Things TLs 7-9 would be interesting to see WITHOUT

[NorphTehDwarf]

Monothiesm.

[daryen]

Originally Posted by NorphTehDwarf

Monothiesm.

Religion is fertile ground for wild permutations.

Rather than just eliminating Monotheism, go whole hog and and eliminate gods (particularly anthropomorphic gods). Religion never got past generalized "spirit" type of religions.

Or, go entirely opposite. One major trend of advancing technology (not just the use, but the process of developing it) is secularization. Assume (for whatever reason) that secularization does not happen. The "sacred" remains extremely powerful. They know God is there and still influences the world, even with modern technology.

Push it, even, and have God directly interact with the world such that it is obvious. There are no unbelievers, as the evidence is unassailable. (Whether God is really God, or whether God is a sham, or whether God is a time traveller/space alien/transendental/whatever is completely left up to the setting creator.)

Or, completely eliminate religion. For whatever reason, during the development of the species, religion never occurred. If it is here, it exists. If it isn't, it doesn't exist. Maybe in primitive times they had no need to explain the unexplainable. They didn't know why the seasons changed; they just knew they did. Later they figured out why, but it didn't cause problems because they had no wrong explanations as tradition that competed for belief. They don't worry about what happens after death; they only focus on their life while they have it.

[NorphTehDwarf]

But what would the Beatles be more popular than then?

[capnq]

Originally Posted by daryen

Push it, even, and have God directly interact with the world such that it is obvious. There are no unbelievers, as the evidence is unassailable. (Whether God is really God, or whether God is a sham, or whether God is a time traveller/space alien/transendental/whatever is completely left up to the setting creator.)

Unbelievers might admit God's existence, but not consider God worthy of worship.

That's how I justified my True Neutral gnome thief's agnosticism in my college D&D group. None of the campaign's demonstrably extant gods ever smote him, though.

[Ragitsu]

No celebrities.

No reality TV.

[Sydney]

Originally Posted by Ragitsu

No celebrities.

No reality TV.

No Paparazzi...

[David Johnston2]

Feudalism is actually a kind of federalism except that the leaders are selected on the basis of inheritance instead of being elected or appointed. The problem of course is that in the era starting with radio, it's too each to consolidate a wide-scale following producing an absolute monarchy/dictatorship or democracy. It would be easier if their TL omitted the advancements in long distance communications that causes people to identify with each other on a wider scale. Then again, it would also work to vastly increase the scale you are dealing with so that communication will once again be outstripped by scale.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Feudalism is actually a kind of federalism except that the leaders are selected on the basis of inheritance instead of being elected or appointed. The problem of course is that in the era starting with radio, it's too each to consolidate a wide-scale following producing an absolute monarchy/dictatorship or democracy. It would be easier if their TL omitted the advancements in long distance communications that causes people to identify with each other on a wider scale. Then again, it would also work to vastly increase the scale you are dealing with so that communication will once again be outstripped by scale.

Nationalism seems to be doing pretty well today, so modern communications aren't enough to ball us all up into one big happy blob. Why couldn't strong, savvy feudal lords keep the consolidation a layer or two further down?

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Nationalism seems to be doing pretty well today, so modern communications aren't enough to ball us all up into one big happy blob. Why couldn't strong, savvy feudal lords keep the consolidation a layer or two further down?

They could. But then they'd be independent monarchs, not feudal lords. The thing you need is to have people be loyal to the remote king to a certain extent, without him being able to exert much in the way of hands-on control. Otherwise, you end up with either balkanization or consolidation.

[Ragitsu]

Contraceptives.