Things TLs 7-9 would be interesting to see WITHOUT

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

It was only later, as they understood the principles involved (to better engineer their super steam-engines), that they realized they could make a weapon out of them. As a very warlike species, they're grudgingly admiring of humans for figuring out the super-weapon first and then "reverse" engineering the power aspect. I figure it's one of those "in hindsight, that's really obvious" kind of things, but I'm not sure if it's so obvious as to be absurd, hence why I'm asking.

I don't think that's really how it went. We did have nuclear bombs before nuclear power plants, but I think that's got more to do with the technology arising on the way into WWII, and all the early reactors thus being either for research or military plutonium production.

If I'm reading right, a nuclear pile intended to generate power was patented in 1934...

[nick012000]

Originally Posted by Tema69

Good one. It doesn't necessarily involve fascism (that's already used quite a lot in sci-fi and alternate history fiction). It could be feudalism? How would a TL9 Feudal world be?

It'd wind up as a dictatorship, except instead of it being led by the Leader, it's led by the King, and instead of a cabal of followers heading various agencies, he's got various nobles doing the same thing.

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

I don't think that's really how it went. We did have nuclear bombs before nuclear power plants, but I think that's got more to do with the technology arising on the way into WWII, and all the early reactors thus being either for research or military plutonium production.

If I'm reading right, a nuclear pile intended to generate power was patented in 1934...

Huh. So it's really not that crazy an idea at all, then? If you're correct, we invented nuclear power before we invented the nuclear bomb.

[Tema69]

Originally Posted by nick012000

It'd wind up as a dictatorship, except instead of it being led by the Leader, it's led by the King, and instead of a cabal of followers heading various agencies, he's got various nobles doing the same thing.

Then perhaps assume a Reich-5 Japan-style Samurai/Feudalism fantasy, where all ruling parts have the ideology required to keep it a feudal society...

[Jasonft]

Well, if you really want to stretch your imagination, how about this:

Modern and even post modern levels of tech, but no written language... yet everyone has perfect photographic memory to compensate.

Thus anyone interested in learning the basics of a skill (where you and I would be if we had to consult a manual every five minutes) they attend a lecture series by or spend some time as the journeyman of a skilled practitioner.

Just about everything we have or do now would be in reach, but the potential paths where we use computers would be almost totally shut down. They can see how to build the devices in theory, but they can't figure out how to 'teach' the devices what to do.

[capnq]

Originally Posted by Nymdok

Energy = Weaponry. I cant think of any situation where that is not the case.
[...]
Solar could be and exception. I cant think of a single weapon in history that has been solar powered.....

There's the legend of Archimedes' "burning glass". (That link describes an attempt to replicate the effect with a large array of mirrors.)

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

Huh. So it's really not that crazy an idea at all, then? If you're correct, we invented nuclear power before we invented the nuclear bomb.

Considering that you need pretty highly enriched nuclear material to make the bomb, by my understanding, I'm not sure you could make a bomb without first having reactors capable of generating power. Not necessarily actually used to generate power, but capable of it.

(I am not a nuclear engineer...)

Inventing nuclear power without coming up with the idea that it could be used as a bomb at about the same time, that I'm not too sure about the likelyhood of.

Originally Posted by nick012000

It'd wind up as a dictatorship, except instead of it being led by the Leader, it's led by the King, and instead of a cabal of followers heading various agencies, he's got various nobles doing the same thing.

Why couldn't it be more like feudalism? That sounds like absolute monarchy to me, which isn't quite the same thing.

[Nymdok]

Originally Posted by Molokh

• No Superpowers (i.e. all countries are no larger than England, Poland, France etc.).
• No centralized cellphone systems (but radio relays are fully maintained by volunteers, linux-style).
• No intellectual property, but only in the world of software.
• No internet.
• No GUIs.

On superpowers - England was a superpower in its own right a hundred or so years back. I cant imagine a world without superpowers. It seems as if there would always be a power vaccuum. World powers polarize and focus the people of the world withtheir ideologies. Its not nessesarily a bad thing.

Switchboards run by voulenteers - Seeing the untapped potential for research, psychology,sociology, criminology, political science and marketing majors line up for their opportunity to hear first hand whats on the minds of the people of the world. Its not unlike the searh bars that report your webtraffic. People accept outright that anything you broadcast is by definition NOT private and are therefor NOT bothered by it, but they are a bit more careful about what they say.

No intellectual Property - Software is developed in sourceforge style and offered freely. Sadly it is largely second rate and poorly written. What does survive is largely goverenment sponsered but, like so many goverenment projects, is over written, poorly executed, over staffed, under productive and treated with suspicion.

No Internet - The internet never develops in its current form. Instead, BBS remain the dominate digital social interaction and at seperate times during the day each BBS will shut down to upload E-Mail to a cluster of BBS creating a digital Pony Express.

No GUI's: In a law suit against Microsoft and Macintosh that claims that Graphic User interfaces discriminate against the visually impaired, all computers shipped MUST have Graphic/Audio/Tactile interfaces installed. Audio interfaces require the use of voice recognition and require that the computer be able to differentaite commands from conversattion. To facilitate this, computers only respond to commands in Khoesian 'clicking' languages of africa. Tactile interfaces use the Keller-Sullivan model of spelling into the palm using a special glove.

Nymdok

[Ragitsu]

No celebrities.

No reality TV.

[Sydney]

Originally Posted by Ragitsu

No celebrities.

No reality TV.

No Paparazzi...