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Star Wars: Technological Stagnation?


Michael Hopcroft

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Re: Star Wars: Technological Stagnation?

 

Perhaps, they aren't?

We can't forget that there is a massive difference in SFX-technologies between EP 4-6 and EP 1-3. And the way people viewed "Space battles" back then and today. And they had a lot less of a Budget back then.

You can see equally extreme examples when you compare the short Wolf359 Scene from the beginning of Star Trek: DS 9 with the big battles in Season 4 and 5. And that was only after 3 Years.

 

The spaceships aren't more futuristic. Amidala's yacht is prettier, but that's because it's neither military nor commercial. They don't have the droid soldiers, but that's because the side with the droid soldiers lost.

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Re: Star Wars: Technological Stagnation?

 

It was just ten rounds ago, but it feels like forever

Since the cleric used to cure light wounds.

And I knew that we had no chance

I knew that this was our last dance

I knew I'd crapped my chainmail pants

The round

The cleric

Died

 

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Copyright Palindromedary Enterprises

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Re: Star Wars: Technological Stagnation?

 

It was just ten rounds ago, but it feels like forever

Since the cleric used to cure light wounds.

And I knew that we had no chance

I knew that this was our last dance

I knew I'd crapped my chainmail pants

The round

The cleric

Died

 

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Copyright Palindromedary Enterprises

 

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Lucius again.

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Re: Star Wars: Technological Stagnation?

 

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Lucius again.

 

I'd share the rest of it but it's way way off topic here.

 

edit: Here's some of it. I know I wrote more but can't find it.

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php/13365-quot-This-ll-be-the-day-that-I-die-quot/page4

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Then again, so is the palindromedary

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Re: Star Wars: Technological Stagnation?

 

One of my favorite things about the starwars genre is that Luke can say: I am going tto the Dagoba system hop into his X-wing and fly there. Mark me down as in the "starwars is fantasy" camp.

 

Kimball Kinnison could do the same thing.

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Re: Star Wars: Technological Stagnation?

 

One of my favorite things about the starwars genre is that Luke can say: I am going tto the Dagoba system hop into his X-wing and fly there. Mark me down as in the "starwars is fantasy" camp.

 

Yep. It's not exactly an unpopular idea.

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Re: Star Wars: Technological Stagnation?

 

 

Edit: One thing has definitely changed though - that female Jedi would totally kick Yoda's ass!

 

Her movie poster tagline: "Yoda was the most powerful Jedi of his generation. Yoda was a nancy boy."

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Re: Star Wars: Technological Stagnation?

 

Saying that about computers doesn't seem to work. And humans' date=' being who they are, are always looking for better ways to kill each other. That's why we're not still going to war with broadswords, lances and longbows.[/quote']

 

Earth humans. Maybe star wars humans are missing a gene or two. Like the the don't whine on screen like a prissy little girl at key dramatic moments gene.

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Re: Star Wars: Technological Stagnation?

 

Saying that about computers doesn't seem to work.

 

 

You have to remember that Lucas is older than we are and that the star wars universe was first imagined almost two decades before the ubiquitous personal computer. It was released about 13 years before that point. That computers were not a huge part of his conception of the star wars universe isn't really that surprising, especially when one considers that its not really science fiction. They're there, but they do rudimentary things, much like most computers back in the 1970's. Even the old star trek's computers weren't, for the most part, that advanced or heavily leveraged story wise. It was TNG, which burst onto the scene in the 1990's, where computers became more than something that chirped, blinked, and spit out data. Lucas established the rules and "tech baseline" for star wars in the 1970's and isn't, by any stretch of the imagination, a 'futurist.' So, you've got hyperspace ships, lazer swords and guns, and holo-grams, but computers that just chirp, blink, and spit data out.

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Re: Star Wars: Technological Stagnation?

 

So' date=' you've got hyperspace ships, lazer swords and guns, and holo-grams, but computers that just chirp, blink, and spit data out.[/quote']

 

.... And lots of self-aware robots. Technically, they are computers that can walk around, even if this isn't dwelt upon much story-wise.

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Re: Star Wars: Technological Stagnation?

 

in a long term counter-insurgency against a widespread but inferior force, quantity of soldiers/weapons becomes more important than quality of soldiers/weapons. So Stormtrooper outfits are less quality because they needed a lot more of them than clone-trooper armor.

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Re: Star Wars: Technological Stagnation?

 

One of my favorite things about the starwars genre is that Luke can say: I am going tto the Dagoba system hop into his X-wing and fly there. Mark me down as in the "starwars is fantasy" camp.

 

What it means is that Lucas sees starships as being like Cars and Motorcycles, and less like Ocean Going vessels in space. Seeing as even the Millennium Falcon had no Bedrooms, only a lounge, Control space and cargo. This means that it's easy to get anywhere in the Star Wars universe in less than a day (or at least be able to break up the multiday travel into smaller chunks). Why I say this is that the ships seem to have no bathroom facilities (ie no Toilet), also as I said above only the Military ships have bunks. This means that people don't typically sleep on smaller ships. This is the Car/Motorcycle/Semi Truck paradigm.

 

Also, I just see Star Wars as being high Space Opera. They have fantastic technologies that seem magical to us. Some people have psychic powers (ie Jedi), but most people use technologies that while very advanced are used in ways that are quite familiar to us. Also people move from planet to planet like we move from city to city.

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Re: Star Wars: Technological Stagnation?

 

.... And lots of self-aware robots. Technically' date=' they are computers that can walk around, even if this isn't dwelt upon much story-wise.[/quote']

That the computer are not so advanced is not true. C-3PO was often needed to Communicate with Devices, rather than living beings (like the machines on owens farm, Human/R2-D2 Interface, Human/Millenium Falcon Computer Interace in EP 5).

They spoke languages, but not nessesary ones that are human-readable (but you could learn Astromech) or even the human langauge in the first place.

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Re: Star Wars: Technological Stagnation?

 

.... And lots of self-aware robots. Technically' date=' they are computers that can walk around, even if this isn't dwelt upon much story-wise.[/quote']

 

I don't think Lucas dwelt on the technological implications of his decisions very much at all, really.

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Re: Star Wars: Technological Stagnation?

 

That the computer are not so advanced is not true. C-3PO was often needed to Communicate with Devices, rather than living beings (like the machines on owens farm, Human/R2-D2 Interface, Human/Millenium Falcon Computer Interace in EP 5).

They spoke languages, but not nessesary ones that are human-readable (but you could learn Astromech) or even the human langauge in the first place.

 

I don't think that machines programming machines is proof the machines themselves were necessarily deeply sophisticated. Yes, talking robots are impressive, but how pervasive (outside droids) is computer function in the SW universe? In the original films, even if the computers amount to hyper-advanced AI, they weren't actually used to do very much on a practical level. Advanced, sophisticated computers should, by all rights, permeate a universe that has them due to their capabilities. But Lucas still has has people doing things in the SW universe even our computers could do today. I submit this is because Lucas had no idea what it meant for a universe to have advanced computers in it. Indeed, the computer technology, and droid technology, in the prequels is more advanced than the original movies simply because we - and Lucas - are starting to see what computers really mean on a practical level. But at this point he's locked into his original paradigm. My point? Simple: having advanced computers is immaterial if they don't actually do more than beep, blink, and spit out information.

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Re: Star Wars: Technological Stagnation?

 

I don't think that machines programming machines is proof the machines themselves were necessarily deeply sophisticated.

Not programming. Even simple soil enricher computers can talk, but not nessesary in a way humans understand it (artificial language or just programmed for the wrong species). C-3PO was bought by Lars Owen because of that.

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