On 4 May 2016 at 19:30, John Groth wrote:

> Of course, one could go the other direction in terms of anachrotech.
>
> Suppose that the principle behind contragrav, reactionless thruster
> plates and inertial grav-comp *could* be discovered at any time after a
> civilization learned to harness electricity (i.e., somewhere around TL-4
> or TL-5).
>
> What might a TL-6 balkanized world with indigenous TL-D maneuver drives
> accomplish?

Try Harry Turtledove's take on it in a couple of stories. CG and
hyper drive are discoverable in the *bronze* age, though most don't
discover it until well into the iron age. But it leads "science" off
in a direction that doesn't lead to much else.

So you have huge interstellar ships navigating using telescopes and
carrying conquering armies with muskets. Lif support consists of
being big enough that the air is still breathable after making the
trip to another system.

Their attempt to conquer 20th century Earth did not go well for them.

--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com