----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yeah, I agree, when I really started to get into history (high school), it wasn't very long before I was thinking;
"How the hell did *that* happen" or "how the hell *could* that happen"!
Of course, since it's history & I wasn't there, maybe it *didn't* really happen!  ;-)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Wed, 11/18/15, Jeffrey Schwartz <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [TML] Absurdities of the Official Traveller Universe
 To: "tml" <xxxxxx@simplelists.com>
 Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2015, 12:36 PM

 On Wed, Nov 18, 2015 at
 1:55 PM, Craig Berry <xxxxxx@gmail.com>
 wrote:
 >
 > Traveller
 is compelling, fun, rich, and adaptable. That's why
 it's lasted so long. It was never meant to be put under
 an analytic microscope, so small wonder that it doesn't
 do well under such treatment. That being said, it's
 *also* fun to analyze; just don't confuse that with
 being "in" the universe (or really, one of the
 endless variants of that universe) as a player.
 >

 I'm
 not so sure the "Real" universe would withstand
 strong scrutiny.

 1)
 Mitochondrial Eve ? dozens of hominid species, and they can
 narrow
 down all living humans to one
 ancestor?

 2) Mammals all
 over the planet... including the oceans, where air
 breathing and live birth are serious
 handicaps.

 3) Takeover by
 H.Sap : All these other Hominids, and only one
 survives? In spite of the others having
 multiple k-year head starts?

 4) Technology super-growth : 90 to 200 kyears
 of stone age, followed
 by a sudden surge
 that in less than 5 kyears takes them to computers,
 space flight, nuclear power? Also, in reference
 to (3) above, none of
 the other Hominids
 develop anything past Stone Age tech, despite
 having multiple k-year head starts?

 5) Superpower nations : not
 just the "known world conquest" like
 Alexander of Macedonia and the Romans, but the
 US or USSR where they
 can
 economically/politically/militarily control any smaller
 polity on
 the planet, and often do.

 I dunno, a lot of that just
 doesn't completely add up.
 I saw someone
 write up a "review" of WWII as if it were a novel,
 and
 they pointed out the places the author
 had unbelievable stuff.  Ah,
 found it: http://squid314.livejournal.com/275614.html?page=1

 Given things like that, I
 figure that the Traveller books we have are
 just "incomplete" and
 "summary" for what actually happened/is
 happening/will happen.
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