I get the impression in the Star Wars universe that technological advances have slowed to a near halt. All of the tech is really old, and very little has changed for quite some time. A brand new X-wing or lightsaber or landspeeder isn’t all that different from one that was built 50 or even 100s of years ago. That’s one of the reasons why stuff in Star Wars looks so used - as tech doesn’t go obsolete, stuff ends up staying in service until it’s completely worn out and every bit of life has been squeezed from it.
That’s why you don’t really see where the technology comes from - the big innovators, discoveries, etc. are long in the past. Though we do get to occasionally see factories and manufacturing facilities where things are being built.
I always had the impression that the advanced tech takes a large amount of resources not readily available everywhere. The rebels are scrounging for resources from any place that defects or will trade with them, while the empire is free to demand, raid, and liberate whatever supplies they needed. Part interchange is going to be more important to rebels strapped for material, so they use all similar, basic, reliable stuff. We see lots of shinier, smoother equipment in the cities where luxury is accessible and full of variation. Meanwhile, the vast shiny imperial hangars are comfortably stocked with lots of clean ships for all different roles.
The shitty robots never feel that far off from the US military. There’s all kinds of should-be-obsolete equipment that sticks around just because it fills a role (usually one role) and it still works. Regarding the low quality of their performance and capabilities, I’d imagine microprocessor manufacturing is still hard without perfect conditions. Clean rooms, electron microscopes, and general precision well beyond human visual capability. In our world now, if China were to try to take Taiwan by force and the chip manufacturers really do blow up the facilities, we’re screwed. Globally. It’ll set us back decades because that’ll reset chip size and density. Even if we magically restart facilities that used to be around, they’ll be on the older, larger architectures we can’t fit in ourr pockets
So, basically, what we’ve seen coming from most of the wartime interactions the US has had with most of the receiving countries. HMMV vs Hilux. 15 different standard guns vs AK-47. Unstoppable convoys vs IEDs. Satellite comms vs horseback messengers. And then the USA still roots for Luke & crew…
Even if we magically restart facilities that used to be around, they’ll be on the older, larger architectures we can’t fit in ourr pockets
ok so you’re not wrong on the fundamentals but… you should know - you’d need to go back to the 80s for the fabrication scale to actually have much effect on the size of devices.
A combination of increasing size and reducing capability. I’m not saying we can’t have pocket-sized phones, but 2 decades puts us at about the Motorola Razor and Palm Pilot
I get the impression in the Star Wars universe that technological advances have slowed to a near halt. All of the tech is really old, and very little has changed for quite some time. A brand new X-wing or lightsaber or landspeeder isn’t all that different from one that was built 50 or even 100s of years ago. That’s one of the reasons why stuff in Star Wars looks so used - as tech doesn’t go obsolete, stuff ends up staying in service until it’s completely worn out and every bit of life has been squeezed from it.
That’s why you don’t really see where the technology comes from - the big innovators, discoveries, etc. are long in the past. Though we do get to occasionally see factories and manufacturing facilities where things are being built.
I always had the impression that the advanced tech takes a large amount of resources not readily available everywhere. The rebels are scrounging for resources from any place that defects or will trade with them, while the empire is free to demand, raid, and liberate whatever supplies they needed. Part interchange is going to be more important to rebels strapped for material, so they use all similar, basic, reliable stuff. We see lots of shinier, smoother equipment in the cities where luxury is accessible and full of variation. Meanwhile, the vast shiny imperial hangars are comfortably stocked with lots of clean ships for all different roles.
The shitty robots never feel that far off from the US military. There’s all kinds of should-be-obsolete equipment that sticks around just because it fills a role (usually one role) and it still works. Regarding the low quality of their performance and capabilities, I’d imagine microprocessor manufacturing is still hard without perfect conditions. Clean rooms, electron microscopes, and general precision well beyond human visual capability. In our world now, if China were to try to take Taiwan by force and the chip manufacturers really do blow up the facilities, we’re screwed. Globally. It’ll set us back decades because that’ll reset chip size and density. Even if we magically restart facilities that used to be around, they’ll be on the older, larger architectures we can’t fit in ourr pockets
So, basically, what we’ve seen coming from most of the wartime interactions the US has had with most of the receiving countries. HMMV vs Hilux. 15 different standard guns vs AK-47. Unstoppable convoys vs IEDs. Satellite comms vs horseback messengers. And then the USA still roots for Luke & crew…
ok so you’re not wrong on the fundamentals but… you should know - you’d need to go back to the 80s for the fabrication scale to actually have much effect on the size of devices.
A combination of increasing size and reducing capability. I’m not saying we can’t have pocket-sized phones, but 2 decades puts us at about the Motorola Razor and Palm Pilot
that’s a good way to put it.