History Main / TechnologyLevels

* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' has a system of tech levels. It's very helpful when calculating whether a certain piece of equipment is available for purchase (and what it costs). Crafty game masters are advised to assign different tech levels to various sections of society. Tech Level 5, for example, is the Industrial Revolution, while modern developed countries would be at [=TL8=] [[TechnologyMarchesOn (although when the game was created in the early 1990s, "modern" tech was [=TL7=])]]. The system also introduces the concept of divergent tech levels, with the notation "TL('x'+'y')"[[note]]where x+y is the effective technology level, x is the technology shared with that of our history, and y is how far along the technological development is along some alternate path[[/note]]. TL (5+1) is (usually) {{steampunk}} tech, for example, while the BambooTechnology of [[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones a certain modern Stone Age family]] would be TL(0+7). It's also notable that technology that completely violates physics like [[FTL FasterThanLightTravel]] or [[PsychicIndex superhero psionics]] are considered Superscience tech regardless of what level it appears with the label [=TL^=].

* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' has a system of tech levels. It's very helpful when calculating whether a certain piece of equipment is available for purchase (and what it costs). Crafty game masters are advised to assign different tech levels to various sections of society. Tech Level 5, for example, is the Industrial Revolution, while modern developed countries would be at [=TL8=] [[TechnologyMarchesOn (although when the game was created in the early 1990s, "modern" tech was [=TL7=])]]. The system also introduces the concept of divergent tech levels, with the notation "TL('x'+'y')"[[note]]where x+y is the effective technology level, x is the technology shared with that of our history, and y is how far along the technological development is along some alternate path[[/note]]. TL (5+1) is (usually) {{steampunk}} tech, for example, while the BambooTechnology of [[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones a certain modern Stone Age family]] would be TL(0+7).

** Averted, at least on the primitive end of the scale, in ''[[Literature/{{Ringworld}} The Ringworld Throne]]''. Discussing whether or not a troublesome species of Ringworld hominid is sentient or non-sentient, it's mentioned that different borderline species have developed different skills: an aquatic variety can't use fire in its native habitat, but has developed flaked stone tools; a raw-meat-eating species doesn't ''need'' fire, but raises livestock; and so on.

* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' carefully lays out post-[[TheSingularity Singularity]] tech levels based around the relative intelligence levels of ever more complex transhuman and AI minds. Pre-Singularity humans can at best make basic nanotech and antimatter drives. At S1 BrainUploading and matter-to-energy conversion drives become possible. S3 minds can create Wormholes, and S4 or higher can produce {{Reactionless Drive}}s.

-->-- '''Chairman Shen-Ji Yang''', ''[[VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri "Looking God in the Eye"]]''

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' has been thumbing its nose at this trope ever since ''Literature/MovingPictures''. Notably, while the invention of film in that novel was a result of alchemists' being [[TouchedByVorlons infected by the spirit of Holy Wood]], it's also straight-up subverted when the resulting industry invents color movies before sound. Creator/TerryPratchett's view of Technology Levels is "There's no reason why worlds should develop the same way. The Greeks had all the necessary theoretical knowledge and technical ability to invent the wind-up gramophone. The steam-powered gramophone, come to that. They just never did."[[note]]Several different processes of color photography were invented during and even ''before'' the silent movies era -- they just didn't happen to be ones easily applicable to a long reel.[[/note]]

* {{Parodied}} by ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy,'' where a species with a lot of arms is specifically cited as being the only species to invent the underarm deodorant before the wheel.
* Likewise in ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic'', possibly as an homage to the former. When asked about the low population of elves, a PC replies, "Elven children breast feed for 30 years, teethe for 20 years, throw tantrums for about 100 years... and don't take to toilet training until they're about 200." "Yeah. Elves invented effective contraception before we could use fire."
* A Larry Niven short story takes a jab at this when the Kzinti encounter puny humans, who are still stuck with rockets when the Kzinti acquired the next step however long ago. It turns out that humans, having more experience with them, have ''much better'' rockets. Later they turn a Bussard Ram-Jet [[WeaponizedExhaust into a guided missile]].
** Granted, the Kzinti skipped straight from the bronze age to reactionless drives thanks to a high-tech race that thought they'd make good soldiers. [[LowCultureHighTech Their culture is still hopelessly archaic.]]
* Averted, at least on the primitive end of the scale, in ''The Ringworld Throne''. Discussing whether or not a troublesome species of Literature/{{Ringworld}} hominid is sentient or non-sentient, it's mentioned that different borderline species have developed different skills: an aquatic variety can't use fire in its native habitat, but has developed flaked stone tools; a raw-meat-eating species doesn't ''need'' fire, but raises livestock; and so on.
* In the ''Literature/{{Icerigger}}'' trilogy by Creator/AlanDeanFoster, the residents of Tran-Ky-Ky are an Iron Age culture that never invented the wheel. That's because Tran-Ky-Ky is an [[SingleBiomePlanet Ice World]], and the natives mount anything heavy that needs to be transported on ice skates.
* This gets brought up in Creator/VernorVinge's ''Literature/AFireUponTheDeep'' when the protagonists are trying to send aid by remotely uplifting an alien species on the planet they are traveling to. It is remarked that technological progress is much less like a ladder and more like a rock climbing wall, there are many possible routes to the same types of technology and they need to figure out what the aliens already have in order to figure out how to give them the secrets behind constructing shortwave radios and firearms.
* Literature/{{Discworld}} has been thumbing its nose at this trope ever since ''[[Literature/{{Discworld}} Moving Pictures]]''. Notably, while the invention of film in that novel was a result of alchemists' being [[TouchedByVorlons infected by the spirit of Holy Wood]], it's also straight-up subverted when the resulting industry invents color movies before sound. Creator/TerryPratchett's view of Technology Levels is "There's no reason why worlds should develop the same way. The Greeks had all the necessary theoretical knowledge and technical ability to invent the wind-up gramophone. The steam-powered gramophone, come to that. They just never did."
** Several different processes of color photography were invented during and even ''before'' mute movies era. They just didn't happen to be ones easily applicable to a long reel.
* ''Literature/MythAdventures'' has vastly different dimensions, but also trade in both technology (dimension travelers posing as inventors) and ready goods. So there's obvious difference between "rustic" and "advanced" places, but whether any given world is stronger or weaker in magical, technological or [[{{Magitek}} combined]] areas depends on tastes of its denizens, local resources and chance. And it can be [[PlanetOfHats specialized]], of course.
* Creator/GregEgan's ''Incandescence'' gleefully avoids this. Mostly it concerns itself with physics concepts -- when you're a pre-industrial civilization orbiting a black hole, physics is ''really important'' -- but, for example, the aliens in question discover the Kerr metric for a rotating black hole (which we derived in 1963) slightly before they figure out universal gravitation (discovered by some guy named UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton in the late 17th century).

* In ''Literature/DragonsEgg'', while the Cheela's technological evolution is loosely patterned after mankind's, some of it is necessarily influenced by their environment -- mostly the ''huge'' gravity and magnetic field of the Cheela home world. So they [[AliensNeverInventedTheWheel invent the sleigh instead of the wheel]] because gravity makes axles impractical and in their "metal casting"[[note]]using crystalline materials found on their star rather than actual metals[[/note]] the molds need to be oriented along the magnetic field.
** Even after their FirstContact with humans, where they model their culture and technology after mankind's, there are some things they just have to do differently -- such as developing AntiGravity ''before'' space flight, because there's no other way to get off their world.
* In the E3 universe in Ian [=McDonald=]'s ''Planesrunner'' the electric motor was invented before the steam engine and everything is powered by coal because there is no oil.
* {{Subverted}} in ''[[Literature/DykstrasWar Dykstra's War]]'' by Jeffrey D. Kooistra. The Phinons have had space travel for eons, but [[spoiler: they are a species with barely animal-level intelligence. They naturally live in the comet clouds between solar systems, and they evolved spacecraft-building as an instinctive behavior, like bees building a hive or beavers building a dam. Their ships' "design" is incredibly weird-looking and their "technology" extremely counter-intuitive, because it's not the product of engineering in the human sense.]]

* Discussed in Creator/HarryTurtledove's ''Literature/TheGunsOfTheSouth''. [[spoiler:At the end of the book, UsefulNotes/RobertELee asks Benny Lang if the captive Rivington men could [[{{ItMakesSenseInContext}} build him a computer]]. He replies that the Confederates not only lack the technology to make it, but they lack the technology to make ''that'' technology, and probably a few more steps back from that too.]]

* The Centran civilization of Christopher Anvil's ''Pandora's Planet'' has a scale for this, introduced by a mention that the latest Centran conquest is at 0.9 Centra-level. One problem with the concept is highlighted with the words that come directly after that introduction: "In some respects higher."

* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'': A faction's tech level is based largely on how much LostTechnology they possess. The Successor States barely remember how to make Mechs and rely on antique Jumpships and [=ComStar's=] similarly ancient network. As for [=ComStar=] and their militant faction the Word of Blake they religiously grab and hoard most examples of [=LosTek=] in the Inner Sphere. While the Clans are descendants of the Star League's military who took a lot of their technology with them and ensured that their factories and scientist caste would be safe from the constant warfare, so they have the most advanced technology in the known galaxy.

This has some actual reference in the real world [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale Kardashev Scale]] (''how much'' total energy one gets to play with, no matter ''how''). Wiki/TheOtherWiki used to have a list. See JustForFun/AbusingTheKardashevScaleForFunAndProfit for some fun speculation.

* ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'': The three main tribes have clear technology levels: The Nora hunter-gatherers are still Stone Age, the Carja cities are late Stone Age or perhaps early Bronze Age, and the Oseram smiths are early Steel Age. However, this is all complicated by the fact that there are MechanicalLifeforms wandering everywhere; the Nora use composite bows made with metal parts and wire strings with explosive tripwires, the Carja wear metal "feathers" as a fashion statement and armor, and the Oseram deconstruct the machines to create high-tech weapons like a magnetic railgun that fires explosive balls. The other tribes are less clear because they don't get as much time in the limelight. The Utaru appear to have discovered agriculture but never advanced past it, while the Banuk are Stone Age like the Nora but have also discovered a few primitive ways to control the machines, giving them some advantages over the other tribes.

* More or less justified in the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' universe, where human civilizations in different parts of the galaxy pretty much had their technological progress railroaded by the use of Standard Template Construct systems. In the past ten thousand years or so, humans haven't really developed their technology at ''all'', so they avert this trope by side-stepping it.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'''s first edition [[TropeCodifier originated (or at least popularized) the idea]] in [=RPGs=].
* The ''d20 Future'' supplement of the ''d20Modern'' RPG gives technology based on "Progress Levels." Modern humans, depending on geography and infrastructure, go from about PL 4 to (late) PL 5. These, along with most of the supplement's flavor, were transposed directly from ''TabletopGame/{{Alternity}}'', which was previously published by the same publisher.
* The ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' RPG has a similar system of tech levels. It's very helpful when calculating whether a certain piece of equipment is available for purchase (and what it costs). Crafty game masters are advised to assign different tech levels to various sections of society. Tech Level 5, for example, is the Industrial Revolution, while modern developed countries would be at [=TL8=] [[TechnologyMarchesOn (although when the game was created in the early 1990s, "modern" tech was [=TL7=])]].
** The system also introduces the concept of divergent tech levels, with the notation "TL('x'+'y')"[[note]]where x+y is the effective technology level, x is the technology shared with that of our history, and y is how far along the technological development is along some alternate path[[/note]]. TL (5+1) is (usually) {{steampunk}} tech, for example, while the BambooTechnology of [[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones a certain modern Stone Age family]] would be TL(0+7).
* The 3E TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}} products use "Culture Levels", which combine technological progress with social changes in a sequence that's closely parallel to that of IRL European history. Unlike many fantasy settings, the Land of Mists is ''intended'' to capture the authentic flavor of Gothic fiction's classics, thus needs to at least somewhat emulate the real-world historical past.
* Tech levels are an integral part of the tabletop war game ''Starfire''. Your tech level determines what systems you're allowed to install on a starship. At Tech Level I, you get ion drive engines, nuclear missiles, lasers, and basic {{deflector shields}}. By Tech Level X, you're sporting 3rd-generation shields and armor, heterodyne lasers, charged particle beams (and overload dampeners that can absorb the impact of such beams), tractor beams (and tractor-nullifying shear planes), narrowly-focused force beams that ignore shields and armor, and space fighters.
* ''Tomorrow's War'' has three tech levels, however they're meant to be relative to one another, depending on the scenario a given TL can mean anything from [[AKA47 AK-147s]] to [[PlasmaCannon plasma rifles]].

* In ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' a faction's tech level is based largely on how much LostTechnology they possess. The Successor States barely remember how to make Mechs and rely on antique Jumpships and [=ComStar's=] similarly ancient network. As for [=ComStar=] and their militant faction the Word of Blake they religiously grab and hoard most examples of [=LosTek=] in the Inner Sphere. While the Clans are descendants of the Star League's military who took a lot of their technology with them and ensured that their factories and scientist caste would be safe from the constant warfare, so they have the most advanced technology in the known galaxy.

** Interestingly, recent versions of Civilization 6 have a gameplay option called "Tech Shuffle" to allow technology to be (more or less) utterly randomized, so you can have, for example, [[SchizoTech Modern Rocketry develop in the Middle Ages]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Age of Empires|I}}'' has four technological levels: Stone Age, Tool Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. Its sequels follow suit, as do many RealTimeStrategy games inspired by it.
** In particular, while it would be hard to go straight to making stone tools without using unmodified stones as tools first, parts of Africa skipped the Bronze Age altogether, and a Bronze Age setting with good heavy trade could similarly skip the Iron Age. For geological reasons, copper ore tends to be far from ores that would make decent bronze with it - so when metal trade is interrupted, or never gets going in the first place, humans turned to the softer iron.

* The original ''VideoGame/{{Elite}}'', which owes rather a lot to ''Traveller'', used this trope in the background fluff. It doesn't have much effect in-game; certain after-market upgrades for your ship aren't available in worlds below a certain Tech Level, and you can turn a good profit shipping electronic goods from the local HigherTechSpecies to its less advanced neighbours.

*** This may be a case of UnreliableNarrator due to translation problems.

* The Incans had a system of roads that spanned their entire empire... but never invented the wheel. ItMakesSenseInContext: the Incans lived in the steep Andes, so most of their roads involved steps up a mountain. Wheels would be inconvenient compared to walking or riding animals.
** They had wheels, but they were only used on toys.
** The Incans had no traction animals, so even if they'd built carts and wagons, they had nothing to pull them with. As with the steam engine example above, while the theory existed, the support structure necessary to make the technology practical just wasn't there, and so the Incans never built carts or wagons.
*** They had llamas which can be used to pull carts, although they aren't as good at it as horses and the large numbers of slopes might well make llama carts impractical anyway.

Similarly, seemingly distinct and diverse technologies will always develop at the same rate. An alien world with "Renaissance-era" technology in firearms will also possess lenses, ships, mathematical principles and sometimes even ''fashion'' identical to those of Earth (never mind the odds that an alien civilization would develop in a manner identical to a historical period that was a specifically European cultural phenomenon involving the rebirth and innovation of classical Greco-Roman civilization).

Similarly, seemingly distinct and diverse technologies will always develop at the same rate. An alien world with "Renaissance-era" technology in firearms will also possess lenses, ships, mathematical principles and sometimes even ''fashion'' identical to those that Earth (never mind the odds that an alien civilization would develop in a manner identical to a historical age on earth that was a specifically European cultural phenomenon involving the rebirth and innovation of classical Greco-Roman civilization).

Similarly, seemingly distinct and diverse technologies will always develop at the same rate. An alien world with "Renaissance-era" technology (ignoring for the moment that the Renaissance spanned four centuries and giant changes in technology) in, say, firearms will also possess lenses, ships, building materials, and mathematical principles identical to those that Earth (read: the inter-continental trade powers of north-western Europe) possessed along with said firearms.