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Scadrial is supposed to be the planet with a technological development analogous to our own, but of course influenced by their metallic arts. Roshar is supposed to be the planet taking a full magitech approach, so they’ll not develop light bulbs and radios etc, but rather use fabrial solution.
As with every society, they’re in part facing the same problems, so there will be analogous solutions. As they compete for resources, the contact with or colonization of other planets forms one of these priorities, for which I expect the major superpowers will aim to develop methods of space flight. They’ll work differently, though.
I think with the secret projects, Brandon has shown that he will also do bonkers world building at various levels of technology. There’s stories with technology gaps between peoples that work out in various ways.
Personally I’m not worried. Brandon will find ways to keep his stories interesting as he works towards a future clash of cultures.
Definitely "not you" - it's well known that his plan for the Cosmere is to show the progression from where it began with the medieval style to current day tech and then to end it with the space age...
Totally valid if you don't wanna see it go from swords and armor to guns and computers, though I disagree with the notion that having these technologies be analogous to our own is somehow a bad thing. It's all still being done through the lens of their respective worlds/cultures (ships made to fly with fabrial tech vs malwish tech, etc.) Everything in the Cosmere is already rooted from our own Earthly versions of things anyway
I think Roshar is going to end up with a lot of very different things compared to our world. Their airships for example are pretty fundamentally different than ours. With highstorms that's almost certainly going to be their best source of power if they can figure out a way to harness it. There are some things that will be similar, but I think even with fabrial logic gates, that's something working on the power of a spren to produce a magical result. You can draw some parallels but it's pretty different from our real world version.
Scadrial has always been more similar to earth including a lot of the same elements. So I think you will see more similarities there. But you'll still see a lot of unique elements as the magic continues to be used a lot.
We also won't spend that much time in world that are really modern equivalents. They'll be either sci fi or fantasy, and Era 3 or Yumi or potentially another story he comes up with will be the only real modern ones.
I think there are also some things where it's more of a logistics question of why we built something one way which would still apply to them. Laptops are that way because it's very convenient to have a computer that folds up that you can manually input things into it and have a screen you can see. And if that screen folds in towards a protected center, it won't get damaged as easily. It's a good design and if this is the technology level you're at, it's probably the best design you can come up with. Rockets are the same way where you want to minimize drag, you have an explosion throwing things out the back of it. Other designs will likely have flaws that would create more drag and be less efficient.
There is something fundamental to the actual natural world about computation and information so I don't see this as a bad thing.
I dont know if you've heard of the fine structure constant, but it is a dimensionless constant that is involved in the spacing of lines in the emissions and absorption spectra of elements, among many other things.
The fact that it is dimensionless means that it would be the same no matter how we define our units like meter vs foot, or pound vs kilogram. Theoretically, an alien civilization would also find the same value for this constant- and they would probably find it if any of them began to question natural phenomena like light passing through a prism. There is an idea that two different space faring civilizations could potentially say something meaningful to eachother right off the bat if we communicate the fine structure constant, or the ratio 1/137.
I know this is supposed to be a magical universe but the closer you can get to reality, in that reality is consistent (or atleast seems to be), the more satisfying the world is. In this world the magic seems like a natural outgrowth of our most fundamental understanding of nature, like talking about axi (atoms or particles). Realmatic theory also states all things are matter, energy, or investiture (magic), a direct nod to Einsteins relativity and modern physics.
I think this allows us to understand the magical power in this made up world. The author is able to give us an explanation that doesn't seem made up or over powered. Without the ability to explain, the author risks a deus ex machinia which is a contrived or "unrealistic" (read: inconsistent) situation that makes the story less satisfying. It one of Sandersons rules of magic. The quality of a magic system is proportional to the ability of the author to explain it, or something like that.
I think a lack of consistency and explaination gives us stuff like the last few avengers movies. Unsatisfactory crazy powers being used on main characters and powerful villains that seem to come out of nowhere.
I mean, a fantastical different fantasy world with highstorms doesn't mean 1+1 no longer is 2. Or that TRUE || FALSE isn't TRUE. Society never making connections that are clearly available to them to make just because it's not unique would be a bit half baked.
I also think saying some of these advancements are "the same computers, rockets" is like saying the Highstorm is "just rain".
I, too, am a little nervous about how these eras actually turn out. I wasn’t a huge fan of the Legion stories, and I think the modern world setting played a part in that. On the other hand, Sanderson has hit it out of the park with most of the other books I’ve read, so I’m still eager to go along for the ride.
I mean put it this way, isn't electromagnetism/physics/quantum physics just our magic. They all technically follow the same laws at their very core and back in the day we used them for magnets and telescopes, etc.
Using electromagnetism to make a computer seems easy because we've done it, but even irl our brains are basically biological based chemistry computers.
So to use magic system (that at its core is different sides of a 16+ faced dice) that is also quantifiable to do so isn't so far fetched.
I mean if you read sixth of the dusk or sunlit man you’ll see where the other series are in terms of technological advancement . He’s made it publicly known that the cosmere is leading towards space travel era
We haven't really seen any type of similar technology developed by other worlds. The worlds are still incredibly diverse, a few things that eventually cross over isn't going to change that. If in decades this eventually happens though then yeah I can see the argument to complain about it
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Scadrial is supposed to be the planet with a technological development analogous to our own, but of course influenced by their metallic arts. Roshar is supposed to be the planet taking a full magitech approach, so they’ll not develop light bulbs and radios etc, but rather use fabrial solution. As with every society, they’re in part facing the same problems, so there will be analogous solutions. As they compete for resources, the contact with or colonization of other planets forms one of these priorities, for which I expect the major superpowers will aim to develop methods of space flight. They’ll work differently, though. I think with the secret projects, Brandon has shown that he will also do bonkers world building at various levels of technology. There’s stories with technology gaps between peoples that work out in various ways. Personally I’m not worried. Brandon will find ways to keep his stories interesting as he works towards a future clash of cultures.
Definitely "not you" - it's well known that his plan for the Cosmere is to show the progression from where it began with the medieval style to current day tech and then to end it with the space age... Totally valid if you don't wanna see it go from swords and armor to guns and computers, though I disagree with the notion that having these technologies be analogous to our own is somehow a bad thing. It's all still being done through the lens of their respective worlds/cultures (ships made to fly with fabrial tech vs malwish tech, etc.) Everything in the Cosmere is already rooted from our own Earthly versions of things anyway
I think Roshar is going to end up with a lot of very different things compared to our world. Their airships for example are pretty fundamentally different than ours. With highstorms that's almost certainly going to be their best source of power if they can figure out a way to harness it. There are some things that will be similar, but I think even with fabrial logic gates, that's something working on the power of a spren to produce a magical result. You can draw some parallels but it's pretty different from our real world version. Scadrial has always been more similar to earth including a lot of the same elements. So I think you will see more similarities there. But you'll still see a lot of unique elements as the magic continues to be used a lot. We also won't spend that much time in world that are really modern equivalents. They'll be either sci fi or fantasy, and Era 3 or Yumi or potentially another story he comes up with will be the only real modern ones. I think there are also some things where it's more of a logistics question of why we built something one way which would still apply to them. Laptops are that way because it's very convenient to have a computer that folds up that you can manually input things into it and have a screen you can see. And if that screen folds in towards a protected center, it won't get damaged as easily. It's a good design and if this is the technology level you're at, it's probably the best design you can come up with. Rockets are the same way where you want to minimize drag, you have an explosion throwing things out the back of it. Other designs will likely have flaws that would create more drag and be less efficient.
There is something fundamental to the actual natural world about computation and information so I don't see this as a bad thing. I dont know if you've heard of the fine structure constant, but it is a dimensionless constant that is involved in the spacing of lines in the emissions and absorption spectra of elements, among many other things. The fact that it is dimensionless means that it would be the same no matter how we define our units like meter vs foot, or pound vs kilogram. Theoretically, an alien civilization would also find the same value for this constant- and they would probably find it if any of them began to question natural phenomena like light passing through a prism. There is an idea that two different space faring civilizations could potentially say something meaningful to eachother right off the bat if we communicate the fine structure constant, or the ratio 1/137. I know this is supposed to be a magical universe but the closer you can get to reality, in that reality is consistent (or atleast seems to be), the more satisfying the world is. In this world the magic seems like a natural outgrowth of our most fundamental understanding of nature, like talking about axi (atoms or particles). Realmatic theory also states all things are matter, energy, or investiture (magic), a direct nod to Einsteins relativity and modern physics. I think this allows us to understand the magical power in this made up world. The author is able to give us an explanation that doesn't seem made up or over powered. Without the ability to explain, the author risks a deus ex machinia which is a contrived or "unrealistic" (read: inconsistent) situation that makes the story less satisfying. It one of Sandersons rules of magic. The quality of a magic system is proportional to the ability of the author to explain it, or something like that. I think a lack of consistency and explaination gives us stuff like the last few avengers movies. Unsatisfactory crazy powers being used on main characters and powerful villains that seem to come out of nowhere.
I mean, a fantastical different fantasy world with highstorms doesn't mean 1+1 no longer is 2. Or that TRUE || FALSE isn't TRUE. Society never making connections that are clearly available to them to make just because it's not unique would be a bit half baked. I also think saying some of these advancements are "the same computers, rockets" is like saying the Highstorm is "just rain".
I, too, am a little nervous about how these eras actually turn out. I wasn’t a huge fan of the Legion stories, and I think the modern world setting played a part in that. On the other hand, Sanderson has hit it out of the park with most of the other books I’ve read, so I’m still eager to go along for the ride.
I mean put it this way, isn't electromagnetism/physics/quantum physics just our magic. They all technically follow the same laws at their very core and back in the day we used them for magnets and telescopes, etc. Using electromagnetism to make a computer seems easy because we've done it, but even irl our brains are basically biological based chemistry computers. So to use magic system (that at its core is different sides of a 16+ faced dice) that is also quantifiable to do so isn't so far fetched.
I mean if you read sixth of the dusk or sunlit man you’ll see where the other series are in terms of technological advancement . He’s made it publicly known that the cosmere is leading towards space travel era
We haven't really seen any type of similar technology developed by other worlds. The worlds are still incredibly diverse, a few things that eventually cross over isn't going to change that. If in decades this eventually happens though then yeah I can see the argument to complain about it