Tech Level appropriate skills

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by whswhs

You can either give [Newton] a perk that lets him acquire physics at TL4, or say that he was advanced in a science and knew TL5 physics, or say that Physics skill emerges at TL4 rather than TL5.

I'd say it's late TL4: Galileo did some real physics in the early 1600s.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by johndallman

More than experimental devices: ships routinely had radio transmitters and receivers before WWI. Military air-to-ground radio was reasonably routine in 1918 at mid TL6 and thoroughly standard by the mid 1930s.

Yes and operating and repairing all these things is terribly, terribly arcane and the domain of people who answer to "Sparky" or "Sparks" when called.

Even though it's over the tL7 line at 1940 most WWII systems would still be TL6.

Perhaps repairing telegraphs requires only Electrician but that's well within the TL5 period.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Yes and operating and repairing all these things is terribly, terribly arcane and the domain of people who answer to "Sparky" or "Sparks" when called.

In a period where skills for operating technology were a lot rarer than today, especially amongst writers, many of whom still wrote longhand, and shape our perceptions. Equipment that passenger ships are legally required to have, after the Titanic sinking in 1912, can hardly be "experimental."

Even though it's over the TL7 line at 1940 most WWII systems would still be TL6.

Many of them, certainly: practical radars were all TL7.

[Figleaf23]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Clockwork devices, catapults, ship's steering wheels, mill wheels...

I regard TL4 ship's rigging as the subject of a Mechanic specialization as well.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by johndallman

I'd say it's late TL4: Galileo did some real physics in the early 1600s.

He and Newton were both geniuses. I see nothing wrong with saying that Physics is TL5, and those two guys had paid 1 CP each for the Anachronstic Skill (Physics) Perk.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

He and Newton were both geniuses. I see nothing wrong with saying that Physics is TL5, and those two guys had paid 1 CP each for the Anachronstic Skill (Physics) Perk.

Nor I. You could even go so far as to say that anyone considered the "father" or "mother" of a field should have either Anachronistic Skill or Cutting Edge: Ada Lovelace with Computer Programming; Einstein, Galileo, and Newton w/ Physics, etc.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by tbrock1031

Nor I. You could even go so far as to say that anyone considered the "father" or "mother" of a field should have either Anachronistic Skill or Cutting Edge: Ada Lovelace with Computer Programming; Einstein, Galileo, and Newton w/ Physics, etc.

Anybody involved in inventing something that is going to define a TL boundary must have something like that. Indeed since TLs are defined by what is in general circulation, pretty much anybody who regularly works with anything that's still "experimental" is likely to have some skills that don't "exist" yet.

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

He and Newton were both geniuses. I see nothing wrong with saying that Physics is TL5, and those two guys had paid 1 CP each for the Anachronstic Skill (Physics) Perk.

Either that or Europe at the end of the 17th century and start of the 18th century could be called TL 5 in Physics. None of the other TL 4 civilizations (early modern Islam, China from the Sung to the Ming, early modern Japan) or equally capable societies which GURPS calls TL 2 (the Hellenistic/Roman Mediterranean) had such advanced mechanics.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

He and Newton were both geniuses. I see nothing wrong with saying that Physics is TL5, and those two guys had paid 1 CP each for the Anachronstic Skill (Physics) Perk.

That's at least a possibility. I had thought of Harvey as having Anachronistic Skill to let him buy Physician and/or Physiology at TL4 after he discovered blood circulation.

I might say, though, that Galileo had Anachronistic Skill (Physics) and Physics/TL4, but Newton had High TL 1 and Physics/TL5 (along with Astronomy/TL5 and Machinist/TL5). It looks to me as if TL5 pretty much can be defined as "based on technologies that follow from understanding Newton."

Bill Stoddard

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by johndallman

More than experimental devices: ships routinely had radio transmitters and receivers before WWI. Military air-to-ground radio was reasonably routine in 1918 at mid TL6 and thoroughly standard by the mid 1930s.

One history of radio and electronics that I read a few years ago maintained that the big innovation right around 1920 was the development of precision tuning and tuned oscillators whose signals could be modulated. I have the impression that the older transmitters were sending out very broadband signals, or even white noise, suitable for Morse code but not for audio. It was right around then that legal rights to spectrum became an issue and fell under government regulation.

Bill Stoddard