Lostech - do Inner Sphere scientists know basic science?

[Kit deSummersville]

And these days we can even resuscitate zombies!

[Dayton3]

it is worth noting hat we have had recent examples of 'lostech' in modern times.. and with current vital tech.

in 1996  the US military started a program to modernize the W76 warheads on the Trident missiles. the warheads were getting old so for safety's sake they were going to be stripped down and rebuilt, including newer systems where possible.

but they hit a snag.. the warheads had a specific classified material, known as FOGBANK, which was vital to their operation.. but no one knew how to manufacture it anymore. the records and infrastructure for it had not been preserved when the last warheads using the material were manufactured in 1990, and no one involved in the actual creation of the material or its production infrastructure back in the 80's was still around.
so the project had to be put on hold while the material was reverse engineered from first principles. it would not be until 2007, after a decade of work, that the material was reverse engineered and production resumed.. and even then, it was subject to many delays and production bugs.

this is a technology vital to the upkeep of an active service and very closely guarded weapon. in a time when our infrastructure is otherwise intact and growing. yet it was possible for all knowledge of its nature and production to be lost in only 2-3 decades.

That's a really great example and straight up on point.

Another thing I would point out about Battletech is that for some super advanced technologies (like K-F Jump drives) there are only a handful of people that actually work with the hardware hands on day to day.     We know that jumpships have very small crews.    That means you only probably a dozen or so people on each one who know enough about a jump drive to actually explain or teach others how one works,  how one might be repaired,  or how one might be built.

And even that mi?ght not be true.    How many on a nuclear submarine or aircraft carrier could built an actual nuclear reactor?

And has been mentioned above.    Comstar.    Imagine you have your telephone operator systematically identifying and murdering your best scientists and engineers.   

[Korzon77]

Also, the IS doesn't need to lack universities.  California has a lot of universities, but with a very few exceptions, even if every community and state college survived, you still aren't going to be able to build an advanced thermonuke or an aircraft carrier. Those require a great deal of knowledge that is often gained after college.  This probably explains why places like the golden five are still more or less advanced, but not swimming in lostech weapons.

And again, my personal thought is that after the 1st and 2nd succession wars, moe than a few worlds actively discorage things like "The department of building super weapons." After all, all that did was make worlds targets.

Finally, another factor is that often Comstar is presented a sa bit of a strawman--but in the aftermath of the slaughter of the wars?  It's entirely possible that a very large number of scientists ascribe, to their belief system at least as far as "use technology responsibly" goes.  I expect that there are many, many scientists who are otherwise not very affiliated with comstar who do strongly ascribe to "you have responsibility for what you make." 

[grimlock1]

That's a really great example and straight up on point.

I agree.  Glitterboy has a wonderful example.  Much better than some of the others like Greek fire, Stonehenge, the Piramids, or even a Saturn V.

Yes, we don't know exactly what was in the original Greek fire. Cue the shrieking and wailing.  Oh, wait we have thermite, white phosphorous, or ClF₃.   Physics, chemistry and history tell us it was one of a handful of options.  We can get the same results with a dozen modern compounds.

Yes, we don't know exactly how Stonehenge was built.  Cue shrieking and wailing.  Oh, wait, we have Cat D8 buldozers, and rough terrain cranes.

Yes, building a new Saturn V would be difficult because the infrastructure we spent almost half a decade building isn't there any more. That doesn't mean we couldn't build a vehicle that can put 310,000lbs into LEO. 

Glitterboy's example was one where knowledge and capability were actually lost.

[PsihoKekec]

Don't forget the Roman concrete, which was lost for nearly fifteen centuries until similar Portland cement was discovered.

[Kit deSummersville]

Don't forget the Roman concrete, which was lost for nearly fifteen centuries until similar Portland cement was discovered.

While the post was a while ago, #3 isn't that far away....

[glitterboy2098]

Don't forget the Roman concrete, which was lost for nearly fifteen centuries until similar Portland cement was discovered.

Which is an interesting example, because no one really lost the knowledge of cement.. But the roman version got its properties from aspects not understood fully at the time, and when that infrastructure was lost, so was the real stuff. despite successive users replicating the process as recorded. Because the roman concrete required both the use of volcanic ash filled ground stone and the use of salt water... The first was not known even to the romans, and was a fluke of geography, and the 2nd was an aspect that was never recorded because it was 'common sense' at the time, but not obvious to later generations.