Low Tech Biotech

[garrowolf]

This is kind of a fork from another thread but I was trying to figure out Low Tech Biotech Tech Levels. Most of the time Biotech starts at early genetic engineering but I've heard of settings where they supposedly developed entirely based on Biotech. So what are the lower tech levels for biotech?
If we assume some sort of Stone Age variant based on just using the materials you find in your hunts or around you as the TL 1, the next Tech Level for us was the Bronze Age. We learned to alter materials such as more advanced pottery and forging metals.

Now the trap is that people tend to want to just have a natural version of something from another tech level and say that is the biotech version but that doesn't work. So if you stick an electric eel to a piece of metal and create a lightbulb, that isn't the same thing because it doesn't mean that you understand anything that you just did. It is just a pretty trick.

The other trap is for a group that just uses Biotech to copy technology but with a twist from someone else but then you aren't actually creating an independent technology path. It becomes mimicry.

So with all that in mind what kind of tech levels would there be?

 

[jefgorbach]

Biotech is biologically focused technology so off-the-cuff, I agree Stone Age (TL1) would essentially being using whatever happens to be at hand during routine hunts like you said.

TL2 (Bronze Age) domestication of local animals/plants.
TL3 (Iron Age) early attempts at animal husbandry / breeding
TL4 breeding for specific traits
TL5 early genetic understanding (ie Mendel), antibiotics/penicillin
TL6 understanding of DNA, RNA, etc.
TL7 early genetic mapping and modification; virus customization
TL8 default biotech

 

[Argyle King]

If you're interested, there are a few books from various gaming companies which cover Bio-Tech. Off the top of my head, this comes to mind: GURPS Bio-Tech

Even if you don't play the system they are for, some of the books are still excellent sources of information.

 

[garrowolf]

I have GURPS Biotech. It starts with modern and later tech levels.

[MENTION=28278]jefgorbach[/MENTION] you're on the right track but all those things occurred in our tech level path (however domestication occurred during the stone age and occurs because of breeding for certain traits so what you have for TL1-3 is the same thing).

I'm trying to figure out how it is different from our tech level path. I think the frustrating part is that all biotech would vary so much from planet to planet depending on what plants and animals were available to alter. It may be an impossible thing to figure out.

 

[garrowolf]

It occurred to me that maybe a biotech tech path at low tech is simply one with low or no metal to work with.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

At low levels, biotech is simply using flora and fauna for things they do naturally.

Up the biotech scale, you have selective breeding to choose for certain traits that you deem valuable. Wolves become dogs; bison become cattle, wild grasses become high-yield grains.

At higher levels, you're using magic or tech to change flora and fauna in ways that would be possible, but would take hundreds of thousands of generations to do with selective breeding. Think of uplifted/anthro animals.

Beyond that, you are using magic/tech to change flora/fauna in ways they would not ever change to via natural methods: photosynthetic wolves, owlbears, pigephants, SHARKTOPUS!

 

[garrowolf]

I would love to see someone put a sharktopus into a game!

 

[jefgorbach]

I have GURPS Biotech. It starts with modern and later tech levels.

[MENTION=28278]jefgorbach[/MENTION] you're on the right track but all those things occurred in our tech level path (however domestication occurred during the stone age and occurs because of breeding for certain traits so what you have for TL1-3 is the same thing).

I'm trying to figure out how it is different from our tech level path. I think the frustrating part is that all biotech would vary so much from planet to planet depending on what plants and animals were available to alter. It may be an impossible thing to figure out.

Correct. As I see it, LOW-LEVEL biotech likely mirrors our own development to a large degree, with the most noticeable divergences occurring once we began moving towards a mechanized industrial culture. IF we presume Governmental-Social pressures against mechanization prolong reliance upon domesticated labor, the resulting divergences should become even more pronounced - especially if the circumstances leading upto WW1 and WW2 remain as-were, triggering rapid development of militarize biological applications which presumably would be retrograded to civilian uses afterwards.

AFB but a start would be the appendix in Gurps Time (title?) showing when various technological developments occurred to get a rough approximation of what/when something was replaced (and thus potentially what improvement(s) it overcame). Once known, it should be possible to decide what intermittent advancements are required for each evolutionary step towards your desired biological end-point.

The biggest question is how real you need/want the results to be. Science confirms primates are not only genetically similar to homo sapiens but are demonstratively intelligent and capable of learning ... thus fully capable of performing a variety of roles - even before intensive educational/breeding modifications are utilized.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Science confirms primates are not only genetically similar to homo sapiens but are demonstratively intelligent and capable of learning ... thus fully capable of performing a variety of roles - even before intensive educational/breeding modifications are utilized.

We've either ruined them or taken the first steps to their Uplift.

iPad? There's an ape for that - orangutans master Apple gizmos | Mail Online

 

[garrowolf]

well this is what I have from the Aquatic Tech Level end of things which I think would be one path that would stay with the biotech side of things.

Corral Age - Just use things as they are
Net Age - Starting to create containers/early domestication
Bubble Age - Isolating materials/chemicals
Amphibious Age - Exploring coastlines with aerator packs
Coastal Age - creating cities along the coastal shelf, making use of land animals as well
Exploration Age - explore the interior of islands and continents.
Genetic Revolution - understanding of DNA, chemistry, biochemistry, physics, ecology, etc.
Surgical Age - able to do major surgery, more scientific developments, Modern Age equivalent
Uplift Age - able to greatly alter animals into various tools and weapons, includes their version of cyberware, cloning, etc.
Neogenesis Revolution - Able to create entirely new lifeforms, biovehicles, etc.