Quote from: ColonelHardissonI just don't see that happening. I mean, really, would you?

But what if there were side effects?  Suppose you could live another 50 years without treatment or 150 with treatment, but the treatment caused an immediate permanent 20 pt IQ drop?  (Maybe the treatment lowers brain metabolism.)

Or what if a range of competing treatments evolved around the same time?  What if you could have olympic athlete performance with a normal lifespan or keep your current body for an extended lifespan.

Quote from: ColonelHardissonThe expensive anagathic treatments would be better used in the setting as a "quick fix," for someone from an isolated world.

Yeah, I could see them for, say, someone from a TL 3 world.  But you'd have to really, really like them to pay that much money.  (Or they'd have to be pretty damn talented to get the money themselves.)

Sure, the emperors would sit on the throne a lot longer.  But at least that way, someone in the Spinward Marches or Solomani Rim might actually *hear* about the new emperor before he dies of old age.  :heh:

Quote from: CyberzombieSure, the emperors would sit on the throne a lot longer.  But at least that way, someone in the Spinward Marches or Solomani Rim might actually *hear* about the new emperor before he dies of old age.  :heh:

This could be the basis of a whole other discussion. The Imperium is just too damned big to be truly viable. I've always felt it just couldn't sustain itself very well with communications and travel being so slow. I know there is some precedent for it in history, with the British Empire, but the sheer size of the Imperium far outstrips even that example. It takes how many years to get from Capital to the other end of the Imperium? Personally, I think jump times should be decreased, maybe to one day a jump, rather than the one week a jump that was standard in my Traveller books.

I've had some problems with that, but I can handle that level of sillyness.  It does make interstellar wars pretty much non-viable, though.  At least the way they're run in the Traveller backstory.

The problem I have with the setting is the general tech level of interstellar society is way too low.  Sure, you have a few shining beacons of TL 15/TL 16 society, but the way the tables work, you end up mostly with TL 7-11 worlds with a couple million to a couple hundred million people.  For the Imperium as described, even with a lot of lost worlds, the tech and the population just seems too low.

Another weird artifact of the system is that the most common habitable planetary system is an M0-4 star with a gas giant in orbit 0, which in turn has a shitload of habitable moons.  Maybe that is the most common planetary system in the universe (we don't know yet, one way or the other) but it sure is odd.

With so many systems like that, you'd think that the general tech level would have stayed higher even during collapses.  If a system has 3 or 4 major worlds, interplanetary trade should remain even if the interstellar trade is gone.

Quote from: ColonelHardissonI just don't see that happening. I mean, really, would you? Would anyone you know? I think anyone sane would choose to live longer if they had the chance. It's easier to say one would choose to live a shorter life to avoid boredom when one is young, but as one gets older, one begins to really appreciate one's time alive.

I see it as more of a reaction to the stagnation. Consider it a philosophical/creative movement reacting to the ills they percieve in society. I don't imagine it would be big group though. The idea would work better with a prolong style treatment that could only be given at a young age so that they couldn't change their minds when they were approaching death from old age.

Yeah, the general tech level does seem too low.

But another thing always bugged me about Traveller's planetary profile system - the lack of anything indicating what the gravity is on the planet. Yeah, I guess I could find out how to derive it from the mass, but really, I'm not that scientifically inclined. Just tell me straight-out how many G's the characters have to deal with damnit!

Quote from: ColonelHardissonIf the setting assumes that there was a period of expansion and then a "Dark Ages" where star systems were isolated, then a wide variety of cultures could develop. A subsequent "Renaissance" where commerce was re-established might reveal planets where the population is out of hand as trade routes are re-established. This is along the lines of Traveller's "Imperium" and Weber's "Honorverse." Heavily populated planets might have to figure out how to get their populations under control before "prolong" is given. This would be especially true of isolated planets with no outside help or contact.

Or instead of a "Dark Ages" you could have an "Age of Enlightenment" were the "prolong" process (for example) is just being introduced. There could be a few generations of humans lucky enough to have been blessed with this treatment.

Wether or not the tech is up to standard to cope with an extremely slow aging population is another matter. Then the question of resources would be extremely vital. Coupled with the fact that other socities would want to partake in this process, and may either trade or war with the prolonged,the whole setting meshes into a kind of political, moral and social stew.

All of this of course depends on various factors. Chief among them, are there already a multitude of interstellar cultures within the setting? How are the relationships between these cultures and off course how advanced is the tech between these cultures? Perhaps they all could have interstellar capabilities but each has their own kind of tech which varies from culture to culture.

And let us not forget the political and perhaps even religious forces that would play a part in this setting. How would both deal with the impact of this process. I would assume in this "Age of Enlightment" scenario there would be a possible conflict between those who see the process as beneficial to the development of society and those that see it as a detrimental/immoral proposition.

Regards,
David R