A world develops along a different technological trajectory (airships instead of airplanes, for example), producing a society where familiar capabilities exist but social structures, economics, and risks differ in unexpected ways.
Useful for technology roadmap analysis and understanding path dependence in infrastructure development, including why some technologies win despite not being optimal.
Domains: Energy and PhysicsEconomics and Resource AllocationArtificial Intelligence and Machine LearningGovernance and Political SystemsCommunication and Information Technology
Scenario Types: Thought experiment / What-ifPrediction / Extrapolation
Outcomes: Ambiguous / MixedAspirationalCautionaryTransformative
Tags: alternate-technologypath-dependenceairshipsinfrastructurevictorian-computing-revolutionvictorian-computingsteampunkbabbageearly-information-ageancient-hidden-technologyhidden-technologyancient-structureconcealed-powerancient-terrestrial-technologyancient-technologypre-historical-civilizationparadigm-challenge