Doing It My Way - Freelance Traveller

Doing It My Way
(Continued from page 15)
8 in many areas, and while we have yet to discover
antigravity, fusion power, or jump drive, we are
now on the edge of TL 9, at least in computers,
communications, medicine, and perhaps in a few
other areas. As a result, we have far more of an
idea what TL changes mean for electronics and
some other areas of technology. We know that
electronics improve vastly with TL changes. In the
Traveller Imperium, tech levels advance quite
slowly, but they do advance. Here are some suggestions
for how they advance and how to incorporate
the lessons of modern technology into Traveller.
Suggestions for Advanced Electronics
As TLs advance, I strongly recommend that
computers and electronics improve in the following
manner: electronic storage (which, in the Imperium
consists of small chips like modern flash memory
cards) can hold 1,000 times more with every advance
in TL. So, a TL 9 memory card the size of a
human fingernail can hold approximately 100 GB
(gigabytes), while a TL 10 memory card of the
same size can hold 100 TB (terabytes).
Also, computers are smaller than we expected
25 years ago and prices drop rapidly. My recommendation
for both computers and robots
(including the robot brains in CT Book 8: Robots)
reduce all prices by a factor of 10 and size by a factor
of 10 when the computer is introduced, to reduce
size and price by an additional factor of 10 at
the next TL and further reduce the size (but not the
price) by a factor of 10 two TLs after the computer
or robot brain is introduced. At this point there are
no further reductions at higher TLs.
Other Consequences of Improved Electronics
Improved electronics also doesn‘t just mean
better or smaller computers or cell phones. We live
in an era of tiny robots, including tiny flying robots
6 , as well as tiny but powerful lab equipment 7 .
To avoid drastic changes to Traveller, we will assume
that the dreams of advanced robots the size of
fleas are not realized, or at least not until TLs
higher than those found in the Imperium, but by TL
10 or TL 11, we should assume that any device that
consists largely of advanced electronics can be
made as small as is useful. As a result, almost any
piece of portable electronics can be made so that it
fits conveniently in the user‘s pocket.
Augmented Reality
With programs like Layar 8 and Google Goggles
1 , we are entering the first days of widespread
augmented reality. Augmented reality means that
you can either point the camera of your cell phone
or similar device at a book, or (in a few years) look
at a book while wearing your video display glasses,
and you can, if you desire, instantly see book reviews
and details for how to buy this book online.
Similarly, you could look at a person and see their
name and a link to their Facebook page that you
could click, as well as any previous notes you may
have made about this person. Alternately, you
could look at a piece of fruit and see both nutritional
information and a series of recipes for using
it, or examine a fallen leaf, and also see pictures of
and read a short informational article about the type
of tree it fell from. Augmented reality means not
just having information at your fingertips, but seeing
it everywhere you look, and it is not a possible
technology, it‘s available right now.
Technological Diffusion
One of the modern truths about cell phones and
other easily portable electronics is that they spread
swiftly and far. Today, more people in Sub-
Saharan Africa have cell phones than have landlines,
and cell phones can be found all across the
modern third world, where they help provide people
with little other contact with 21st century technology
with opportunities that were previously unimaginable,
allowing many to overcome poverty 9 .
In Traveller, a 200td merchant ship with a hold
of various TL 11 personal electronics or communications
satellites could go to a TL 7 world within
the Imperium almost as easily as modern cell
phone companies send representatives and sales
agents to the poorest and most remote portions of
the third world, and these merchants will often find
eager buyers for these devices. While distances and
expense will likely keep personal electronics from
TL 11 or 12 worlds out of the hands of the poorer
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