[Kuroi Hadou]

Originally Posted by Magewolf

Not only did the Federation confiscate all telescopes,radios,and anything else that could receive Electromagnetic waves for 200 years so that no one noticed a thriving society on Mars.But they also caused a regression in technology that will allow the equivalent of wooden hull steam ships with cannons to overwhelm the modern USA.

Wow... just wow... let's start with the comment about receiving EM. Telescopes can't see through planets, and I'd be dispoint in the Vagan if they were in obvious view of Earth. From the way they were talking in Gen. 2, they’d never even seen Earth up close, so that obviously tells us Earth was just as blind to Vagan’s view as the Vagan were to Earth. Next is radio. This isn’t the sloppy tech of the 30s, you know. Radio waves are a lot harder to pick up, much less intercept now than they were, especially with things like laser communication already being developed. Even then, with the rise of stealth technology it’s even more difficult for radar to pick up signals even on Earth, let alone something as far away as Mars. Furthermore, I’ll point you to Gen 1. Grodek explicitly stated the UE’s stealth technology bent the EM spectrum around it and made the Fa Bose… wait for it… undetectable. I’d be even more dispoint with the UE if they could only apply their stealth tech to ships.

They did not stop building weapons as shown by all the MS and battleships flying around.And there was a private shop that could turn out new weapons and suits in days that at least had a fighting chance against old tech based suits.So someone was still doing weapon design

You’re right, they were still doing weapons design. After the Vagan had started attacking them. It’s pretty difficult to say the EF were still doing weapons research when there was such an obvious regression in MS tech, particularly if the Vagan are only using a mere fraction of the EXA-DB. If someone in the EF had never stopped doing weapons research, the Vagan would have been crushed the moment they showed up. It would have been the most massive curb-stomp battle you’ve ever seen, and we wouldn’t have a show.

It is imposable to stop weapon research without stopping all other tech advance as well.Even if the modern USA was completely unarmed it could turn out steel hulled diesel powered boats in days that if nothing else could just ram the wooden ships. While being virtually invulnerable to anything the old ships could do to them.

This is where you really lose me. At what point is every single technological advance the result of military research? Are you saying that if we shut down the Department of Defense tomorrow, stem cell research wouldn’t continue? That rockety and jet propulsion wouldn’t advance beyond today? That better computers wouldn’t be built or more efficient power plants would never even be put down on paper? A weapon = technology, but technology = weapon. Military research is responsible for a lot of the conveniences we enjoy today, but to say it’s impossible for humanity’s technological base to advance without weapons research is disingenuous. There is a very explicit line between technologies which can be used as a weapon if needed and technologies whose only purpose is as a weapon.