Worldbuilding Weekend Prompt #166 - Technological Spurs
Welcome to the next in an ongoing series of writing prompts in the Worldbuilding community !
I'm aiming to post one of these each Sunday. They aren't a replacement for the excellent daily prompts from @worldbuilding they're just an extra opportunity if you have a writing itch you want to scratch. 😀
Image generated by AI in Wombo.art
The prompt this week is - Technological Spurs
There is a strong argument that it was the expansion of the Royal Navy in the 17th and 18th Centuries which was a key driver in the European Industrial Revolution. The standardisation of ship classes into Rates led to an insatiable demand standardised supplies. Spinning and weaving machines were invented to create the huge quantities of sailcloth needed, and were then used to create a consumer boom in fashionable clothing (as well as enabling armies to embrace the concept of uniformity). Milling machines were created to machine the blocks used in rigging, but they could be used to manufacture all kinds of other things that had standardised dimensions. Iron and steel were needed in massive quantities for cannons and the ironwork used in ships; the result was a revolution in mining, and the invention of the steam engine.
Tell me a story about a spur to technological development in your fantasy or sci-fi setting ! What has changed to create a need - has the world moved in some way, or is it the desires or ambitions of an individual ? What technology is developed to meet the change ? How does it affect the lives of ordinary people, for both good and ill ? Who opposes the change, and why ? What does the change lead to, socially, geopolitically and in terms of further technological development ?
Just to add a bit of spice to things, the two entries I most like (and are linked in comments to this post, so I can find them !) that are posted by midnight (GMT) next Saturday will each get a prize of one Hive SBI.
This link will take you to the FAQ where you can read more about Hive SBI - it's a project I thoroughly support because it gives both the donor and winner a steady trickle of passive income paid out in the form of upvotes on posts.
Guidelines
I stole these guidelines straight from @worldbuilding prompts (I hope that's okay !), I couldn't have written them any better myself....
- Prompt replies may be anything! Art, game assets, stories, worldbuilding details, fake wiki entries, maps... whatever you want to create!
- Please ensure you reply to this post with a link to your reply
- Posting in or cross-posting to the Worldbuilding community is highly encouraged
- Use the hashtag #worldbuilding
- Prompt replies can be any length.
- AI images to illustrate your posts are fine, as long as they are credited to whichever software you used to make them
- Posts using AI to create the text are not acceptable; these prompts (and community) are a way to expand and have fun with human imagination, and I firmly believe AI will never be able to replicate the human spark.
Some other neat communities for writing that you might want to check out are:
It can be a lot of fun to mix and match our prompts with some of these other community prompts.
People who have asked to be tagged;
@sherah
If you'd like to be tagged in on these prompts, let me know and I'll happily add you 🙂