Technological Advancement and World Peace in DnD Campaign.How would/have you done it?

[a-d]

Background
I'm intending to attempt world peace and rapid public dispersal of information and technology by creating the internet in our DnD campaign.

Question
What are methods and/or equipment which either could, or has been instrumental in increasing the likelihood of world peace, and advancing technological growth in your campaigns and the real world?

Personal Guesses
Technological Advancement: Internet
Able to store, view, share, discuss information to it's eventual improvement.

World Peace: Entertainment Television (Ex: DVD's and Television Series)
Constant indoctrination of ethics, morals, ideas, etc. into the viewers from birth on up. Parents babysitters indeed.
Exposure to different societies and ideas. (Ex: Anime and Cartoons.)
People go out of their way to find and make them. (Ex: Honey versus Water versus Vinegar to catch more flies.(Sweet Versus Bland Versus Sour))

Suspected Advances
Communication: Spoken languages, village messenger relayers, homing pigeons, printing press, telegraph machines(Morse code.), radio, ...satellites?..., futuristic advances...
Information Storage: Oral traditions(Listening and memorizing), written languages, libraries, printing press, magnetic tape(Cassete and video), computer hard drives, internet, futuristic advances...
Transportation: Hand held, bags, backpacks, domestication of animals to carry items, roads, carts, wagons, ships, railroads, cars, planes, futuristic advances...
Learning: Personal experience, oral traditions(Listening and memorizing), reading, analysis of the individual to refine assimilation of information(That ones real but can't remember the name or who to ask.), present day advances, futuristic advances...
Dispersal of Information: Oral tradition(Listening and memorizing), written languages, community assemblies, general information schools, focused information schools, rapid assimilation of information schools(College and Military.), radio, television, internet, futuristic advances...
Group Cohesion: Favors/Threats/Friends, favors, friends, politics, families, clans, religion, morals, villages, feudal, military, cities, profit/loss ratio, commercial, countries, ethics, democracy, futuristic advances... (Bleh. The techniques and methods used to make a country stable and adaptable with each improvement allowing it to become larger without collapsing due to not being able to control and adapt to both internal and external stresses. (Collapsing due to anarchy or rebellion, or being destroyed because of not advancing technologically, economically, socially, diplomatically, etc. at the same or better rate of a hostile or indifferent rival.))

Secondary Questions
How common is it for those in DnD Campaigns to try and cause widespread improvements to their surrounding world/s?

What advanced techniques and equipment have you or those around you created and/or used in your own campaigns to achieve this?

Personal Focus at Present
Rapid advancement of publicly common technology (Method used unimportant. Technological, Magical, Spiritual, Psionic, etc...)
World Peace and sentient rights.

Personal Note
Originally thought the internet or telephones would be the biggest influences towards world peace, so it came as a surprise to find that entertainment television, especially once people were able to choose what they would watch because of being able to buy video tapes instead of merely accepting what was presently being aired, seemed to have a much more likely ability to influence world peace than either of them.

 

[Dandu]

What are methods and/or equipment which either could, or has been instrumental in increasing the likelihood of world peace, and advancing technological growth in your campaigns and the real world?

Massive usage of Create Food and Water spell and items to produce a socialist utopia.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Do the deities still exist? The ones that are of Chaotic and/or Evil bent?

 

[Greenfield]

So mass entertainment and unlimited food?

Bread and circuses, by any other name. And even Ceasar found that it only went so far.

Here's an ugly, real world fact: The incidence of male children being born rises right after a war.

And it makes sense, from an evolutionary perspective: The cultural block that can replace lost soldiers fastest is the one who will be better prepared for the next war. The one who will eventually win a prolonged conflict.

So, the question is, how many wars, over how much time, are needed for such a characteristic to evolve? (Remember, evolution doesn't happen in hundreds or even thousands of years.)

The answer is, bottom line, that people have been at war, again and a again, for a very very long time. Probably since before we qualified as anything we'd currently consider "people" in fact. We are literally bred for war, and it's bred into us, at the genetic level. (You can check that male/female birth proportion, by the way. It's very, very real.)

So what use of magic or technology would be required for world peace? An Epic Trans-Miraculous Transmorgrification to change human nature everywhere. And another for Elves. And one for Orcs. And one for every intelligent race in the world.

And the "world at peace" will be ruled by the ones who made their saves. And then for a generation or so, there will be peace.

(Another real world fact: Historians decided to compile and total the amount of time when mankind wasn't at war someplace. Over all of recorded human history, adding up the odd days here and there, they came up with a grand total of about 3 months. )

Look at TV, movies, popular fiction in any medium, heck even D&D itself: Even our entertainments are most commonly about killing things.

But I do have to give the OP credit for a sense of humor: The media that made flame wars possible, as the tool for world peace? Good one, man. Good one.

 

[kitcik]

thanks to [MENTION=6674868]RUMBLETiGER[/MENTION] ...

Stronghold Builders Guide:

p.86- Wondrous Whisperer. Permanent Whispering Wind spell. A concave cone carved in the exterior of a wall, reading to a small hole in the interior. 25 words spoken into the hole get carried up to any known location up to three miles away, traveling 10 minutes per mile.
Caster level 3, Craft Wondrous Item, 3000gp.

Set up a network and... wallah! internet (of sorts).

 

[a-d]

RUMBLETiGER
We have cleric in our party, and no ones said anything to indicate the god/desses are gone so they're probably there.

Greenfield
So one of the factors that needs to be dealt with is a substitute for war?
No, wait that wouldn't make sense. At most such a thing would only reduce the inclination to wage war a little, not address the reasons it's waged.
Darn. Things like the Olympics looked like they might fit the bill for a second there.

Have we studied why wars occur?
If we have, were there any definite answers?
If there were, is there a website listing them so I could see how many of them could be handled through simple item creation? Infinite food and so on?

As was already mentioned, food/water/air and even land isn't a problem.

Oh, and do you think a combined Internet/Television would do more harm than good. And even if it doesn't, are there any problems specific to them which would need to be addressed?

 

[Dandu]

So one of the factors that needs to be dealt with is a substitute for war?

Sex. It's got blood, aggression, adrenaline, flanking maneuvers...

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Why do you want world peace? Even if you managed to somehow overcome eons of human and hominid evolution to create a world without war, the results would be terrible. No progress. No culture. No purpose. Just generation after generation of humans getting fatter, lazier, and dumber until they can no longer even comprehend the magical infrastructure that made this "utopia" possible.

I'd rather see the species go extinct.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

The reason I asked about the deities:
I addition to human(oid) nature to cause havok, there are gods in the D&D pantheon that are clearly opposed to peace. They'd not stand for it. They'd seek to destroy it. And they have magic zappy powers.

 

[a-d]

Viktyr Korimir
World peace doesn't have to lead to Stagnation. It would be a serious concern and has made me think that a truly Perfect society would need to be "Imperfect."

An example given by the Author Mercedes Lackey, in their book "Fortune's Fool" had one of the main characters leaving potentially dangerous areas around their kingdom instead of removing them so people would be reminded that dangerous things exist out there and not come to believe that dangerous things don't really happen.

Reminded me of horror stories/movies. Perhaps that's part of the reason people make them.

RUMBLETiGER
True.
But on the plus side, I was intending to eventually evaluate, and handle them if necessary. Though over a different matter.

On the other hand, like in the Fortune's Fool, it would be a good idea to get into the habit of talking with them to see why they do what they do before making any final, or even experimental decisions.
But some situations will receive an automatic No.