"Alternate Timeline and Missing Technology" Topic
9 Posts
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ROUWetPatchBehindTheSofa | 10 Mar 2013 1:17 p.m. PST |
Recently I've been tossing around an RPG concept, but it requires an alternate timeline diverging around 1973. Basically I'm fishing for suggestions as to what kinds of contemporary technologies might not exist if government spending, particularly military procurement, and to a similar extent commercial research spending had more or less evaporated in 1974-75. I'm assuming this drop off in R&D and military procurement spending pretty much a world wide phenomena. Thanks |
Parzival | 10 Mar 2013 1:39 p.m. PST |
I can't imagine what would cause that event to happen, least of all world-wide, but the biggest impact would be in the rise of personal computing. Also satellite tech and communications tech (the ancestors of cell phones, for example) would be greatly impacted. Related things like video games, consumer video recording devices and of course the digital revolution would also have been delayed, if not stopped. Even if it was just a two year "blip," if you had a complete shutdown of R&D, starting it up again two years later would run into snags, if only in hiring people back to work on new stuff, and getting them back up to speed. (And what have all these minds been doing these two years)? Plus you'd have production capabilities lost or shifted to other tasks, and so on. Interesting premise, but I'm not certain how you make it stick, aside from a global disaster that would do far more than cease R&D efforts. |
wminsing | 10 Mar 2013 1:57 p.m. PST |
I agree it seems unlikely, but if there was literally no major R&D efforts between 1975 and today I'd anticipate the following effects as some obvious examples: 1. Less powerful consumer and small electronics; Also likely no internet at all (it was a DARPA program originally). 2. Less advanced medicine, particularly in areas relating to imaging (CT/MRI) and genetic research. 3. In fact, the whole Bio-tech field probably wouldn't exist in it's modern form. 4. No GPS systems 5. On the military front, no stealth. |
Rudi the german | 10 Mar 2013 2:44 p.m. PST |
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gisbygeo | 10 Mar 2013 11:47 p.m. PST |
If R&D stopped in 1975, go with 1975 technology. If you need an excuse, set the game in 1975. |
billthecat | 11 Mar 2013 9:18 a.m. PST |
1970s Sci-fi? Make sure that the characters have long-hair and bell-bottoms! |
Meiczyslaw | 11 Mar 2013 11:09 a.m. PST |
The choice of 72-73 being the End of All Funded Research is a tricky one -- the internet and personal computing hadn't hit yet (though they were both known objectives as early as 68), and that collaboration technology is critical for a great many advancements from the 80s on. The big issue in personal computing is that you're killing Xerox PARC before it makes a impact. You'd like to think that Jobs and Gates would overcome that lack of a stepping-stone, but it's also possible that they get arrested for phone phreaking, and everything stalls. |
ROUWetPatchBehindTheSofa | 11 Mar 2013 1:32 p.m. PST |
Hadn't thought about biotech, but had thought about retarding Moore's law prediction. Basically I'm assuming that economies tanked and remained so until well into the 80's. Things were already rocky around that time and the events of the divergent timeline seem suitable for for pushing it well and truly over the edge. Consumer confidence and sales are low, commercial R&D is therefore down as well as overall government revenue. Governments are still spending on defense its just not being spent on conventional or nuclear forces – particularly any big ticket items (or indeed spaceships or anything similar). The only exception may be the USSR, which won't fall at the beginning of 90's, but I'm not entirely certain if Soviet research would fill any gaps? I'm planning to set the game around the late 90's to 2000. I've got the socio-political/economic/cultural bit reasonably well sketched out, no major wars (MAD still applies – possibly more so) or other political upheavals. Thanks for the ideas. @Rudi Not going to use Titor's timeline, but a fascinating story! |
Parzival | 13 Mar 2013 9:12 a.m. PST |
Thanks for the Titor link— I had never heard of that story. Now, that's a master troll. (Although he picked easy targets in Art Bell and the conspiracy kook crowd.) |
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