Doing It My Way - Freelance Traveller
Doing It My Way - Freelance Traveller
Doing It My Way - Freelance Traveller
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<strong>Doing</strong> <strong>It</strong> <strong>My</strong> <strong>Way</strong><br />
(Continued from page 15)<br />
8 in many areas, and while we have yet to discover<br />
antigravity, fusion power, or jump drive, we are<br />
now on the edge of TL 9, at least in computers,<br />
communications, medicine, and perhaps in a few<br />
other areas. As a result, we have far more of an<br />
idea what TL changes mean for electronics and<br />
some other areas of technology. We know that<br />
electronics improve vastly with TL changes. In the<br />
<strong>Traveller</strong> Imperium, tech levels advance quite<br />
slowly, but they do advance. Here are some suggestions<br />
for how they advance and how to incorporate<br />
the lessons of modern technology into <strong>Traveller</strong>.<br />
Suggestions for Advanced Electronics<br />
As TLs advance, I strongly recommend that<br />
computers and electronics improve in the following<br />
manner: electronic storage (which, in the Imperium<br />
consists of small chips like modern flash memory<br />
cards) can hold 1,000 times more with every advance<br />
in TL. So, a TL 9 memory card the size of a<br />
human fingernail can hold approximately 100 GB<br />
(gigabytes), while a TL 10 memory card of the<br />
same size can hold 100 TB (terabytes).<br />
Also, computers are smaller than we expected<br />
25 years ago and prices drop rapidly. <strong>My</strong> recommendation<br />
for both computers and robots<br />
(including the robot brains in CT Book 8: Robots)<br />
reduce all prices by a factor of 10 and size by a factor<br />
of 10 when the computer is introduced, to reduce<br />
size and price by an additional factor of 10 at<br />
the next TL and further reduce the size (but not the<br />
price) by a factor of 10 two TLs after the computer<br />
or robot brain is introduced. At this point there are<br />
no further reductions at higher TLs.<br />
Other Consequences of Improved Electronics<br />
Improved electronics also doesn‘t just mean<br />
better or smaller computers or cell phones. We live<br />
in an era of tiny robots, including tiny flying robots<br />
6 , as well as tiny but powerful lab equipment 7 .<br />
To avoid drastic changes to <strong>Traveller</strong>, we will assume<br />
that the dreams of advanced robots the size of<br />
fleas are not realized, or at least not until TLs<br />
higher than those found in the Imperium, but by TL<br />
10 or TL 11, we should assume that any device that<br />
consists largely of advanced electronics can be<br />
made as small as is useful. As a result, almost any<br />
piece of portable electronics can be made so that it<br />
fits conveniently in the user‘s pocket.<br />
Augmented Reality<br />
With programs like Layar 8 and Google Goggles<br />
1 , we are entering the first days of widespread<br />
augmented reality. Augmented reality means that<br />
you can either point the camera of your cell phone<br />
or similar device at a book, or (in a few years) look<br />
at a book while wearing your video display glasses,<br />
and you can, if you desire, instantly see book reviews<br />
and details for how to buy this book online.<br />
Similarly, you could look at a person and see their<br />
name and a link to their Facebook page that you<br />
could click, as well as any previous notes you may<br />
have made about this person. Alternately, you<br />
could look at a piece of fruit and see both nutritional<br />
information and a series of recipes for using<br />
it, or examine a fallen leaf, and also see pictures of<br />
and read a short informational article about the type<br />
of tree it fell from. Augmented reality means not<br />
just having information at your fingertips, but seeing<br />
it everywhere you look, and it is not a possible<br />
technology, it‘s available right now.<br />
Technological Diffusion<br />
One of the modern truths about cell phones and<br />
other easily portable electronics is that they spread<br />
swiftly and far. Today, more people in Sub-<br />
Saharan Africa have cell phones than have landlines,<br />
and cell phones can be found all across the<br />
modern third world, where they help provide people<br />
with little other contact with 21st century technology<br />
with opportunities that were previously unimaginable,<br />
allowing many to overcome poverty 9 .<br />
In <strong>Traveller</strong>, a 200td merchant ship with a hold<br />
of various TL 11 personal electronics or communications<br />
satellites could go to a TL 7 world within<br />
the Imperium almost as easily as modern cell<br />
phone companies send representatives and sales<br />
agents to the poorest and most remote portions of<br />
the third world, and these merchants will often find<br />
eager buyers for these devices. While distances and<br />
expense will likely keep personal electronics from<br />
TL 11 or 12 worlds out of the hands of the poorer<br />
(Continued on page 17)<br />
16