Decade Dissonance: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

A large-scale form of [[Schizo-Tech]].

Every country is different thanks to culture and geography, and no two cities in any one country are alike either. However some worlds can take this to extremes, making two side by side cities as different as night and day. The differences can be purely cosmetic or go all the way to lifestyle, architecture, and even technology. You can have a [[Utopia]] city made of [[Crystal Spires and Togas]] sitting smack dab next to a ghetto...sorry, "quaint hamlet" that [[Medieval Stasis|never left]] [[The Middle Ages]].

 

 

More plausible is [[Used Future]], where one area is able to maintain a relative level of sophistication [[After the End|After]] or [[Just Before the End]] where others are reduced to tent villages. In these cases, advanced technology is ''known of'' by most, but becomes uncommon away from the advanced areas.

 

See also: [[Crystal Spires and Togas]], [[Advanced Ancient Acropolis]] and [[Ludd Was Right]]. Compare [[Low Culture, High Tech]], where a backwards culture uses technology it doesn't understand.

{{examples}}

* In ''Windaria'', the coastal city-state of Itha runs on windmills and admittedly sophisticated dams and waterwheels, and its military has hot-air balloons, crossbows, Molotov cocktails, and some kind of unarmoured hovercraft. The nearby mountain kingdom of Paro is a dieselpunk dystopia with monoplanes, assault rifles, and tanks. Somehow they fight a war on equal terms.

* In ''[[Kino's Journey]]'', cities are separated by great distances and form separate countries. Also, travel is dangerous and most people never leave their hometowns. Thus, there are vast differences in technology and culture between cities, which vary from medieval to futuristic in nature. This is made even stranger by the [[Schizo-Tech|eclectic technology]].

* Gotham city and Metropolis both reflect the style of their hero: Dark for [[Batman]] and shiny and optimistic for [[Superman]]. A common saying about the two cities within DC was that Metropolis was [[Big Applesauce|New York City]] in the daytime, while Gotham was New York at night. The Animated Series for both [[Batman: The Animated Series|these]] [[Superman: The Animated Series|shows]] even cross over, however Superman ended up visiting Batman at night (and Bats usually took the night with him to Metropolis).

** Mind you, there is some overlap. For instance, Metropolis has a rough area called Suicide Slum where a few street level superheroes keep themselves busy with small time crooks.

*** In [[Batman: The Animated Series]], this was deliberately done to make the time period of the show difficult to pin down (and to [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|get real guns past the censors]]).

* Gyro Gearloose makes this possible in the Scrooge McDuck universe. The comics are set in a vague, 1960s-esque world, but the [[Mad Scientist]] is able to bring any and all technology that would otherwise not be available for the stories.

 

 

 

 

 

== Literature ==

* In [[The Pendragon Adventures]], the Milago and Bedoowan live within spitting distance of each other: the Milago live in small huts and shit in holes in the ground, while the Bedoowan castle has running water and uses naturally glowing stones to provide artificial light.

 

== Live Action TV ==

 

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** Of course, Bretonnia is [[Justified Trope|justified...]]

*** And not much justification is needed at that. Poland was still using what amounted to knights and irregular horse archers (admittedly supported by more modern contingents) by the mid 17th century. See the battle of Warsaw for a good example.

* The [[BattleTech]] universe applies this concept across a couple hundred worlds, with technological and industrial infrastructure destroyed by massive wars. Major worlds enjoy the use of starships, giant robots, cybernetics, faster-than-light communications, and worldwide computer networking, while many other planets fell to 19th-century lifestyles, with a starport or two and a FTL communications array somewhere on the planet so they aren't totally cut off.

** ''[[Traveller]]'' does this too, but as an analogy of the [[Truth in Television]] example above: the low-tech worlds still have access to more advanced technology, but the local industrial base isn't equipped to produce it so it has to be imported at extra cost. It's a similar situation in ''[[Firefly]]'', which [[Word of God|was not]] inspired by ''[[Traveller]]'' but you'd be forgiven for thinking it was.

*** They actually stated in one ''White Dwarf'' that they'd created a fictional universe where you can have rock-waving barbarians and antigravity tanks on the same battlefield.

** The Hollow World CD&D setting has a similar patchwork feel to it, for pretty much the same reason: it was designed by the Immortals to preserve favorite cultures which were dying out on the planet's surface, and they used really powerful magic to make sure these cultures [[Status Quo Is God|would neither mix nor change]].

* There's plenty of this in ''[[Rifts]]'', where a rural community with no technology to speak of ([[Schizo-Tech|save for a laser rifle or two gotten from somewhere else]]) can be less than 50 miles away from a large city full of people with mass communication, hover vehicles, [[Giant Mecha|giant robots]], and other futuristic gear. Not to mention communities built on magic. The "no tech sharing" angle is implicit with the Coalition States; they use their superior technology to lure in other communities, either through force, coercion, or more subtle methods. But it doesn't explain why benevolent places like Lazlo aren't sharing the wealth.

** Of course, your own units can also get left behind technologically if you leave them, say, guarding a city or something, and never bother to upgrade them.

** Same with ''[[Rise of Nations]]''. It's not impossible to find yourself using missile cruisers to screen your battleships from incoming fireships. Or rolling out tanks to take down a band of hostile musketeers. Or even reacting to your opponent inventing the ''petrol engine'' with an atomic strike on his capital.

* This is seen in many parts of the ''[[Golden Sun]]'' universe. That large monkey robot Gabomba stands out...

** This is actually a ''major theme'' in the ''[[Golden Sun]]'' series, especially the second game. Lots of areas feature the dying remnants of an ancient culture living near (and in some cases, trying to harness the power of) an ancient monument or city left over from before the [[World Sundering]]. The Champa and the leftovers of the Ankhol civilization, Lalivero and Venus Lighthouse...

* Subverted in ''[[Guild Wars]]'' in that the African Elona and Nordic Norns is actually just AS advanced as the south American-seeming Krytans and European Ascalonians. Same with the Asian Cantha, and some even have their own technologies similar to others.

** In the case of Elona, the designers specifically tried to imagine what the old north African empires would look like had they existed for another few hundred years, and had magic. The results were [http://www.guildwars.com/products/nightfall/gallery/wallpaper/gw-wp083.php fairly badass].

* Also, ''[[Wario Land]] The Shake Dimension'' arguably does this. You've got the basic settlements shown in the first world and the intro cut scene that the Merfles lived in, then right in the middle of the wild west themed area, you've got Glittertown/Neon City which is basically some Las Vegas equivalent complete with modern technology, electricity and slot machines.

* Played extremely straight in ''[[The Spirit Engine]]''. On one end of the country, you have Homestead, a very rural area stuck in [[Medieval Stasis]]. On the other end, you have Silthea, which has ''tanks, high-tech copters, sentient [[A Is]], military-grade robots and a hundred levels tall skyscraper''. Semi-justified in that the Frontier Corporation, which is responsible for pretty much 100% of technological progress, is seated in Silthea, employs all known scientists and doesn't care one whit for anywhere else. And that it's run by {{spoiler|a scientist who used to live in our world but was dimension-shifted due to an accident with a particle accelerator}}.

 

== Real Life ==

** Interestingly, however, cell phones are literally ''everywhere''; portable technologies have lesser infrastructure requirements, leading to cases of farmers riding donkeys to the rice paddy while chatting on their cell phones. Phones and mobile internet are also used for bill payment and tracking crops in developing nations.

** One group of Andaman natives, the Sentinelese, actively ''refuse'' any contact with the outside world, even resorting to violence sometimes. Nowadays Indian authorities just leave them alone and look around so that everyone else does the same.

*** Amish acceptance of technology is based on the effect it has on their community, particularly if the device would prevent them from being self-sufficient. Running a compressor using purchased fuel and using air power (aka "Amish Electricity") for appliances is fine, but paying a monthly bill for electricity is not. Some tech like solar panels and pay-as-you-go cell phones are accepted on these grounds, while many Amish are happy to pay for a ride to work in a car.

** Another rather blatant example is the differences between South Korea and its neighbor North Korea. North Korea is sandwiched between South Korea and China, two industrial nations with healthy economies. In comparison, North Korea has literally zero electricity usage and infrastructure, and outside the capital, you'll only find farmland and military bases. To put things in perspective, [http://tizona.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/north-korea-is-dark.jpg this is what North Korea looks like at night compared to its wealthier neighbors].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Video Game Settings]]

[[Category:Truth in Television]]