On 26Jul2023 0453, Jeffrey Schwartz - schwartz.jeffrey at gmail.com (via
tml list) wrote:
> There's a good chance contemporary AI's going to cause all manner of
> social change in the next decade.
> I'm going to gloss over that as an avoidance of accidentally triggering
> a contemporary politics firestorm....
> ...
> But let's suppose there's 'tech thresholds' where Machine Brains get a
> big bump. From mechanical looms, to sorting punched cards, to mainframes
> to networked smaller machines and home computing and then
> ubiquitous computing.
>
> T5 says there's another jump in computing at TL13...
>
> What happens when more and more core worlds cross that threshold?
> Suddenly you can put a swarm of smart drones out in the belts, and your
> import needs plummet.
> The economic ripples of tech increase could be enough to set off a
> nightmare, and then a Long Night for many worlds which didn't have such
> things

The older versions put that change at TL12, which the Terrans made
shortly before their final conquest of the Vilani. Maybe that was a
contributor to the collapse of the Ramshackle Empire?

--
Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com>