User Tools

Site Tools


science_and_technology

Science And Technology

The era of plentiful energy that began in 2160 is generally called the Gravity Age, and it has delivered the miracles it promised. The eras namesake science, gravitics, has affected all elements of daily life. Spacecraft slide across star systems, traveling hundreds of millions of kilometers in just a few hours, using gravity induction engines. The mass reactor and the stardrive that gravitics produced both offer enormous power and an outlet to the stars.

Affordable power seeps into the homes of citizens and the offices of small businesses. Skycars fill the air, powered by induction engines. Luggage is rendered weightless by mass neutralizers. Mass transceivers keep friends, relatives, and professional contacts in touch with instantaneous communication within a star system. The Gravity Age has also unlocked the ability to create holographic images in free air; holo has replaced video as the medium for art, movies, and advanced computer interfaces. Holobroadcast has replaced television.

Personal technology keeps people constantly connected to society. Computer pads and comm gear are available to everyone. Gauntlet technology has become the rage; electronic plates line the arms of older businessmen, adventurous space jockeys, and young gridpilots. Professional gauntlets offer easy access to information and guidance. Computer gauntlets and gridcasters provide a never-ending flow of data from the Grid.

To counter the age's invasion of privacy, those seeking solitude face some simple choices. Biolocks demand a precise bioelectric signature and prevent unwelcome infusions. Anti-scan weave can shelter individuals, vehicles, or domiciles from unwanted perusal. Sensor detectors reveal prying eyes or machines. Ultimately, the answer to overcrowded metropolises, burdened infrastructures, and nervous urban psychologies is the push into open space where people can begin anew.

Worlds of the Orion Arm

The wonders just described are common on first world. The classification of planets as first second, or third worlds has been in common use for more than a century. In 2501, the terms describe a planet's overall level of civilization and technology. The first worlds of Old Space, including the stellar capitals, are sprawling city-planets of a scale never imagined, home to tens of billions. The worlds of the Sol system remain the most extreme example, inhabited by more than 100 billion humans, fraal, and other sentients. Current surveys place the total number of first worlds at just over 200. Almost without exception, first-world environments easily sustain human life. They're the jewels of human space, valued and well protected.

Second worlds are more common; humanity has established several thousand of these. Second worlds average a population of a billion sentients or less, and their natural environments may be uncomfortable for, or even incompatible with, human life. Since Earthlike worlds orbit fewer than 1 in 10,000 stars, most of the colonized worlds of Old Space fit into this category. Many of these worlds are rich in minerals and resources but too alien to become popular homes for free citizens. Others may be habitable, but they have yet to grow in population. Technology remains state of the art or close. In the Verge, most governments recognize Bluefall, Alaundril, Lison, Alitar, and Galvin as second worlds.

Third worlds include any (mostly) self-sufficient settlements. These budding worlds may depend on trade to provide specific goods (as do first and second worlds), but in return many provide resources to pay for that support. Technology and certain goods are scarce in comparison to more developed worlds. Third worlds are uncommon in Old Space and growing even less common all the time. In the Verge, most independent planets and systems fit into this category.

Uninhabitable worlds don't always remain uninhabitable. Terraforming is extraordinarily expensive, costing trillions of Concord dollars and years of effort even for the simplest operations. Nevertheless, many stellar nations and even wealthy colonies and corporations are sometimes willing to pay the price. Terraforming more radical shifts in paleontology and planetary orbit can give even a stellar nation pause; the costs escalate rapidly at this scale of effort. Today the most famous feat of terraforming is the home system of the Thuldan Empire, where brilliant engineers have coaxed five planets into lush habitability. Thuldan Prime is simultaneously the pride and the expensive crown jewel of the Empire.

Standard Technology

In the Star*Drive setting, gravity Age technology is the commonly accepted definition of cutting edge. Within the borders of Old Space, this technology is taken for granted by the average citizen. Nevertheless, many items developed during the Fusion Age remain in widespread use. Items originally introduced more than 200 years ago are still produced by most factories. The design of Fusion Age gear is often less expensive, and it has a proven track record that some recent innovations lack.

As for alien technology, several species that humanity has encountered have demonstrated at least one superior technology, but none have shown a broader range of expertise. The mechalus remain clearly superior in computer hardware and organic interfaces, the fraal lead in gravitics and in the mind- walking sciences, and the t'sa have long since perfected cryogenic technology. But while each of these species has brought something new into the scientific or technical realm, no living species has reached beyond humanity's ability to understand. At least, no species has revealed such an advantage so far.

The results of humanity's overall technological dominance are widespread. The most obvious sign is the relative size of the human population compared to the sentients that humans have encountered. While humanity is prolific and prone to exploration and expansion, the fact that humans and the fraal discovered the stardrive is the key behind humans and fraal outnumbering other sentients forty to one. For the last century or more, the human-led stellar nations have shared their technology. Yet it will take a century or more before the other sentient species of the Orion Arm can boast a true equality.

Progress Level 7: The Gravity Age

science_and_technology.txt · Last modified: 2021/12/04 00:39 (external edit)