Technology of the Discworld

The technology depicted in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels takes two forms: magical and mechanical. Nearly all technology early in the series is at least partially magical, but in recent books there has been something of an industrial revolution, with numerous purely mechanical inventions being introduced. In Thud! ancient 'devices' of undisclosed origin and great power were introduced; it is not clear whether these are magical, mechanical, both or neither. The History Monks also have their own technology, the exact nature of which is usually unclear. Most Discworld technologies have real-world equivalents, in function if not form.

In early novels, most parts of the Discworld were technologically primitive, having only medieval levels of development. Advanced items such as the iconograph were made in the Agatean Empire and unknown in Ankh-Morpork. Agatean technologies were mostly imp-powered or otherwise magical; the Empire does not seem to have had many mechanical technologies. From about the tenth novel (Moving Pictures), mechanical and to a lesser extent semi-magic technologies began to be developed in Ankh-Morpork. By Interesting Times Ankh-Morpork had surpassed the Agatean Empire technologically; in that novel Rincewind is offered a watch of the kind which astounded him in The Colour of Magic, but declines because the clockwork watches now made in Ankh-Morpork are more reliable. This may be an allusion to the relative speeds of technological development in Europe and China; China (of which the Agatean Empire is clearly a version) was much more advanced than Europe until the Industrial Revolution, when Europe rapidly surpassed it. In Jingo, Klatch is also represented as being technologically advanced; a telescope which had recently been invented in Ankh-Morpork is old technology in Klatch. However, there is no indication that Klatch is advancing (an allusion to the technological advancement of the Second Persian and Ottoman Empires compared to the relative modern advancement of the region).

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