[I don't know in that much detail why computing progress wasn't faster?  I have a general impression that it's hard to make the features smaller because you need higher and higher frequencies of light to carve smaller and smaller features into silicon, which seems like the sort of thing where one mage could help build the machine you need to build all the computer chips, instead of needing a mage to make every chip.  You might not even notice every time your society jumps a hurdle where it only takes one mage and our society is just stuck in that spot for another thirty years.  And... I guess it's possible that there are natural events that connect two universes and then they know how to reach back to each other?  But dath ilan lived in a universe that was very - mathematically simple, at its core, so far as we could tell - and there was no room in the character of reality for things like eclipses.  Your world seems like the sort where the rules allow for people like me materialize; I don't think dath ilan's rules allow for me to go back.  Maybe you could materialize more dath ilan people here, if they're about to otherwise die and have their brains suspended.  I'm curious about what your world does for immortality - we're just putting cryoprotectant into people and vitrifying their heads, so we can bring them back later when we have the tech - but feel free not to answer if it's liable to take a lot of thinking on my end, I shouldn't be trying to absorb everything at all at once.]

[I don't know in that much detail why computing progress wasn't faster?  I have a general impression that it's hard to make the features smaller because you need higher and higher frequencies of light to carve smaller and smaller features into silicon.  Which seems like the sort of thing where one mage could help build the machine you need to build all the computer chips, instead of needing a mage to make every chip.  You might not even notice every time your society jumps a hurdle where it only takes one mage and our society is just stuck in that spot for another thirty years.  And... I guess it's possible that there are natural events that connect two universes and then they know how to reach back to each other?  But dath ilan lived in a universe that was very - mathematically simple, at its core, so far as we could tell - and there was no room in the character of reality for things like eclipses.  Your world seems like the sort where the rules allow for people like me materialize; I don't think dath ilan's rules allow for me to go back.  Maybe you could materialize more dath ilan people here, if they're about to otherwise die and have their brains suspended.  I'm curious about what your world does for immortality - we're just putting cryoprotectant into people and vitrifying their heads, so we can bring them back later when we have the tech - but feel free not to answer if it's liable to take a lot of thinking on my end, I shouldn't be trying to absorb everything at all at once.]

[I don't know in that much detail why computing progress wasn't faster?  I have a general impression that it's hard to make the features smaller because you need higher and higher frequencies of light to carve smaller and smaller features into silicon.  Which seems like the sort of thing where one mage could help build the machine you need to build all the computer chips, instead of needing a mage to make every chip.  You might not even notice every time your society jumps a hurdle where it only takes one mage and our society is just stuck in that spot for another thirty years.  And... I guess it's possible that there are natural events that connect two universes and then they know how to reach back to each other?  But dath ilan seemed to occupy a universe that was very - mathematically simple, at its core, so far as we could ever tell - and there was no room in the character of reality for things like eclipsed-produced psions and mages.  Your world seems like the sort where the rules allow for people like me to materialize; I don't think dath ilan's rules allow for me to go back.  Maybe you could materialize more dath ilan people here, if they're about to otherwise die and have their brains suspended.  I'm curious about what your world does for immortality - we're just putting cryoprotectant into people and vitrifying their heads, so we can bring them back later when we have the tech - but feel free not to answer if it's liable to take a lot of thinking on my end, I shouldn't be trying to absorb everything at all at once.]

[I don't know in that much detail why computing progress wasn't faster?  I have a general impression that it's hard to make the features smaller because you need higher and higher frequencies of light to carve smaller and smaller features into silicon.  Which seems like the sort of thing where one mage could help build the machine you need to build all the computer chips, instead of needing a mage to make every chip.  You might not even notice every time your society jumps a hurdle where it only takes one mage and our society is just stuck in that spot for another thirty years.  And... I guess it's possible that there are natural events that connect two universes and then they know how to reach back to each other?  But dath ilan seemed to occupy a universe that was very - mathematically simple, at its core, so far as we could ever tell - and there was no room in the character of reality for things like eclipsed-produced psions and mages.  Your world seems like the sort where the rules allow for people like me to materialize; I don't think dath ilan's rules allow for me to go back.  Maybe you could materialize more dath ilan people here, if they're about to otherwise die and have their brains not suspended.  I'm curious about what your world does for immortality - we're just putting cryoprotectant into people and vitrifying their heads, so we can bring them back later when we have the tech - but feel free not to answer if it's liable to take a lot of thinking on my end, I shouldn't be trying to absorb everything at all at once.]