Development and Evolution
Cracked is occasionally an amusing read. Today's list doesn't really contain any surprises for me, but the bit about standard time zones phasing in within about fifty years on either side of 1880 strikes a chord. Just a few days ago, my thoughts we wandering over how radically the evolution of transport and communication has changed life and how that really kicked in with the railroads. Before that, a lot of things simply didn't matter because they were days or months distant, rather than hours or days.
Pondering that also calls up previous thoughts of how any world with common or powerful magic would radically change. So many settings take this for granted. The "dark ages" were dark partly because communication and travel were difficult, dangerous, and time consuming. Simple sending spells and some airships or teleportation magic could easily cause an explosion of civilization development along the lines of telegraphs and trains in real history. Unless you arbitrarily slap a lack of creativity on the inhabitants of a fantasy world, there's almost no way you could maintain a social/technological stasis for thousands of years.
Magic is so much better introduced as a limited fantasy element to a finite story than as a "natural" force in a world that's supposed to be believable.
Pondering that also calls up previous thoughts of how any world with common or powerful magic would radically change. So many settings take this for granted. The "dark ages" were dark partly because communication and travel were difficult, dangerous, and time consuming. Simple sending spells and some airships or teleportation magic could easily cause an explosion of civilization development along the lines of telegraphs and trains in real history. Unless you arbitrarily slap a lack of creativity on the inhabitants of a fantasy world, there's almost no way you could maintain a social/technological stasis for thousands of years.
Magic is so much better introduced as a limited fantasy element to a finite story than as a "natural" force in a world that's supposed to be believable.
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