GURPS Lucifer-5?

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

There's a big burst of medical advancements in our timeline the 20s and 30s that I wouldn't want to see overlooked but between spillover from the inscrutable Martians and finds from the jungles of Venus I think medicine will be in an energetic state of advancement.

Given the preoccupations of the timeline, I suspect there'll be a lot of work on repairing burns, acceleration trauma, decompression injuries, anoxia, and radiation damage.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

Given the preoccupations of the timeline, I suspect there'll be a lot of work on repairing burns, acceleration trauma, decompression injuries, anoxia, and radiation damage.

The radiation damage would be taken care of b the hypothesized Martian symbiotic bacteria from the thread I linked to. Basically the DNA Repair nano from Bio-Tech/Transhuman Space.

Without that you'd need to totally change the nature of cosmic radiation in the setting. Perhaps making it something that really did only give you a tan.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

The radiation damage would be taken care of b the hypothesized Martian symbiotic bacteria from the thread I linked to. Basically the DNA Repair nano from Bio-Tech/Transhuman Space.

Without that you'd need to totally change the nature of cosmic radiation in the setting. Perhaps making it something that really did only give you a tan.

Perhaps the drives create a field effect that alters the nature of cosmic radiation. It's already part of the setting that the torchships don't obey Newton's laws. Perhaps the reason the ships work is that they distort physical laws.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Perhaps the drives create a field effect that alters the nature of cosmic radiation. It's already part of the setting that the torchships don't obey Newton's laws. Perhaps the reason the ships work is that they distort physical laws.

That wouldn't the people at the Ceres base or several other installations.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

That wouldn't the people at the Ceres base or several other installations.

Good point, but what powers the station power plant? You could mame it work as an explanation.

[fchase8]

Without WWI or socialism, all technological developments would be a lot less widespread. Especially on Lucifer-5, where the highest tech is in the skies, completely removed from ordinary people.

The less developed world would be even less important and more left behind, save for the few areas with the super-science metals. And even the mines in the Belgian Congo & Yucatan would be removed from their surroundings, with access probably by air rather than road or rail (maybe some water for heavier imports).

A torchship servicing the Congo mines could crash in much lower TL part of the Congo.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by fchase8

Without WWI or socialism, all technological developments would be a lot less widespread. Especially on Lucifer-5, where the highest tech is in the skies, completely removed from ordinary people.

The less developed world would be even less important and more left behind, save for the few areas with the super-science metals. And even the mines in the Belgian Congo & Yucatan would be removed from their surroundings, with access probably by air rather than road or rail (maybe some water for heavier imports).

A torchship servicing the Congo mines could crash in much lower TL part of the Congo.

It would be country by country. The USA would have widespread tech. Nations like France or Britain would be cutting edge in town and prefer the tech to stay out of the countryside. Some nations like Japan or the German client states in what was Russia would want to keep the countryside archaic.

It would be about political goals.

By the way, a WWI free planet could have a USA were socialism is still popular. WWI and the Russian revolution were very bad for socialism in the USA. In this world the USA might even have a viable Labor Party.

[warellis]

Originally Posted by fchase8

Without WWI or socialism, all technological developments would be a lot less widespread. Especially on Lucifer-5, where the highest tech is in the skies, completely removed from ordinary people.

The less developed world would be even less important and more left behind, save for the few areas with the super-science metals. And even the mines in the Belgian Congo & Yucatan would be removed from their surroundings, with access probably by air rather than road or rail (maybe some water for heavier imports).

A torchship servicing the Congo mines could crash in much lower TL part of the Congo.

WW1 actively retarded tech like airplanes though. About the only tech that came out of it was tanks. All other advances were in tactics, and experience on helmets.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by warellis

WW1 actively retarded tech like airplanes though.

Did it? Aero engines advanced considerably. While most late-WWI aircraft looked a lot like early ones, there'd been advances in structures and aerodynamics to make them stronger and faster.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Aero engines advanced considerably...

Monocoque structures, monoplanes (not their first appearance, but there were quite a number by 1918, designed for practical use), all-metal construction.

The war also produced a large number of surplus aircraft, which cheap supply helped aircraft become popular for tasks like airmail and civilian search and recon, or even entertainment (barnstorming), creating lots more pilots. Applications for aircraft create demand which will draw R&D. A setting without a war might have slower aircraft development simply because of this factor. Rather than a mass-produced tool, aircraft might conceivably remain hobbyist curiousities, more like 1910 than 1930.