Modern day nations' tech level

[Crzyraccoon]

So I have a low power 350pts super campaign going on right now that quite realistic to todays Earth and I'm putting tech levels to nations for character building reasons. The general tech level is TL8 but with TL9 computers, I made this way because in my opinion, the computer tech form 2010 and onward are much more capable than pre-2010, smartphones, universal code, smart A.I. that can fit in a pocket and that everyone can get computers with relative ease and do things that would take and afforded by experts only could do now like making movies, 3d graphics, live capture etc...

This is what I got so far;

If a nation is not on this list, they are TL8 (Computers TL9)

Japan is TL8 (Computers TL9, Robotics TL9, Agriculture TL7) [0]

All Middle Eastern nations are TL8 (Agriculture TL6, Civil TL7) [-4]

All South America nations are TL8

I would like corrections and would like to know how every nation fits.

[Not]

I don't think different nations have different tech levels. I think some are poorer than others. The exception would be a nation entirely isolated from global commerce. Perhaps some still exist, but you can get fairly reliable cell phone service in Somalia, a country which ceased to function as a legal entity in the 1990s.

I'd use low TL to describe a character emerging from an undiscovered Amazonian tribe or somesuch.

[Ashtagon]

Tech level has been used to describe a number of things...

1) What is the most advanced TL of good commonly available for purchase? In most cases, this is where discussion of TL ends.

2) What is the highest TL that a post-apocalypse society reached pre-oops? This can be important for determining contents of caches of "magic items".

3) What is the most advanced TL of good that is produced locally? This is only important if it is lower than that available through international (or interplanetary) trade, and there is a real chance of the area becoming trade-isolated during the campaign. Alternately, such good might have an additional "import surcharge" added to the purchase price.

4) What is the most advanced TL of industrial plant (manufacturing, power, agriculture) implemented in the community's industrial base? Unless you are playing a game of 4X, this is almost never relevant. This is usually the same as #3.

Given we are talking modern earth here, #2 is not relevant, and #1 is TL8 in all but the most remote areas. #3/#4 are usually best ignored unless you are going for some kind of hyper-realism, which given that we are talking about a supers campaign, is probably not the case.

[Ulzgoroth]

In the modern world, there's very few areas where one developed country could be technologically ahead of another without promptly equalizing by way of their superior products displacing the inferior ones in the country that was behind. (And shortly thereafter the underlying advances will probably be licensed or otherwise incorporated into domestically-produced tech everywhere.)

(Thinking about it, this may be a problem in Transhuman Space. Poorer areas operating third wave [TL8] economies when fifth wave [TL10] stuff is available on the world markets doesn't really make sense any more than expecting developing countries to put in comprehensive land-line networks before uptake of cell phones. Economic development doesn't recapitulate technological advancement.)

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Ashtagon

3) What is the most advanced TL of good that is produced locally? This is only important if it is lower than that available through international (or interplanetary) trade, and there is a real chance of the area becoming trade-isolated during the campaign. Alternately, such good might have an additional "import surcharge" added to the purchase price.

In speculative settings with significantly limited trade, this may not be true. Certain styles of SF have space trade so sparse that many planets operate at near-autarky with very diverse levels of domestic technology. There might be a select few higher-tech intrusions, especially if they're self-replicating, especially easy to transport, or only available to small elites, but the economy as a whole is made up of lower-TL domestic production.

It's not quite as restrictive as the post-apocalyptic old-tech loot, but can be similar: any given piece of higher technology may be totally unavailable or only exist in a handful of irreplaceable examples that are very hard to get.

A modern or near-future earth doesn't remotely resemble this, though.

[Crzyraccoon]

Originally Posted by Ashtagon

Tech level has been used to describe a number of things...

1) What is the most advanced TL of good commonly available for purchase? In most cases, this is where discussion of TL ends.

2) What is the highest TL that a post-apocalypse society reached pre-oops? This can be important for determining contents of caches of "magic items".

3) What is the most advanced TL of good that is produced locally? This is only important if it is lower than that available through international (or interplanetary) trade, and there is a real chance of the area becoming trade-isolated during the campaign. Alternately, such good might have an additional "import surcharge" added to the purchase price.

4) What is the most advanced TL of industrial plant (manufacturing, power, agriculture) implemented in the community's industrial base? Unless you are playing a game of 4X, this is almost never relevant. This is usually the same as #3.

Given we are talking modern earth here, #2 is not relevant, and #1 is TL8 in all but the most remote areas. #3/#4 are usually best ignored unless you are going for some kind of hyper-realism, which given that we are talking about a supers campaign, is probably not the case.

Its a supers campaign in a sense of power, it isn't a four color supers. It haves realism but not hyper-realism where it would disallow powers.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Crzyraccoon

So I have a low power 350pts super campaign going on right now that quite realistic to todays Earth and I'm putting tech levels to nations for character building reasons. The general tech level is TL8 but with TL9 computers, I made this way because in my opinion, the computer tech form 2010 and onward are much more capable than pre-2010, smartphones, universal code, smart A.I. that can fit in a pocket and that everyone can get computers with relative ease and do things that would take and afforded by experts only could do now like making movies, 3d graphics, live capture etc...

This is what I got so far;

If a nation is not on this list, they are TL8 (Computers TL9)

Japan is TL8 (Computers TL9, Robotics TL9, Agriculture TL7) [0]

All Middle Eastern nations are TL8 (Agriculture TL6, Civil TL7) [-4]

All South America nations are TL8

I would like corrections and would like to know how every nation fits.

You are overestimating the granularity of the tech level system. While it's hard to evaluate computers, given that computers in themselves don't do anything, Japan is nowhere near TL 9 robotics and South America uses the same cell phones and computers everyone else does.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Crzyraccoon

Japan is TL8 (Computers TL9, Robotics TL9, Agriculture TL7) [0]

.

Agriculture in Japan remains old-fashioned compared to the US because traditional farming practices are subsidized by the government. So it is governed by political and cultural reasons and not basic capability.

No current nation is even close to TL9 robotics by the standard of such robots as seen in UT. Even one of a kind prototypes and tech demonstrators don't meet that level much less actual production models.

As for computers they don't meet TL9 tech in UT either. If you have personally redefined TLs to such a radical degree I don't think anyone else will be able to help you without much documentation of what your new standards are.