Technological Achievement Tiers

The Forerunners categorized the Technological Advancement of civilizations into Tiers. All life and civilizations in the Universe fall into one of the categories. The lower the Tier number, the more advanced the civilization's technology is/was.
==Tier 7: Pre-Industrial==
Tier 7 is one of the most common and stable states, with limited weaponry and environmental threats. Societies tend to be small and scattered, driven by subsistence farming, foraging, or hunter-gathering needs. Technology is limited to simple hand made tools, weapons, or agrarian implements and methods, but a very broad understanding of planetary and solar mechanics is not uncommon.
==Tier 6: Industrial Age==
Tier 6 is often the pinnacle for a civilization. Agrarian societies can remain stable in the pre-industrial stage, but Tier 6 population strain and mechanized food production invariably create political and economic pressures very few can balance. Moving past this usually promises advancement. Some societies improve environmental and medical understanding concurrently with mechanical and transport advancement. Those that do not are frequently doomed.
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Humanity entered this age near the end of the 18th century, with the advent of steam technology.
==Tier 5: Atomic Age==
Tier 5 species usually begin focusing on clean energy production. The occasional belligerent species will use atomic energy for weapons, often resulting in mass extinctions. In-atmosphere craft are a hallmark, often leading to manned space flight, albeit in a short-scale.
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Humanity entered this age in 1945, when the first atomic bombs were deployed, with manned space travel being accomplished for the first time in 1961.
==Tier 4: Space Age==
Tier 4 is often the final resting place for species intelligent enough to break free from their cradle's surface only to fill the gulf surrounding it with war. Their comfort-focused technology can include medical advances.
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Humanity reached this level in 1957, when the first artificial satellite was launched.
==Tier 3: Space-Faring==
Species has efficient Slipspace, Warp, Hyperspace, etc. navigation, mass drivers, asynchronous linear-induction weapons, holocrystal storage and semi-sentient AIs.
==Tier 2: Interstellar==
The species has the ability to perform exceedingly accurate Slipspace, Warp, Hyperspace, etc. navigation, near-instantaneous communication and man-portable application of energy manipulation.
==Tier 1: World Builders==
The species has the ability to manipulate gravitational forces, create AI with full sentience, fabricate super-dense materials, perform super-accurate Slipspace, Warp, Hyperspace, etc. navigation, the ability to create life, and the ability to create worlds.
==Tier 0: Transsentient==
As the Forerunners had no examples of civilizations with technological accomplishments greater than themselves - with the exception of the Precursors - this is a theoretical ceiling. It is suspected that they can travel across galaxies and accelerate the evolution of intelligent life. Along with this the use of neural physics is suggested at this stage.
==Tier -1: God==
No explanation for this. Even the Forerunners or the Precursors could not fathom this level of technology.
Category:Technology