There is a world that was borderline habitable, that features prominently in
Honor Harrington's line of books - Grayson. When the spaceships first
arrived, they found a very inhospitible world. The soil was heavy in metals
and a good number of their population died. They had to resort to orbital
farms to keep the food growing.
While the world is TL3/4, one wonders why a government doesn't buy/lease a
fusion plant from a nearby megacorp? Cheap, endless power would do wonders
for a low tech planet. Lease the plant, include a 3-year onsite tech crew,
and carve a new world.
Earth couldn't do it because we're truly alone. However, the United States,
United Nations, etc are always going to some Third World country with
high-tech and durable gear that will filter water, etc. I can imagine a
MegaCorp in Traveller that specialises in 'helping' the lower tech Brothers
climb up the tech ladder.
Sure, the Scouts control access to off-world tech, but applications can be
made. I mean, if a world's standard of living is so low, if life is
threatened, surely a few fusion plants wouldn't harm anyone. Also - if the
world was terraformed, how was it tarraformed? Seeding the atmosphere with
microbes? That could take hundreds of thousands of years if it even worked.
The odds are, high-tech gear went in to assist in changing the biosphere of
the planet. What powered those eco-changing machines? Odds are it wasn't
local sunlight. They would have brought in fusion plants. Big heavy fusion
plants. It would probably be more cost effective to leave them behind for
the colonists than to disassemble them and lift them off-world. Sell 'em.
If there is nothing that the colonists could trade with megacorps to buy a
fusion plant, then why were trillions spent terraforming this planet?
Especially with 11,000 solar systems to pick a plant from. There must be a
military or economic reason to alter the make-up of an entire planet to
support life.
Sorry to be a negative nanny, but that's one of the things about Traveller
that bugs me: "Low Tech". Someone, somewhere, has a piece of TL10,12,or 15
equipment that can be transported to a low-tech world for a one-time
expense, that would radically alter that world. If someone landed in a Far
Trader in New York and offered to sell us a working TL12 Fusion Plant for
billions of dollars, with manual and tech support and spare parts, we'd get
the money. Somehow. Then the R&D would kick in and we'd have home grown
fusion plants and we'd see where we went wrong.
For the most part, India is fairly low tech. Yet there are guys on the
street that are selling (and repairing) satellite phones. He rides his bike
through the mud 'streets', manuevering his way past farm animals walking on
the street, goes to his hut, takes his basket out of the back of his bike,
and peddles satellite phones to tourists. The man is not stupid nor
ignorant - he can also fix the phones. He just lives in a town where
obvious, visible tech is very low. They don't have a series of runners to
communicate between villages - they use radio or satellite phones. A
perfect example of high tech making life in a low tech environment easier.
-Joel
-----Original Message-----
From: Gerry Harris
Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2007 11:59 PM
To: Traveller [TNE]; GDW House Rules
Subject: [Traveller_TNE] Low Tech Stuff
Thanks for all y'all's help with the black powder rockets. I'm working on a
low tech (TL 3-5) world with no access to fossil fuels -- think a world
terraformed in the last few tens of thousands of years. I've been trying to
work out the infrastructure for such a world, and power production is a
biggie. Wind and water power are good for the cities, but portable power
sources are a problem.
At first, I was stuck with two fuel sources from FF&S: alcohol and wood. I
managed to work out the stats for "wood gas" when I stumbled across doing
research on steel:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_gas
Mass and price would be the same as for hydrocarbon distillates, but the
power output would be divided by eight. Not a particularly attractive
technology, and it doesn't solve the deforestation problem, which on our
world was fixed by the increasing use of coal. Alcohol, of course, eats
into the food supply so it's not going to be super popular, either, although
it would be used to a greater or lesser extent.
Peat is available, but I cannot find stats on its energy density.
On the plus side, as near as I can tell, steel should be available as it has
a low carbon content, and that could be supplied by charcoal.
If any of y'all have any ideas for fuels, limitations on technology because
of the lack of fossil fuels, or clever workarounds for some of those
limitations, I would appreciate hearing your ideas.
Gerry Harris
http://www.aethertraveller.com
"Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war"
— Antony, "Julius Caesar," Act 3, Scene 1