These are some items which I haven’t seen in this discussion:

The world a race may live on may obstruct technological advancement.  Here are some examples.

Natural Impedances:  The best example of this form of stagnation would be a purely aquatic race.  Without the use of fire, certain technology would be stalled or non-existent.  Certain technology concepts would go unexplored limiting the race’s mindset on what can be achieved.

Resources: The lack of or over abundance of resources could hinder technological advancement as well.  Without certain elements or minerals, technology of a race would not advance beyond a certain stage.  With an over abundance of certain elements or minerals, common materials used for constructing these technology could be limited due to material strength or lack of certain key material necessary for advancement.

Natural Selection: The actual size, shape, lack of limbs/hands and sensitivity to environmental changes are also a hindrance to technology as well.  Physical limitations would slow or halt technology because they might cause harm to the race.  Several examples are:  Aquatic races that resemble fish would find it difficult to use tools and devices since the only way they have to grasp an object is by use of their mouths.  Races which develop in extreme environments such as extreme cold might not be able to withstand the heat of a fire without specialized protection.  A giant amoeba-like race without strong muscular system wouldn’t be able to grasp objects in the same manner as those with limbs and hand.

This next section deals with the mindset of a race as well as limitations natural may play in the development of technology.

Environment:  As with Natural Impedance, the environment the race develops in may have an impact on how technology develops on a world.  As with the aquatic race technology might be geared towards biotech rather than the mechanical spectrum.  It would also hinder their perspective on their world thus they may never develop flight because they have never been able to leave their natural environment.

How they perceive their world:  A race’s lack of understanding of the physical world will have an impact on their technology.  Examples of this would be certain scientific fields were never explored, like physics and medicine.   Without these sciences certain aspects of key technology would lack discoveries which might allow the race to improve an existing technology.

Missing components in Technologies:  Development of technology is related to a specific task without the vision to improve on a core technology. Some of the reasons for this might be societal or it was over looked when in the conceptual stage or simply not thought of.  Another factor here is monetary, without backing some of the greatest inventions wouldn’t be a part of our lives today.  Without consumer demand technological advancement can also fail.  A simple example of this would be a world without a battery.  Without batteries, you’d have to pull start or hand crank your car to get it started, there would be no flash lights, pocket radios or electronic watches.  Power generation is done from a central location. They see no need for portable devices. 

Stagnation in Key Technologies:   Development of certain technologies falters while others continue to advance. Innovation in one field lags behind the rest of the advancing technologies.    There are no leaders in that field able to advance the field any further or the lack of insight hinder progress. Imagine a world where electronics haven’t been invented yet.  Your computers would be mechanical.   Another example would be development of the submarine without sonar.  Or air travel with dirigibles and zeppelins because aeronautics have advanced beyond the glider stage.

In closing: The core of my thoughts on some of these reasons why a society might stagnate come from the shows Connections and Sliders.  These two shows explored what would happen if certain technologies were left out or the effect of society had on technological advancement.

Innovation often comes during periods of direst, such as war and depletion of natural resource. The motivation here is survival or a desire to maintain a standard of living.  It can also be driven by economical factors as well.

Survival Mode:  A culture that suffer war, plague, famine, natural disaster or depletion of nature resources will tend to innovation faster than a culture which is living comfortable and safe existence. 

Cultural Outlook:  How technology is view within a culture can also affect the rate of advancement.  If a culture is conservative it will be slower than one in a progressive thinking society. Stagnation occurs if the society refuses to change due to political, religious or fear the changes that may come with changes with technology.  A race may also stagnate because it feels comfortable with their standard of living and lack the drive to improve beyond a center point. .  Safety concerns about new technologies may slow the pace of advancement as well.

Information Overload:  Cultures with easy access to information find it easier to research problems on the inter web than find creative ways to solve problems.  They become depend on the system and the information store there.  Control of such information system may hinder or help a culture’s ability to create new technology depending on the restriction placed upon such a system. 

Driving Forces in Economics:  The issues here are complex and quite numerous.  Oppressive oversight by a political body will stifle technological growth.  Over regulation and the government’s desire to control every aspect of manufacturing will slow the pace of growth.  Free Market society will allow faster growth in technology.  Consumer needs and outlooks towards technology will either hinder or rapidly increase the pace of advancement.  The means income of the consumers will also hinder market forces from introducing new technology because of price concerns.  Venture capitalist unwilling to invest in new innovations will slow the pace of growth.  The lack of markets to sell goods will also slow the pace of advancements

Standardization of Goods: For an interstellar community to work standardization of good is essential to the community as a whole.  Without standardization, retrieve spare parts from the factory may require weeks, months or even years.  Therefore it is necessary that all spare part and equipment use standard replacement part allowing local industrial center to produce parts.  It is much easy to maintain equipment, weapons and starships if the necessary components are made locally, rather than a central location, such as the race’s homeworld.  This can slow technological growth because introducing new technology into the system will take years to disseminate throughout the community.

The problem as I see it in Star Frontiers is Standardization.  No one wants to go to a planet where they can’t find goods they have grown accustom to, nor would an adventurer or colonist like the idea of having to pay through the nose for parts from the homeworld either.  The idea of having a ready source of parts, ammo, foodstuffs, vehicle, etc makes it easier for people to move from one location to another.  It also allows for rapid colonization and mobilization of military forces.  Training of civilian and military in the use of weapons, vehicles and equipment is simplified, since the control for these items are the same in every device made.

The downside to this is corporations and governments can control what items will go into the system for public use, thus limiting the general population’s use of certain technologies (weapons would be a good example of this form of control).  It can also slow the introduction of new technologies out of concerns for their safety and usage because of social, religious or ethnical reasons (Stem cell research comes to mind as an example.)  Corruption and bribes could be used to fast track certain untested products to market or cover up defects in said products (Drugs with bad side effects, or defective part causing engine compartment fires).

(I believe this is the only real way for expansion to occur in the real world stellar colonization)

There is an upside to Standardization of Goods.

First it would allow colonies to rapidly establish an industrial and agricultural base.  Machines could be brought in to make repair parts much more rapidly than if a colony had to establish their own industrial bases. Mobile factory and mining ships could move along with the colony and stay on station until the colony is self sufficient. Logistic costs would go down making colonization much more affordable.  They then could provide a forward base for the next colonization effort.

Quality parts would drive the system, repair and maintenance side of industry.  Corporations putting out bad or defective parts would generate less revenue than those who reputations shine, effectively weeding them out of the supply chain rather quickly.  Another side to this is the ability of a small startup company redesigning a device to make it easier to use or more affordable for the consumer (Reconfiguring air cars to fit a niche in the marketplace is an example of this).  Construction and repair time would be reduces since standardization of tools, fasteners and power systems would allow modular designs to be built and assembled at a much more rapid paces, in turn reducing the prices in the long run.

New technologies could be incorporated into the system rather quickly, just up load it to your local robotic factory.  All you need is a flash drive or memory chip with the data on it.  The factory would then produce the tools, equipment and parts needed to build and test the new tech.  These prototypes would then be tested and tweaked before being put into the supply chain. Depending on the level of regulations, social acceptance and level of corruption within the system, the product could be on the market in a matter of months.

One thought did occur to me while writing this, how does the corporation who designed the new or existing product make a profit within such a system?  It would mean that a percentage of each part made would go to the corporation who designed it or a licensing fee that allows the local factory to produce the parts for a certain amount of time would be require.  It would then be recorded in the robot factory’s computers and a check would be issued to the corporation on a monthly or yearly basis.  There would also be a category of parts known as Public Domain, older tech which has been around for centuries (Light bulbs, steam engines and sewing needles are a few examples of this.), that would not have a royality placed on them.  Of course there would be an entire industry build around “Pirated Tech” and how to get around sending royalties to the creating corporation.  Lawyers would still be necessary in the future as well.

Under this scenario Corporations would still have to set up factories on new worlds to guard their products and enforce the royalty system (through the courts in most cases).  It could also be away for governments might leverage a corporation into moving to their world (without a presence on said world governments could ignore corporate pleas to the courts.). They would have to guard their data bases from data breeches and hackers.   There would still be a lag in new tech reaching the outer planets under this scenario because Corporations wouldn’t want to spend money if the market is too small and there would not be a return on profit.   The New Tech would be relegated to the core worlds because of this system.  So sometimes there would be a delay in getting the parts needed to repair some newer tech.

Warfare and disease work both ways, they can also result in the collapse of civilizations and knowledge lost. Notable examples include the Mayan civilization, the burning of the library at Alexandria and the collapse of the western Roman empire.  Bubonic plague, Polio and the influenza outbreak of 1918 did little to advance society.  A canon example of warfare stifling development is the Zebulon system. It was initially discovered long before SF0, but due to a war between Pale and New Pale--the HUSPs conflict--it wasn't explored or developed until much later.

Standardization of Goods: For an interstellar community to work standardization of good is essential to the community as a whole.  Without standardization, retrieve spare parts from the factory may require weeks, months or even years.  Therefore it is necessary that all spare part and equipment use standard replacement part allowing local industrial center to produce parts.  It is much easy to maintain equipment, weapons and starships if the necessary components are made locally, rather than a central location, such as the race’s homeworld.  This can slow technological growth because introducing new technology into the system will take years to disseminate throughout the community.

The problem as I see it in Star Frontiers is Standardization.  No one wants to go to a planet where they can’t find goods they have grown accustom to, nor would an adventurer or colonist like the idea of having to pay through the nose for parts from the homeworld either.  The idea of having a ready source of parts, ammo, foodstuffs, vehicle, etc makes it easier for people to move from one location to another.  It also allows for rapid colonization and mobilization of military forces.  Training of civilian and military in the use of weapons, vehicles and equipment is simplified, since the control for these items are the same in every device made.

The downside to this is corporations and governments can control what items will go into the system for public use, thus limiting the general population’s use of certain technologies (weapons would be a good example of this form of control).  It can also slow the introduction of new technologies out of concerns for their safety and usage because of social, religious or ethnical reasons (Stem cell research comes to mind as an example.)  Corruption and bribes could be used to fast track certain untested products to market or cover up defects in said products (Drugs with bad side effects, or defective part causing engine compartment fires).