Why Star Wars technology never changes

On today's Star Wars Lore video we take a look at why - in both Star Wars legends and Star Wars canon - Star Wars technology doesn't seem to change. is it technological stagnation or something more? That , and more, on today's Star Wars video!

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Edited by MarMarBunbun

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[nenish]

In other words, Star Wars, Star Wars never changes

[theonebeing]

I believe a more appropriate title would be "Why SW technology never _seems_ to change." It is stated that most of the high end stuff at the beginning of the lore is pretty much recycled and repurposed Rakatan tech, but across the history of SW there's small but constant upgrades applied to previous iterations of Rakatan original recipes, during the clone wars there was a lot of stuff that's so far above that it really can't be compared to the original technology that the early civs used.

[JohnE]

Curtis Saxton had the best explanation, I think, namely: the Star Wars universe has (long ago) discovered all of physics. Technology doesn't change because there is literally no where else for them to go.

[ollanius_papyrus]

The imperium of man: “finally, a worthy opponent!”

[TheMajorActual]

Technology regularly hits plateau's. Two real-world historical points: The flintlock was invented around 1600, and not only became the standard firearm mechanism, but was not replaced for over 200 years, when the percussion cap was perfected, and became the standard.

Second, people think that the _"latest-n-greatest"_ military rifles of today are somehow "new" -- they are not: The M-16/M4 design dates from the mid-1950's, as does the CETME/H&K G3/91. The HK416 and G36's core designs are nothing more than an improved AR-18 from the early 1970's. Both the AK47/AKM and the FN FAL (via the FN49) date to the have been tweaks in the designs, and there have certainly been improvements to materials technology, but people trained on these weapons at opposites ends of their development can trade places, and have little or no trouble using the design from the opposite end of the tree.

You can make the same argument about vehicle designs. Communications, computers and other electronic components have been advancing rapidly, as - of course - has medical tech, but on that last, it's important to remember that medical "humorism" lasted for at least 2, 000 years, and that until the advent of the telegraph in the 19th Century, the fastest methods of communication known were either a rider on horseback, people lighting fires on the tops of towers, or using mirrors to bounce sunlight off of clouds.

All _Star Wars_ does, in and out of 'verse, is lengthen the plateau's out to millennia.

[teoteous]

One of the few changes I remember is how once personal energy shields were more widely used until they became less viable as technology marched on.

[TorvusVae]

Prior to KOTOR, the Old Republic stuff looked very different, it was a lot more medieval looking with the high tech stuff sorta welded on. KOTOR came out and made it into a very similar aesthetic to the prequels

[fazbrogaming]

Completely unrelated but in Episode 3 Palpatine says “Once More” the Sith will rule the galaxy, this line is interesting to me as both in Canon and the EU we’ve never seen a time where the sith fully took over the Galaxy Prior to Palpatine. I hope we get to see this someday.

[FedoraReshiramGaming]

Another thing i think we should consider, regarding why doesn't tech advance as much... is because of the fact that... well how would you 'improve' a blaster? make it fire faster, make it incinerate an enemy like say star trek phasers when turned to max? the blaster pistols are already pretty damn strong, even clones wearing armor can't take much in blaster shots. You can improve accuracy, trigger response, blaster effectivity range, maybe even ammo cartridge size. but eventually you just... can't improve much beyond micro changes.

sure the capitol ships are another thing, but again... all you can really do is 'improve the starship' not the starship's weapons. an imperial star destroyer was just as effective at orbital bombardment as a Sith Interdictor during the Jedi Civil War

[JohnNathanShopper]

I love that “Star Destroyer Through the Eras” idea. It would make a great fan film too. Please do this!

[The_Elite_Emerald]

An easy explanation for technological stagnation in Star Wars is that once you get to a certain level of technology development plataues, and you will then only see very minor incremental improvements, we are currently seeing that with computers, where they are no longer progressing as exponentially as they used to and advancements are more coming in the form of improved chip efficiency, or the same is true of phones, we no longer get major improvements on each successive generation but slower more minor changes, it can be assumed that such a trend would be present broadly in a highly advanced society where once things get to a certain point it takes much longer to make even small improvements.

[jesupcolt]

People today don't realize how much technological stagnation is the norm, rather than the exception in our own world. There are tens of thousands of years of human history that experienced very little technological innovation. The exponential growth we saw in the 19th and 20th centuries were very much the exception, and we've seen the amount of breakthroughs slow down in recent decades. Once I considered this, the seeming stagnation of the Star Wars universe didn't bother me so much.

[Question-Log]

I would say we do see technology improved over the years in Star Wars games because in the Old Republic blasters were more bulkier, droids looked more outdated, and ships didn’t have shields. So I say it’s something we just miss if we don’t look closely.

[boogerparty]

One thing I liked about the old Dark Horse Tales of the Jedi comics was how different everything looked from the "modern" Star Wars universe, instead of KOTOR's OT and prequel stuff with the serial numbers filed off.

[TommyHanusa]

Arguably technology never changing is probably the most realistic aspect of Star Wars. For most of human history the way your parents lived was going to be the same as the way your kids lived. Its only been in the industrial revolution and since that things evolved much more rapidly (and I think they are slowing down again). Most years in human history are going to look the same or very similar to the same year 100 years in the past or 100 years in the future.

[arthurbrandonnielsen]

I remember KotOR even trying to be a step down in technology in design and lore: Hammerhead and astromech designs, and references to fuels and communication tech, for example.
Sometimes, innovation means perfecting a design to use better materials or more efficient power, not a whole new look.

[apeman]

So according to West End Games' Star Wars Roleplaying manual, which was the first sourcebook from which all other expansions on the Star Wars universe derived, hyperspace routes change all the time, due to the natural traveling of stars, planets, and other astronomical bodies through space, and so each time a ship jumps to hyperspace they need to carefully calculate a route extrapolated using existing data. Longer routes take much more time to calculate, but when whole fleets are traveling to the same place, such as with the battle of Endor, they can make the calculation once and distribute it to all the ships in the fleet, using Astromech droids to carry the data to smaller ships. However, if a route is traveled frequently, such as with the Hydian Way, up-to-date data is more readily available and calculations may not even need to be made at all--other ships traveling the Way have already done it recently for you. The longer a route goes without any ships traveling it, the more risky it becomes. This risk can be mitigated by breaking the route down into smaller, safer jumps.

Now, I don't remember if this next part was from the West End Sourcebook or not (I think it is), but earlier astronavigators used the Force to plot out hyperspace routes. And even earlier still, in KOTOR lore, beings known as the Kwa traveled the galaxy using devices called Infinity Gates, bringing knowledge of the Force to many species.

[JohnNathanShopper]

This might be random, but I LOVE this video. I think the biggest appeal of lore videos in general and Eck in particular is his ability to give the behind-the-scenes explanation as well as the in-universe lore without being pretentious

[Cyndaquil]

I mean its literally stated in the Old Republic Canon lore that the Republic Trooper armor is literally copied from Mandolorian Crusader armor. Who during the time period cut a bloody path deep into Republic space killing all Republic forces and the Republic literally had nothing to counter it.

[magiofmetal]

The story about the “life” of the Star Destroyer sounds awesome. I don’t think I’ve really ever read anything similar in Star Wars and would enjoy something along those lines.