09-27-2021, 11:04 PM | #41 | |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
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Re: Hyperdepression and technological regression
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"It is easier to banish a habit of thought than a piece of knowledge." H. Beam Piper This forum got less aggravating when I started using the ignore feature |
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09-27-2021, 11:52 PM | #42 |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: Hyperdepression and technological regression
Yes, that being the one that was easily discoverable by way of Wikipedia.
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I don't know any 3e, so there is no chance that I am talking about 3e rules by accident. |
09-28-2021, 02:30 AM | #43 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Hyperdepression and technological regression
The potential difference for the metals used was less than half a volt, which doesn't seem likely to be medically effective, even if the setup actually was a functioning battery.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
09-28-2021, 03:11 AM | #44 | |
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Rome, Italy
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Re: Hyperdepression and technological regression
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But a "global societal collapse" that pushes back by one or two steps the global TL? This is a trope for sci-fi novels. P.S. Now that i come to know the "After London" novels i think that this trope is another spin on the "lost civilizations" ones. I remember an old extra credits(?) video explaining that this trope emerged in Victorian times when British explorers were discovering complex city ruins in Africa and come out to the "only logical conclusion": Africans could not have build THOSE, so they must be the product of some ancient civilization that has collapsed. Now just to be clear: I'm not saying that those tropes are racists, but for sure they spin a certain specific worldview, one that should be familiar if you ever watched an episode of "the walking dead" or if you ever debated about Roman Empire with an Italian (...ehm)
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“A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?” |
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09-28-2021, 03:16 AM | #45 |
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: UK
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Re: Hyperdepression and technological regression
Ah, fair enough if so. Never mind the "battery", then. (Looking up the fish story further, it seems that the fish is specified to have been the torpedo fish, which generates about 45 volts. Some fish.)
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Looking for online text-based game at a UK-feasible time, anything considered, Roll20 preferred. http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=168443 |
09-28-2021, 04:55 AM | #46 |
Join Date: Oct 2007
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Re: Hyperdepression and technological regression
One thing that might keep our knowledge going (or make for a good game campaign):
The Memory of Mankind https://www.memory-of-mankind.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_of_Mankind Be sure to make your own contributions (I have done some, mostly obscure popular cultural stuff I like). |
09-28-2021, 06:25 AM | #47 | |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: Hyperdepression and technological regression
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09-28-2021, 06:39 AM | #48 | |
Join Date: Sep 2010
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Re: Hyperdepression and technological regression
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09-28-2021, 03:42 PM | #49 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Hyperdepression and technological regression
Also, when Pedro Teixeira explored the Amazon in 1637 he found no trace of the thriving agricultural civilisations that De Orellana had encountered travelling down the river in 1547. Instead of cities and farmlands he found a dense forest and scattered hunter-gathers. For three centuries or more De Orellana was written off as a liar; then archaelogists found the fragments of ceramics, the modified soils, etc.
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. Last edited by Agemegos; 09-28-2021 at 04:27 PM. Reason: typos |
09-28-2021, 04:19 PM | #50 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
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Re: Hyperdepression and technological regression
If I understand correctly, in those cases relatively isolated civilizations were hit with a ridiculous plague event (~90% population reduction over several years) and just collapsed and returned to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
Less isolated civilizations survived pretty bad plagues without whole TL regression. Merely by being less isolated they were more used to plagues in the first place, however, and nothing I know of hit 90% population reduction. If the modern world experienced a 90% population reduction plague, and scientists and her educated folks were universally blamed for it [1], full GURPS TL technical regression seems plausible. [1] The obvious answer is the plague was caused by biotech, but you could get similar results with a political or religious backlash against science. |
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