- Location
- Balham
- Pronouns
- he/him
'Perfected' isn't the right word, as any technologist will tell you, but hopefully you get the gist.
A new design of steam locomotive produced today is far superior to, say, Evening Star, the final locomotive built by BR in 1960. The metals available to us, the technologies relating to heating water, coal injection, etc, all mean our hypothetical loco (or one of the real ones being built by hobbyists and inventors here and there). But, obviously, it's also obsolete, because of diesel and electric locomotives. If certain techs hadn't taken off, or didn't work thanks to ASBs, what interesting examples of tech reaching new heights before people stopped caring about it can you think of?
What might sailing ships look like now in a world where steam locomotion just doesn't quite work? How might propeller-driven fighters have fought for control of the skies over Kuwait or Yugoslavia? If metalworking advanced as in reality but gunpowder didn't exist, would kevlar render infantry combat impossible or impractical?
All very silly, of course, but it popped into my head and I was curious if anyone had come up with anything similar.
A new design of steam locomotive produced today is far superior to, say, Evening Star, the final locomotive built by BR in 1960. The metals available to us, the technologies relating to heating water, coal injection, etc, all mean our hypothetical loco (or one of the real ones being built by hobbyists and inventors here and there). But, obviously, it's also obsolete, because of diesel and electric locomotives. If certain techs hadn't taken off, or didn't work thanks to ASBs, what interesting examples of tech reaching new heights before people stopped caring about it can you think of?
What might sailing ships look like now in a world where steam locomotion just doesn't quite work? How might propeller-driven fighters have fought for control of the skies over Kuwait or Yugoslavia? If metalworking advanced as in reality but gunpowder didn't exist, would kevlar render infantry combat impossible or impractical?
All very silly, of course, but it popped into my head and I was curious if anyone had come up with anything similar.