Ragitsu Posted June 26, 2011 Report Share Posted June 26, 2011 What are some examples of this in fiction? Two examples that come to mind are the Stargates from Stargate SG-1 and the Vaults from Fallout. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clonus Posted June 26, 2011 Report Share Posted June 26, 2011 Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? Every generation ship story ever written. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted June 26, 2011 Report Share Posted June 26, 2011 Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? How about the nuclear missile worshipped by the underground mutants in Beneath the Planet of the Apes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xavier Onassiss Posted June 26, 2011 Report Share Posted June 26, 2011 Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? The epilogue of Stross' Accelerando. Ken MacLeod's Newton's Wake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted June 26, 2011 Report Share Posted June 26, 2011 Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? How about the nuclear missile worshipped by the underground mutants in Beneath the Planet of the Apes? That existed in Fallout 3, too: In MegaTon, the church of the Atom. In fact the gameseries was full of factions around that. Especially the "Brotherhood of Steel" and their legendary Power Armors (reverse engineered Army Power Armors). This can be extended to any Post-Appocaliptic world/szenario. I can't remember anything else right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manic Typist Posted June 26, 2011 Report Share Posted June 26, 2011 Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? The Covenant in Halo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmjalund Posted June 26, 2011 Report Share Posted June 26, 2011 Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? could you count the TechnoMages from Babylon 5? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xavier Onassiss Posted June 26, 2011 Report Share Posted June 26, 2011 Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? could you count the TechnoMages from Babylon 5? I've often wondered where their technology came from -- did they find it or create it themselves? I'm not sure if this was ever explained in B5 or its short-lived spin-off series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted June 26, 2011 Report Share Posted June 26, 2011 Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? I just remembered an example from Marvel Comics' Guardians of the Galaxy series in the 1990s: "the Stark." In the timeline that series took place in, late-Twentieth Century Earth was invaded by "Martians," and Tony "Iron Man" Stark sent his various models of powered armor in a ship into space to prevent the Martians getting their hands on his unique advanced technology. IIRC the ship was intended to fly into the Sun, but went off-course and eventually crashed on a planet inhabited by a primitive humanoid race. These beings learned to use Stark's tech, uniting and rapidly industrializing their world; but retained their barbaricly aggressive society, leading to a campaign of conquest of other worlds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escafarc Posted June 26, 2011 Report Share Posted June 26, 2011 Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? I've often wondered where their technology came from -- did they find it or create it themselves? I'm not sure if this was ever explained in B5 or its short-lived spin-off series. There was a suppliment for the B5 RPG where they give the history of the techno-mages. They were altered by the Drakh(servants of The Shadows). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted June 26, 2011 Report Share Posted June 26, 2011 Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? Any cargo cult. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6363843.stm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Philip_Movement Lucius Alexander The palindromedary ponders the legend of Quetzlcoatl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midas Posted June 26, 2011 Report Share Posted June 26, 2011 Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? Synchronicity? I was just thumbing through an old White Dwarf* with a review of the Heechee series. (all together: EUUUUWW) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer84 Posted June 26, 2011 Report Share Posted June 26, 2011 Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? I just remembered an example from Marvel Comics' Guardians of the Galaxy series in the 1990s: "the Stark." In the timeline that series took place in' date=' late-Twentieth Century Earth was invaded by "Martians," and Tony "Iron Man" Stark sent his various models of powered armor in a ship into space to prevent the Martians getting their hands on his unique advanced technology. IIRC the ship was intended to fly into the Sun, but went off-course and eventually crashed on a planet inhabited by a primitive humanoid race. These beings learned to use Stark's tech, uniting and rapidly industrializing their world; but retained their barbaricly aggressive society, leading to a campaign of conquest of other worlds.[/quote'] I remember that. I was going to reference "The Gods Must Be Crazy," but the Stark make more sense in the thread's sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyper-Man Posted June 26, 2011 Report Share Posted June 26, 2011 Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? The City Builders from Larry Niven's Ringworld. From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hominids_of_the_Ringworld Arguably the most significant species are the City Builders, who spread across the entire Ringworld and mastered interstellar travel using Bussard ramjet motors cannibalized from the Ringworld's orbit-stabilizing system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragitsu Posted June 27, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 27, 2011 Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? Imagine a society where the poor/middle class live out in the plains while the the elite reside in an ancient spaceship with a reactor that always provides electricity...oh, and there's climate control too.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyper-Man Posted June 27, 2011 Report Share Posted June 27, 2011 Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? Imagine a society where the poor/middle class live out in the plains while the the elite reside in an ancient spaceship with a reactor that always provides electricity...oh' date=' and there's climate control too..[/quote'] A twist on this concept occurs in The Integral Trees and its sequel The Smoke Ring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted June 27, 2011 Report Share Posted June 27, 2011 Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? Pandorum? Northworld had a level where vikings fight with power armor. CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted June 27, 2011 Report Share Posted June 27, 2011 Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? Imagine a society where the poor/middle class live out in the plains while the the elite reside in an ancient spaceship with a reactor that always provides electricity...oh' date=' and there's climate control too..[/quote'] The elite most likely keep the knowledge of the ship's operation to themselves, as the basis of their power. Many elites in history have restricted understanding of astronomy, mathematics, and similar vital sciences, usually surrounding them in mystery and ritual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragitsu Posted June 27, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 27, 2011 Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? The elite most likely keep the knowledge of the ship's operation to themselves' date=' as the basis of their power. Many elites in history have restricted understanding of astronomy, mathematics, and similar vital sciences, usually surrounding them in mystery and ritual.[/quote'] Hell, literacy was a "privilege" reserved for the elite or religious in our Earth history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawnmower Boy Posted June 27, 2011 Report Share Posted June 27, 2011 Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? Hell' date=' literacy was a "privilege" reserved for the elite or religious in our Earth history.[/quote'] ..And Ragitsu explains the Internet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted June 27, 2011 Report Share Posted June 27, 2011 Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? I just noticed we forgot one mayor example: The Warhammer 40k Empire! I mean they use "holy relics" like Plasmaguns and have space ships that afaik can't be replaced anymore. Even the tech-priest, the real technicans in that universe, believe in the "Machine Spirit" and use the "Ritual of unjamming", instead of just fixing a jammed rifle. In star gate where more additional examples than I can possibilly remember on the spot. But they are either of the "archievements of older, lost civilisation" type or the "we once where a great civilisation, but now we have forgotten how our own stuff works" type. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orion Posted June 29, 2011 Report Share Posted June 29, 2011 Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? Early Battletech had somewhat of this feel to it. Advanced tech that few understand anymore, and often can no longer be built. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyper-Man Posted June 29, 2011 Report Share Posted June 29, 2011 Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? Another novel: King David's Spaceship from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_David%27s_Spaceship The action opens on a planet called 'Prince Samual's World'. Bombed heavily during the Secession Wars, it has spent 400 years in isolation. Much of the technological knowledge of the First Empire was lost; when ships of the Second Empire find the system, the planet's technological level is somewhere around that of 19th century Europe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Major Tom 2009 Posted July 5, 2011 Report Share Posted July 5, 2011 Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? I seem to recall an article for the Gamma World RPG that touched upon the subject in Dragon Magazine. The example that was given was about a group that were the descendants of a U.S. Army Special Forces unit whose plane had crashed during the wars that gave rise to the world that exists in GW. Over the years, the successive generations forgot their ancestors' origins, and their folklore evolved around a tribal hero (whose name was a corrupt- ion of "John Wayne") who left the tribe, but who would return one day to lead the tribe to a better land. The tribe's settlement was built around the ruins of the military jet that their ancestors crashed in. Major Tom 2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted July 5, 2011 Report Share Posted July 5, 2011 Re: Societies forming around advanced/alien/forgotten purpose technology? A possible example (I am not so certain): The gungans from Star Wars. They are regarded as Primitive, but they have a lot of technology: Shields, Subs that can pass through the planet core, persistant forcefields/transparent, superstrong Materials that can vanish (used in the sub), those "Energy Balls". They are dozen times more advanced than we are today, but the have no spacefaring programm. Makes me wonder if they either were once a high-culture that lost most of his knowledge or if they got the technology (and how to replicate it) from somebody else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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