The View From Under The Desk: Paradigm Shift

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17 August 2012

Paradigm Shift

For decades I have been playing Traveller. I started with the little black books in 1979!

I've converted it twice to GURPS 3rd Edition and once to GURPS 4th Edition.

I've played the official GURPS 3rd Edition conversion.

For all of its miraculous drive technology, Traveller is trapped in the '70's as far as conceptual technology goes.

Computers are gigantic.

Traveller is not alone in missing the advances in computer technology, science fiction as a whole missed it.

Medicine is recognizable. For something set 5,000 years from now there hasn't been much advance. Genetics in particular are more advanced today than in the Traveller universe.

There's no mention of cyberwear at all because nobody'd thought of it yet in 1977.

For a long time my space worlds have been clinging to that Traveller concept. I limited the tech to conform to the comfortable norms that were established in those little black books.

Throwing away the miraculous drives has pushed through a membrane and allowed me to consider concepts and technologies that have risen since the original publishing.

It's a whole new world. Literally. I, for one, welcome our insect overlords.