DogBackward
First Post
Hey, I'm trying to work on a semi-futuristic setting, either to run at some point, or just to have sitting around, and I need a bit of help. It's a futuristic world, technically, just without certain futuristic things... like guns or automobiles and the like.
Those who've read Orson Scott Card's something-or-other series (I forget the name) probably know the basic idea. Some great power (a group of semi-beneficent super-psychic entities in my case) decides that mankind can't handle things on its own, so decides to tamper with the minds of all the people, preventing certain ideas and inventions from ever being conceived in the first place. This is done generally to prevent large-scale wars and death. Although my super-psychic entities won't be quite so nice as the Oversoul, and I won't have any space-travel or mole-people...
Anyhow, for some basic ideas; guns make killing too easy from too far a distance, so they're out; likewise missiles and nukes and other large explosives. Large-scale, long-range transportation makes getting massive amounts of troops from one place to another too easy, so it's out. Long-range communication makes coordinating troop movements too easy, so it's out. Computers are in, but no internet. "Normal" weapons, such as swords and bows and crossbows and the like are alright, and even mechanically enhanced versions. I'm thinking a very advanced technological culture, such as cybernetics, psionics and energy-modified swords and such, just without certain things that make large-scale conquest and emires and such possible.
I just need some more ideas for stuff that might be disallowed. It's not that violence is blocked, though, because you still need to protect yourself and whatnot. Just things that make war easier and faster, and the like.
Those who've read Orson Scott Card's something-or-other series (I forget the name) probably know the basic idea. Some great power (a group of semi-beneficent super-psychic entities in my case) decides that mankind can't handle things on its own, so decides to tamper with the minds of all the people, preventing certain ideas and inventions from ever being conceived in the first place. This is done generally to prevent large-scale wars and death. Although my super-psychic entities won't be quite so nice as the Oversoul, and I won't have any space-travel or mole-people...
Anyhow, for some basic ideas; guns make killing too easy from too far a distance, so they're out; likewise missiles and nukes and other large explosives. Large-scale, long-range transportation makes getting massive amounts of troops from one place to another too easy, so it's out. Long-range communication makes coordinating troop movements too easy, so it's out. Computers are in, but no internet. "Normal" weapons, such as swords and bows and crossbows and the like are alright, and even mechanically enhanced versions. I'm thinking a very advanced technological culture, such as cybernetics, psionics and energy-modified swords and such, just without certain things that make large-scale conquest and emires and such possible.
I just need some more ideas for stuff that might be disallowed. It's not that violence is blocked, though, because you still need to protect yourself and whatnot. Just things that make war easier and faster, and the like.
