Relativistic Economics

Why are we still using lightsabers?

To prepare for another one of my Knights of the Old Republic playthroughs I recently read a couple Old Republic comics. I wanted to get into the mindset and see some context of the names and references in the game. I had never thought about why the Old Republic era looks basically the same as the film eras even though they are supposedly thousands of years apart. But in one of the comics the Jedi were using lightsabers attached to bulky battery packs they wore on their waists. The moment I saw one bit of antique technology the fact that all other technology was the same really stuck out to me. Six thousand years ago, humans here on Earth were living in caves. Why doesn’t anyone in Star Wars invent new stuff? Eventually it came to me. Supply chains, special relativity, and basic economics stifle technological advancement in interstellar societies.

Star Wars completely ignores special relativity. A ship entering hyperspace arrives at it’s destination a couple days or weeks later, not years or decades. In some properties, relativity matters. In Speaker for the Dead, Ender is the wealthiest man in the galaxy because he spends so much time traveling at relativistic speeds. He is close to three thousand years old with an AI handling his investments. In this universe economic and technological advancement would have come to a near standstill.

If someone needs anything now in our real world, it can be loaded to a cargo ship or onto a plane. It can go from mine to factory to user pretty quickly. Phones designed in America that are sold global are made in Asia with lithium mined in South America. That is one tiny piece of Apple’s supply chain. Multiple that by nearly infinity for all kinds of products and industries and the amount of transportation necessary is clear.

But back to Ender and other relativistic properties. They can not have interstellar supply chains without incredible planning. It may take a weeks for a ship of iron ore to reach port, but it would take a space ship a couple years to reach an off-world factory. Then it would even more years to the product from the factory to off-world customers. Would Apple be willing to experiment with different materials for the newest iPhone if it took seven years for that material to arrive? They’d have to place an order for an experimental amount, wait seven years, run their tests, then order production amounts and wait another seven years. Almost two decades simply to use unobtanium from planet Zerbrax in batteries. That is the best case scenario. Experimentation rarely succeeds on the first attempt. The reality is, Apple and every other company would stay safe and stick with what they know works.

An interstellar community would look economically more like the middle ages than today. Planets would basically be self-sufficient with very little trade other than luxury goods and the absolute essentials. And technological progress would be happening at a snail’s pace. It would be nearly impossible for random garage tinkerers to experiment and make unforeseen breakthroughs. Research would be possible only through massive entities able to eat losses such as corporations or governments. In the end, it makes a lot of sense why Star Wars looks the same no matter which part of the galactic timeline you’re viewing.