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Low Tech

Low Tech - Data Panel

Includes: Basic to Middle-Level Macrotech only.

Examples: non-sentient "dumb-tech" devices of any kind, macrotech-shaped tools, non-smart dwellings (simple buildings of wood, brick, concrete, glass or steel), non-reactive textiles and furniture, manually-controlled vehicles and appliances, printed text material or equivalent, non-interactive broadcast media, passive solar heating (water heat exchange etc) and wind power, simple filtration devices, ordinary metallurgy, macroscale (non-precise) chemical synthesis, non-guided or only crudely guided weapons, machines based on or driven by muscle-power (human or animal), hydrocarbons, or primitive electric batteries

Constitute: Low Tech Civilizations and Societies

Also Found In: Both Hi Tech, Ultratech, and Transapientech societies, where it may serve as curiosities or fads.

Toposophic Requirements to Manufacture and Operate: Baseline-equivalent sapients

Current Galactographic Distribution: Lo Tech can be found not only in Caretaker God and primitivist Utopia Sphere protectorates; a number of societums; but also is also popular in even more advanced polities and societies, as many baseline-equivalent sapients find it comforting to have something they can understand. It is especially characteristic of the traditional cultures of ludd, lo tek, and prim-symbiont clades, which may be widely distributed in and beyond much of the civilized galaxy

Further Comments: Contrary to popular prejudice, most Lo Tech does not date back to pre-singularity Old Earth. Much in fact is designed and built by current craftsman and engineers who are usually sapient grade but in some cases may actually be transapient. Because of its low resource and low maintenance requirements, its simplicity and ease of manufacture, Lo Tech remains popular not only among ludd and prim clades and polities, but even among many sapients in more advanced societies. It is also very popular (although supplemented with more advanced tech) among some sempterist and other groups that that wish to live without dependence on wider galactic civilization.