Sometimes you find the nail to hit

[branchandroot]

And wouldn’t it actually explain steampunk technology a whole lot better to assume it arose out of multiple centers of development, all exchanging and competing, and warring and trading, and inventing like mad?

This is what a week of crazy-wild reading and note-taking and contemplation of the history of technology come down to. That, right there, is the heart of this project.

Ah, and while I'm at it: Global Steam website. Still thin on content while I get my notes written up so people besides me can read them, but the infrastructure is up. *dusts hands*

Comments

[annotated_em]

Yeah, that really does encapsulate the whole endeavor pretty tidily.

[branchandroot]

I thought so. *pleased*

[jjhunter]

This is the birth of something very cool.

[branchandroot]

I'm really excited that it clicks for so many people. And that more people are already playing with it!

[kriski]

i love this! i might be tempted to fiddle around with german history a bit, and gosh, wouldn't global developments turned out differently (and possibly better/nicer/with a lower death toll) had the dice rolled the other way as far back as the 14-hundreds?

btw, are you aware of steampunk_nusantara. i found this recently and am still confused and baffled by its riches.

[branchandroot]

I think they really might! Heck, we might even be able to avoid the world wars, at least in that form, since Africa isn't going to be an extra theater for all the colonial powers in this timeline, and more tech suggests already having moved past huge bodies of foot soldiers.

I had not seen that before, no! That's totally cool! I shall have to ask if I may link to them in the "other really sweet ways to do this" section...