9 cybernetic implants in Ultra-Tech?
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Old 02-03-2023, 08:40 PM   #20
Fred Brackin
 
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We're TL9 in computers & electronics
Nope. UT gives few stats for computers but storage is one of them. A TL9 laptop should have at least10 terabytes (and maybe 100) of storage and we're not there yet. A TL's worth is a full 3 orders of magnitude for storage.

We're also short on other TL9 features such as full quantum computing, sleeve displays and even vocal interfacing. A C5 computer should be running a simple AI that understands English and does this natively rather than when it's networked to a server farm somewhere like Echodots and others of that ilk.
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