I posted before but it got lost in the transition to the new system. The name "Schizo Tech" refers to schizophrenia, but the theme of the trope examples is mixing technology from different eras, like the tech has "multiple personalities." Multiple personalities are the primary symptom of Multiple Personality Disorder (now called Dissociative Identity Disorder), not Schizophrenia. Most people incorrectly refer to instances of split personalities as schizophrenia. Schizophrenia's main symptoms are delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thought, and altered emotional expression. Clearly this name is at odds with the theme of the trope examples and I'd like to see this trope renamed "Anachronistic Tech" for the sake of accuracy and clarity, and to avoid furthering this misconception about schizophrenia. —Andrea 4 Mar 2010
Edited by 98.30.194.110 Hide / Show Replies
I agree entirely. The name "Schizo Tech" is not only inaccurate, it is incredibly offensive. It presents a view of schizophrenia that is trivialized and belittling, and the term "schizo" is often used as a slur against those suffering from mental illness. We are, as it happens, talking about an illness that the World Health Organization has deemed one of the ten most debilitating diseases out there.
If you don't like Anachronistic Tech, perhaps Eclectic Tech? Or we could take a third option....
I came here just to mention this. "Schizo" is a slur and I have no idea why this page is named as such when it could have been called "Tech Soup" or some other alternative. Can we get the title changed?
Anyone seeing this discussion but not this forum thread
about outdated/offensive names, well, uh, there it is
The Real Life folder needs some serious editing: it's rife with conversation and "also also also" bullet points. It's on my todo list but I'm not sure when I'll be able to get round to it.
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I'll see what I can do right now. I'd hate seeing this page in NRLEP just because of silly natter.
EDIT: Done!
Edited by 186.93.29.240 135 - 169 - 273 - 191 - 188 - 230 - 300
Hayleychaotix
Any mecha anime/manga seems to be working on this.
The said mechas viability is justified by the use of antigravity, energy shields, some sort of ridiculously compact and powerful energy source and even energy weapons, but apparently nobody seem to even think for a second about applying that level of technology to tanks and planes which seem to remain in a technological stasis, quite often not even having the level of techology modern real life tanks have.
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Not to mention they're often wielding weapons that look like they'd otherwise apear in hand-to-hand combat, like swords.
"Beware: Many sci-fi settings that aren't harder than diamond can become this if you think about it too hard." This makes me wonder whether this trope is useful for describing the more justified examples.
For example, the first Ultima game clearly counts. You're initially walking around with swords and magic... and then pistols... and then blasters... and ye olde vehicle store sells horses and space shuttles. Why? Because awesome, that's why.
But does Trigun actually count? It isn't a setting in which technology is randomly smooshed together in an anachronistic fashion, it's far future, post-Earth science fiction setting in which terraforming technology is crumbling due to the absence of the economic base (chiefly population and civil order) necessary to maintain it. Also, Vash and his brother are aliens, so any advanced technology they introduce is heavily justified.
Another example is Star Wars and Wookies. Sure, Wookies use blasters and live in grass huts. Many Native Americans used firearms while still living in teepees, huts, log houses, or what have you. That isn't schizotech, that's the result of a less advanced culture trading with a more advanced one, and picking and choosing the most useful technologies to incorporate into their lifestyle (initially, at least). You could say the same thing about African tribals with smartphones. "Alien" weapons and communication technologies are probably the most likely to be incorporated first.
Should there, perhaps, be a clarification of what Schizo-tech is and what it is not?
Is not actually from Lyniezia
Concerning retro-computing in the Real Life section.
We have precisely one example of a Commodore 64 being used as a Twitter client or suchlike. Thing is there is a whole array of modifications and add-ons for older computers to extend their power and usability- you can have modifications which allow 8-bit machines to work with USB peripherals, modern hard drives/SS Ds, and so on, connect them to the internet, use the Contiki OS to not only provide GUI functionality but use the Web, etc.
I want to put a point in there and work the example in, but can anyone think how best to do that?
I'm not familiar with dragon half, but the presence of dragons in a futuristic setting is not at all this trope
Here's a question- would a world where technology is restricted by class be schizo tech? As in- the rich have all the aircars and iphones they want but the poor have horse drawn carriages and a telegraph. Or is that a different trope?
In fantasy settings there are quite logical reasons for rockets and missiles to be quite advanced and swords to be still used.
The answer is armor. Cheap and affordable high quality steel armor would obsolete nonrifled firearms before they even get developed.
That leaves virtually no incentive to develop guns beyond the first experimental handcannons.
Add in mythical even stronger then steel metals and even modern technological firearms would probably be ill-favored.
So if its only Schizo tech when there are advanced technologies that shouldn't really be then many of the examples listed don't apply.
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It would need to be "mass-produced" steel as well, otherwise your argument doesn't really apply (at which point, you're dealing with an industrialized society that might very well develop rifled fire-arms as part of a range of experimentation with different types of weapons).
Moreover, steel is frequently heavy. Sure, your foot soldiers might be able to run around in steel armor, but at what price in terms of mobility and vulnerability to other types of weapons? That's the reason why knights eventually became extinct - it became too difficult and costly to protect them from increasingly advanced guns (and this was before rifling).
On top of that, "missiles" is a broad category. Even if your civilization doesn't develop guns, they could go down the "crossbow" route, and would likely eventually get back to guns if they end up using cannons/explosives.
I removed a paragraph about Avatar: The Last Airbender, because it could be used as a model example of why Justifying Edits are discouraged. It didn't point out factual inaccuracies in the original point, it was excessively long, its explanations amounted to 'it isn't completely impossible,' and it even resorted to 'All There In The Manual' and 'It Makes Sense In Context.'
Edited by Bionicman
Could Family-Friendly Firearms be considered a sub-trope or at least a related trope? At the very least, it overlaps pretty often with this, substituting lasers for guns regardless of the overall tech level of the setting and/or user.
Edited by tyrannobubs3110