Augments, straw-men and techno-optimism

[Rynn]

You're right and I agree that our tech timeline broadly is more pessimistic than others in the sense that many technologies take centuries or thousands of years to mature. Specifically though the early tech timeline could do with some work, I posted a revision ages ago but can't seem to find where atm (I'll keep searching in a sec). The biggest things that spring to mind were the rise in which viable new clades were made through genetics and provolution, and Todd has commented a few times on how we have several significant improvements in rocket propulsion in a matter of decades.

EDIT: found a copy that Todd made
http://www.orionsarm.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=536