> It's cheaper to import modern technology than to make obsolete junk. > David Scheidt
GURPS Traveller subscribes to the theory of comparative advantage. It is explained in a sidebar in Far Trader, or found in the wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advantage Where it comes to electronics, most are best built at TL10, some are best built at TL11-12 (mostly sensors and EW) and TL6 has a niche if weight is not an issue -- vacuum tube radios are cheaper in absolute costs than those with microchips, by a sufficient margin to become competitive even in comparative costs. But the simple model of comparative advantage makes assumptions like full employment and full job mobility, and it might lock poor worlds into agricultural or raw material production. Compare http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advantage#Economic_dependence In the real world, jobs are not that easy to change, and no world can stop farming wheat and start building starships overnight. In another mail, you wrote: > It's not just that, though that's a big part. It's also the complete > failure to understand that much of technological progress isn't really > technology. It's understanding. Give me a couple engineers, a time > machine, and I'll advance any field of technology you care to name from its > state in 1800 or 1850 to what it was a hundred years later in a year. For widespread impact, there has to be widespread understanding in the general population, not just among the time-traveling engineers and their immediate disciples. That can't be done overnight, and it can't be done in giant leaps. I dimly remember a news story. I can't confirm it is true, but it sounds good and it illustrates my point :-) When UN forces went to Mogadishu, they found a room full of unused and dusty evidence kits in the former police barracks. Back in '77, the Somali government had allowed a German hostage rescue op, and they were showered with development aid in return. Some German cop thought, "why, they don't have any forensics gear," and sent some over. But the society and the rest of the justice system were not prepared to work with western notions of evidence ... Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
