Re: Change (was: (TFT) Jobs table: ...)

[Denis DesHarnais <denisdesharnais@gmail.com>]

True, but it took centuries for gunpowder to go from firework to weapon,
while in the last century, it took a few decades from the theoretical
possibility of the laser as suggested by relativity theory (I am forgetting
which part) to implementation, and less than a decade for graphene to go
from hypothetical material to prototype.  Again, I don't say that I
completely subscribe to this theory, but proximity, be it real or virtual,
does appear provide a fair explanation of why it took millennia to go from
atl-atl to bow (small and widely-separated tribes), while the interval
between the Wright brothers and the Red Baron was less than a generation
(telegraph, printing press, major cities worldwide connected
by transatlantic steamers).  We seem to think better in groups.

On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 2:16 PM, <raito@raito.com> wrote:

> But consider that gunpowder weapons were around in the 13th century in
> Europe, and earlier in Asia.
> Also consider that WW1 is closely post-Industrial Revolution.
> Neil Gilmore
> raito@raito.com
>
>
> Quoting Denis DesHarnais <denisdesharnais@gmail.com>:
>
>> I remember reading a study that suggested that the single most important
>> factor in technology advances is proximity to large groups of other
>> people. In TFT, magic is fairly commonplace, but hardly at an internet cafe
>> level,
>> so (if you subscribe to this view), it might not throw that large a
>> spanner
>> into the works of the Spanish Armada analogy.
>> On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 11:25 AM, Mark Tapley <mtapley@swri.edu> wrote:
>>
>> > At 19:02 -0400 9/27/11, Jay wrote:
>> >
>> >> The u.s. entered the Great War (WWI) in April 1917. >> Versailles was
>> signed in June 1918. >>
>> >
>> >        Fascinating post. I'd thought of the WWII build-up as stunning,
>> but
>> > this puts even that to shame in some ways. >
>> > BUT.... >
>> >        This history relies on a technology base able to field 200,000
>> > soldiers plus the "work battalions" plus the industrial infrastructure
>> > *plus* the normal-technology ground troops, and still feed everyone.
>> That's
>> > not only farming technology, but government of huge numbers of people
>> which
>> > implies communications and transportation infrastructure. In a medieval
>> > setting, more or less none of that exists. >        I think for "period"
>> veracity, you'd have to look farther back. The
>> > British Royal Navy, building up for its battle against the Spanish
>> Armada,
>> > may be a good analog, but even that is after the development of
>> gunpowder
>> > weapons, so it's marginally too far up the industrial development
>> ladder. At
>> > those levels of technology, change and build-up took place on a scale
>> more
>> > like decades than years, even under the impetus of impending invasion. >
>>        Magic, as always, throws a monkey wrench into the analogy (Ow! I
>> > broke my metaphor!) by actually enabling transportation (gates) and
>> > communication (proxy, Long Range Telepathy) on par with or beyond
>> modern-day
>> > technologies. So maybe the WWI buildup is actually an appropriate
>> > simulation; but I'd be careful about drawing too many parallels across
>> many
>> > levels of technological development.
>>
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