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    $\begingroup$ making small microchips and FTL tech are do different from each other that just because you technologically progress in one doesn't mean you can't stagnate in another $\endgroup$
    – Amoeba
    Commented May 2, 2018 at 4:35
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    $\begingroup$ I personally would not recommend FTL if you are going full sci-fi because they would enable you to travel back in time and that can mess up everything in your story. $\endgroup$
    – Lowell
    Commented May 2, 2018 at 4:39
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    $\begingroup$ @Lowell If you're going full science-fiction, then that's usually FTL without time travel. That's what the trope says on the tin. No mess for the story. It's science nerds mesmerized by special relativity who worry about FTL & time travel in science-fiction. $\endgroup$
    – a4android
    Commented May 2, 2018 at 5:03
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    $\begingroup$ @Xav101 - Before providing an answer, are you unaware of, or unsatisfied by reasons used in existing fiction to explain this. For example, in Dune and Warhammer 40k, where computers are banned for almost anyone, and those that are used are ancestral relics, barely understood, used fearfully and treated with a mixture of reverence and terror, $\endgroup$
    – Scott
    Commented May 2, 2018 at 5:16
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    $\begingroup$ @Miech The usual form of that formula is: relativity, causality and FTL, choose any two. Relativity is special relativity. General relativity and quantum mechanics does allow potential FTL shortcuts. Nature always can surprise us. The science in science-fiction isn't real-world science. I am well aware of the science and fiction in SF & the real-world. Unyielding is for the science nerds. Real scientists happily embrace the unexpected. $\endgroup$
    – a4android
    Commented May 2, 2018 at 12:59