AHC: Make the world as technologically backward as possible.

Pretty self-explanatory. Using whatever POD you need, make the world as technologically backward as possible.

Ground rules:
1. Homo sapiens are still the dominant species, and no other members of the Homo genus exist.
2. POD can be before the OTL rise of civilization. So you can delay agriculture, etc, if you want.
3. A well placed meteor shower is acceptable.
4. Bonus points if the world is pre-gunpowder in
2000.
5. No nuclear war.

I realize that the world would be unrecognizable, but that's what I want. Draw on your creative skills and make new empires.
 
If we are to believe the more extreme predictions of the ecomentalists, we'll be back to relying on 18th C tech by mid-century OTL anyway. OMG, the Amish will have a head-start :D
 
I'm not sure if this applies, since I don't know if modern humans used it, but for millions of years the various precursors species never got beyond the same stone ax design.

One book I read suggested it was because making them had become like bower birds, part of a mating display so the design couldn't change.

Prevent whatever change let humans move beyond that and we're stuck.
 
Campi Flegrei erupts during the renaissance. A nasty virus breeds during the mass exodus from Europe and spreads to the Muslim world which is then spread to china through trade. That should set technology back at least several hundred years.
 
Find some way the world becomes locked in a steady state feudalism combined with a major use of slaves in urban areas. Maybe a POD where the Roman Empire doesn't fall
 

archaeogeek

Banned
I'm not sure if this applies, since I don't know if modern humans used it, but for millions of years the various precursors species never got beyond the same stone ax design.

One book I read suggested it was because making them had become like bower birds, part of a mating display so the design couldn't change.

Prevent whatever change let humans move beyond that and we're stuck.

Designs varied.
 
Have the Roman Empire survive until about 1200. Then fall horribly and be totally conquered by a huge barbarian horde which immediately falls apart and fights itself after the conquest.

EDIT: And then, after that, a huge plague. Muahahaha.
 
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mowque

Banned
Have the Roman Empire survive until about 1200. Then fall horribly and be totally conquered by a huge barbarian horde which immediately falls apart and fights itself after the conquest.

EDIT: And then, after that, a huge plague. Muahahaha.

Then, a shower of asteroids hit in China.
 
Why not just avoid the current interglacial?

I think you are on to something here. Maybe have a Younger-Dryas event happen every few millenia. This will force a population bottleneck. Every time homo sapiens develops a few tools, they get killed off again.

Then we get a limited human population stuck in the early stone age.

R
 
True enough. All of civilization is dependent on being able to feed the same group of people on roughly the same things two decades in a row. When you can't do that, you spread out of "large communities" (two hundred people, say) and generalize to make sure you have the best chance of eating something. Which effectively kills more profound development entirely.
 
It might also be useful to have a supervolcano erupt at an opportune moment. After all, last time that happened, the total human population dropped below 50,000.
 
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