D&D Technology

[Ed_Laprade]

With regards to the button, buttons were easy. Its the buttonhole that's the hard part.

 

[green slime]

The decimal point was never used in the middle ages. It is an invention completely seperate from arabic numerals.

And it took quite some time to develop negative numbers as well, which is perfectly reasonable. Who ever heard of -1 cow? What on earth is that? An anti-cow?

 

[Someone]

It wasn't until tin became scarce that it became advantagous to switch to iron. Even though they knew of it, there was no reason to use it (except as a precous metal ironically enough) when bronze was easier.

I wrote a lenghty post before realizing we were saying the same, but so cleverly that seemed that we didn´t agreed. I think you got what you said from wikipedia, since you quote almost verbatim the article on iron. The problem is that of course there´s a very good reason to use iron instead of bronze: it´s mechanically superior in many ways. However it takes a higher technology to reduce iron from ore than copper or tin. It simply was rarer and more expensive, specially when the tech needed to refin it wans´t totally developed or extended.

And after all when a new technology appears it usually has a period of coexistence with the obsolete technology. When firearms appeared the bowmen didn´t say "Awww, !" and suddendly made firewood with their bows and arrows.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

The decimal point was never used in the middle ages. It is an invention completely seperate from arabic numerals.

And it took quite some time to develop negative numbers as well, which is perfectly reasonable. Who ever heard of -1 cow? What on earth is that? An anti-cow?

FEAR THE ANTI-COW!!!!!!

 

[painandgreed]

There could be several reasons why technology might be somewhat advanced but not at the rate we see in our own history in the last few centuries.

First, many of the great mnds of the world do not work on science and invention but on magic. Unlike science, magic is an artform and one person cannot preform the same feat another can the exact same way. A really skilled scientist leaves his works as sholder for those that follow him to stand on. A really great mage creates works that others must strife to duplicate.

Second, IIRC, it was only recently (early modern times) that sceince was even considered a science. The idea that everything could be recreated and experiments could be preformed was sort of novel. Up till then, such knowledge was considered an art like magic. I think it was fusangite(sp?) that that discussed how for most of human history, it was assumed that everything had already been invented and the anceints were wise and any new inventions were just things that had been known in the past and forgotten.

Third, kill the industrial revolution and you kill a great deal of technological advancement. The industrial revolution could be avoidable by climing that the game world had no large deposits of oil or coal. Without a heat source, steam engine powered factories aren't really feasable and all industries remains cottage industries with everything being made by hand. If you use magic to power such things and your tech is dependant on magic and magic infrastructure to the point that they can't be separated and you end up with a world like Eberron.

 

[Woas]

Without a heat source, steam engine powered factories aren't really feasable and all industries remains cottage industries with everything being made by hand.

What about wind and water power? A lot of towns in New York and New England were founded for the sole purpose of water powered factories. And not just little mills, large multi-floored textile factories.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The decimal point was never used in the middle ages. It is an invention completely seperate from arabic numerals.

It's an invention that predates what we commonly think of as the middle ages by centuries, but it was invented by Arab mathematicians. In a D&D world, where travel -- particularly by the more educated portion of a society -- is much more common, it's hard to imagine that such an advance wouldn't have spread much more quickly, even if you don't get extraplanar summoned beings involved.

 

[painandgreed]

What about wind and water power? A lot of towns in New York and New England were founded for the sole purpose of water powered factories. And not just little mills, large multi-floored textile factories.

Hush, you!

 

[JEL]

I wrote a lenghty post before realizing we were saying the same, but so cleverly that seemed that we didn´t agreed. I think you got what you said from wikipedia, since you quote almost verbatim the article on iron. The problem is that of course there´s a very good reason to use iron instead of bronze: it´s mechanically superior in many ways. However it takes a higher technology to reduce iron from ore than copper or tin. It simply was rarer and more expensive, specially when the tech needed to refin it wans´t totally developed or extended.

And after all when a new technology appears it usually has a period of coexistence with the obsolete technology. When firearms appeared the bowmen didn´t say "Awww, !" and suddendly made firewood with their bows and arrows.

Actually, I hadn't read the Wikipedia article; I was going off my memory of other books and articles I've read. You are correct that the technology needed to work iron is higher and a lot of that didn't get perfected until bronze got harder to come by due to the scarcity of tin (necessity being the mother of invention and all that). Bronze was seen as the superior metal for a long time because iron was brittle and didn't hold an edge well.

 

[Pbartender]

The decimal point was never used in the middle ages. It is an invention completely seperate from arabic numerals.

Perhaps not decimal points specifically, but fractions were certainly in use... You can still say that one tenth of a gold crown is equal to a silver penny without saying that 0.1 gp == 1.0 sp.

And it took quite some time to develop negative numbers as well, which is perfectly reasonable. Who ever heard of -1 cow? What on earth is that? An anti-cow?

No... However, I do know that if you owe me a cow, but you don't own a cow, you need to go get a cow before we can make things even. You are short by one cow. By modern terms, you have negative one cows.

The basic concepts certainly were there, even if the refined terminology wasn't.

Besides, when have you ever run across a sign that says...
"FOR SALE CHEAP: One Cursed -1 Short Sword... only 19.95 gp!"