Science and Advancement
Contents
How Far We've Come
The technological and scientific advancement of Promise is very very lacking. Very many things taken for granted by the Creators as well as the player in the real world are totally absent within Promise. Through this article, we will explore a few of these.
Industry
Where we are now
The most recent invention has been the wheel lock pistol, which in the real world was invented c. 1500, and replaced in common use by the snaphance (c. 1560) and the flintlock (c. 1600) respectively. With the advent of mathmagic, various aspects of industry are supplemented by magical means. As an example, if you have a powerful enough magic user, a crane is an unneeded device, as with earth, air, or some combination of maths, heavy lifting is possible without mechanical means.
What is not had
Automation. Without the standardization of parts among merchants, craftsman, and smiths there is no way to automate any part of the development process. While a wheel lock is a wheel lock, if the trigger of your wheel lock breaks, you have only two real choices. One, get a new one. Or two, have a new trigger smith-ed and crafted that works specifically with your wheel lock. It is not possible to go to the corner store and pick up a replacement part, as it would not fit properly due to there being no standard way that such a trigger is made. It should be noted that some areas, particularly Cliffside, do have 'factories' of a kind, but these are more advanced craft houses with many artisans all working to create merchandise.
Biology and Medicine
Where we are now
There is very very little understood about how biology and medicine actually work. Journeyman and Priests work with what they have, and knowledge passed down from master to apprentice about what plants, herbs and techniques work. It is well known by anyone with medical knowledge, that pressure and a cloth will help stop bleeding, those with more knowledge know which roots and herbs that they can find that help dull pain and may assist in reducing the odds of infection. There are also various creator devices that can do much more miraculous things. While your advanced Journeyman might be able to pop a bone back into place, a Machine Priest can use a device to actually mend it. The Machine Priest doesn't have any clue how the device did what it did, only how to make it do it.
What is not had
Any real 'medicines'. Things like aspirin, antibiotics, etc are not to be found. There may be an apothecary you could visit who has notes and lots of experience in what he or she has found to work and could mix you up something that may help, but it is far far from an actual pharmacy. While use of Mathmagics, particularly the Activated Herbs can assist in healing, and using Water Math one can preform more eastern style medicine, none of it is an exact science, with no standardization. In short, as far as biology and medicine goes, these are very very fledgling sciences.
Mathematics
Where we are now
With mathmagics, mathematics is a very difficult subject, but not impossible. There is a good deal of understanding of basic math. After all, you need to be able to add, subtract, multiply, and divide to run a business and have commerce! As far as standardization goes, commerce is about the only place to have any significant progress. While it may vary from day to day, and from merchant to merchant, crown always has a specific value. Also, units of measurements are standard among the highly skilled and very advanced, and brought down from the time of landing. However, unless you are an exceptional scholar or a master artisan, it is unlikely you will have anything like a ruler. Weights and Measures exist for barter, and any merchant worth his or her salt will have that. Anything else is left to the highest up in the knowledge and crafting world. For your usual workings, as an example, if you need a piece of wood, holding up your hands and saying 'It needs to be about this big,' is what will suffice and be done.
What is not had
Again, standardization. What is a chart with meaning to one scholar, who studied a particular way and under a particular master, will have no meaning what so ever to your basic being. Even another scholar who studied the same concept but under a different master may not understand what you have made up. While the numbers are universal, the interpretation of them is very far from. There is no such thing as 'statistically significant' because no one has ever even thought up such a concept, let alone attempted to use it, as an example.
