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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 8982687" data-attributes="member: 4937">There are real world equivalents to that.&nbsp; For example, the Romans were familiar with water wheels but they avoided using them whenever possible because they were worried that labor saving devices would render slavery non-productive.&nbsp; As southern Europe had lots of manpower, there was never a big push toward industrialization.&nbsp; It wasn't until the 12th century that Northern Europe, with big labor shortfall and less social resistance to ending slavery that you saw widespread adoption and innovation in labor saving industrial processes.Steam industrialization produced massive backlash as well, but I can't talk about that much because we are still living the backlash.&nbsp; But it's worth noting parallels in the ideological response to steam industrialization in the late 18th and 19th centuries, and the ideological response to the growth of paid laborers (as opposed to serfs and labor as a form of taxation) and water and wind power in the 13th century.&nbsp; Details up to the interested student of Medieval History.Nonetheless, I don't really think that this works as an explanation for a typical fantasy world.&nbsp; There are too many different actors with access to the same technology, too much freedom, too few slaves, too much long-distance travel to see alternative ways of doing things, too many books, etc.&nbsp; This is something the regressive conspiracy has to universally nip in the bud across all cultures, because if it fails with just one culture then it fails.&nbsp; And so it can't be a subtle thing.&nbsp; You need a pogram to purge all the innovation out of society on a regular basis.&nbsp; You need the 1e AD&amp;D magic hating barbarians rampaging across the whole planet every few decades.&nbsp; There are examples of societies that did something like that to themselves in the real world, but again, can't go into them here because we are still not enough centuries removed from the issue, but notably the fact that not every culture made that choice made it almost irrelevant that some did.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 8982687, member: 4937"] There are real world equivalents to that. For example, the Romans were familiar with water wheels but they avoided using them whenever possible because they were worried that labor saving devices would render slavery non-productive. As southern Europe had lots of manpower, there was never a big push toward industrialization. It wasn't until the 12th century that Northern Europe, with big labor shortfall and less social resistance to ending slavery that you saw widespread adoption and innovation in labor saving industrial processes. Steam industrialization produced massive backlash as well, but I can't talk about that much because we are still living the backlash. But it's worth noting parallels in the ideological response to steam industrialization in the late 18th and 19th centuries, and the ideological response to the growth of paid laborers (as opposed to serfs and labor as a form of taxation) and water and wind power in the 13th century. Details up to the interested student of Medieval History. Nonetheless, I don't really think that this works as an explanation for a typical fantasy world. There are too many different actors with access to the same technology, too much freedom, too few slaves, too much long-distance travel to see alternative ways of doing things, too many books, etc. This is something the regressive conspiracy has to universally nip in the bud across all cultures, because if it fails with just one culture then it fails. And so it can't be a subtle thing. You need a pogram to purge all the innovation out of society on a regular basis. You need the 1e AD&D magic hating barbarians rampaging across the whole planet every few decades. There are examples of societies that did something like that to themselves in the real world, but again, can't go into them here because we are still not enough centuries removed from the issue, but notably the fact that not every culture made that choice made it almost irrelevant that some did. [/QUOTE]

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