New Reality Seeds

[Astromancer]

Given that Centrum tries to slow the growth of science, the Oxford Calculators would be a major target. This group of scholars tied math and science/natural philosophy together. The ancient, particularly Aristotle disliked linking math with physics, they though it was silly or misguided. After the Oxford Calculators, in the West at least, math and science were one.

Centrum would rather delay this trend in any world they deal with.

Given the time period these men lived in is popular with adventure stories (particularly those using the Merry England stereotypes) lots of plots should be obvious.

[AlexanderHowl]

I think thag Centrum wants to delay military technology, to avoid a Final War occurring, but I do not think that they do not want to delay all technology. I think that Centrum would be quite fine with a balanced global society advancing into anything but paratronic research (especially since Centrum could benefit from their research). I think that Centrum might even attempt to help such a society from time to time, especially if they felt that Infinity was interfering with that society.

[fchase8]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

I think thag Centrum wants to delay military technology, to avoid a Final War occurring, but I do not think that they do not want to delay all technology. I think that Centrum would be quite fine with a balanced global society advancing into anything but paratronic research (especially since Centrum could benefit from their research). I think that Centrum might even attempt to help such a society from time to time, especially if they felt that Infinity was interfering with that society.

Centrum doesn't like disruptive technology, or too fast technological advancement. Centrum's own tech evolved slower than Homeline's, though from an earlier starting point. Like Centrum wouldn't like the internet.

Centrum also doesn't like nuclear tech in general, since that lead to the Final War. Plus anything that can expose The Secret, not just parachronics, but also spy-tech (would hate Shikaku-Mon spy-tech).

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

I think thag Centrum wants to delay military technology, to avoid a Final War occurring, but I do not think that they do not want to delay all technology. I think that Centrum would be quite fine with a balanced global society advancing into anything but paratronic research (especially since Centrum could benefit from their research). I think that Centrum might even attempt to help such a society from time to time, especially if they felt that Infinity was interfering with that society.

No, it's stated that Centrum likes to slow the growth of science. They like rationalism but they prefer a slow growth of science and technology. Quickly changing societies can surprise you. Centrum prefers slow moving slow changing highly predictable cultures.

[woweed]

Some natural disaster PODs to chew on:

The 1755 Lisbon earthquake never happens. Not only does that mean Portugal is more stable and it's colonial ambitions more likely to succeed, but it also affects Enlightenment philosophy, as the earthquake struck on a religious holiday, and destroyed several churches, leading several to question why a loving God would allow such a thing, including Voltaire.

The 1900 Galveston Hurricane never happens. In addition, Houston has no oil under it whatsoever, and the 1917 Hurricane also doesn't happen. Gavelston remains a major port.

The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake doesn't happen. San Fran may remain the largest city of the West Coast, or, at least, pose a major challenge to the boom that's coming for LA.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by woweed

Some natural disaster PODs to chew on:

The Lisbon quake perhaps - the economic effects on Portugal were severe - though it's too small to be more than a second tier power even without that damage. The theological issues not so much; philosophers would have just gone with a different example - it's not like the prior century and a half of religious wars have left evidence of God's lack of caring in short supply for any sect.

The San Francisco and Galveston ones not so much. San Francisco remained the largest city in California in the 1910 census (and 1920 if you count Oakland as part of the metropolitan area). Galveston had been slipping for a while already, and not to Houston - the largest city in Texas in 1890 was Dallas, in 1900, 1910 and 1920 it was San Antonio, Houston only took that spot in 1930. Removing the oil around Houston certainly matters to it, but not so much to other Texas cities - unless you remove all the Texas oil, which has bad effects on all of them, and the US as a whole. It certainly isn't going to do anything in particular *for* Galveston, which is, what, maybe 25 miles from Houston.

The truth is there probably isn't enough space on Galveston Island for the petrochemical infrastructure that developed around the Houston ship channel. It's going somewhere else around the bay no matter what. Does it matter if that somewhere else is called Moss Bluff or Baytown or Webster instead of Houston? Probably not much.

[Ashtagon]

Mercator

PoD: Unknown, but almost certainly geological.

This world appeared to be a typical 17th century echo, until an Infinity employee got a hold of Mercator's 1569 world map... and discovered it looked like a *perfect* map of Homeline Earth. (albeit with the zero-meridian set to Crow Island in the Azores). This immediately piqued Infinity's interest. To the extent that local technology and stealth operations allow, Infinity has been mapping this world, and so far as they can tell, the actual geography is a perfect match for... Homeline Mercator's 1569 map.

[Astromancer]

Try this idea, which I've proposed before, place a fertile island just East of the Flemish Cap. This would mean that just pass the Gulf Stream and just Southeast of Newfoundland there would be an uninhabited safe potential base right next to the best fishing area in the world. Let this island have timber and fresh water and let it be twice the size of the Isle of Man. When the Vikings pass by they'd see their opportunity.

In this parallel, with this base, the Vikings would settle America. More importantly, European technologies and certain old world plants and animals, would get into Native American hands. The future of the Americas would be radically different.

[Ashtagon]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Try this idea, which I've proposed before, place a fertile island just East of the Flemish Cap. This would mean that just pass the Gulf Stream and just Southeast of Newfoundland there would be an uninhabited safe potential base right next to the best fishing area in the world. Let this island have timber and fresh water and let it be twice the size of the Isle of Man. When the Vikings pass by they'd see their opportunity.

In this parallel, with this base, the Vikings would settle America. More importantly, European technologies and certain old world plants and animals, would get into Native American hands. The future of the Americas would be radically different.

Mercator's map has the phantom island Frisland a bit to the east of that, but still, it's in a good position to act as a bridging point for sailors intent on making the crossing, and is far enough south to be fertile, unlike, say, Greenland.

[PTTG]

US cities had a moment in the early 19th century when they could have departed the grid. There was an experimental movement to what were called "garden cities," among other terms, which were essentially cities built on curving, "natural" lines. They most closely resemble modern suburban subdivisions.

The experiments failed, the designs considered too fanciful to put into practice.

Suppose that different economic forces came to the fore. After all, the only real difference is that it's slightly harder to survey and market. Let us ignore, for these purposes, the exact causes. Just that it's nothing supernatural. What's important is that by the present day, the dominant form of citybuilding in the USA is not the grid, but rather, a flowing, organic-seeming series of intertwined streets.