27th January 2003, 12:27 PM
Yes, it is true that long periods of very slowly changing technology are possible... for most of human history there has been very little change, with a few major ones along the way -- agriculture, stone/iron/steel weapons, horses, saddles, etc. that completely changed the world. In between those changes were usually very slight... so sure its possible.
However... in the modern world, technology is changing faster than ever before. It is almost certainly true that in the past 150 years technology has improved more than ever in history, and WAY faster, I'd have to say. Past 100 years? Maybe, but by 1900 industrialization was well on its way... if you go to 1850, it had just started... trains were here, but really industrialization had only barely begun.
Anyway, in Star Wars tech is clearly stagnant. Look at Star Wars, then the Sith Era shown in Knights of the Old Republic (the PC/X-Box game). There aren't that many differences... which doesn't really make sense given how in the Star Wars books weapon tech definitely improves. I guess there is one possible explanation -- that it had been peaceful for so incredibly long that military tech improvement stopped long ago when wars stopped being fought... it is true that war greatly increases science and technological development and Star Wars hadn't had a war in the galaxy for over a thousand years or more until the Clone Wars. So that's part of it... but still it doesn't fully explain it. You've just got to believe, without any real explanation, that it was static... same as almost every fantasy book I've read with thousands of years of barely changing, stuck-in-the-middle-ages-(with magic)- history. Oh well... its just a little annoying I guess. I wish they'd explain why in more fantasy stories... some do, but most don't seem to.
However... in the modern world, technology is changing faster than ever before. It is almost certainly true that in the past 150 years technology has improved more than ever in history, and WAY faster, I'd have to say. Past 100 years? Maybe, but by 1900 industrialization was well on its way... if you go to 1850, it had just started... trains were here, but really industrialization had only barely begun.
Anyway, in Star Wars tech is clearly stagnant. Look at Star Wars, then the Sith Era shown in Knights of the Old Republic (the PC/X-Box game). There aren't that many differences... which doesn't really make sense given how in the Star Wars books weapon tech definitely improves. I guess there is one possible explanation -- that it had been peaceful for so incredibly long that military tech improvement stopped long ago when wars stopped being fought... it is true that war greatly increases science and technological development and Star Wars hadn't had a war in the galaxy for over a thousand years or more until the Clone Wars. So that's part of it... but still it doesn't fully explain it. You've just got to believe, without any real explanation, that it was static... same as almost every fantasy book I've read with thousands of years of barely changing, stuck-in-the-middle-ages-(with magic)- history. Oh well... its just a little annoying I guess. I wish they'd explain why in more fantasy stories... some do, but most don't seem to.