Technology Levels

Technology Levels are a code developed by the Galactic Surveyor's Guild, in an attempt to quantify the level of indigenous technological development a particularl society is capable of building, maintaining or understanding. This level is not entirely uniform, but is determined as a composite of overall capabilities with individual societies having different levels of technical development in different areas, and the Guild assigned technology level is generated from a formula taking into account the following developments among others.

Quality of Life Technologies

Material Technologies

Technology Level	Technology
0	polished stone, bone, leather, ceramics
1	worked metals such as iron and bronze, concrete, cement, quarried stone
2	hardened steel
3	structural steel
4	aluminium
5	plastics and polymers
6	fiberglass, titanium
7	composites, advanced ceramics, early industrial robotics
8	advanced components, micro-machines, 3D printing
9	composite metals, fluidics
10 (A)	crystaliron, industrial robotics
11 (B)	early bonded materials
12 (C)	experimental superdense
13 (D)	nanomachines, protein recombination
14 (E)	bonded superdense, industrial nanotech
15 (F)	advanced industrial robotics
16 (G)	molecular bonding
17 (H)	coherent superdense
18 (I)	industrial superobotics
19 (J)	universal matter recombination
20 (K)	energy-matter conversion

Energy Technologies

Technology Level	Technology
0	burning wood or charcoal
1	water wheels, early windmills
2	torsion energy storage, clockwork energy use
3	burning coal, early steam power
4	mature steam power, electricity
5	burning oil, and other petrochemicals
6	nuclear fission
7	solar panels, geothermal harnessing, mature windmills
8	mature solar panels and geothermal harvesting, experimental fusion
9	hydrogen fusion
10 (A)	hydrogen fusion
11 (B)	mature fusion
12 (C)	fusion plus
13 (D)	exotics fusion
14 (E)	dark matter fusion
15 (F)	dark matter fusion
16 (G)	experimental antimatter collection
17 (H)	experimental antimatter collection
18 (I)	prototype production antimatter reactor
19 (J)	production antimatter reactor
20 (K)	mature antimatter, energy abundance

Information Technologies

Technology Level	Technology
0	memorization
1	abacus, writing, mathematics
2	printing press
3	printing press, mechanical computing
4	telegraphy, photography, video recording
5	radio, sound recording, mature film, electromechanical computing, mainframe computer/0
6	television, computer/0, experimental networked computing
7	computer/1, mainframe/5 networked computing, portable computing, portable communications
8	computer/2, portable audio-visual communications
9	3D images and video, computer/3, mainframe/10, core/40
10(A)	3D images and video, computer/4, core/50
11 (B)	semi-organic brains, computer/5, mainframe/15, core/60
12 (C)	mature trideo, positronic brains, computer /6, mainframe/20, core/70
13 (D)	wafers, computer/8, mainframe/25, core/80
14 (E)	self-aware computing, mainframe/30, core/90
15 (F)	communications plus, computer/9, mainframe/35, core/100
16 (G)	early conscious intelligence
17 (H)	early portable conscious intelligence
18 (I)	mature conscious intelligence
19 (J)	mature conscious intelligence
20 (K)	mature conscious intelligence

Environmental Technology

Technology Level	Technology
0	simple structures, simple agriculture
1	permanent settlements, early cities, irrigation and canal building, crop rotation
2	advanced agriculture
3	cement structures
4	skyscrapers
5	sealed/conditioned cities
6	accurate weather prediction, underground cities
7	early orbital stations
8	orbital settlements, early weather control
9	arcologies, orbital cities, space elevators
10 (A)	practical weather control, undersea cities, early terraforming
11 (B)	artificial gravity, gravtic structural support
12 (C)	major terraforming, advanced weather control
13 (D)	major terraforming, advanced weather control
14 (E)	ecopoiesis, quick building colony ships
15 (F)	complex terraforming
16 (G)	total terraforming, automated colony ships
17 (H)	advanced terraforming
18 (I)	ecumenopoli
19 (J)	gaia-wave terraforming
20 (K)	artificial world creation

Medical Technology

Technology Level	Technology
0	mystics and herbolohy
1	basic diagnosis
2	internal anatomy
3	basic innoculation, surgery
4	antiseptics, anasethetics, vaccination
5	internal imaging, crude prosthetics
6	reconstructive surgery
7	organ transplant, primitive medical robotics
8	antiradiation medications, temporary reanimation, functional prosthetics, artificial organs
9	early limb regeneration, chemically induced stasis
10 (A)	fast drug, slow drug, cybernetics, panceas
11 (B)	practical medical robotics, practical cloning, brain transplant
12 (C)	personality recording, broadspecrtum antitoxins, full body cybernetics
13 (D)	quick-grow cloning, advanced medical robotics
14 (E)	PSI-specific medical technologies
15 (F)	synthetic anagathics, anagathic gene therapy, superior medical robotics
16 (G)	early cellular rejuvenation
17 (H)	smart antibodies
18 (I)	cellular rejuvenation, automation of medicine
19 (J)	bio-engineering
20 (K)	clinical immortality

Transportation Technology

Land Transport

Technology Level	Technology
0	beasts of burden, the wheel
1	beasts of burden the wheel
2	advanced wheels
3	advanced wheels, land yachts
4	steam trains
5	diesel trains, groundcars
6	diesel trains, groundcars
7	high speed rail
8	high speed rail, train electrification
9	automated groundcars
10 (A)	automated groundcars
11 (B)	semigravitic trains
12 (C)	semigravitic groundcars
13 (D)	gravitic drive
14 (E)	gravitic drive
15 (F)	ground vehicles supplanted by gravitics
16 (G)	ground vehicles supplanted by gravitics
17 (H)	ground vehicles supplanted by gravitics
18 (I)	ground vehicles supplanted by gravitics
19 (J)	ground vehicles supplanted by gravitics
20 (K)	ground vehicles supplanted by gravitics

Water Transport

Technology Level	Technology
0	rafts
1	galleys, early sailing ships
2	oceangoing sailing ships
3	clippers
4	steamships, windjammers, metal-hulled ships
5	oil or petrochemical powered ships, submarines
6	nuclear powered ships
7	nuclear powered ships
8	high-altitude kite ships
9	early fusion powered ships
10 (A)	early fusion powered ships
11 (B)	fusion powered ships
12 (C)	fusion powered ships
13 (D)	fusion powered ships
14 (E)	semigravitic ships
15 (F)	semigravitic ships
16 (G)	maritime vehicles supplanted by gravitics
17 (H)	maritime vehicles supplanted by gravitics
18 (I)	maritime vehicles supplanted by gravitics
19 (J)	maritime vehicles supplanted by gravitics
20 (K)	maritime vehicles supplanted by gravitics

Air Transport

Technology Level	Technology
0	none
1	none
2	none
3	balloons
4	balloons
5	propeller driven aircraft
6	jet aircraft
7	jet aircraft
8	hypersonic jet aircraft
9	transatmospheric aircraft
10 (A)	fusion powered aircraft
11 (B)	fusion powered aircraft
12 (C)	gravcraft
13 (D)	gravcraft
14 (E)	gravcraft
15 (F)	gravcraft
16 (G)	gravcraft
17 (H)	gravcraft
18 (I)	gravcraft
19 (J)	gravcraft
20 (K)	gravcraft

Space Transport

Technology Level	Technology
0	stargazing
1	stargazing
2	stargazing
3	stargazing
4	stargazing
5	experimental unmanned rockets, satellites
6	orbital rockets
7	advanced chemical rockets, space probes, reaction-based space drive (R-Drive), R-Drive up to 3
8	ion engines, solar sails, R-Drive up to 6
9	early nuclear rockets, R-Drive up to 9, Jump Drive 1, metal hydride fuel storage
10 (A)	R-Drive up to 12
11 (B)	Jump Drive 2, R-Drive up to 15, inertialess gravitic drive (M-Drive), M-Drive up to 3
12 (C)	Jump Drive 3, R-Drive 16, M-Drive up to 6
13 (D)	Jump Drive 4, M-Drive 7
14 (E)	dark matter collectors and fuelling, Jump Drive 5, M-Drive 8
15 (F)	Jump Drive 6, M-Drive 9
16 (G)	Jump Drive 7, M-Drive 10
17 (H)	magnitudinal jump drive (Hop Drive), Hop Drive 1, Jump Drive 8, M-Drive 11
18 (I)	Jump Drive 9, Hop Drive 2
19 (J)	Hop Drive 3, double magnitudinal jump drive (Skip Drive), Skip Drive 1
20 (K)	Hop Drive 4, Skip Drive 2

Armaments Technologies

Weapons

Technology Level	Technology
0	spears, bows
1	swords, crossbows, catapults
2	advanced swords, black powder cannon
3	early personal firearms
4	early repeating firearms, field artillery
5	rifle, machine gun, howitzer
6	personal automatic weapons, autocannon, rocket pods
7	guided missiles
8	RAM grenades, stunners
9	personal laser weapons, pulse lasers
10 (A)	advanced combat rifle, vehicle plasma cannon, beam laser
11 (B)	cartridge plasma gun, ship plasma cannon, large meson weapons
12 (C)	gauss weapons, plasma missiles
13 (D)	light gauss weapons, vehicular fusion gun
14 (E)	advanced gauss weapons, personal fusion weapons, ship fusion weapons
15 (F)	meson accelerator, particle cannons
16 (G)	plasma rifle, solar rifle
17 (H)	plasma pistol,
18 (I)	human scale heavy disintegrator, fusion rifle
19 (J)	vehicle scale disintegrator
20 (K)	fusion pistol, starship scale disintegrator

Defensive Technology

Technology Level	Technology
0	fur armor
1	jack, breastplate
2	full plate
3	iron vehicle armor
4	steel vehicle armor
5	steel vehicle armor
6	mesh armor, hardened steel vehicle armor
7	ballistic cloth, titanium-steel and composite vehicle armor
8	concealable ballistic armor
9	exoskeletons, lightweight composites, flak shell
10 (A)	combat armor, crystaliron vehicle armor, spatial point defense
11 (B)	polycarapace
12 (C)	meson screens, superdense vehicle armor
13 (D)	battledress
14 (E)	bonded superdense vehicle armor, nuclear dampers
15 (F)	Black Globe Generator
16 (G)	molecular bonded armor
17 (H)	neural shielding
18 (I)	coherent superdense vehicle armor
19 (J)	plasteel armor material
20 (K)	white globe device

The Classification

The ultimate classification, which is a composite of the above is broken down into technological 'eras' roughly correlating to the technological developments made by humanity before the Long Night, with additional speculative levels based on the information based on Pardian data wafers. Techs are then divided into epochs roughly defining whether a nation is low tech, or high tech for example.

Technology Level	Technology
0	Neolithic Age (Pre-Industrial)
1	Metallurigical Age (Pre-Industrial)
2	Steel Age (Pre-Industrial)
3	Protoindustrial Age (Industrial)
4	Industrial age (Industrial)
5	Broadcast Age (Industrial)
6	Atomic Age (Early Spaceflight)
7	Information Age (Early Spaceflight)
8	Renewables Age (Early Spaceflight)
9	Fusion Age (Intrastellar)
10 (A)	Transolar Age (Intrastellar)
11 (B)	Gravtics Age (Intrastellar)
12 (C)	Low Stellar Age (Interstellar)
13 (D)	Middle Stellar Age (Interstellar)
14 (E)	High Stellar Age (Interstellar)
15 (F)	Late Stellar Age (Peak Human)
16 (G)	Pre-Fall Age (Peak Human)
17 (H)	Parditech Synthesis Age (Peak Human)
18 (I)	Low Parditech Age (Parditech)
19 (J)	Middle Parditech Age (Parditech)
20 (K)	High Parditech Age (Parditech)

An Article Under

by Brett Croft

The Galactic Surveyor's Guild

Contents

Articles under the GSG